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Aitamaako’tamisskapi Natosi: Before The Sun (Canada 2023) ***
Directed by Banchi Hanuse
Aitamaako’tamisskapi Natosi: Before The Sun is an intimate and thrilling portrait of a young Siksika woman, named Logan and the deep bonds between her father and her family, as she prepares for one of the most dangerous horse races in the world, the Indian Relay. The documentary follows Logan Red Crow on the golden plains of Blackfoot Territory, as she trains for a relay race that will propel the determined and skilled young woman into the male-dominated Indian Relay Racing world, where riders vault bareback from horse to horse. As she pushes towards her goal, the connections between animal and human, family and community, ancestral tradition and contemporary life are profound and lasting.
Director Hans reveals the stunning landscape of Blackfoot Territory, the open lands and the rivers, many from aerial shots. One can understand the father’s love for the land and his ambition to, as he says in the film, be his own boss and rear horses and cattle. Everyone had horses in the day, he tells the audience in the film. Logan, his daughter is the most hardworking of all his workers.
The film covers several key issues including the daughter and father relationship, horse racing, coming-of-age, sickness as in dementia, indigenous education and land and horse, horses and horses.
Aitamaako’tamisskapi Natosi: Before The Sun is an earnest no-nonsense decent Canadian documentary premiering on Paramount+ on December 22nd. It is a Telus original documentary.
The film, which had its world premiere at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival and won the prestigious Big Sky Award has been on a successful film festival run at some of the top film festivals in the world including Hot Docs. Aitamaako’tamisskapi Natosi: Before the Sun was shot on location in beautiful Siksika Nation, Tsuut’ina, Îyâxe Nakoda, Blackfoot Territory, Enoch Cree Nation ᒪᐢᑫᑯᓯᐦᐠ Maskêkosihk, Casper, Wyoming.
The multi-award-winning film will be available to audiences across Canada on December 22nd on Paramount+ and available free on demand on TELUS Optik TV (channel 8). Produced by BC-based Taxam Films, this compelling documentary has earned numerous accolades globally and had sold-out premieres at Hot Docs and the Vancouver International Film Festival. It also won the Audience Choice Award at the 2023 Calgary International Film Festival.
An easy watch at only 90 minutes, this indigenous Canadian documentary is also informative on the history of our land.
ANSELM (Germany 2023) ***½
Directed by Wim Wenders
ANSELM is shot in 3D as in Wim Wenders’ other documentary PINA. German director tackles the works of German artist/sculptor Anselm Keifer with little compromise making the doc a likely difficult watch for those uninterested in art or the artist. On the other hand, Wender’s film is meticulous and mesmerizing work and a pleasure for those in the field. Dialogue and voiceover are used at a minimum.
Spanning 50 years, the film features Wenders’ young great-nephew Anton Wenders and Kiefer’s adult son Daniel Kiefer playing the artist in his earlier days, with the now 78-year-old Kiefer as himself.
The audience is at first introduced to the enormity of Anselm’s works. The film opens as the camera glides around Kiefer’s plaster wedding dresses with “heads” of twigs, bricks, steel, and lead – various materials he is famous for using. Wenders also reveals the innovative methods he employs to create paintings, whether he’s applying thick paint, torching straw to create ashes, or pouring molten lead onto his canvases. Many paintings are enormous, requiring hydraulic-powered elevating platforms so he can work on them. Anselm uses a bicycle to move around his works as they are stored in a high building. The comparison of his person and his works shows the huge size of his works.
This is not 3D as in commercial films where objects are flung off the screen at the audience but a more subtle and effective 3D where the audiences can observe the depth and texture of the artist’s work. The doc, obviously looks stunning, even more so because 3D has been absent in use in films recently.
Anselm Kiefer is a German painter and sculptor. He studied with two other well-known German artists, Peter Dreher and Horst Antes at the end of the 1960s. His works incorporate materials such as straw, ash, clay, lead, and shellac, and his works-in-progress are shown by director Wenders on the screen. This is arguably the film’s most fascinating segment. The poems of Paul Celan have played a role in developing Kiefer's themes of German history and the horrors of the Holocaust, as have the spiritual concepts of Kabbalah. Kiefer reached international fame in the 1980s via his retrospectives held in Chicago and New York, with critics proclaiming “America has a new superstar.”
It should be noted that this is a film on ANSELM’s work and not a biography, though this is some mention of his influence and past. Anselm is also one of the wealthiest artists of his time, a fact that is not mentioned in the documentary.
According to the press notes, ANSELM took a good two years to shoot. Among the locations is Barjac, a 200-acre site in the south of France that, without the help of architects or engineers, Kiefer turned into one the world’s most jaw-dropping works of art, with underground tunnels and crypts that connect to numerous installations.
The documentary debuted in Special Screenings at Cannes 2023 and opens in theatres on December 22nd.
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ANYONE BUT YOU (USA 2023) ***
Directed by Will Gluck
ANYONE BUT YOU is the new American romantic comedy film starring Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell. It is directed by Will Gluck, from a screenplay he co-wrote with Ilana Wolpert, based loosely on Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare. There are many references to William Shakespeare in the movie from signboards and other headings.
Two people who despise one another cannot seem to get away from the other while they vacation in Sydney for a wedding.
The film starts pretty badly with the meeting of Ben and Bea at a coffee shop following a bed romp the same night of the meeting. A misunderstanding causes them to hate each other, but both are coincidentally invited to an Australian wedding in Sydney. Bee has a sister to the bride while Ben’s best friend’s sister is the other bride. In Sydney, the wedding couple believes that Ben and Bea would spoil the wedding for them. The story requires Ben and Bea to pretend to be the perfect couple for the duration of the wedding - and they rekindle the fireworks of the first night of their meeting. Of course, like Harlequin novels, there is a terrible misunderstanding and a cliched rush to the airport to make up and thus prevent the other from leaving the city. Audiences have seen this kind of story time and again, but the film contains enough distractions and a certain charm that lets the movie get away with murder.
The film’s supporting cast is nothing short of excellent. Being filmed in Sydney, it is no surprise to see Aussie heavyweight Bryan Brown, who champions Australian film playing the father of one of the brides. Brown seldom plays comedy but succeeds well here. Dermot Mulroney, also seen in the rom-com MY BEST FRIEND’S WEDDING plays the other bride’s father. But the prize and most hilarious performance deserving of a prize belongs to Joe Davidson who plays the goofy Australian surfer, dumb boyfriend, Beau, aka Crocodile Beau. He brings out a laugh-out moment (from me) of everything he shows up in a scene. This guy, who so far has appeared mainly in TV series should be given bigger roles.
At its best, ANYONE BUT YOU reminds one of the romantic comedies made with Doris Day and Rock Hudson, a sort of almost perfect pairing of actors that play characters that both despise each other before falling in love. This silly premise would work anytime given a few different scenarios and different characters. ANYONE BUT YOU succeeds in this respect.
Don’t expect anything too much in terms of message or insight, As a silly romantic comedy, ANYONE BUT YOU provides sufficient entertainment while updating the Shakespearean play to the modern world, complete with a fully accepted gay lesbian wedding that would make the Bard turn in his grave. Bud judging from the 97% Rotten Tomatoes rating at the time of writing this review, ANYONE BUT YOU looks like a hit.
ANYONE BUT YOU is the only rom-com Christmas movie and opens December 22nd.
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AQUAMAN AND THE LOST KINGDOM (USA 2023) *
Directed by James Wan
AQUAMAN AND THE LOST KINGDOM is the sequel to the equally awful AQUAMAN that takes place several years after Aquaman (Jason Samoa, looking equally untidy and unkempt with his uncut hair) becomes the King of Atlantis. Arthur Curry has married Mera (Amber Heard aka Johnny Depp’s ex-wife) and has a son, Arthur Jr., while splitting his life between land and sea. Meanwhile, David Kane (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) continues to seek revenge against Arthur for his father's death, working with marine biologist Stephen Shin (Randall Park) to find Atlantean artifacts. He finds a black trident that possesses him, its creator promising to give him the power to destroy Arthur. David Kane aka Black Manta is a ruthless pirate and high-seas mercenary who uses an Atlantean armoured suit and wields the powerful Black Trident, seeking to kill Arthur and his family as revenge for the death of his father
Five months later, David attacks Atlantis and breaks into its orichalcum reserves to power Shin's Atlantean machines. Arthur learns that this usage of orichalcum, which emits high quantities of greenhouse gases (the film’s attempt to put some climate change message into the story), has not only raised planetary temperatures and caused extreme weather and ocean acidification but nearly caused a planetary extinction when used by an ancient Atlantean kingdom. To learn where David is hiding, Arthur breaks his half-brother Orm (Patrick Wilson) out of prison. The two meet with the crime lord Kingfish, who provides information leading to a volcanic island in the South Pacific.
There is nothing innovative or new in this movie. Sadly, the highlight of the film is Patrick Wilson as Orm eating a live cockroach not once but twice in the film, the second during the closing credits. But wait, Dustin Hoffman had already seen eating a live cockroach in the prison movie in Franklin J. Schaffner’s 1973 PAPILLION.
It is time to put AQUAMAN to rest. Jason Mamoa was reported in the local press saying that the Studio heads are not hoping to make another sequel after this one, but Momoa hopes the audience for the film will prove otherwise. Judging from the film and the audience’s reactions so far, it looks like Aquaman will be as lost as the city of Atlantis.
Director James Wan disappoints with lazy direction and an equally lazy script that somehow manages to touch all the cliches found in an action film. Despite the 3D and special underwater effects - It is a complete bore! I have to confess that as much as I tried to stay awake during the film, I dozed off several times. I thought being a critic and not part of the general public, I was the only one, but I overheard the guy sitting next to me saying to his friend on the other seat:” I saw you fell asleep behind the 3D glasses and I did not want to wake you.”
AQUAMAN AND THE LOST KINGDOM opens in theatres on December 22nd.
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THE BOYS IN THE BOAT (USA 2023) ***
Directed by George Clooney
THE BOYS IN THE BOAT is a 2023 American biographical period sports drama film co-produced and directed by George Clooney from a screenplay by Mark L. Smith, based on the 2013 book of the same name by Daniel James Brown.
THE BOYS IN THE BOAT is about the University of Washington eight-oared rowing crew that represented the United States in rowing at the 1936 Summer Olympics – Men's Eight in Berlin and narrowly beat out Italy and Germany to win the gold medal. The main character is Joe Rantz (Callum Turner). Rantz had a tough time growing up and was abandoned by his family for several years to fend for himself. The film also opens a fair amount of emphasis on the coach (Joey Edgerton), the man who fought to get the team to win and to participate in the Berlin Olympics despite all odds and prejudices against the underprivileged,
All nine members of the Washington team came from lower-middle-class families and had to struggle to earn their way through school during the depths of the Depression. Joe is shown living much like a hobo with holes in the soles of his shoes. Along with the chronicle of their victories and defeats in domestic competition, the audience learns the importance of the synchronization of the eight rowers as they respond to the commands of the coxswain and his communications with the stroke, consistent pacing, and sprint to the finish. Joe is thrown out of the team at one point humility taught him a lesson that allowed him back into the team.
In the book, there is the second backstory of Hitler decreeing construction of the spectacular German venues at which the Games would take place. Along the way, the book also describes how the Nazis successfully covered up the evidence of their harsh and inhumane treatment of the Jews and other minorities to win worldwide applause for the Games, during the United States Olympic Committee, among others. This backstory is largely pitted in the film. For one, the inclusion of this story would distract and undermine the feel-good spirit of the film. Perhaps there could be another film dealing with this story. In THE BOYS IN THE BOAT, director Clooney includes brief glimpses of Hitler, mainly comical, attending the regatta, one that includes him exiting in disgust after the Americans won the race.
The cast is made up of a combination British and American actors, Joe Dantz, the American played by a Brit. To give him credit, Callum Turner is quite good as is Edgerton as the coach, highly serious most of the time.
The regatta races are executed with sufficient excitement with the usual expert edits that should have the audience cheering in the aisles.
THE BOYS IN THE BOAT succeeds at being a feel-good sports drama, hitting all the right buttons, though many of these buttons have been hit before. The filmmakers have taken many of what they now call ‘artistic liberties’ with the story to dramatize the story.
THE BOYS IN THE BOAT had its world premiere in Los Angeles on December 11, 2023, and is scheduled to be released by Amazon MGM Studios in the United States on December 25, 2023. The film opens on Christmas Day in theatres across North America.
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THE COLOR PURPLE (USA 2023) ***
Directed by Blitz Bazawule
THE COLOR PURPLE - the film's musical version based on the Alice Walker Pulitzer Prize-winning novel and the 1985 Steven Spielberg film is hardly a Christmas film for the reason of its dark themes of rape and racism, though the wickedness of man, not only the white but the black man is somewhat softened by the music numbers.
The 2023 American musical coming-of-age period drama film directed by Blitz Bazawule from a screenplay by Marcus Gardley, is based on the stage musical of the same name, which in turn is based on the 1982 novel of the same name by Alice Walker. It is the second film adaptation of the novel, following the 1985 film directed by Steven Spielberg and produced by Spielberg and Quincy Jones. Spielberg and Jones return as producers for the 2023 film along with the stage musical's producers Scott Sanders and Oprah Winfrey, the latter of whom also starred in the 1985 film
Celie (Fantasia Barrino as the adult Celie Harris-Johnson and Phylicia Pearl Mpasi as young Celie), a poor African-American girl, lives in rural Georgia in the early 1900s. She writes letters to God because her father Alphonso beats and rapes her. Due to the rape, she has two children, Olivia and Adam, whom Alphonso takes away. A farmer identified as "Mister" )Colman Domingo) asks to marry her younger sister Nettie, but Alphonso offers him Celie instead. Mister abuses Celie physically, sexually, and verbally, and his prior children mistreat her as well. Nettie (Halle Bailey)runs away and stays with Celie, but Mister eventually makes her leave. Nettie promises to write but never does, and Celie concludes that she is dead. The story goes on to include the reunion between Nettie and Cleo (the reunion scene being a bit overdone). As the story progresses, so does Celie’s character as she learns to survive and not succumb to life’s bad dishes at her.
The film contains excellent performances from the three female leads, Fantasia Barrino as Celie (the part originally played by Whoopi Goldberg); Taraji P Henson as the singing star Shug Avery (Margaret Avery in 1985) and Danielle Brooks in the role of Sofia (in which Oprah Winfrey once made her film debut). The question is how far these three will go after the film’s debut.
The question is whether one needs a musical version of the book - be it on Broadway or in another film. Though not perfect and with rough edges, Spielberg’s one still makes an impression after more than 25 years. Who can forget the scene in which Whoopi Goldberg (in her most dramatic role?) She was placing a saving blade beneath the head and on the neck of the man she so despises. This new version also incorporated this unforgettable scene that sends shivers down one’s spine. Goldberg has a welcome cameo as a black midwife delivering a baby.
The power of Alice Walker’s novel cannot be denied and this musical version still reveals the story of Walker’s book. The cruelty by the Blacks is revealed to be just as bad as the white racism present throughout the story. This is what makes this 2023 version still entertaining, though less from its musical numbers, though executed with sufficient aplomb.
THE COLOR PURPLE opens Christmas day in theatres.
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FERRARI (USA 2023) ****
Directed by Michael Mann
Many names in the film’s credits should attract audiences to watch this sports drama this Christmas. One is the strength of the star Adam Driver and yet another is Spanish actress Penelope Cruz. Another is the director Michael Mann who has made some really good classics in the past. The name Michael Man should attract cineasts worldwide. Watch the racing car accident scene near the film’s end and one can see the reason. But foremost is the name of Ferrari, both the name of the Italian car brand and the sports car racer, Enzo Ferrari played by Adam Driver.
It should be noted that this is not a film on the biography of Ferrari, though there is mention of his background. It is based on the 1991 biography Enzo Ferrari: The Man, the Cars, the Races, the Machine by motorsport journalist Brock Yates. The film follows the personal and professional struggles of Enzo Ferrari, the Italian founder of the car manufacturer Ferrari S.p.A., during the summer of 1957.
In the summer of 1957, Enzo Ferrari, reeling from the death of his son Dino, the deteriorating marriage with his wife Laura, and his company's impending bankruptcy, enters his racing team to the 1957 Mille Miglia. He supposed that winning is what makes his company tick and winning will improve car sales while he steers the company towards increasing production.
The setting is the summer of 1957. Enzio’s marriage is falling apart, he sleeps with other women countless times. But he still lives with his business partner and very angry wife, Laura (Penelope Cruz) who does not care if her husband sleeps around and with many women, as long as he returns to the home before the maid arrives in the morning. Like Driver, Cruz plays the role of a very angry person, and there is hardly a scene in which she is seen smiling. The confrontational scene w between Laura and Enzio is one of the film’s highlights.
Adan Driver portrays Enzio Ferrari with all the ferocity and aplomb of the car manufacturer and racer. He is dead serious in the role and his face shows it. There are no smiles at all during his portrayal. The reason is obvious as it is the most crucial time in his life when everything is falling apart. Yet, he is seeking an heir to the Ferrari throne.
The film’s best scene must surely be mentioned in this review. This is, however a spoiler alert, so what follows in italics, is a spoiler that should be skipped if one wishes to do so. The best-filmed segment has the car hit an object on the road, sending it flying up into the air and diverted after hitting a huge pole and then crashing into a line of spectators. The spectators do not have time to run, and the destruction is devastating to the eyes. There is decapitation of bodies with arms and ages everywhere, Though gruesome the scene is, it is the best in the film, and well worth the price of the admission ticket. Director Michael Mason captures the spirit of racing and the environment of the racing business.
The trouble with films like NAPOPEON and FERRARI are the American actors playing European subjects. Phoenix speaks English with a French accent while Driver does Ferrari with an Italian accent - which seems acceptable to Hollywood audiences as most would not go see a subtitled film.
FERRARI opens on Christmas Day.
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THE IRON CLAW (USA 2023) ***
Directed by Sean Durkin
Written and directed by Sean Durkin, the film attempts to tell the true story of the inseparable Von Erich brothers, who made history in the intensely competitive world of professional wrestling in the early 1980s. Through tragedy and triumph, under the shadow of their domineering father and coach, the brothers seek larger-than-life immortality on the biggest stage in sports. THE IRON CLAW is the wrestling hold made famous by the Von Erich father.
The Von Enrich name is quite famous in the history books of wrestling. Originally from Texas, their actual surname is Adkisson, but every member who has been in the wrestling business has used the ring name "Von Erich," after the family patriarch, Fritz Von Erich (Jack Adkisson). Jack took on the name as part of his wrestling gimmick (i.e. in-ring persona) as he originally portrayed a Nazi heel, hence his use of a German name.
There are too many deaths in the family, as the film goes to show that the family has the Von Enrich Curse. When Fritz died of cancer in his Denton County home in 1997 at the age of 68, five of his six sons had predeceased him. His firstborn, Jack Jr., was accidentally shocked and drowned in a puddle at the age of 6 in 1959, outside his Niagara Falls home. In 1984, David Von Erich died in a Tokyo hotel from enteritis at the age of 25. Mike, Chris, and Kerry all died by suicide; Mike took an overdose of Placidyl near Lewisville Lake in 1987 at the age of 23, Chris shot himself in the head with a 9mm handgun in 1991 at the age of 21, and Kerry shot himself in the chest in the family yard in 1993 at the age of 33. Kevin Von Erich (portrayed by Zac Ephron) is the last surviving son.
Ephron has gained major muscle for the role while sporting a most horrid haircut. Ephron used to be so cute but is now likely considered too big for his own good. He performs well in the role of Kevin, the main protagonist of the movie.
Director Durkin omits certain important parts of the family history in lieu of the other parts that involve Kevin, primarily for the obvious reason that Ephron is the star of the movie.
The wrestling match in which Kerry won the championship title bringing the championship belt to the family for the very first time is clearly omitted in the movie. The major wrestling matches shown in the movie all involve Kevin.
Director Durkin captures the most important points in the cautionary tale. The dangers of the sport of wrestling are shown from the injuries suffered by the wrestlers to pushing their bodies past their limits to the psychological effects of losing and trying too hard. The sibling rivalry and the detrimental effects of the father’s demands are also well documented. One could fault the father and mother for doing too much without much thinking.
For a Christmas movie, THE IRON CLAW is a most depressing one- as good as the drama it is. The warning is given to the audience at the very start of the film in voiceover that the family is cursed from the very beginning with one mishap after another. It is as if God had forsaken the family even though the mother is a devout God-fearing person. So if depressing films at Christmas are not your forte stay away from this one.
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MIGRATION (USA 2023) ***
Directed by Benjamin Renner
From the ILLUMINATION company, the one responsible for those too-cute minions arrives MIGRATION, with a few nods to the minis. The feature MIGRATION is preceded by an ILLUMINATION -Mionin short, which is of course, cute and entertaining.
MIGRATIPN is a film about a duck family with an overall message for kids and the family. The loveable family of odd ducks is ruled by the father (Kumail Nanjiani) with a strong hand or wing, that could be easily persuaded otherwise. The family comprises the mother and 2 ducklings (voiced by Elizabeth Banks, Tresi Gazal, and Caspar Jennings) who mostly try to convince their overprotective father to go on the vacation of a lifetime by following a flock of birds on migration. The father is initially intent on staying put in their comfortable and well-stocked pond while the ducklings want to wander outside their comfort zone of the pond. Curiosity gets the better of the family.
The danger facing the family occurs with that dreaded species called humans. When the family descends upon a metropolitan city for the first time, there is danger involved,
Heavyweight actors Danny DeVito, Awkwafina, Carol Kane and Keegan-Michael Key round out the voice cast with the latter earning the most laughs with his Jamaican-accented humour.
The animation is fancy and inventive enough but one wishes there was more innovation in the overall storytelling than the Christmas message of being one as a family.
MIGRATION opens on December 22nd, 2023.
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SOCIETY OF THE SUN (La Sociedad de la Niece) (Spain 2023) ***½
Directed by J. A. Bayona
Hardship, disaster and the triumph of the human spirit. These are the three themes of the December 22nd Christmas movie from Spain entitled SOCIETY IF THE SNOW, largely shot in Spanish, Spain’s entry for the Academy Awards category for Best International Feature. It is an account of the Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 crash and the crashes survivors, an adaptation of Pablo Vierci's book of the same name, which documents accounts of all 16 survivors of the crash, many of whom Vierci knew from childhood. The cast is composed of Uruguayan and Argentine actors, most of whom are newcomers.
This chartered flight of a Fairchild FH-227D from Montevideo, Uruguay, to Santiago, Chile, crashed in the Andes mountains on October 13, 1972. The accident and subsequent survival became known as the Andes flight disaster.
The film running more than 2 hours tells the story leaving no stone unturned. The filmmakers interviewed the survivors as well as the families of the non-survivors. The flight was carrying 45 passengers and crew, including 19 members of the Old Christians Club rugby union team, along with their families, supporters and friends. This fact is shown at the beginning of the film as well as in flashbacks. Three crew members and nine passengers died immediately; several more died soon afterward due to the frigid temperatures and the severity of their injuries. The wreck was located at an elevation of 3,570 metres (11,710 ft), in the remote Andes of far western Argentina, just east of the border with Chile. Authorities flew over the crash site several times during the following days, searching for the aircraft, but could not see the white fuselage against the snow. Search efforts were canceled after eight days. The film shows the survivors getting discouraged after hearing this news on a radio they managed to hook up.
The audience is not spared any grueling details of the following 72 days,\ when the survivors suffered extreme hardships, including exposure, starvation and an avalanche, which led to the deaths of 13 more passengers. The remaining passengers resorted to cannibalism. The film dives a bit into the act, whether it is a crime. But many permit their bodies to be eaten when they perish. The act of eating human flesh and the cutting up of the bodies are examined in the film. As the weather improved with the arrival of late spring, two survivors, Nando Parrado and Roberto Canessa, climbed a 4,650-metre (15,260 ft) mountain peak without gear and hiked for 10 days into Chile to seek help, traveling 61 km (38 miles). On 23 December 1972, two months after the crash, the last of the 16 survivors were rescued. The news of their miraculous survival drew worldwide headlines that grew into a media circus.
Meticulously executed a riveting account of surviving an air crash in the Andes that looks almost too incredible but is true, SOCIETY OF THE SBOW, a Netflix original film, opens at the TIFF Bell Lightbox on December 22nd before going on to streaming on Netflix.
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THE ZONE OF INTEREST (Poland/UK/USA 2023) ***** Top 10
Directed by Jonathan Glazer
Winner of the Grand Prix at this year’s Cannes (2nd Best Film), Jonathan Glazer’s (UNDER THE SKIN) THE ZONE OF INTEREST is a horror film about the Holocaust without a single scene of concentration camps. It depicts the banality of evil so well put forward that the audience is left just as silent as in the recent Christopher Nolan nuclear war vehicle, OPPENHEIMER.
Auschwitz commander is the main subject - Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel), who is always dressed in white as if to symbolize purity with his wife Hedwig (Sandra Huller), live so close to Auschwitz camp that one can hear the horrors from the nearby camp (as in a prisoner drowned by the guards for fighting for an apple). They live in a beautiful home, with food, vegetables, fruit and herbs cultivated next to a swimming pool and river flowing with clear water close by. They argue about household problems and are oblivious to the horrors of the war that are going on. The thousands gassed are discussed as a matter of efficiency of transportation in a meeting among Nazi officials.
The most catastrophic scene in the film of Hedwig’s life is when she freaks out at her black dog vomiting in the corridor - never mind the gassing of thousands of Jews in the concentration camp next door. Hedwig is so obsessed with her residence that she insists that her husband write to Hitler to allow her to stay at the residence when news of her husband’s transfer gets to her.
The film is an art film as observed in the first 5 minutes of the film’s opening. The title of the film, THE ZONE OF INTEREST is seen in white on a black background while disturbing sounds/music can be heard on the soundtrack. The scene stays for a whole minute before the whole disappears and a total black screen is observed for the rest of the 5 minutes. This is a visual metaphor of the beautiful and immaculate residence of the Höss’s, and when the black appears, it represents the horrors of the Nazi concentration camp that is the main subject of concern.
The residence is a stunningly beautiful one with a beautiful garden that grows all the fresh vegetables and fruits, all organic. The Höss’s are self-sufficient and also have servants to tend to their needs. The husband and wife are seen sleeping on separate beds. It appears too, that their marriage is a matter of convenience and show. They throw lavish parties and are also dressed immaculately, Another chilling scene is the Nazi board meeting where the Nazi Officers praise themselves and talk about the efficiency of transporting the Jews by train to the concentration camp, calculating the number by train and how many can be transported by day.
The most chilling film of the year that many critics claim should have won the Palme d’Or Prize for its groundbreaking filmmaking. THE ZONE OF INTEREST is currently standing on most of the film critics’ Top 10 Best Films of 2023. The Toronto Film Critics Association has selected THE ZONE OF INTEREST as the best film of the year.
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- Written by: Gilbert Seah
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- Category: Movie Reviews
FILM REVIEWS:
LES TROIS MOUSQUETAIRES: D’ARTAGNAN (The Three Musketeers: D’Artagnan)
(France/Germany/Spain/Belgium 2023) ***½
Directed by Martin Bourboulon
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BLOOD VESSEL (Nigeria 2023) ***1/2
Directed by Charles Okpaleke
BLOOD VESSEL should not be confused with the 2019 German film about a vampire ship that shares the same title. That was a camp horror comedy while this one, from Nigeria’s Play Network Studios (Nollywood) tackles more serious issues - both personal and political. This is Nigeria’s highly anticipated film that debuts on Netflix on Friday, December 8th.
The film opens with an aerial shot, of the beautiful landscape of Africa, which one assumes is part of Nigeria. The audience sees a butterfly followed by greenery. The voiceover praises the beauty of the earth, that is until oil destroys it. Oil pollution results in contamination. Water that brings life, the voiceover claims now brings death as one scene shows a mother carrying a dead child.
The setting is the seldom or hardly-seen Niger Delta region. The story revolves around six individuals brought together by chance. Escaping a town devastated by oil pollution, they inadvertently become stowaways on a mysterious ship, unaware of the dangers that await. The hope for a better life does not come easy, as the film instructs but comes with trials and tribulations. On the road to paradise comes a fight for survival - testing the key human elements of among others, friendship, betrayal, romance, desperation and dignity.
Director Okpaleke creates a delicate and successful balance between the personal and political issues in a drama-packed thriller with an authentic unfamiliar but exciting setting.
The film is shot in the original language including some English and a of other languages The film, is now available on Netflix and is worth a look.
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CHRISTMAS AS USUAL (Så Var Det Jul Igjen)(Norway 2023) **
Directed by Peter Holmsen
This Christmas holiday romantic comedy of cultural differences aims at being a GUESS WHO’S COMING HOME FOR CHRISTMAS. A few updates in that the person bringing home the surprise guest is a strong-willed female, Thea (Ida Ursin-Holm) who is Norwegian and the guest is Indian (or rather Hindu). Thea and Jason (Kanan Gill) are also engaged which the family is yet to find out. Also father is left out of the picture, recently passed but fondly remembered and the mother is also strong-willed and tradition-bound. The family Jashan meets includes Thea’s mother, her brother and sister-in-law (the funniest of the lot) and her niece.
The family wants CHRISTMAS AS USUAL with all the Norwegian traditions but Jashan's visit brings trouble to paradise,
All this sounds like a good opportunity for comedy but unfortunately falls flat because of unfunny humour and a really bad blending of drama and comedy. It does not help that the Indian character is just awful in his personal manners, despite the script trying to make him sympathetic and right. The best example is him sneezing at a key moment while attending church while a solo is sung. He sneezes loudly not once but many times during the solo performance Any decent-mannered person would have sniffled the sound of a sneeze with a tissue or if without one with his closed hand. It is also a known fact when one is invited to a home to meet the family, one does not try to cook a meal as Jahan does. One quietly and politely takes in the festivities.
The only winning thing about this film is the audience’s discovery of what Norwegians do during Christmas - that is assuming that what is seen on screen is typical Norwegian Christmas practice. This includes eating crispy fat with fat sauce (this actually sounds unhealthy but delicious) and jumping in outdoor ice-cold water for a polar dip. Jada, however, cannot take in the Christmas food and ends up becoming a loud and obnoxious drunk after downing several potato-liquor shots.
The film is hardly funny though there are a few admirable comedic set-ups like the fight between Jashan dressed in Indian garb on Christmas Eve and Thea’s ex who is dressed as Santa Claus. But many other scenes could have been funnier but there are lots of missed opportunities for laughter. With all the drama, the audience tends to take the Norwegian side instead of the Indian side which a story like this should lead.
This, however, being a Christmas romantic comedy falls into the trap of harlequin-type Hollywood romances. This calls for the couple to quarrel and make up with a happy ending. This one calls for the hurried drive in the ice and snow to the Oslo airport to prevent Jada from flying off.
CHRISTMAS AS USUAL is a Norwegian Netflix original film that opens for streaming on Netflix Friday December 8th.
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CONCRETE UTOPIA (South Kore 2023) ***
Directed by Um Tae-hwa
In the opening moments of Um Tae-hwa’s riveting new disaster epic, an earthquake renders much of Seoul a smoldering ruin. But as survivors begin efforts to restore order, it seems the real calamity has only just begun. Apartments are the convenience of housing One apartment building and the residues miraculously survive the earthquake while all other structures are demolished. The special effects show the one apartment building standing alone amidst the rubble. The tune of “There’s No Place Like Home” is heard on the soundtrack.
An earthquake renders much of Seoul a smoldering ruin in the opening minutes of this riveting post-apocalyptic epic from director Um Tae-hwa (Vanishing Time: A Boy Who Returned). But as survivors begin efforts to restore order, it seems the real calamity has only just begun. Human beings show off their worst when it comes to survival.
From their balcony at the Hwang Gung apartment complex, Min-seong (Parasite’s Park Seo-jun) and Myeong-hwa (Park Bo-young) look out on nothing but corpses and rubble. A stranger and her small child soon arrive at Min-seong and Myeong-hwa’s door (not from the building) begging to be let in, followed by dozens of others from the surrounding area desperately seeking food and shelter. As days pass and no rescue teams turn up, the tenants assemble, survey their limited resources, and vote to evict the “outsiders.” When Yeong-tak (I Saw the Devil’s Lee Byung-hun), the tenants’ elected leader, announces that the outsiders must leave Hwang Gung, all hell breaks loose. From this point on, tenants must be prepared to protect their property by any means necessary. It is a matter of survival of the fittest. The delegate and the head of committees form rules on rations, security from outsiders, repair and humorously, waste management. They shit into a plastic outline in a toilet bowl and dispose of the waste without the use of precious water.
Based on the second part of Kim Sung-nyung’s Cheerful Outcast webtoon, Concrete Utopia is a sobering parable, following its characters’ gradual descent into ruthless tribalism in a way that eerily mirrors so many contemporary global events. When all hope is lost do human beings glimpse the possibility of generosity and some much-needed self-determination?
CONCRETE UTOPIA suffers from many unanswered questions, or rather it omits many obvious issues. First of all how devastating is this supposed earthquake? Surely, rescuers would have reached Seoul quite soon. Is Seoul the only place suffering from the earthquake? What about the rest of Korea and the rest of the world? Where did all the canned food come from and it seems that there is an unlimited supply of canned food.
The story of the survivors and the hierarchy of order is quite minimal. There is only one person in charge, nicknamed Mr. Delegate. The leadership should have been more detailed. The entire ruling process is quite pitiful, like a pauper version of George Orwell’s ANIMAL FARM.
CONCRETE UPTOPIA is the Official Selection of the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival and also South Korea’s entry for the Best International Feature Academy Award.
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EILEEN (USA/UK 2022) ***½
Directed by William Oldroyd
Set in a small town in 1960s Massachusetts, the film centers on Eileen Dunlop( New Zealand actress Thomasin McKenzie), a young woman working in a corrections facility for teenage boys. At work, she is shunned by her colleagues and fantasizes about one of the guards, while at home she lives with her widowed and alcoholic father, Jim (Shea Wigham), a former chief of police who suffers from paranoia and is emotionally abusive towards her. Eileen daydreams frequently about killing herself and her father.
There are many threads in the story. One is the coming-out of Eileen who discovers love (the old Doris Day song SECRET LOVE playing on the soundtrack) with another woman. Secondly, it is a father-daughter redemption story, with Eileen and her father having trouble getting along. Thirdly, the film played like a psychological thriller - and a clever one at that, balancing dead-pan humour, dark themes and a forbidden romance.
The script is always steps ahead of the audience. Not one really knows the character of the protagonist Eileen - whether the lady is good or evil, though she shows both sides, This makes the film more intriguing as no now can figure her out even past the halfway mark of the movie.
The film contains a few dreams or rather nightmare imaginations, that do not achieve much but reveal what Eileen is thinking.
The disturbing incident of a son, Lee Polk killing his father, a cop, while the father was asleep in his bed beside his mother is milked for full effect. The boy has not spoken a word since and is housed in Eileen's correctional facility. A guard tells Eileen not to be sympathetic towards him as he killed a cop, to which she replies: “This is not true, he killed a father.” Eileen’s own father tells her that she has no guts to kill him as she is a girl
The film is a female-strength film with strong female characters, a female director and a female-to-female romance. There was one time when feminists complained of insufficient female material in films. It appears the opposite is true these days - a triumph for the females. “People are so afraid of their desires. Especially the men, “ says Rebecca, the new prison psychiatrist (Anne Hathaway) at one point in the film. Why did Lee Polk kill his father? What did his father ever do to him to make him stab his father multiple times? That is the question no one bothered to ask Lee, which Rebecca the prison psychiatrist did and found the disturbing answer - not mentioned but with the audience's assumed tone able to guess the answer. Mrs.Polk leaves in disgust when confronted with the truth and chooses to disbelieve it, though she is responsible for letting it all happen. She spits in Rebecca’s face, a scene not shown in the film.
The story takes a twist in the last third when the Polk murder blends in Eileen and Rebecca’s relationship.
EILEEN has nothing much that is festive or joyous for the festive season, yet it is a solid psychological thriller, made with care and brilliance blending a disturbing theme with humour and suspense. The film opens at the TIFF Bell Lightbox and is worth a look, for sure.
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FAST CHARLIE (USA 2023) ***
Directed by Phillip Noyce.
This film follows the very often used tactic that begins with a scene from nowhere, often a crucial one, and then flashes back to the incidents that have led to this state of affairs. In FAST CHARLIE, the film opens with Charlie held at apparent gunshot range by an unseen assailant, and forced to take off his shirt and trousers. How did Charlie get to this point when he was about to be shot by some unseen assailant? He says he would not normally care if this incident occurs. This scene is revisited 15 minutes before the film ends. It is then that he decides otherwise, that he would use some magic trick to get out of the predicament. This forms the film’s climax.
The film is called FAST CHARLIE for the reason that Charlie is quite fast at what he does. And his last name is Swift.
For twenty years, Charlie Swift (Pearce Brosnan) has been a fixer and hitman for a mob boss named Stan (James Caan). After a rival boss puts a hit on Stan and his crew, Charlie is the sole survivor. Charlie decides to avenge his friend and teams up with Marcie (Morena Baccarin), the ex-wife of a mobster he killed.
The film is about old people. The director Noyce is in his senior years and the main actor Pearce Brosnan, ex-James Bond is also in his later years. He portrays a hitman and fixer, also I’m his later years who should plan a good retirement.
The story is also about achieving a person’s dreams. When life moves along, Charlie, a brilliant Italian cook wishes to live the rest of his years in Italy. Marcie, a taxidermist, wishes to have teaching tenure at a university to pursue her career. And Stan retires in a big and lush facility. The film also stresses loyalty and hard work.
There are two reasons to watch FAST CHARLIE. Firstly, it is the final film of the late actor James Caan, his best role being that of the violent son Sonny of Don Corleone in Francis Ford Coppola’s THE GODFATHER. In FAST CHARLIE, Cain plays Stan Mullen, the protagonist’s most respected aging boss. Secondly, the film is directed by Australian Phillip Joyce, who has several memorable credits in his portfolio. His film NEWSFRONT, is my personal favourite Australian film of all time. He is also remembered for Hollywood films like RABBIT PROOF FENCE. His films are always interesting to watch, though FAST CHARLIE is not one of his best.
Despite the film title FAST CHARLIE, FAST CHARLIE is a lazy and slow action thriller with more shootouts than unarmed combat scenes showing the later years of both the film’s director Phillip Noyce and main actor, Pearce Brosnan.
FAST CHARLIE premiered at the 2023 Mill Valley Film Festival on October 7, 2023. The film is scheduled to be released in select theatres and video on demand on December 8, 2023
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NAGA (Saudi Arabia 2023) **
Directed by Meshal Aljaser
NAGA follows a young woman stranded in the Arabian desert who races to be home before curfew under the threat of extreme punishment from her scary and strict father. When it comes to disobedience in Saudi Arabia, a country where everything is much stricter than the norm, the repercussions can be extreme. And the young woman knows it. And so when Sarah (Adwa Bader), a young Saudi woman, is given a strict curfew by her conservative father for an approved shopping trip, she knows that she must meet his expectations by any means necessary. Especially since Sarah’s shopping plans are actually subterfuge for a secret date with Saad, a young suitor who just sent her an invitation to an underground party in the desert. The best-laid deception goes quickly awry, and Sarah, now high out of her guard, gets stranded miles away from home. Dodging a parade of arrogant and creepy men, not to mention a bloodthirsty, rabid camel, Sarah sets out on a wild adventure through distinct spheres of contemporary Saudi society in a desperate race against a ticking clock.
The synopsis above all sounds prime for a pretty good madcap adventure from Saudi Arabia of all places, but director Aljaser’s film misfires from the very first scene.
The first scene is a hospital where a masked man with a machine gun runs through the back staircase before opening fire on the staff in a hospital room with a patient. The scene is filmed with a rotating camera that goes for an upside shot. The reason for this is obviously to show how crazy the situation is, though the tactic is totally unnecessary, least to say redundant.
Other odd scenes follow, like Sarah screaming in the desert, a very annoying and loud scene, the apparent taking of drugs by Sarah and so on. Whether the film aims at social satire to to make a solid statement about the ruling patriarchy of families, one can never be sure, and whatever goals the director might have are totally lost in his untamed stylish mayhem of filming.
At the end of the exercise, one would wonder what everything is really all about or what the purpose of the film is. The film has been described by TIFF as similar to Martin Scorsese’s AFTER HOURS, a film that is also one that is too madcap, and one that I never liked either, (though many critics did).
. Though many individual segments of the film are well shot, they do not come together as a cohesive whole nor does director Aljaser make any attempt to do so. Stylish thoughts aim might be, but style without direction here results in a total miss.
NAGA had its premiere in the Midnight Madness Section of the Toronto International Film Festival where odd and crazy films like this one have a chance to debut. But this one, unfortunately, does not make the cut. NAGA opens for streaming on Netflix this week.
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THE SACRIFICE GAME (USA 2023) ***
Directed by Jenn Wexler
It is bad enough that boarding school students Samantha and Clara can't go home for the holidays, but things take a deadly turn when a murderous gang ( gang of four) arrives on their doorstep - just in time for Christmas.
THE SACRIFICE GAME, the film opens in the setting of December 22nd, 1977, 3 days before Christmas. Why 1977 and not the present? The obvious absence of cell phones is the answer. There are sounds of carol singing and just as the Christmas jolly singing stops, the music changes when a group of 4 rings the doorbell of a house. “Merry Christmas,” the greeting comes from the man who opens the door, only to be greeted with a stab in the throat. As the group - of 3 men and one woman attack the lady by stabbing her while she lies on the kitchen table, a scene that will definitely make the audience winch, the scene ceases and a new segment begins with a new character, Samantha attending boarding school. So far so good, this BLACK CHRISTMAS-like horror flick holds one's interest so far. The killers are dubbed ‘the Christmas Killers’. This film is shot in Montreal, Canada though the country of origin is the United States.
The school stands where a fire wiped out the entire town and then a new town was built. This is what Samantha is taught in her class, in the school that now stands on the burnt remains.
The film also plays like the recent Alexander Payne film THE HOLDOVERS in which a few students are held over and stay on the college grounds under a reluctant teacher. The same goes for THE SACRIFICE GAME. Samantha and Carol have no option but to stay over at the college for Christmas under supervision by a reluctant teacher, Rose who wants to get a posting to a public school away from the ‘boonies’. As it turns out, it is now 2 days before Christmas and the Christmas Killer now strikes a church. According to the news, the Christmas Killers hit different towns. Rose has a boyfriend who also reaches the school later when the gang has entered the premises.
The story ties everything together with a third of the film. The Christmas Killers appear at the door of the boarding school. Rose, who looks after ‘the holdovers’ is freed to let them in. The Killers quickly subdue the three including Rose’s boyfriend, terrorizing them at the same time. The script creates some audience sympathy for Samantha and Carol. Samantha’s mother died recently from a car accident and her step-dad wants nothing to do with her, the reason she is bit returning home for Christmas. Carol has attempted suicide.
The story takes a turn to reveal the reason the film is called THE SACRIFICE GAME. No one is as innocent as he or she seems as the story contains a few twists, though not all satisfactory,
Director and co-writer Jenn Wexler does a relatively good job at this Christmas horror, which is quite violent at times, which opens for streaming on Shudder the horror streaming network just in time for Christmas. The film garnered the audience award for Best Film at the Fantasia Horror Film Festival in Montreal this year.
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- Written by: Gilbert Seah
- Parent Category: Articles
- Category: Movie Reviews
FILM REVIEWS;
AMERICAN SYMPHONY (USA 2023) ***
Directed by Matthew Heineman
This is the story and biography up to this stage, the artist Jon Batiste is still alive at the age of 37. The film is so-called AMERICAN SYMPHONY as the artist has been chosen to compose and conduct a symphony at Carnegie Hall. The doc mostly records the process of Batiste composing his first symphony. The doc takes place during one year in the life of Batiste.
Jonathan Michael Batiste is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, bandleader, composer, and television personality. He has recorded and performed with artists including Stevie Wonder, Prince, Willie Nelson, Lenny Kravitz, Ed Sheeran, Lana Del Rey, Roy Hargrove, Juvenile, and Mavis Staples. Batiste, with his band Stay Human, appeared nightly as bandleader and musical director on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert from 2015 to 2022. His interview with Colbert forms one of the lighter moments in the doc.
Batiste also serves as the music director of The Atlantic and the Creative Director of the National Jazz Museum in Harlem. In 2020, he co-composed the score for the Pixar animated film Soul, for which he received an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Grammy Award and a BAFTA Film Award (all shared with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross). Batiste has garnered 5 Grammy Awards from 14 nominations, including an Album of the Year win for his album We Are (2021)..
The doc also shows, from archive footage his father and mother’s influence on his music. His mother insisted that he learn classical piano as the basics. Batiste was also selected to the famed Juilliard School in NYC. This is where he formed his band ‘Stay Human’.
The doc documents Batiste’s courage, talent and humanity as his wife, Suleika Jaouad faces leukemia.
This is no Hollywood bullshit like Bradley Cooper helming Leonard Bernseain’s biography in MAESTRO which is more or less Oscar bait. AMERICAN SYMPHONY is the real thing - a real-life American composer and conductor, Jon Batiste, whose life and aspirations are shown in this little but earnest and honest documentary. This is a Netflix original doc just like MAESRO, which is the reason Netflix probably coincided with the two films’ opening dates. The film had its world premiere at the 50th Telluride Film Festival on August 31, 2023.
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CANDY CANE LANE (USA 2023) ***
Directed by Reginald Rudlin
A man is determined to win the neighbourhood's annual Christmas decorating contest. He makes a pact with an elf called Pepper (Jillian Bell) to help him win - and the elf casts a spell that brings the 12 days of Christmas to life, which brings unexpected chaos to town.
Review Embargo lifted 9 am Nov 30th Thursday ET
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FIRELINE (USA 2023) ***½
Directed by Tylor Norwood
The word FIRELINE is the title of a new documentary that examines the work of Californian firefighters. The word Fireline in British English means the strip of open land in a forest or prairie, that arrests the advance of a fire (another name for firebreak). Though the title Wireline is used, the usage of this tactic is not specifically shown in the film.
The doc begins with the scene of a fire in Northern California at 3 am. The Dixie Firenin Lasengeer County has already burnt 500,000 acres of land. 6,000 men are already on the job.
Enter the spectacle and drama of a megafire, alongside a firefighting team struggling to save anything they can while protecting each other. FIRELINE takes audiences into the firescape, to feel for the first time what those fighting these blazes face, especially as climate change makes megafires larger and more frequent. It's an intimate portrait of a system stretched to its breaking point, revealing the friendship, heartbreak, and exhilaration experienced by those who go to war against this elemental force.
FIRELINE focuses on three firefighters from the Cal Fire Lassen-Modoc Unit, and their harrowing experience fighting a megafire for 36 emotional hours. The filmmakers also worked with The California Fire Foundation, which provides emotional support to families of fallen firefighters, firefighters and the communities they protect. “If are not nervous, then there is something wrong with you.” The fire can change direction and course without a moment’s notice.
The importance of the planning of the tactical maneuvers in firefighting is shown and likened to the importance of the military tactics used in battles by General MacArthur.
A fair portion of the doc focuses on the firefighters. It is stated that these firefighters spend more time with their colleagues than with their friends and family, so the firefighters form a close-knit family on their own. They work together. However, there is little conflict or problems shown in the doc of the firefighters.
The doc focuses mainly on the Californian firefighters and the fires that have raged out of control in California. There is little mention of fires or the firefighting that goes on in the other countries of the world - elect for a token nod with brief images of fire in Brazil, Europe and Australia. International cooperation is mentioned but largely omitted.
What is immediately noticeable and not addressed in the film is the largely white men who form the firefighting team. There are hardly any women, black or Latino that are seen.
Justin, Tyler and Riley, 3 firefighters featured in the doc had to do a 60-hour no-sleep duty before being able to sleep in their beds. The doc says that other firefighters go through the same gruesome routine to perform their largely thankless task.
FIRELINE covers not only the firefighting performed by the firefighters but also the human aspects of the arduous tasks giving the audience insight into what it means to be firefighters on the job, while also showing the trauma of the victims of the fires who have lost their homes and basically everything of their livelihood. An informative eye-opening documentary that needs to be seen.
The doc will be released on digital platforms on December 5, 2023
MAESTRO (USA 2023) **
Direct by Bradley Cooper
The MAESTRO (Italian word for Master or Teacher) in the film is famous American composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein. This is the long-awaited vehicle starring and directed by Academy Award nominee Bradley Cooper, telling of Bernstein’s life and achievements. However, as almost perfect as the film is, in most departments particularly in the acting and makeup ones, the film definitely has the feel of ‘Oscar bait’ as Cooper aims to win one for Best Actor if not get a nod for Best Direction.
Leonard Bernstein who passed in 1990 at a relatively early age of only 72, is considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time. He was the first American conductor to receive international acclaim. Bernstein was "one of the most prodigiously talented and successful musicians in American history" according to music critic Donal Henahan. He has numerous honours and accolades including seven Emmy Awards, two Tony Awards, and 16 Grammy Awards (including the Lifetime Achievement Award as well as an Academy Award nomination. He received the Kennedy Center Honour in 1981.
As for the film, he composed the original score for the Elia Kazan drama film On the Waterfront (1954), and theatre works including On the Town (1944), Wonderful Town (1953), Candide (1956), and his Mass (1971). One would have expected more mention of his theatre and film works since this is a filmed biography that Cooper noticeably leaves out. There is only a brief mention of Bernstein’s most popular musical WEST SIDE STORY.
The most obvious and arguably most embarrassing moment in the film is the segment in which Cooper directs the orchestra (Mahler) and in another when he shows a novice what to do, If this is not Oscar bait, then no one knows what is.
Cooper’s direction is also odd at times. In one confrontational scene between Bernstein and his wife (Carey Mulligan), he films the fight at a distance as if in a stage play. There are no close-ups or edits as the two argue their points of view. Perhaps Cooper does not want the audiences to be influenced by taking sides but one will never know the reason for this off-filming tactic.
From the photos of the real Leonard Berstein, Cooper looks almost exactly like the man in various states of his life. Credit to the great work from the team of the makeup and prosthetics (Vivian Baker) and hair stylist departments.
The part of Bernstein’s lifelong humanitarian, efforts working in support of civil rights, protesting against the Vietnam War, advocating nuclear disarmament, raising money for HIV/AIDS research and awareness, and engaging in multiple international initiatives for human rights and world peace are all omitted in the film.
As a biography of Leonard Bernstein, the film’s a failure with only his philosophies in life are mentioned as Cooper recites a few monologues as if being interviewed and lots of scenes of him conducting orchestras and arguing with his wife, with only a small of the life included and with his childhood and early background totally ignored.
MAESTRO opens in theatres on November 1st, 2023.
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MONSTER (Japan 2023) ***½
Directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda
Quiet and reserved Minato (Sōya Kurokawa) — no longer a kid, but not yet an adolescent — lost his father when he was a young child and lives with his mother (Sakura Andō). When he starts behaving strangely, obsessed with the idea his brain has been switched with a pig’s, the mother suspects his teacher Hori (Eita Nagayama) and calls a meeting with the school principal (Tanaka Yūko) only to face a wall of silence and stiff apologies. Someone must have put that idea in Minato’s head, but something doesn’t add up. Is Minato telling the truth, or is his professor innocent? Looking at the story from various points of view, and told non-chronically and with crisscrossing of events, nothing is what it seems and things can be interpreted differently with dire consequences. Kore-eda’s film is a bit confusing in the beginning till one realizes what he is trying to do. The film also covers current issues of single parenting, school bullying, first romance and coming-of-age. Also, the great soundtrack from legendary musician Ryuichi Sakamoto, who died last March, Monster being his last soundtrack.
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MY ANIMAL (Canada 2023) **
Directed by Jacqueline Castel
The film MY ANIMAL has a mudded beginning that sets the tone for the rest of the film. A young girl, Heather is watching a horror film on TV when she suddenly experiences weird body changes with blood dripping from her orifices. Her mother calls out to Heather as Heather disappears from the room.
Heather, an outcast teenage goalie, longs to play on the hockey team of her small northern town in Ontario, Canada. She meets and falls in love with newcomer Jonny, an alluring but tormented figure skater. The girls’ relationship blossoms despite Heather’s struggles with her alcoholic mother, her hidden sexual orientation, and a familial curse that transforms her into a feral wolf under the full moon. Heather and Jonny’s secret tryst soon clashes against the conformity of their small community, exposing dangerous truths and igniting a passionate, violent night of personal transformation.
As much as director Castel tries to create winning personalities for her two female characters, one cannot help but still feel disconnected with them. After one awful night for each of them, Jonny has it out with her coach, as seen by Heath as she begins an awful hockey session as a goalie. It does not help that the two girls decide to go out after their individual troubles and enjoy themselves by doing huge ‘wheelies’ on the ice with their car and then making hot lesbian love shots with red lighting. Heather’s telling of a scary story to Jonny is also as irritating as it is unoriginal, as everyone has heard this similar scare story tactic before,
The film aims to be a coming-of-age story - one with a difference, in which Heather tackles several problems including turning into a wolf. The film’s different narratives does not blend well together and it definitely is a case of taking up too much on one’s plate (lesbian love story; coming-of-age; alcoholic mother/daughter relationship; females in the male sports world; horror werewolf story).
The best thing about the film is its authentic Northern Ontario setting, shot in the dismal and cold winter where the sun is rarely shown shining. The whole atmosphere is depressing, which unfortunately adds a damper feeling for the film.
There is no explanation given to the wold or werewolf background, just the fact that it has run in the family and Heather is going up and the wolf instincts are beginning to manifest itself. The mother’s alcoholism adds to Heather’s distress and seems unnecessary in the story to put additional trauma on the teenager.
The film contains some neat and exciting editing work, especially during the filming of the hockey games.
Good intentions and hard work do not always translate to a good film, the fresh new take on teen lesbian love, a werewolf metaphorical story set in a small town hockey setting turns out a disappointment.
MY ANIMAL has opened at several festivals around the world including:
Sundance Film Festival 2023 - World Premiere
Outfest Los Angeles 2023 - Centerpiece film
Fantasia Film Festival 2023 - Canadian Premiere
and opens in theatres on December the 1st, 2023.
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A REVOLUTION IN CANVAS (USA 2023) ***
Directed by Sara Nodjoumi and Till Schauder
Nikzad Nodjoumi, more commonly known as Nicky Nodjoumi (born 1942) is an Iranian-born American fine art painter. He currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. His paintings address Iranian politics, history, power and corruption. For this reason, he has been banned from Iran and his paintings taken away from the Art Museum in Tehran. Were the paintings destroyed? Were the paintings stolen? Were the paintings re-located? No one knows. The artist claims that a part of his life had been lost with the lost paintings. The doc tells the story of the missing painting. The doc is directed by the artist Nicky’s daughter and her husband.
In their hybrid political thriller and verité portrait documentary A REVOLUTION ON CANVAS, Sara Nodjoumi makes her directorial debut alongside her husband and co-director Till Schauder, with this personal film diving into the mystery surrounding the disappearance of more than 100 "treasonous" paintings by her father, the seminal Iranian modern artist Nickzad “Nicky” Nodjoumi - one of Iran’s most revolutionary artists.
The doc also shows Nicky at work during a painting, using time-lapse photography. Nicky speaks to the camera ever so often, informing the audience that his canvas shows the story of the revolution - hence the title of the doc, A REVOLUTION ON CANVAS. He also says that the paintings have to be recovered, not because they are his best work, but because they tell an important story.
He is concerned about issues like contracted borders (who gets to live where), the environment, war and revolution being a few of them. So what makes Nicky different from other artists? The doc makes it clear that he is one who cannot help himself but express current troubled news as art. Whenever a troubling issue appears in the news, Nicky creates art from it. The director, his daughter when interviewing him, has declared himself to be a revolutionary. He looks like one from the archive footage, with his beard. There is a bit of his romance with his wife in the story, the girl who loved him and ignored her family’s objections. His daughter can be considered to be following in his footsteps by making this documentary on him and telling his story.
A REVOLUTION IN CANVAS is the daughter’s director’s extensive home movie on her father. The film has interesting material though the material might be considered too personal and too Iranian or too narrow in its appeal. All this considered, the doc overs a good tale of the artist, his life, his beliefs, his fame and his works.
A REVOLUTION ON CANVAS will have a limited theatrical release in U.S. movie theatres starting Friday, December 1st in New York at Cinema Village. A week later, on Friday, December 8th, it will open in Los Angeles at Laemmle Royal and in San Francisco at The Roxie. The film will have its Toronto theatrical premiere on Sunday, December 3 at Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema. The film’s directors will participate in Q&A’s at Toronto’s premiere.
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SILENT NIGHT (USA 2023) **
Directed by John Woo
The new John Wood action film is entitled SILENT NIGHT for two reasons. The setting is Christmas eve and the protagonist has lost his speaking ability after recovering from a shot in the throat jugular rendering him unable to speak.
The film begins with a two-car chase with shots firing between the two cars as the cars react around a neighbourhood. Caught in the crossfire is the young boy who is ultimately killed by a stray bullet. The father (Joel Kinnaman from TARZAN) pursues the chase on foot - kind of unbelievable - and ends up cornering one of the cars but unfortunately, gets a shot in his throat an brought to the hospital in an ambulance. After a super gross-out scene in which he is operated on and the bullet removed (yes, there is the clinking sound of the retrieved bullet lancing in the metal bowl), he returns home unable to walk or speak. Angrily he hunts down the gang members responsible for the son’s death.
The film boasts a no-dialogue script. Even the confrontation between husband and wife is wordless. Unfortunately, the pro of a complete no-dialogue film does not work. the novelty wears thin after a while. Apparently, the filmmakers have forgotten to tell a story, forgetting that a plot is necessary and one with emotions and credibility. The audience is led to believe that the father Brian Goodrich is available to hunt down the suspects with the aid of getting photographs from a detective in charge of gang warfare (Scott Mescudi) while learning how to fight and use weapons better than any gag member after the accident.
The film does not require much from actor Kinnaman, who is normally a good and buffed actor, but here looks grim and angry. The wife has to be played, by a Latino, not by an African American actor. The detective is played by an African American for political correctness.
A film with minimal plot and action sequences packed one after another was first explored by the successful JOHN WICK 4 film, followed by Simon Wincer’s THE KILLER. SILENT NIGHT attempts more of the same with one violent action sequence after another but ends up the worst of the films. There is one extended hand-to-hand combat scene that shows how difficult it is to kill a man but does too over-the-top. Master of Suspense shows how difficult it is to kill a man with Paul Newman and a woman trying to kill a spy in TORN CURTAIN, the segment is done slow and credible, unlike in SILENT NIGHT.
The editing and fight segments are well executed, but there is much more required to make a good action movie than just action alone, as his film proves.
SILENT NIGHT is the ‘perfect’ anti-Christmas movie in which unforgiveness rules. After a 2 decade hiatus, Hong Kong director returns with this awful violent movie, the poorest version of a JOHN WICK 4 and THE KILLER action movie that has the audience ask the question: “Am I supposed to be entertained by all this?”
SILENT NIGHT opens in theatres on November 1st.
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WOMEN ON THE EDGE (NO ME ROMPAN) (Argentina 2023) ***
Directed by Azul Lombardía
A comedy that relates the tale of two ladies who, despite coming from different worlds, are subject to many of the same demands, obligations, and mandates.
WOMEN ON THE EDGE sounds like a shorter title of the 1988 Pedro Almodovar romp WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A MENTAL BREAKDOWN. There are several similarities between the two films. Firstly, both films are shot in Spanish, though WOMEN ON THE EGE is Argentinian Spiniest and the other one is Spanish Spanish. Both films deal with the empowerment of women and both have a strong female cast. Both are also colourful comedies the colourful to be taken literally as both films contain lots of colour. Bot films are also about wronged women, The Almodovr file deals with a woman going on a journey to find out why her lover left her and WOMEN ON THE EDGE has the man leaving one of the women in the two-women story,
WOMEN ON THE EDGE begins bright and colourful. The camera spans a wide array of beauty products like grape collagen to other outrageous products as the second woman in the story has an organic cosmetics line, though it is revealed that she does not test her products,
WOMEN ON THE EDGE is a female movie all the way. The film has two female protagonists, wronged by the male. The alee is the main female public enemy number one. And the ladies are about to exact a revenge that is not to be forgotten.
WOMEN ON THE EDEG might not win any film awards, but it is good old-fashioned female fun. like the sexy but harmless comedies that turned out in the 60s.
WOMEN ON THE EDGE is open for streaming on Netflix, a Netflix original film this week.
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FILM REVIEWS:
HISTROIA DE UN CRIMEN: MAURICIO LEAL
(Crime Diaries: The Celebrity Stylist)
(Colombia 2023) ***
Directed by Jacques Toulemonde Vidal
When the celebrity stylist Mauricio Leal is found stabbed to death next to his mother, a young female detective is given 20 days to solve the case. The film is inspired by true events.
Written and directed by Jacques Toulemonde Vidal, the film states very early at the beginning that it is based on a true story but the film is a work of fiction. In other words, the whole film is a reenactment, but with liberties taken with the story. This was a high profile case in Colombia and also stated so in the film, many Colombians would be familiar with the case and with the whodunit. For others, the film plays not like a documentary but as a crime suspense thriller. The thriller is simply made and short at only 90 minutes and director Jacques Toulemonde Vidal cheats a bit in the telling of the story. For example, he moves his film from the present towers or days before the present where the characters ninth story interact with each other, and with nothing to do with the detective. The ploy is a bit confusing as the film shifts many times between the present and the past. When it switches to the present no notice is given to the audience, only when it shifts to the past.
The director devotes some time in the film to establishing the young detective’s character and her daily routine at home. Of course, this has little to do with the case, and one wonders if all this is made up by the director to enhance the interest of the storytelling. The detective is shown to be smart and always too busy, with little time spent at home for her daughter. Her daughter is asking for purple tights for her talent show but she is told that she has enough tights. The father screams at the top of his lungs at her, showing an abusive relationship somewhat, in which the husband does not support his wife in her career.
Director Vidal tries a few tricks with the camerawork as well. He slants his camera into the bedroom scene with the detective and her daughter but the ploy appears too obvious.
The film is clear to list the usual suspects. Though a note is left by Leal at his death, foul play is suspected. The immediate suspects are those who’ve found the body, Leal’s jealous brother and the driver. The driver thinks it is the brother who murdered him. This part feels similar to Justine Triet’s ANATOMY OF A FALL, my 2023 best film of the year and the Cannes Winner of the Palm d’Or for Best Picture. The detective figures out that the note was written to cover up a murder. The date stamps on the notes confirm this. It appears quite obvious that brother Yhonier did it, but could this be a deliberate misleading ploy? Before the closing credits, the film reveals to the audience what really happened in the real-life case. Not the best whodunit but executed well enough with fair emphasis given to the story’s characters and the plot itself.
The film is a Netflix original and opens for streaming this week on Netflix.
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DREAM SCENARIO (USA 2023) ***
Directed by Kristoffer Borgli
Yet another Nicolas Cage vehicle, the actor who loves playing seemingly madcap roles, DREAM SCENARIO sees Cage serving as a producer alongside horror meister Ari Asher (BEAU is AFRAID, MIDSOMMAR and HEREDITARY) while starring as an inconspicuous academic who is thrust into the limelight after he starts inexplicably appearing in people’s dreams. Here, Cage’s character Paul Matthews, an ordinary man at first, grows crazier as fate turns against him in ways he cannot control nor understand,
Paul Matthews is a listless family man and tenured professor with an affinity for evolutionary biology and anxiety regarding his own anonymity. One day, he discovers he has begun to appear in other people’s dreams at an exponential rate. As in life, his presence in these dreams is banal and non-intrusive — he’s simply there, staring indifferently at the fantasies and nightmares of strangers. Nonetheless, he becomes an overnight celebrity and is soon showered with the attention he has long been denied. But when Paul encounters a dreamer whose visions of him differ substantially from the norm, he finds himself grappling with the Faustian bargain of fame as his dreams start inexplicably becoming violent within their respective unconsciousness.
Dream Scenario proceeds as a kind of comedic reversal of A Nightmare on Elm Street, with Paul in the proverbial striped sweater terrorizing the populous, but, here, facing real-life consequences for actions he does not control. Cage is brilliant as the pitiable Matthews, and outright terrifying as some of his manifestations, which feature an iconic intensity not seen in a Cage part since Mandy (incidentally shot by this film’s cinematographer Ben Loeb). Buoyed by a terrific cast that features Julianne Nicholson and Michael Cera, this dryly hilarious satire-cum–social horror affirms writer-director Kristoffer Borgli as an astute critic of influencer culture and societal groupthink and a gifted purveyor of the absurd.
The film bears similarity and demands comparison with producer Ari Aster’s recent horror drama BEAU IS AFRAID. In both films, far takes a nasty turn against the protagonist and forces him to take control of his life, in any way he can, whether successful or not. In DREAM SCENARIO, Paul keeps telling everyone that what has happened is beyond his control. He cannot help entering people’s dreams, less control what he does to them.
Initially, Paul is just an innocent bystander in the dreams while accidents happen. A car accident just happened in someone’s dream and Paul just happens to stroll by. Or a person is a levitation and Paul happens to be the gardener who approaches. All this is ok and gives Paul, a shy and quiet zoologist who teaches at a university some fame. But when the dreams start changing. meters take a turn or the worst. Paul is no longer the innocent bystander in people’s dreams. He now strangles, kills and apes his people. All of what happens is shown tongue0-in-cheel and Paul feels as if all this is not happening. He tries to analyze or make sense and talks aloud to himself and his wife. At several posts, the film feels like a Wood Allen movie, where Paul, like Cody Allen in the title role, becomes a victim of some universal plant (SLEEPER, LOVE AND DEATH, BANANAS) that he cannot control.
Intriguing and compelling that the film is, writer/director Borgli’s film takes an unexpected and odd turn at the end with an ending that introduces a dream travelling invention. All the entrances Paul makes into people’s dreams suddenly disappear. Though difficult to imagine a more satisfying or subtle ending, the climax is the best that it could be.
DREAM SCENARIO premiered at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival and opens on November the 24th.
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FALLEN LEAVES (Finland/Germany 2023) ****
Directed by Aki Kaurismaki
A love story of sorts between two lonely working-class people in Finland showing that love can still be found, no matter what age or no matter the dire circumstances. This theme is what makes Kauriosmaki’s latest film such the delight of the critics at Cannes this year and at the Toronto International Film Festival. Ansa (Alma Pöysti) and Holappa (Jussi Vatanen), spend their waking hours in drab workplaces, bars full of stone-faced patrons, and sparsely decorated homes in which a radio is the height of modern technology.
FALLEN LEAVES is simply wonderful because of all the little details and observations Kaurismaki inserts in his film. His distaste for the Russian invasion of Ukraine is made loud and clear as a message from the radio broadcasts heard throughout the film. The film pays tribute to lots of oldies, particularly David Lean’s BRIEF ENCOUNTER, the Finnish poster seen in the background, both films share similar stories of lost love opportunities. Even the dog in the movie is called Chaplin, another tribute to another Master of film.
FALLEN LEAVES though a delight, is not the Master’s best, the category reserved for his earlier films DRIFTING CLOUDS and A NEW HOPE.
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FRYBREAD FACE AND ME (USA 2023) ***
Directed by Billy Luther
FRYBREAD FACE AND ME is a Navajo Indigenous entertaining coming-of-age story of a pre-teem named Benny who is sent to the reservation to spend the summer with his grandmother. A city boy with long hair so that he looks like a girl, he loves Fleetwood Mac. A lifelong city kid, Benny is a fish out of water in the rural northern Arizona community. Grappling with feelings of abandonment, his initial isolation is enhanced by not being able to communicate with his loving, Navajo-speaking grandma (who has refused to ever learn English). Making matters worse is his bullying uncle Marvin, who sees Benny’s sensitivity as a weakness. But Benny’s summer takes a new twist when Dawn (a.k.a. Frybread Face), his bold and brashly confident cousin, is also unexpectedly dropped off at Granny’s. A refreshing look at a coming-of-age story in a different Navajo setting as Benny learns about rodeo, driving and sheep herding. Director Luther goes for more humour than drama though Benny does lose it a few times. The film opens in select theaters and exclusively on Netflix November 24 | Native American Heritage Day.
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LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND (USA 2023) ****
Directed by Sam Esmail
A family vacation on Long Island by a white family, a husband and wife and two kids is interrupted by two (black) strangers bearing news of a mysterious blackout. As the threat grows more imminent, both families must decide how best to survive the potential crisis, all while grappling with their own place in this collapsing world.
In the Bible, Jesus made the statement that a child will lead them. The littlest of the family, the young daughter is the most perceptive of the four, first shown when she notices what looks like a ship on the horizon. “It seems to be coming towards us,” she says. As the minutes tick away, the ship turns out to be a runaway tanker heading straight towards the shore and then running aground scattering all the beachcombers running for their lives. The daughter also says “No one ever listens to me.” and ends up disappearing near the end of the film with the family desperately searching for her. She ends up delivering the climax of the film.
What is marvellous are the visual special effects of the film, many done with the aid of CGI. CGI works best when it is best unnoticed and the CGI is done to complete many of the ordinary scenes like the one where the four of them are in the car. The car had to be taken apart for the continuity shot, as explained by the film’s visual effects supervisor in the preview screening that this reviewer attended. Other notable effects include insuring the forests and greenery in many scenes that were actually shot in late fall and winter when no greenery was present. And there are the animal segments like the deer and flamingoes in the pool that are done magnificently using CGI.
The film plays like a Hitchcockian suspense thriller where the audience is never sure what is happening. The effect is echoed many times in Julia Robert’s words when she demands to know what is happening. The strange events occur a bit at a time - from the grounded tanker to the disturbing and loud sounds to the tornado of leaflets to the appearance of hundreds of deer to the explosions seen from the distance. The explanation is finally given, whether satisfactory is up to the individual audience to decide but what explanation occurred could be very well true. References are made to past world hacking events like the Filipino teenagers responsible for the “Love you” email hacking.
Racial issues are thankfully not omitted. The intruders who are black feel it unfair that they have to sleep in the basement while the white folk in the main house,
Performances are top notch and the characters’ personalities are complex. Robert’s character is the caring bitch, the advertising executive who she confesses hats people. She is forced to trust strangers as a result of the dire consequences that occur. In contrast, Ethan Hawk’s character is more trusting. The strangers are initially painted vague so no one can guess their true colours. All these different personalities add to the story’s suspense. The fear of the unknown is the true fear experienced by the characters which are effectively portrayed in the film.
The film will be released in limited theatres on November 22, and by Netflix on December 8, 2023.
LEO (USA 2023) ***1/2
Directed by Robert Marianetti, Robert Smigel and David Wachtenheim
LEO (voiced by Adam Sandler) is one of two classroom pets in a Grade 5 classroom.
Leo (Adam Sandler) is a jaded and desperate lizard who is looking for something different after a visitor to their class suggests he is old. So when the opportunity to explore the world presents itself as a take-home assignment for students, Leo jumps at it. However, his plan to go home with a student is disrupted when the student discovers Leo can actually talk. It also helps the story to be more easily told to an audience. Pretty soon, Leo learns that while the world has something to offer him, he has things to offer his elementary class, as each student who takes him home, he finds a new way to help them cope with the pains of growing up
The film takes a while to get its footing, Humour and interest pick up when the Grade 5 regular teacher Mr. Salinas (cannot have white teachers here, even female ones; must be a minority or trans female - the trend now in films) has to take a leave of absence when she is about to have a baby. Enter older Mrs. Malkin who believes in teaching and discipline, the old way, which means not only trouble for the kids but for the classroom pets. The first shock comes during the weekend when a kid is forced to take the pets home for the weekend and return them in good health and condition. “We don’t do that anymore,” is the remark that of course, goes ignored. LEO is taken home for the weekend and attempts an escape. Leo is 74, according to his arithmetic and thinks he can only live to 75. So, he wants to live it up, and not be in a tank in a classroom any longer.
The humour is very slight during the first third of the film. The one-liners, about various subjects ranging from classroom issues to pet animal issues, are just fairly amusing at best. Until Mrs. Malkin (voiced by Cecily Strong from Saturday Night Live) appears, forming the catalyst for laughter. Fortunately, the film really picks up during the last third, super-surprisingly with many laugh-out moments during various segments like the runaway school bus driven by a kid, a chase involving a gym hunk teacher and Mrs. Malkin and Leo frozen out of fear in the Everglades.
The film contains a few songs, though it can hardly be termed a musical. The songs are fairly amusing though one of them is quite catchy and memorable. The film's score was composed by Geoff Zanelli.
LEO is the typical Adam Sandler vehicle not groundbreaking animation or film, but it is solid entertainment, Sandler style. Even the fart and poo jokes (yes, they are there, are minimal, and actually in not-so-bad taste - like the one Leo cracks that his food is dumped on the tortoise’s poo, not his.)
Bill Burr last seen in the rather awful Bill Burr Netflix comedy OLD DADS, does the voice of Squirtle, Leo’s pet buddy. Through named Squirtle, the animal is not really a turtle as there is no water for it to swim. The pet is more a tortoise than a turtle. Perhaps the kids in the audience can make the note to the adults. Burr is a comedian with humour quite similar to Sandler’s.
LEO is the second animated feature from Sandler's production company Happy Madison Productions. Can Adam Sandler's animated LEO compete with Disney's WISH this week of opening? LEO certainly is funnier, less assuming and more fun. LEO is open for streaming on Netflix this week, Tuesday. Solid Thanksgiving fare!
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NAPOLEON (UK/USA 2023) ***½
Directed by Ridley Scott
NAPOLEON is the long-planned project for Ridley Scott (BLADE RUNNER, THE DUELLISTS), an epic that details the checkered rise and fall of French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte (Joaquin Phoenix) and his relentless journey to power through the prism of his addictive, volatile relationship with his wife, Josephine (Vanessa Kirby).
The most entertaining part of NAPOLEON and the most spectacular and entertaining are the battle scenes, especially the beginning battle at Toulon and the climactic battle of Waterloo at the end. In the former, the storming of the fort in the darkness of night while the British are still clamouring in their night clothes. The battle scene reminds one of the old blockbusters like SPARTACUS and BENHUR that were done, without the aid of CGI. Cinematographer Dariusz Wolski will be hard to beat at the next Academy Awards.
The film also details the coup in France where Napoleon and his troops take over the government. It is established right at the beginning of the film the problems facing the French Republic. Most of the citizens were plagued by poverty, hunger and rising costs. France was on the verge of a revolution.
One basic problem of this epic film on French history is language. It would be best if all the French including Napoleon speak French, but that would be a problem with American audiences. As such, all the French, Napoleon included speak with an American accent while the enemy, the British speak with a British accent. The only trouble is British actress Vanessa Kirby playing Josephine. Her British accent comes through in her role, causing some confusion regarding the consistency of the accents.
Joaquin Phoenix makes a marvellous Napoleon Buonaparte, all brooding and pensive, always thinking out military tactics while serving France the best way he can. He meets his match in Josephine, who he calls a slut when she betrays him and sleeps with other men. Phoenix has the look of pride and power while also satirical when making remarks after losing the Battle of Waterloo to the Duke of Wellington (Rupert Everett).
The film is mostly serious in nature. The sight of hundreds of men battling out in war is not a pleasant sight. The humour in the film is mostly black or satiric. Humour is displayed in the warring couple of Napoleon and Josephine. The inability of Josephine to provide Napoleon with a son - the heir to the throne is played to the hilt. The British breakfast given by the Duke of Wellington to Napoleon in Plymouth after his final defeat is complemented as one reason for their success in battles. In the end, his exile at St Helena seems to be a blessing for Napoleon to retire in peace.
NAPOLEON premiered at Salle Pleyel in Paris on November 14, 2023, and and will be released in the United States and the United Kingdom on November 22, 2023 Wednesday, by Columbia Pictures and Apple Original Films, through Sony Pictures Releasing and Apple TV+ respectively, before streaming on Apple TV+ at a later date. Best to watch NAPOLEON in iMAX.
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SALTBURN (UK/USA 2023) ***½
Directed by Emerald Fennell
SALTBURN, the following feature to her promising Academy Award Winning PROMISING YOUNG WOMEN arrives with as much fanfare as its outrageous depiction of love and relationships. The film opens this year’s BFI London Film Festival. Fennell, who won both the Best Original Screenplay Oscar and BAFTA for PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN, and also currently be seen starring alongside Robbie in Barbie, has remarked that her films caput excess and indeed it is, a fact that will offend some and dismiss the excess might just be a [loy for attention-grabbing.
“I love him. But I am not in love with him,” says Arthur Quick (Barry Keoghan, Academy Award Nominee) at the beginning of the film of Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi). The same sentences are repeated at the end of the film, and what has transpired during the film between the beginning and end gives a different meaning. If that is the aim of the film, then SALTBURN succeeds admirably.
Struggling to find his place at Oxford University, Oliver Quick finds himself drawn into the world of the charming and aristocratic Felix Catton, who invites him to Saltburn, his eccentric family's sprawling estate, for a summer never to be forgotten. Oliver is the outsider that the family finds amusing but eventually is affected by the boy. The film has been compare to THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY but it actually bears more similarities to SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE, a little-seen film darted by Harold Prince in which a dashing and young Michael York enters the household of German aristocracy held together by Angela Lansbury and toilet destroys the family. Where SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE is sinister, wicked, camp and sexy, SALTBURN bears a very much more serious note. The destruction of the family comes about in a very different way.
Director Fennell tells a tale of British access. The Catton family pokes fun at Oliver, a man too ashamed of his drug-affected family so much so that he lies about them. Felix forces a visit to their home and learns the truth, which is the catalyst of the things that are to happen.
But it is the relationship between Oliver and Felix that is the main focus. The obsession and infatuation of Oliver over Fleix is clear from the very beginning. Oliver is about to drop everything and anything to gain favour with Felix. This is demonstrated by his loaning his bicycle to Felix when he had a flat, even offering to fix his tire and bring it back for him. He even abandons his only other friend, Michale he has at the college.
Director Fennell pushes her characters to the limits, with Oliver in one scene desecrating Felix’s grave by masturbating on it and in another where he prances naked around the house. Keoghan is an actor, used to weird roles, as in THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN and THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER pulls this role off with equal oddness and flair.
SALTBURN might be to everyone’s taste and could be argued too that it might have tried too much in excesses with the result in a muddled narrative. But credit to director Fennell who is brave enough to experiment and deliver a film that is at least exciting and different.
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WISH (USA 2023) ***½
Directed by Chris Buck and Fawn Veerasunthorn
At a cost of $200 million, this big-budget musical fantasy WISH hopes and wishes to be the FROZEN of 2023.
It boasts a story right from the Bible in which King Herod destroys all the bases for fear of the threat of his throne being taken away, just as King Magnifico (Chris Pine) in the story seeks to destroy ‘the star’ that believes is his own threat.
Many years ago, the Kingdom of Rosas was founded by King Magnifico and his wife Queen Amaya on an island in the Mediterranean Sea. Having studied magic and sorcery, Magnifico gained the ability to grant the wishes of his subjects. When each resident turns 18, a ceremony is held where they give up their wish to Magnifico, who keeps them sealed in his observatory. Once a month, Magnifico selects one of the residents' wishes to be granted before the city.
In the present day, 17-year-old Asha prepares to interview for the role of Magnifico's apprentice along with her pet goat Valentino. It is her grandfather Sabino's 100th birthday and Asha hopes Magnifico will grant his wish in commemoration. Her best friend Dahlia, who runs the castle bakery alongside their six friends Simon, Gabo, Bazeema, Safi, Dario, and Hal, advises Asha to be honest about her weaknesses. The interview initially goes well with Magnifico and Asha expressing a shared desire to protect the wishes of Rosas. However, when Asha requests for Sabino's wish to be granted, Magnifico refuses. A heated argument ensues. It is revealed that Magnifico erases the memories of the citizens' wishes when they are made and never returns the ungranted wishes to their owners. In doing so, the populace is rendered docile and free of aspirations, and thus dependent on Magnifico.
At the wish-granting ceremony that evening, Magnifico makes a point of not granting Sabino's wish and dismisses Asha as his apprentice. Asha tries to tell her family the truth about Magnifico, but they do not believe her. Frustrated and out of options, Asha wishes to the heavens and a ball of light drops from the sky, which is revealed to be a physical manifestation of the star she wished for.
The film bears a nod to Disney’s classics like THE MAGICIAN’S APPRENTICE with Asha interviewing for the position of the apprenticeship of the King who is also a sorcerer. The classic song “Wish Upon a Star” can be heard in the background soundtrack. Disney plays safe and does what they do best in their new animation feature, no groundbreaking filmmaking here nor does it tackle controversial issues, but re-hashes a formula in which dreams and wishes come through in a magical Kingdom, in this case, the kingdom of Rosas. The songs and animation are magnificent and should be given the $200 million budget. As the Disney saying goes: There is nothing more powerful in the Universe than a child’s wish, this is a film about wishes coming through, with a twist. The script actually contains a fresh and imaginative story with a cutesy original ‘star’ character (voiceless).
WISH has a Thanksgiving opening on Wednesday, November the 22nd.
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The biggest film surprise opening this week is Eli Roth's inspiring horror comedy THANKSGIVING. Total fun showing that ghastly horror can be entertaining when it is delivered smartly and funny. Big ones like NAPOLEON and THE HUNGER GAMES prequel make their debut. The best feel-good film NEXT GOAL WINS deserves a mention and a look.
FILM REVIEWS:
BELIEVER 2 (SOUTH KOREA 2023) ***
Directed by Baek Jong-yul
`Netflix’s latest South Korean original film is BELIEVER 2 a sequel to the 2018 crime action film BELIEVER. BELIEVER is a remake of the Jonny To Hong Kong action film DRUG WAR. The film is directed by Baek Jong-yul and the cast includes the return of lead actors and actresses.
The sequel follows Won-ho's (Cho Jin-woong reprising his role) investigation of looking for "Rak," who disappeared after Brian's (Cha Seung-won) incarceration while getting to the core of the elusive drug cartel. It is Lee that Won-ho is after, that he believes he can capture. At the start of the film, his supervisor takes him off the case saying that he does not know who Lee is or where he is, or even his gender.
This is the rare South Korean film that is shot in Norway. Being filmed in Norway, one can expect some stunning landscapes on display. The introduction of the two twin mute cooks adds a fresh element to an otherwise well-worn drug cartel detective and mouse chase movie genre. The film runs almost two hours, could be edited shorter but nevertheless moves at an acceptable pace. Director Baek ups the angst in the violence department with a new killer, a female who cannot hold her head up straight, from China, Baek ups the angst in violence department with Big Knife, an emotionless, chain-smog executioner who sports bad skin and rotten teeth, thick glasses and a penchant for decapitations. He concluded. The film suffers otherwise from the lack of both a strong narrative and a more solid plot that even new nuanced characters introduced into the film cannot make up for. The original BELIEVER in this respect is the better film.
BELIEVER 2, a Netflix original premiered at 28th Busan International Film Festival in the 'Korean Cinema Today - Special Premiere' section on October 5, 2023. It is available for streaming on Netflix this week from November 17, 2023.
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BLOW UP YOUR LIFE (USA 2022) ***
Directed by Abby Horton & Ryan Dickie
The film begins with Jason Trumbo making a recording that introduces the film’s subject. Jason Trumbo is clearly distraught. The recording goes as such: My name is Jason Trumbo. I am a man on the run. I came across some files I was not supposed to. To keep them secret these people want me dead. This is my life This is my story. This is my life. This is my story! As expected, the film flashes back to tell Jason’s story from the very beginning.
The film is described as a comedy thriller and it plays as one. But a whistle-blower story and one from a large pharmaceutical company is quite serious and no joke. The fact that the film is played partly as a comedy unfortunately undermines the seriousness of the matter.
Jason (Jason Selvig), a disillusioned pharmaceutical employee, is fired after a drug-fueled social media post goes viral, but when he accidentally discovers a deadly opioid conspiracy hidden by his former boss (Davram Stiefler) he sets out to redeem himself. In this noir comedy-thriller set in the age of tech, Jason goes on the run as a reluctant whistleblower trying to expose the crime with the help of his computer-wiz cousin Charlie (Kara Young) and his journalist ex-girlfriend Priya (Reema Sampat), but the CEO (Ben Horner) at the heart of the scandal has other plans.
The dialogue could be funnier and comes across often as quite lame. “Shit. Shit. She. What am I to do?” Complains Jason to Charlie at one point.
The overall flaw of the film is that the whistleblower story lacks clout. It does not help that the film, as said, is constantly played lightly for laughs.
Jason Selvage barely passes as the lead. The actor has a good physique at least, as observable in the scene where he crouches down in the shower stall. Despite hard attempts, Selvage is unable to display distress or desperation, relying of the dialogue instead, the dialogue itself not being too good either.
BLOW UP YOUR LIFE has nothing that one has not seen or heard in real life with whistleblowers of big companies especially large pharmaceuticals. Snowden’s whistleblowing film is a case in point.
It does not help the film that the audience does not root for the main characters. In the film, Jason comes across as a glorified loser. He is fired from his job for going to social media with his “lah -di fucking dah” attitude after much partying. When he comes across the whistleblowing files, which he stole while repairing a friend’s computer, a friend who is working for the company, Jason is half-decided as to what to do and consults his friends. It would help if his character is strong, and Jason would blow the whistle for it is the right thing to do.
The film’s exciting parts include a fight in the car park and a car chase that place at night - all executed without too much aplomb or excitement, appearing to be inserted here for a filler and a little excitement.
BLOW UP YOUR LIFE is available VOD and opens on Prime Video Apple TV on Nov. 21
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BOLIVAR (USA 2021) ***
Directed by Nell Teare
James Walsh and Nell Teare make a good-looking filmmaking team, Teare directing and co-writing with Walsh while both starring in the film as well. Teare plays the protagonist role of Maggie while Walsh plays Maggie’s handsome but troubled brother.
It has been three months since her mother’s death, and Maggie is struggling to keep her head above water; daydreams of childhood haunt her waking moments as she navigates a failing marriage, a neglected career and a father (Robert Pine) who will not engage with his own grief. On one particular morning, she is awakened by a pounding on her door. Her younger brother, Sonny (James Walsh) whom she has not seen since before her mother passed, shows up on her doorstep, unaware of their mother's death. Over the next week, Maggie walks a fine line between acceptance and becoming a tragedy herself, but Sonny’s return forces her to make sense of a reality that may not be what it seems.
“Why are you so cold?” asks Maggie’s ex at one point in the film. ‘I don’t know how else to feel,” comes her reply. The same question can be asked in the film why does it feel so cold, especially during the first half hour. “You need to be loved.” comes the reaction. In the next scene, Maggie meets someone who could be the person to love her.
There is nothing really wrong with the film as it plays safe. The only risk the director and scriptwriter take is the extensive use of flashbacks. What the audience learns about Maggie’s past, her emotions and her trauma are all told via flashbacks. there are too many of these resulting in the film feeling too disjointed. Also, when effort has been put into a single scan to have the mood built up, the work is destroyed by the sudden insertion of a flashback. In real life, everyone has problems. Everyone has to deal with the passing of a loved one. Everyone has a back sheep in the family. And almost everyone has a kid The problem Maggie faces looks like a common one, and one that is too common to create much excitement, and one that lacks a certain freshness. The film at least can claim to be one that is based on a credible premise. The most interesting parts of the film occur whenever Maggie’s crazy brother shows up, who often blames Maggie (this is quite funny - his way of reasoning) for all his troubles. Even their father says to him: “What is wrong with you? Your mother is sick and you are behaving like a fucking child.”
The film is called Bolivar because Port Bolivar is where Maggies’s family spent time there when her family dynamics got together. Port Bolivar is an unincorporated community located on the northern shore of the western tip of the Bolivar Peninsula, separated from Galveston Island by the entrance to Galveston Bay. The Bolivar Peninsula itself is a census-designated place, in Galveston County, Texas, and part of the Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown metropolitan area
BOLIVAR is available On Demand, Digital and DVD this week from November 14, available to rent and purchase on all major platforms, including AT&T U-Verse // DirecTV // Dish Network // Sling TV // Prime Video // AppleTV // Vudu // Xbox // Google Play and YouTube Movies. Not a bad film that took its time to be released on various platforms, The film has won awards at the Gulf Coast Film and Video Film Festival.
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THE HUNGER GAMES: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (USA 2023) ***
Directed By Francis Lawrence
Hooray for THE HUNGER GAMES. It brought (together with the TWILIGHT and DIVERGENT franchises) its distributor, film company Lions Gate to heights never achieved when its stock price was more than $30 a share. At the time of writing this review, the stock price has plummeted to below $10. Lions Gate has had minor successes with JOHN WICK and THE ILLUSIONIST films, and the only hope for the stock price to rise is for the company to be acquired. Lions Gate owns Starz, a minor streaming service.
THE HUNGER GAMES film series is composed of science fiction dystopian adventure films, based on The Hunger Games trilogy of novels by American author Suzanne Collins. The films are distributed by Lions Gate. The series has made box-office stars of many of its actors including Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth.
The new film, a prequel, has a modest budget for a dystopian sci-fi blockbuster of $100 million. Compare this to Disney’s THE MARVELS with a very risky budget of $250 million. Given the past history of Lions Gate, it is not surprising that they are playing it safe with the company in desperate need of another hit. Playing safe, the modest budget can be seen with a smaller number of stars not including Peter Linkage and Viola Davis. The main actor is a relative unknown Tom Blyth, a handsome and body-chiseled English actor, last seen in Terence Davies’ excellent BENEDICTION in 2021. Director Francis Lawrence returns as director. The result is a safe HUNGER GAMES film with the same look, atmosphere and feel as the franchise. Why change something that works? Why rock the boat? HUNGER GAMES fans should not be disappointed.
Years, before he would become the tyrannical President of Panem, eighteen-year-old Coriolanus Snow (Blyth), is the last hope for his fading lineage, a once-proud family that has fallen from grace in a post-war Capitol. With the 10th annual Hunger Games fast approaching, the young Snow is alarmed when he is assigned to mentor Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Ziegler), the female tribute from impoverished District 12. But, after Lucy Gray commands all of Panem’s attention by defiantly singing during the reaping ceremony, Snow thinks he might be able to turn the odds in their favour. Uniting their instincts for showmanship and newfound political savvy, Snow and Lucy Gray’s race against time to survive will ultimately reveal who is a songbird, and who is a snake.”
The film is a bit puzzling to follow as director Lawrence does not spend time to let the audience digest all the facts of the story But one can put the story together, nevertheless unless one wishes to read the novel or the synopsis before seeing the film. A certain amount of credibility is required though, as the heroes Coriolanus and Lucy Gray survive the greatest odds. The film also goes into the need to have civilized HUNGER GAMES, though the argument is not thoroughly convincing. The production is modest and effective with a good futuristic look, like London (as seen in the roundabout) in the future.
THE HUNGER GAMES: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes opens the weekend of November 17th and hopes to gross $50 million in the opening weekend.
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THE JOB OF SONGS (USA 2021) ***
Directed by Lila Schmitz
In Doolin, an isolated village teetering on the western edge of Ireland, a community of musicians seek joy and connection through music as they face a modernizing world.
The beauty of Count Clare is the film’s beautiful and astounding setting. The audience is told that it is a little island right out in the Atlantic and the film’s next shot shows the cliffs - with a warning sign - Dangerous cliff ahead.
The next scene takes the audience to the village of Doolin, in Clare County.
Tourists flock to the west coast of Ireland to take in the breathtaking Cliffs of Moher, but the real treasure lies in the soulful, acoustic sounds wafting out of pubs and living rooms of Doolin, County Clare. Nobody knows the effect of music on people but without music, we have nothing, says a character at the start of the film, The denizens of this unspoiled coastal village of tight-knit neighbours and unlocked doors revel in the passion and history of their traditional folk songs, using music as a thread through generations to create community, connection, and joy.
THE JOB OF SONGS was made by a crew of three women, who are first-time feature filmmakers: LILA SCHMITZ (director, producer, editor), ANIKA KAN GREVSTAD (director of photography, producer), and FENGYI XU (producer). The film was made with the support of acclaimed documentarians double Oscar-winning writer-producer-director Bill Guttentag and Emmy and Grammy Award-winning documentarian Doug Pray. The film has screened at numerous prestigious International Film Festivals including DOC NYC, Galway Film Fleadh, Newport Beach Film Festival, Rocky Mountain Women’s Film Festival, Milwaukee Film Festival, and many others. It won Best International Documentary at the Galway Film Fleadh.
The documentary works for its simple charm which celebrates the simple beauty of life, just like taking the time to observe a bird. The tradition of songs brought down from one generation cogeneration is clearly displayed in all its glory and importance. The people, of Doolinare older, though a few younger folk can seen in the background. People need to find a voice. When conversations get hot and heavy, these people say they should take up the song, One of the most beautiful songs heard in the film is called “Reel Me” about refugees.
The gloomy skies of the area contribute to depression. It is at this point of the film that the film undertakes a more somber tone. Since the cliffs have opened, there have been many suicides due to depression. An interviewer also talks about a song dedicated to his brother who died in a car accident just short of the age of 24. The case of a bit too much drinking is also addressed. The topic of grieving is also examined alongside the music,yet the music is beautiful with the pipes and lyrics of the songs. Charm and melancholy blend well together near the film's end, bringing the film to a memorable end.
THE JOB OF SONGS, running a mere 74 minutes, opens on digital platforms on November 21, 2023. The film has a running time of 74 minutes and will not be rated by the MPAA.
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IN LOVE AND DEEP WATER (Japan 2023) **
Directed by Yûsuke Taki
The plot of this new original Netflix mystery comedy thriller is set on a massive luxury cruise ship. While at sea, the loyal butler Suguru, nicknamed ‘lightning rod’ and a mysterious woman named Chizuru cross paths as they try to uncover a murder mystery that occurs on the ship.
The premise sounds like the film that could be taken from an Agatha Christie murder mystery shot in an exotic setting where anyone (passenger or staff of the luxury cruise ship) could be the killer.
Unfortunately, everything goes wrong in this otherwise very silly and badly executed mystery whodunit. For one it is no longer a whodunit when the killer is revealed right during the first quarter of the film. The two main characters are supposed to form the love story but their meeting (their two partners have started cheating with each other) is too silly to make any sense. The protagonist is described as one with no pride. As the ship’s main butler, he apologizes for every single complaint and makes himself subject to ridicule and shame. The girl appears out of nowhere with evidence of her partner's cheating. How did she find him and get aboard the cruise ship? The two exhibit totally annoying behaviour.
Watching IN LOVE AND DEEP WATER is like taking a cruise ship vacation and being stuck with unpleasant fellow passengers who cannot be ridden. Worst still, the film runs over two hours, which is far too long for a mystery thriller comedy, least of all a terrible one.
IN LOVE AND DEEP WATER is opus on Netflix for streaming this week.
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MAY DECEMBER (USA 2023) ***
Directed by Todd Haynes
Todd Haynes, the veteran director of more than a dozen critical hits from his best gay period coming-out drama FAR FROM HEAVEN (Haynes was nominated for Best Original Screenplay that he wrote) to his lesbian love story CAROL, practically a gay copy of David Lean’s masterpiece BRIEF ENCOUNTER, MAY DECEMBER is arguably director Hayne’s most controversial subject. However, pedophilia takes second place to another hidden agenda, one that is not really made crystal clear in the film, but one that audiences need to discover.
MAY DECEMBER is a black comedy-drama film directed by Todd Haynes from a screenplay by Samy Burch, based on a story by Burch and Alex Mechanik. It follows an actress. Elizabeth Berry (Natalie Portman) who travels to Georgia to meet and study the life of the controversial woman, Gracie (Julianne Moore) she is set to play in a film. It is loosely inspired by the story of Mary Kay Letourneau.
The premise of the film is set twenty years after their notorious tabloid romance gripped the nation, a married couple with a large age gap buckles under the pressure when an actress arrives to do research for a film about their past. The woman Gracie has had sex with her Grade 7 student and while in prison, gave birth to twins. The twins are now grown up and it is the time for their graduation. The film is a slow burn which is puzzling as to what the film’s main aim is. It seems to question the awkwardness of people, and how they handle this peculiarity of nature. The question is who is the trusted one and who is the one that is stable. Gracie has been criticized as a mental mess for what she has done, but she apparently has all he life well organized together. or so it seems. The film examines her life in parallel to what is happening to her as her life is revealed in a film in which the actress will portray her.
The script takes a huge detour with the real story of Mary Kay Letourneau. She was imprisoned for underage sex and had her sentencing reduced on the condition that she did not see the boy again. But she did and was imprisoned with the original term while giving birth to the second daughter in prison. Though loose based on Lettourneau’s tabloid news, her story could have been totally dismissed from the credits, as too much liberty had been taken.
Credit should be given to Haynes for indulging in such a difficult topic, with a story examining the complexities of guilt, acceptance, awkwardness and true love. It is dangerous that the film does not condemn the fact that this is a case of underaged sex, and Gracie is truly guilty and that adolescents should be protected,
MAY DECEMBER, a Netflix original film, premiered at the 76th Cannes Film Festival on May 20, 2023. It is scheduled to be released in select theaters in the United States on November 17, 2023, before streaming on Netflix on December 1, 2023.
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NEXT GOAL WINS (USA 2023) ****
Directed by Taika Waititi
The underdog sports team gets a new coach who needs to redeem himself. This is not a new theme but one that has been used time and again in a sports feel-good film, the most recent being CHAMPIONS in which a former minor-league basketball coach played by Woody Harrelson is ordered by the court to manage a team of players with intellectual disabilities. So there was much trepidation when I read the theme of the new Taika Waititi film about a disgraced Dutch American soccer manager Thomas Rongen (Michael Fassbender) leading a losing soccer team to victory. But this feel-good film by Waititi who shows ingenuity and brilliance works wonders. Waititi is a New Zealand director who became famous with little films like BOY, WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS, JOJO RABBIT, and blockbusters like THOR: RAGNAROK.
The film’s setting is American Samoa, which is an island out in the Pacific. The nation of American Samoa (population 45,000) was never going to be an international football powerhouse, but a 31-0 loss to Australia put them in the record books in the worst possible way. Dutch-American manager Thomas Rongen (Michael Fassbender) lands in the slow-paced island community determined to inject footballing discipline into the team as they make a qualifying run for the 2014 FIFA World Cup. The owner of the club has made the bet that his team would win just one goal. Hence the film title.
Michael Fassbender is a terrific actor and he shows his talent for comedy in this outing in which he comes across as not too bad. But the winning performances come from the Samoan actors playing the footballers. Though Fassbender is good, the discovery is Kaimana, who plays real-life team member Jaiyah. Like Jaiyah, Kaimana is a member of American Samoa's fa’afafine community and delivers a warm, deep, and commanding performance in every scene. Kaimana is a real revelation, able to make the audience cry and laugh simultaneously. The performance with Jaiyah, flicking her hair in the midst of an important match is plain hilarious. It is hard to believe that the film is based on true events and true characters like Jaiyah and Rongen, the actual characters shown at the end of the film during the closing credits.
Whether this is true or not, Rongen wears the T-shirt with the words Miyagi during the soccer qualifier. (Miyagi is the Japanese trainer in THE KARATE KID). There is a wax-on. wax-ff scene in the film too.
The film is based on the documentary by Mike Brett and Steve Jamison — where the pleasure comes from watching the characters on the pitch, Indigenous Samoan players who mostly sucked, mostly knew it, and still played their hearts out. But director Waititi also adds his magic touch. Instead of letting the second half of the climatic match play out the normal way, he infuses the flashback with a voiceover approach. The team manager has a hearty attack, actually a heat stroke, and faints during the second half of the match. When he gains consciousness, his son, also a player recounts the second half of the match giving his interpretation. Waititi’s film is also very, very funny.
NEXT GOAL WINS opens November 17th.
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THE STONES AND BRIAN JONES (UK 2023) ***½
Directed by Nick Broomfield
From director Nick Broomfield comes BRIAN JONES AND THE STONES, a time-capsule documentary that explores the creative musical genius of Brian Jones, founder of the Rolling Stones. The director Nick Broomfield had met Brian Jones on a train when he was 14. Broomfield described Jones as a friendly guy who said that he was a trainspotter. Who was to know, Broomfield said, that Brian Jones would be dead 6 years later. Brian Jones was the founder of the Rolling Stones, and at the time was more popular than the titular Mick Jagger. Jones gets most of the fan mail, more than Mick Jagger. Jones got around 60% while Jagger around 20% of the mail. Yet many to no one has heard of Brian Jones.
The doc BRIAN JONES AND THE STONES aims to change all that. The film, largely shot in black and white, at its best transports the audience back in time to the 60s and 70s at the height of the fame of the Stones.
Broomfield personalizes Jones with information about him and his parents. Parents want to see themselves in their children till they grow up enough to become individual personalities of their own, as mentioned early in the doc. His father was not happy with the son being in the band, especially not with long hair, and wanted him to have a proper job like himself. Jones was seen to be a joker but could get a bit aggressive if he did not get his way. Yet, he was always forgiven as he was such a nice guy.
In 1962, looking for members to form a blues band, Brian Jones posted a want ad, which led him to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. Inspired by the title of a Muddy Waters’ song, Jones came up with the name “RollingStones.” Although he was the original fan favourite, Jones soon found himself overshadowed by Jagger and Richards who wrote their own songs, trading off Jones’ beloved blues for a more rock ‘n’ roll sound.
It was the Swinging Sixties – and Jones was living a life of sex, drugs and (reluctantly) rock ‘n’ roll. The film covers many areas – his strict parents, his serial girlfriends, his tumultuous days with “It Girl” Anita Pallenberg, his firing from the band, and his death less than a month later at age 27.
The film also mixes unseen archival footage with interviews. Bill Wyman appears on camera, pointing out how Jones’ skill as an instrumentalist gave songs like “Ruby Tuesday” and “Paint It, Black” their distinctive sound. Others offering thoughts off camera are Jagger, Richards, Charlie Watts, former girlfriends, schoolmates, friends, et al. On a sad note,
40 years after Jones died, a repentant letter from his father was discovered.
There are some marvellous performances captured in archive footage like the rendering of “Come On” by the Stones, their first hit.
THE STONES AND BRIAN JONES opens November 17 in Toronto (Hot Docs Cinema), Vancouver (Vancity), London and Waterloo!
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THANKSGIVING (USA 2023) ****
Directed by Eli Roth
In interviews, Thanksgiving director Eli Roth promised his new film be an incredibly gory and satisfying R-rated slasher experience with creative and bloody kills. The film originates from the fake trailer from the film GRINDHOUSE.
The film begins appropriately with the film taking place in Plymouth, Massachusetts on Black Friday and the American Thanksgiving. As with many Black Friday specials, Right Mart, the big departmental store has got bargains galore, most notably the waffle toaster that everyone is clamouring about. It is 10 minutes before the store opens and there are hundreds of customers behind barricades, making the store opening the scene of a possible riot. Things are pushed to the limit when a couple of teens (VIPs) are allowed to enter early, as they’re related or close friends to the Right Mart’s owner. Through the glass, the teens tease those outside waiting resulting in the barricades broken down and the crows breaking into the store like a stampede out of control. Director Roth directs this scene with great skill and aplomb showing his prowess at editing, dialogue and sound. The sequence is also terribly hilarious and also serves as a satire for Black Friday America. Absolutely brilliant! The chaos also resulted in horror as many customers ended up killed not including a footballer who has his hand crushed in the stampede and a security guard’s head smashed face down into the broken glass of the store window.
This Black Friday incident, adds to the killer's motive for the Thanksgiving-themed murders. The film plays like a whodunit with the identity of the killer (very hard to guess) revealed at the very end.
Roth has proved his talent with gory films like the HOSTEL films and THE GREEN INFERNO. The first killing gives a new meaning to the phrase 50% off. The recent torture horror film SAW X did a good box-office number recently and this one should do well.
Co-written by Roth and Jeff Rendell, the film is well constructed with a slasher killing and a climax that takes place during the town’s Thanksgiving parade. As in the SAW films, the film has new and ingenuous scares that are both scary and fun enough to have the audience shriek and laugh at the same time. One gory scene involves the killer piercing the victim's ears with corncob skewers. If that is not sufficient to push the film towards the R-rated limit the trampoline scene in which a victim falls and bounces off the trampoline that has spikes shoved through it will surely do the job. While SAW X is deadly serious, THANKSGIVING is serious fun.
The young cast as well as veterans like Patrick Dempsey and Gina Gerson are all nothing short of fantastic having fun in their roles as well.
Horror films have taken over Christmas (BlACK CHRISTMAS) and Thanksgiving t(his film). Easter would be the obvious next target. THANKSGIVING has likely the best advertising caption on its poster - There will; be no seconds. What will come next for Easter? KILLER BUNNIES? ‘There are only going to be bad eggs this Easter’ could be the caption.
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TROLLS BAND TOGETHER (USA 2023) **
Directed by Walt Dohrn
The 2D animated CGI combination feature TROLLS BAND TOGETHER is the third of the TROLLS franchise and basically Justin Timberlake’s baby, spearheading the project. involving himself in the music and starring (his voice) in it. It is aimed mainly at smaller kids, who from the film’s preview screening, allowed family, the children were simply delighted with the product, even though there is a lack of imagination in the story or dialogue with most of the latter depending on silly one-liners and punch lines. The review could do the same with a line like the film going in one direction, unfortunately, the wrong one.
The film begins with a generally uninspired and unfunny first performance of the BroZone, a boy troll band delivering a failed unison performance that led to the band’s breaking up.
After two films of true friendship and relentless flirting, (if one can remember) Poppy (Anna Kendrick) and Branch (Justin Timberlake voting in a griller high-pitched voice) are now officially, finally, a couple! As they grow closer, Poppy discovers that Branch has a secret past. He was once part of her favourite boyband phenomenon, BroZone, with his four brothers: Floyd (Golden Globe-nominated electropop sensation Troye Sivan), John Dory (Eric André; Sing 2), Spruce (Grammy winner Daveed Diggs; Hamilton) and Clay (Grammy winner Kid Cudi; Don't Look Up). BroZone disbanded when Branch was still a baby, as did the family, and Branch hadn't seen his brothers since. But when Branch's bro Floyd is kidnapped for his musical talents by a pair of nefarious pop-star villains--Velvet (Emmy winner Amy Schumer; Trainwreck) and Veneer (Grammy winner and Tony nominee Andrew Rannells; The Book of Mormon)--Branch and Poppy embark on a harrowing and emotional journey to reunite the other brothers and rescue Floyd from a fate even worse than pop-culture obscurity.
The film lacks the existence of an evil or at least a terribly funny villain. The success of the film appears to depend on the cuteness of the trolls, just like Universal’s Illuminata films depend on the cuteness of their Minions in the DESPICABLE ME franchise The trolls thus appear in an assortment of colours including different hair colours and styles, the hair at least allowing the audience to distinguish one troll from the other. The BroZone brothers sport different accents, as they are played by white and coloured actors, which might confuse the littler audience. The film is colourful enough with a myriad of colours, especially in troll city and other settings of the story. When the BroZone performs as in the other choreographed sequences, the animated choreography is cute and synched enough to delight the audience, both kids and adults alike. The animation is said to be inspired by the animated classics of The Beatles’ THE YELLOW SUBMARINE (1968) and Walt Disney’s FANTASIA.
TROLLS BAND TOGETHER has already been released in international markets, starting with Denmark on October 12, 2023, and is scheduled to be released in the United States and locally in Canada and Toronto on November 17.
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- Written by: Gilbert Seah
- Parent Category: Articles
- Category: Movie Reviews
FILM REVIEW:
BIRTH/REBIRTH (USA 2022) ***
Directed by Laura Moss
BIRTH/REBIRTH tells the birth or rebirth of a dead daughter. The birth/rebirth is the result of an experiment a pathologist conducts to her success. It is a re-telling of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein classic with a few notable differences.
Firstly it is a female re-telling. All the characters are now female. The doctor is still a doctor but a pathologist. A new character, a mother is involved and the monster is also a female. Secondly, there is more humanizing in the story. All the characters are displayed as human beings with real emotions that matter. Thirdly, the story takes a different direction after the ‘monster’ is created. The monster is also not a monster but a ‘previous human being’.
Rose (Marin Ireland) is a pathologist who prefers working with corpses over social interaction. She also has an obsession — the reanimation of the dead. Celie (Judy Reyes) is a maternity nurse who has built her life around her bouncy, chatterbox six-year-old daughter, Lila (A.J. Lister). When one tragic night, Lila suddenly falls ill and dies, the two women's worlds crash into each other. They embark on a dark path of no return where they will be forced to confront how far they are willing to go to protect what they hold most dear.
Director Moss does her utmost best to make her Frankenstein tale as credible as possible. She invests the first third of the film into examining the 2 characters of her story. She shows a diligent rather worried human being, Rose, just not a crazed experimenter. When the two initially meet, Rose has her nose hit by the door and the following scenes show her with a bleeding nose, which causes the audience to have some sympathy for her. Celie the mother is shown to be a caring yet desperate mother who would do anything to bring her dead daughter to life, regardless. Her desperation to search for her missing daughter initially also takes some screen time. Director Moss clearly established the raison d’être of both women to continue the Frankenstein experiment much further.
BIRTH/REBIRTH is largely a female picture. The two protagonists are female, the experiment is the daughter and the director of the film is also female. Director Moss keeps the female issues at hand, not letting them cloud the main story. Both actresses Ireland and Reyes are totally convincing in their roles. The interaction of the two characters, initially strangers then forced to bond together make a large part of the storyline,
BIRTH/REBIRTH is an impressive directorial debut from Laura Moss (a filmmaker from NYC whose work has screened at Tribeca, Rotterdam, and SXSW+ who has reimagined Mary Shelley’s classic horror myth Frankenstein into credible modern setting with real people with real issues. As believable as it is, the film is more mysterious than scary with the story leading into a different ending that would also only lead to disaster.
BIRTH/REBIRTH opens Exclusively On Shudder Nov 10th, 2023.
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CYBERBUNKER: THE CRIMINAL UNDERWORLD (Germany 2023) ****
Written and directed by Max Rainer, and Kilian Lieb
This documentary reveals how a group of hackers powered the darkest corners of the internet from a Cold War-era bunker in a quiet German tourist town. The word underworld has a double meaning - as in crime and also underneath ground level.
CyberBunker was an Internet service provider located in the Netherlands and Germany that, according to its website, "hosted services to any website except child pornography and anything related to terrorism". The company first operated in a former NATO bunker in Zeeland, and later in another former NATO bunker in Traben-Trarbach, Germany. In 2013 the company purchased its second bunker, in Traben-Trarbach, Germany. The film has aerial footage that shows the bunker and its idyllic surroundings. But one has to go below the surface to find out what is really going on.
The film is a well-documented account that is arranged to pique one’s interest from the film’s very beginning The film opens with the introduction of the founder, known as Xennt, the mastermind, being interviewed supposedly from prison. The doc also claims that lal video surveillance seen in the film are re-enactments.. Xenntclaims that the site will host everything except child porn and terrorism. But his high ideals eventually led to criminal activity. The film examines all the 5 levels of the bunker and what each level hosted. The employees also called teams, have breakfast and dinner together and may live there while often frequently visiting the German town close by. But the company sees money and financing. The doc reveals that the money comes from hosting pornography. They were hosting porn sites as a cash cow, generating traffic, and getting money in whatever way they can. When the major of Traben-Trarbacj had complaints about criminal activity, Xennt invited the mayor to come to take a look and insisted that there was nothing to hide and that all doors were always open for inspection.
There are quite a few interviews that enhance the film’s credibility as well as provide intrigue, including from the FBI and the director for the Wall Street Market. The interviewees are one of the intriguing points that make this doc tick. Xennt is also interviewed showing that he had the charisma to attract all the people to work under him
The doc should be seen with a recent doc called BILLION DOLLAR HESIT, also about web hackers. Global, dynamic, and eye-opening, BILLION DOLLAR HEIST tells the story of the most daring cyber heist of all time, the Bangladeshi Central Bank theft - a good companion piece with CYBERBUNKER.
At its best, the doc plays like a suspense thriller. An undercover investigator posed as a volunteer and entered the facility to gather information. The founder, Xenon himself welcomes the investigator posed as a gardener who planted spruces and stayed without getting any pay for his job. The investigator also brought in another investigator, posed as a cleaning lady who had access to all the rooms in the bunker
All good things or rather in this case, all bad things eventually come to an end. CYBERBUNKER: THE CRIMINAL UNDERWORLD, a Netflix original (mainly in German), one of the best doc of the year, is informative, scary, and thankfully highly watchable for its easygoing treatment of the material. It opens for streaming this week on Netflix.
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THE MARVELS (USA 2023) **
Directed by Nią Dacosta
Disney has and is still going all out on the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The latest offering is a lesser-known Marvel action superhero called Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) who has had her own movie called CAPTAIN MARVEL and now returns with the latest film, THE MARVELS with two sidekicks or teammates. The production cost is a hefty $250 million. THE HUMGER GAMES prequel which opens next week, cost a modest $100 million in comparison. It is like make it or break it. And the film is a terrible mess of story and narrative in too expensive a film.
The film features the characters Carol Danvers / Captain Marvel, Monica Rambeau, and Kamala Khan / Ms. Marvel. Produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, it is the sequel to the film Captain Marvel (2019), a continuation of the television miniseries Ms. Marvel (2022), and the 33rd film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). It stars Brie Larson as Carol Danvers, Teyonah Parris as Monica Rambeau, and Iman Vellani as Kamala Khan, as the 3 main heroes.
Following the events of Captain Marvel, Carol Danvers destroys the Supreme Intelligence, which subsequently leads to a civil war among the Kree. Hala becomes barren as it loses its air and water, with its sun dying as well. In the present day, Dar-Benn, the new leader of the Kree, succeeds in finding one-half of the Quantum Bands, of which Kamala Khan has the other half. Dar-Benn harnesses the power of the Band to tear apart a jump point in a space, which would later be discovered by S.W.O.R.D. Nick Fury (played by Samuel L. Jackson in the rare role where he does not use the ‘mf’ word), now on S.A.B.E.R., hosts the Kree-Skrull Peace Talks and calls in Carol and Monica Rambeau to investigate a jump point anomaly near S.A.B.E.R. When Monica touches the jump point, she, Carol, and Kamala switch powers. The switching causes the three to fight each others' Kree enemies, leaving the Khans' house destroyed in their wake. As the three women return to their original places, Fury and Rambeau visit Kamala on Earth.
A bit of humour is provided by the Khan family as Kamala struggles with her superpowers. But the humour is very slight in this supposedly lighter-hearted Marvel action superhero movie. The villain is also less evil than usual and actor Jackson delivers one of the mildest roles in his career. Even the formidable Jackson was unable to provide any laughs.
As the uninteresting film jumps all over the place, just as the action heroes jump all over the universe, the effect eventually gets quite numbing.
This clearly is an action hero movie with a female slant, with the villain and the female teammates action heroes.
True to form as in all Marvel films, one has to stay till the end of the end credits for a surprise.
THE MARVELS have received mixed reviews by many critics, and good reviews by some more sympathetic reviewers. THE MARVELS opens November the 10th in theatres.
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STAMPED FROM THE BEGINNING (USA 2023) *
Directed by Roger Ross Williams
The film in a phrase to paraphrase the content covers ‘the history of racism’.
Contrary to popular conceptions, the film reveals, though the point is not explicitly stated, that racist ideas did not arise from ignorance or hatred. Instead, they were devised and honed by some of the most brilliant minds of each era. These intellectuals used their brilliance to justify and rationalize deeply entrenched discriminatory policies and the nation's racial disparities in everything from wealth to health. And while racist ideas are easily produced and easily consumed, they can also be discredited. In shedding much-needed light on the murky history of racist ideas, Stamped from the Beginning offers us the tools we need to expose them--and in the process, gives us reason to hope.
The film’s source material is the excellent National Book Award Winner of 2016 by Ibram X. Kendi entitled - Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas. Kendi is also featured in the film speaking on racism,
Award-winning historian Ibram X. Kendi argues in Stamped from the Beginning, that if we have any hope of grappling with this stark reality, we need to, and the film strives to aid the audience in understanding how racist ideas were developed, disseminated, and enshrined in American society.
The film dotes on a few examples to stress the case against racism. When the first black woman published a poetry book, it shocked the white people’s world so much that they believed that such art could not originate from a black person. Phillis Wheatley is this woman who produced art. She was interrogated to determine if she wrote the poems. What gives white people this right to question the black woman? That is the question posed and a very relevant one. Another case examined is the legitimacy of the President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson. Since the 1790s, he was rumored to have had children by his slave Sally Hemings. According to scholarly consensus, Jefferson probably fathered at least six children with Hemings, including four that survived to adulthood.
The film works like a history lesson and the illustrations shown on the screen remind one immediately of identical illustrations (there are a few animated sequences though where the illustrations move to life) seen in history textbooks. True to form, the film starts with the origin of the word slave. The word originates from the word slav and the first slaves that worked were Eastern European Slavics before African slaves were used. The reason black slaves were more popular is that they could not blend in with the white population if they escaped compared to the while Slav counterparts.
The film cites Bacon’s Rebellion as the rebellion against the privileged white landowners by both the white and black slaves arguing it was a spark in the start of whiteness and black segregation. But it does not state the real purpose of this rebellion, thus distorting the facts to suit the film’s purpose. Bacon’s Rebellion was an armed rebellion held by Virginia settlers that took place from 1676 to 1677. Nathaniel Bacon led it against Colonial Governor William Berkeley after Berkeley refused Bacon's request to drive Native American Indians out of Virginia. Thousands of Virginians from all classes (including those in indentured servitude) and races rose up in arms against Berkeley, chasing him from Jamestown and ultimately torching the settlement.
STAMPED FROM THE BEGINNING though biased against all white folk in general (hardly anything good to say about white folk), does shed excellent light on the origin of racism. The film opens on Netflix for streaming on November 10th.
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THE STONES AND BRIAN JONES (UK 2023)
Direct by Nick Broomfield
(Review to be posted Friday evening)
Trailer:
TESTAMENT (Canada 2023) ***
Directed by Denys Arcand
Click on the link for review:
https://toronto-franco.com/article/21-cinema-movies/394-film-review-testament
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- Written by: Gilbert Seah
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- Category: Movie Reviews
FILM REVIEWS:
BEYOND UTOPIA (USA 2023) ***½
Directed by Madeleine Gavin
BEYOND UTOPIA is a documentary film about North Korea, directed by Madeleine Gavin. The film debuted at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. The documentary centres on Seungeun Kim, a pastor who defected from North to South Korea and who facilitates North Korean defections. At the start, audiences are informed that the film is about people trying to escape the most dangerous pale on earth. And that is North Korea.
The doc is called so for the reason that North Koreans believe that they live in a Utopia even though millions have died in the recent famine and many still live in poverty. They see through television, propagated by the North Korean dictatorship that every other place in the world is in poverty. They see homeless people in the United States and are told that South Korean children do not even have clothes to wear. The North Koreans do not have any idea what the world outside is like, thus believing that North Korea is a Utopia, of course not knowing any better.
The doc opens the world of North Korea to audiences and it is a very disturbing world. North Korea has two prisons and if one is sent to the worst one there is no chance of ever seeing freedom again. If sent to the more lenient one, they are tortured and if set free, it is after a long stretch with much suffering. Defectors who are caught and many of them are tortured and beaten. The scene showing one captured defector being beaten and kicked is almost too brutal to watch.
The doc boasts that nothing is seen on the screen are re-enactments. Everything appearing onscreen is actual footage. All sorts of secret cameras were used, including flip phones.
The hero and main subject of the film is Pastor Kim. On the outskirts of Seoul, Pastor Seungeun Kim runs an “Underground Railroad” to help North Koreans escape, employing a network of brokers in North Korea, China, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand. This dangerous route must be taken to freedom in South Korea. For a decade, Pastor Kim has helped 1,000 defectors, jeopardizing his own life. Pastor Kim is constantly at risk of being kidnapped by North Korea. If that happens, he would not only be killed but tortured and beaten before that.
The film follows two stories that began in the months before the pandemic.
These are some of the last known attempts at defection from North Korea. The first involves the Rohs – a family of five, including a mother, father, two young daughters and an 80-year-old grandmother. Their journey means crossing rivers, climbing mountains and traversing jungles on foot. The doc shows maps showing the routes of possible escape. Many have to take extreme distances of detouring to escape detection and capture. The second is about a mother who hasn’t seen her son since she defected 10 years ago and wants to bring him – now a teenager – to South Korea. With every furtive phone call, the emotions play out – from anticipation to fear. The son had been tortured to half his weight in prison. He is beaten with angled rulers and has broken teeth preventing him from eating and walking properly,
More intriguing as it is disturbing, viewers also get a look at what life is really like inside North Korea – through clandestine footage, or from interviewees like author/defector Hyeonseo Lee. How do residents get water? Why do they have to collect their “poo”? It’s interesting to hear the Roh grandmother’s rosy viewpoint after decades of indoctrination.
BEYOND UPTOPIA is one doc that would surely open one’s eyes to the horrors that mankind still install for the sake of power. The North Korean regime has been compared to Nazi Germany and with reason.
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GHOSTS OF THE VOID (USA 2023) ***
Directed by Jason Miller
“It’s called the American dream because you have to be asleep to believe it.” So goes the saying at the start of the film before the first image occurs, the line from comedian George Carlin.
Spending the night in her car, a newly homeless woman wrestles with exhaustion, her crumbling marriage, and the threat of mysterious, masked strangers. Jen and Tyler Wilson (Tedra Millan and Michael Reagan) used to have it all: a solid marriage, a nice home, and careers that promised a bright future. But when Tyler's drinking problem worsens, and his writer's block continues, the debt collectors show no mercy, forcing the couple out of their home and into their car. The film is largely set in the dead of night with the couple in or by the car. Their past life is revealed in flashbacks. They seem to think it is the creditors who are responsible for the horrors imposed on them.
Beyond stressed, exhausted, and overwhelmed with feelings of failure, Jen and Tyler park their car in a vacant lot, hoping to get a good night's sleep before dealing with the realities of tomorrow. However, their sleep becomes interrupted by homeless passersby, mischievous local kids, and eventually, ominous strangers in harrowing masks. Why don’t they drive off? Two reasons. Someone has placed a tire clamp on their car. Then Jen leaves the keys in the lock of the trunk and the keys are then stolen. Tyler has had it and goes after what thinks might also be teenagers creating pranks. When he says: “It’s ok - I will be back.” He will be in trouble. he then encounters the three masked predators.
Writer/director Jason Miller carefully crafts a riveting, slow-burn thriller that delves deep into the psychological depths of a crumbling marriage stuck in the middle of nowhere.
The film contains a simple premise. With something simple, less can go wrong. The saying holds. GHOSTS OF THE VOID exposes the fragility of the human psyche in the face of adversity while leaving audiences to question the thin line between reality and the supernatural.
The masked strangers who up only after two-thirds of the film - in the three colours of red, white and blue (the three colours of the American flag, indicating more of the American dream becoming a nightmare. They live in individual blue, red, and white tents.
The pressures on her - Tyler drinks and abuses her. He has a temper. She is pressured by her mother to get a job and leave him. The question is whether she should leave him. But according to Jen, she loves him.
GHOSTS OF THE VOID has won several awards in international film festivals, particularly horror film festivals. A well-made combination of horror drama and thriller, GHOSTS OF THE VOID is proof that a simple premise story without any need for the supernatural can result in a tense horror film. GHOSTS OF THE VOID is available on digital and on-demand on November the 7th, 2023.
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HANDS THAT BIND (Canada 2021) ***
Directed by Kyle Armstrong
HANDS THAT BIND has one common thread with the recent Martin Scorsese’s epic KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON. Both films open with a vast landscape, in this film the Canadian prairies of Alberta beautifully shot by cinematographer Mike McLaughlin, (the scene of the burning carcass of the dead heifer in the dead tree as dusk settles in is stunning). Both films tell a story between man and his land, and both films introduce various stories before honing in on one. HANDS THAT BIND contains several different narratives each of which could diverted into a different story film.
The setting of the film is 1981, Alberta and it is a handsome period piece without the nuisance of modern gadgets like the cellphone and the laptop. 1981, Alberta. Having severed ties with his own father, Andy (Paul Sparks) toils as a hired hand to support his wife ( Susan Kent) and two young children, hoping he will eventually inherit the farm from his boss Mac (Nicholas Campbell). No such luck! Andy serves as a substitute son to both Mac and a lonely neighbour (Bruce Dern - generous of the star and veteran actor Dern to lend his hand to this Canadian production). But Andy’s hopes are dashed when Mac’s prodigal son (Lance Liboiron) shows up. The darkly handsome son is a lazy loutwho clearly is underserving of his father’s love. He had lost his job in the oil fields. Andy refuses his boss’s suggestion that he return to his own father’s farm, (the riff between Andy and his father not explained at the film’s beginning) rebuffs his wife’s wish to go back to work herself, and instead makes a choice that plunges him toward chaos. Meanwhile, his turmoil is mirrored by mysterious occurrences – mutilated cows, burning trees, and unexplained lights. The world is becoming increasingly unfamiliar.
The several stories that could evolve include:
- perhaps a sci-fi story with aliens from Andy’s observation of the weird lights coming from the night sky
- a predator movie which could explain the mutilated refer which showed no signs of blood
- a family drama between Andy and wife
- the estranged relationship between Andy and his father
- the story of the white man and the indigenous land (Andy finds an arrowhead at the start of the film and discards it elsewhere in the field).
Director Armstrong has a good feel for his material and his film comes across as genuine and authentic. The drama is never overdone and much of it can be seen from the undertones of the scenes rather than huge outbursts from the characters.
The film is directed by Armstrong, who grew up in southern Alberta, this being his second feature after UNTIL FIRST LIGHT.
The meticulously crafty Western Canadian film won the 2022 Edmonton Film Prize, awarded by the Alberta Media Production Industries Association (AMPIA) in collaboration with the Edmonton Arts Council. HANDS THAT BIND opens November 3 in Toronto (Scotiabank)!
The film is also available on November 3 to rent or buy across Canada on the Apple TV app and other VOD platforms. The film opens on November 24 in Edmonton (Metro Cinema).
THE HOLDOVERS (USA 2023) *****
Directed by Alexander Payne
Written by David Hemingson and directed by Alexander Payne, this film won the runner-up prize for the Audience Choice Award at TIFF. The film could be considered an updated variation of Charles Dickens’s A CHRISTMAS CAROL, in which the miser is replaced by a very strict and unflinching schoolmaster whose past catches up with him with the help of a troublesome student who eventually brings out the man’s good side. The film is both sad and funny with Paul Giamatti (already an Oscar nominee in CINDERELLA MAN) delivering a career-best Oscar-winning performance.
During this process, Paul is forced to deal with one particularly rebellious but troubled student, Angus (Dominic Sessa), who is grieving the loss of his father.
Set in the early 1970s (the year no revealed till the new year is shown on the TV), the film follows Paul Hunham (Giamatti), a disliked teacher at Barton Academy, who's responsible for supervising students who are unable to return home for the Christmas holidays. Dominic Sessa, a newcomer who plays the ld role as Angus Tully, the dent holdover is also nothing short of excellent, holding his own against Giamatti. Sessa will be an actor to definitely be reckoned with.
The atmosphere of the 70s is exceptionally created, thanks to the cinematography, dialogue, wardrobe and sets. If one is to watch a 70’s film like Mike Nichols’ two classics, THE GRADUATE or BOB AND CAROL AND TED AND ALICE, one cannot tell that THE HOLDOVERS was not made in the 70’s. The year 1971 is not given to the audience well into the film, though one notes that it is not a modern piece because of the absence of the use of cell phones. The soundtrack also sounds like something that could be composed by Simon and Garfunkel who scored the soundtrack for THE GRADUATE.
One also learns the all-important lesson that there are much more alike in human beings than one can imagine. The fact that the film is set at Christmas with sad characters also enlivens the contrast between sadness and joy. Extremely funny and quotable dialogue too! Two examples are: “A body that does not exercise devours itself.” “You are cancer pain in human form”. And there are countless more in Hemingson’s articulate script. The script also contains a few powerful lines.
THE HOLDOVERS was runner-up in the People’s Choice Awards at the Toronto International Film Festival losing first place to AMERICAN FICTION, though in my opinion, the two excellent films should have their places switched.
THE HOLDOVERS is one movie that will make one laugh and cry at the same time - sometimes during the same scene. One of Alexander Payne’s (SIDEWAYS, DOWNSIZING, THE DESCENDENTS) most emotional movies.
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HURRICANE SEASON (TEMPORADA DE HURACANES (Mexiso 2023) ***½
Directed by Elisa Miller
Halloween October 31st still attracts lots of horror features. A new surprise arrives from Mexico which, thankfully does not have to resort to the supernatural to supply the scares.
Many famous directors begin by making short films. When these make it to festivals and win big prizes, the directors get a chance for big-time - feature films for the bid studios. Elisa Miller is a prime example of such a breakthrough director.
There are several reasons HURRICANE SEASON, a Netflix original horror flick should be watched. Firstly, the film’s director Elisa Miller is a Palme d’Or winner. She won the Cannes Prize for her short VER LLOVE in 2007. Secondly, her film, based on the book of the same name has the perfect moody and horror atmosphere rich with superstition and mystery of a poor Mexican village where the village folk have nothing better to do but create trouble for each other. The village also keeps a deadly secret. Thirdly the film also contains a breakout performance by putting teem Palma Alvamar as she comes-of-age amidst all the turmoil.
The atmosphere is created right from the film’s first scene. “What its that rotten stench?” asks one of the boys as they venture through the trees onto the river. It is a not and swealtring day, and one can almost smell the stench of the sea corpse floating in the canal. ripe with a snake writhing out of the corpse’s mouth.
When \this group of teens finds a corpse floating in a canal, the brutal reality behind the perverse crime unravels a town's hidden secrets.
The corpse, the audience learns belongs to a questionable woman the villagers call a witch. The so-called witch holds grand parties with young boys with lots of sex and rugs involved. None of the villagers like the witch but a group of older women turn up at the place station to claim her body in order to give her a proper burial. It is at least what she deserves, one of them says, before they are shared out of the place amid lots of female swearing. The scene then shifts to the protagonist, played by Almavar, who now tells her story that she wishes to report a murder. The story then occurs about this moody unloved (by her grandmother) who wants to just grow up with a bit of love.
The girl had witnessed the witch having sex with her cousin and reported it back to her grandmother. But the cousin is her grandmother’s favourite son and the girl has hair cut as the grandmother accuses her of telling lies about her favourite grandson.
HURRICANE SEASON is filmed in Mexican Spanish and offers a good atmospheric coming-of-age scary rich Mexican drama. It opens for =streaming this week on Netflix. The film has won its director Best Picture at the Moria Film Festival. The film is definitely worth a watch.
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JEZABEL (Argentina/Mexico 2023) ***
Directed by Hernán Jabes Aquila
Four wealthy, hedonistic young adults are tormented by a brutal murder in this new erotically charged psychological thriller.
The new psychological horror thriller which can also be listed as a crime thriller, from Argentina takes the name JEZABEL (also spelled often as JEZEBEL) from the biblical character in the Book of Kings in the Bible’s Old Testament. Jezebel is known to be the conniving, wicked and manipulative Queen of Israel. Jezebel was the daughter of Ithobaal I of Tyre and the wife of Ahab, King of Israel. According to the biblical narrative, Jezebel, along with her husband, instituted the worship of Baal and Asherah on a national scale. In addition, she violently purged the prophets of Yahweh from Israel, damaging the reputation of the Omride dynasty. But in the film, the name is used for Eli’s prom website. Eli does not know what to do with her life but she wants to make lots of money. So she intends to go to prom. But things do not turn out as she had planned and she dies a violent death,
JEZABEL is set in present-day Venezuela, where political and social chaos reigns, four best friends Lolo, Cacá, Eli, and Alain live a carefree lifestyle as wealthy young adults in Caracas, Venezuela. Their hedonistic relationship, full of drugs, group sex, and dangerous (often sexual) games, comes to an abrupt end when one day Eli is brutally murdered. Still haunted by her death sixteen years later, Alain is shocked to discover that Eli’s alleged killer is not who everyone believes he to be. The dominating math teacher, is the one, who has also tormented the friends is not that innocent either. With the help of journalist, Salvador, Alain must confront the ghosts of his past in this erotically charged psychological thriller.
Director Jabes’ films his debut feature as an artistic and stylish thriller in nonlinear mode - intercutting his story in flashbacks. The film is in reality a whodunit with lots of distractions. It is almost impossible to guess the identity of Eli’s killer, not because of the intricate plot, but because of the story’s outrageous premise and all the false clues that go along with the plot. It is for this reason that the audience feels cheated in the storytelling, stylish though it may be, that the film fails as a satisfactory whodunit.
Director James places lots of distractions on the whodunit. Salvador and Alain begin a torrid gay affair that does not line with the story as in Alain’s early years, Alain has non-gay sex, only heterosexual sex with his three other female friends. Director James does not shy away from the sex scenes - gay or heterosexual. The result is some very hot sex scenes that serve to provide some excitement to the film. The story also includes the political and social problems of Argentina - the elections and freedom of the elections. The students complain about the political situation but instead of doing anything, indulge in their own selfish tendencies.
JEZABEL opens on VOD and other leading platforms on November the 7th 2023.
LOCKED IN (UK/France/USA 2023) **
Directed by Nour Wazzi
The title LOCKED IN of the new Netflix original psychological thriller comes from the medical term: locked-in syndrome. Signs and symptoms of locked-in syndrome are usually characterized by quadriplegia (loss of limb function) and the inability to speak in otherwise cognitively intact individuals. Those with locked-in syndrome may be able to communicate with others through coded messages by blinking or moving their eyes, which are often not affected by the paralysis. The symptoms are similar to those of sleep paralysis. Patients who have locked-in syndrome are conscious and aware, with no loss of cognitive function. They can sometimes retain proprioception and sensation throughout their bodies. Some patients may have the ability to move certain facial muscles, and most often some or all of the extraocular muscles. Individuals with the syndrome lack coordination between breathing and voice. This prevents them from producing voluntary sounds, though the vocal cords themselves may not be paralyzed. One of the best films with the locked-in syndrome is the French film True Story THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY, based on Jean-Dominique Bauby's 1997 memoir of the same name, the film depicting Bauby's life after suffering a massive stroke left him with the condition. In this film, LOCKED IN, after a nit and run, Katherine (Fameke Janssen suffers from locked-in syndrome. Her nurse MacKenzie is a well-meaning worker who earnestly tries to help her recover while finding out the truth behind the accident. There are a lot of unanswered questions. This deals with an unhappy newlywed Lina (Rose Williams) who finds herself battling with her mother-in-law, who happens to be Katherine who is also her adopted mother.
The film has a complete plot with a script by Rowan Joffe and contains lots of twists and side plots. Lina’s mother dies and the mother’s best friend Katherine, a Hollywood car takes her in as her guardian. Katherine has a son, whom Lina eventually falls in love with and marries. The son suffers from fits and is generally unhealthy. Enters the local doctor, Robert whom Lina falls in love with. Katerie’s late husband leaves the will of the estate of his sonny Katherine has nothing. Lina now the wife with the son has control over the estate. So, the twist and turns of the street unfolds.
The story though a little complicated is a good one, with lots of potential for black humour and unexpected thrill and suspense. The result could be a top-notch thriller. Unfortunately, the film fails to reach that level. The story ends up looking implausible and unbelievable, with no thanks to what might be needed as tight direction and a more focused script.
Of all the actors, Janssen as Katherine comes across as the best performer.. Alex Hassell, who plays Doctor Lawrence, who ends up the villain of the piece could have delivered a more sinister performance, It is difficult to pinpoint exactly what prevented the film from being the tithe black thrilling psychological drama it could have been, instead of a largely unbelievable piece of fictional horror that comes with a slasher ending.
LOCKED IN opens for streaming on Netflix this week.
NUOVO OLIMPO (ITALY 2023) ***
Directed by Ferzan Ozpetek
Turkish-Italian director Ferzan Ozpetek has a ton of films already under his belt, the most famous one being FACING WINDOWS. NUOVO OLIMPO is his latest Netflix collaboration and the title refers to the name of the repertory Italian cinema house in Rome where two lovers meet for the first time.
NUOVO OLIMPO is a gay romantic drama film set in late 1970s Rome. One thing to note is that the two main male lovers also carry on heterosexual love affairs, though one eventually for a long-term gay relationship with somebody else. The story follows two young men who meet by chance in Nuovo Olimpo and fall deeply in love. It is never explained, but the cinema appears to be a pickup place for male gay sex and the nasties are carried on in the cinema’s lavatories. This is where Enea notices a shy Pietro. They meet in the restroom but do not engage in sex. “Is this your first time?” Enea questions Pietro. Pietro declines sex but they meet again at the cinema. They end up having pizza instead but eventually have sex in Enea's friend’s grandmother’s apartment. From the sex scene, it does not seem that is Pietro’s first time.
There were riots in 70s Rome. A big protest that turns into a riot results in the cinema house being opened for the protestors to take refuge. Pietro suffers a broken arm and they lose touch. Why they do not exchange addresses or phone numbers is one of the story’s mysteries and flaws. It appears to be an excuse for a lone 30 years romanticizing the hope of finding each other again. Pietro keeps coming to the cinema but Enea never returns.
As time flies, Pietro becomes an important surgeon while Enea succeeds as a successful film director, the first gay director to come out with what he describes as emotional films.
NUOVO OLIMPO is indeed a slow burn. It takes half an hour before the two lovers take to the bed, Pitro keeps giving silly excuses while Enea patiently waits. The concept of love through the ages - time and space will not get in the way of love (this appears to be the message in the film) - a poetic and aspiring one comes instead quite forced and if one examines the film and story more carefully as it unfolds, quite unbelievable and cliched, including the scene when Pietro appear to Enea by the window of a passing train. (Really?) Director Ozpetek also aims at blending the nostalgic element of cinema into the romance.
Enea (Daminano Gavino), and medical student Pietro (Andrea Di Luigi) do make hot lovers and the two male actors, particularly Gavis extremely adorable. But the make-up that goes on the two actors as they age through 30 years is plain horrid, least of all, laughable. The film sweetly filters a love for cinema through a love between two people, though it’s not quite a romance for the ages.
NUOVO OLIMPO is currently streaming on Netflix this week.
PRISCILLA (USA 2023) ***
Directed by Sofia Coppola
Priscilla is a 2023 American biographical drama film written, directed, and co-produced by Sofia Coppola, based on the 1985 memoir Elvis and Me by Priscilla Presley (who serves as an executive producer) and Sandra Harmon. Who else better than Sofia Coppola, the director of strong female-themed films like THE VIRGIN SUICIDES, LOST IN TRANSLATION and THE BEGUILED to direct this very personal film on the wife of the one and only Rock and Roller Elvis Presley, Priscilla Presley? The film follows the life of Priscilla and her relationship with Elvis Presley. Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi star as Priscilla and Elvis.
PRISCILLA, first of all, is not a very likable personality, as depicted in the film, and also likely so in real life. Director Coppola shows Priscilla as such and this poses a problem for the film if the audience dislikes or does not connect with its main character. Priscilla comes from a devout Christian family and was not allowed much freedom as a teenager. She is also shown as not very bright, and not doing well at school. A moment in the film that shows Priscilla cheating on an exam, by promising her classmate that she will be invited to an Elvis party, shows her tomb dishonest and of a questionable nature. Though understandable, Priscilla is jealous of her husband’s popularity with other girls. She is quietly hot-tempered and impatient.
Director Coppola keeps the film focused on only two characters - Priscilla and Elvis. No other supporting characters take any part of the spotlight. The colonel, Elvis’ manager who largely controls the business of Elvis is never shown on camera. Elvis is just heard talking to the colonel on the telephone, unlike the biopic ELVIS where Tom Hanks as the colonel overshadows the Elvis character. The result is a claustrophobic depressing film that goes into depression mode just as the two characters go down the rabbit hole.
The editing and the music and songs in the soundtrack are, however, beautifully scored. The sets, decor, and art direction all clearly evoke the period atmosphere so important in the story-telling, As for performances Cailee Spaeny is wonderfully captivating while Jacob Elordi makes a really sexy Elvis, especially when he is in his swimming trunks.
Director Coppola shies away from the Elvis performances. Only the quieter tunes like “Love Me Tender” make the cut to the soundtrack. The film mentions the decline of Elvis showing his temper tantrums, throwing stuff at Priscilla at one point and then apologizing later. Elvis’ drug use (taking the hallucinatory LSD) is shown with him partaking with his wife, Priscilla. The arguments between the married couple are displayed in all its ugliness.
PRISCILLA is a very well-made film, no argument here, but it is a story that comes out too personal with director Coppola focussing too much on Priscilla and Elvis leaving all other characters that might enliven the story to the sidelines to the point of omission The film is not a pleasant watch, understandably as who would like to watch a couple’s marriage go downhill or watch their fights all the time? (Unless it is over the top as Mike Nichols’ direction of Edward Albee’s WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?
PRISCILLA opens in theatres on Nov the 3rd.
Trailer:
QUIZ LADY (USA 2023) ***
Directed by Jessica Yu
In QUIZ LADY a brilliant but tightly wound, game show-obsessed young woman, Anne (Awkwafina), and her estranged, train-wreck of a sister Jenny (Sandra Oh), must work together to help cover their mother’s gambling debts. When Anne’s beloved dog, Linguini is kidnapped, they set out on a wild, cross-country trek to get the cash the only way they know how: by turning Anne into a bona-fide game show champion—the host of the game show is played by none there than Will Ferrell.
This is not a particularly well-written or original scripted comedy. Apologies to the scriptwriter, but there is nothing really fresh or original that one has not seen in comedies like his one before. The humour is mixed with family drama as Jenny is constantly in need and has to be bailed out by Anne. But together the film shows they can achieve much more.
It all begins with Anne getting a phone call from her mother’s nursing home. “Your mother has left us,” says the person to Anne on the line. “Oh, that was horrible phrasing. I meant your mother has disappeared from the home.” As an example of the comedy in the script, the comedy is not that funny. But the comedy works wonders under the comedic duo of Sandra Oh and Awkwafina who both prove their comedic prowess together. They also outshine Will Ferrell in laughs. The plot and story just roll the film around and the drama between the sisters is a standard family drama that one knows will be solved at the end.
Despite the mediocre script, QUIZ LADY is still a barrel of laughs owing to the excellent comic timing of the comedic duo Sandra Oh and Awkwafina. QUIZ LADY opens for streaming on Disney Plus this weekend, after premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival last September.
Trailer:
SLY (USA 2023) ***
Directed by Thom Zimny
SLY is the documentary on Sylvester Stallone, one of the hottest stars of all time, the only one to remain number 1 at the box office for decades. His ROCKY and RAMBO franchises have crowned him action hero number 1. Now close to the age of 70, his new franchise THE EXPENDABLES stars elder action heroes.
In the film SLY, Sylvester Stallone looks back on his life and career in this valedictory documentary directed by Thom Zimny.
Sylvester Stallone is Rocky Balboa, John Rambo, and Barney Ross, the guy who runs the team of aging action heroes known as The Expendables. The doc shows the other side of the man - an artist who’s spent the last half-century trying to prove he is more than just a guy from Hell’s Kitchen — to his critics, to his family, and most of all, to himself.
For Stallone fans, the doc takes a nostalgic trip down memory lane of both his successful and failed films. ROCKY, Stallone’s success story is, of course, examined in great detail. But the doc does not shy away from the next two failures that followed. F.I.S.T. was a disaster (nicknamed J.U.N.K) and PARADISE ALLEY (name forced to be changed from HELL’S KITCHEN) before ROCKY 2 made Stallone’s comeback. The doc shows the struggles of Stallone and the pressures and demands of the film business. Out is not a friendly environment. The doc contains many scenes from his films reflecting the actor's ups and downs in life.
As much as the doc talks about Sly’s life, his unsuccessful marriages are clearly omitted. The death of his son, Sage is mentioned though, and how the death affected the actor.
Those interviewed include Quentin Tarantino who praises Stallone to no end, also giving his views on Stallone’s films, ROCKY’s director John Avildson and the other action hero Arnold Swartzchenegger,
SLY premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival with Stallone present to talk about the film, despite the actors strike. The film now opens for streaming on Netflix. SLY is an easy enjoyable watch and a comfortable look at Stallone’s philosophy on life.
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REEL ASIAN FILM FESTIVAL 2023
The Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival (Reel Asian), Canada's premier pan-Asian festival, will open with Canadian filmmaker Fawzia Mirza’s debut feature The Queen of My Dreams. From November 8 to 19, 2023, the Festival will take audiences on a cinematic journey, transcending borders and bringing the world closer together. This year’s lineup consists of 15 features and 57 shorts from Canada, India, Iran, Japan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Reel Asian will also present three thoughtful and creative multimedia experiences through their RA:X program and welcome a number of esteemed industry professionals for their Reel Ideas conference. For the full programming lineup and ticket information visit reelasian.com.
“The continued success and popularity of Asian cinema in Hollywood has brought our collective stories and experiences to the forefront, leading to significant growth in our community’s industry both abroad and in Canada,” said Deanna Wong, Executive Director, Reel Asian. “We’re so proud to welcome audiences back to the festival, which aims to bridge cultural divides, inspire meaningful conversations, and celebrate Asian voices. There is a need for our stories now more than ever and we hope to continue offering a bigger and better festival each year.”
Capsule Reviews of select Films:
BABY QUEEN (Singapore 2023) ***½
Directed by Lei Yuan Bing
Singapore is well known for its Bugis Street and female-dressing males, though today modernized beyond recognition recently due to ‘progress’ BABY QUEEN, a very personal exploration of the practically non-existent drag scene in Singapore is told from the point of view of ‘Opera” her drag name, as she/he makes a name for him/herself and his/her ethnicity. The doc opens with the boy as a child dancing to Cinderella before moving on to the present where the boy is now an adult putting on makeup to become a gorgeous-looking drag queen, that would make many a female jealous. The film is shot in the many languages spoken in the city island state, including pigeon English, Chinese dialects and Malay. The film is an easy-going watch and avoids making a statement or any criticism of Singapore laws which are well known for its general un-acceptance of homosexuality. The film or doc runs a little over an hour and makes itspoint. Very persona, very effective, and very representative of Singapore,
OKIKU AND THE WORLD せかいのおきく
Directed by Junji Sakamoto 攫㘭朇㮼 | Japan 2023 | ***½
OKIKU AND THE WORLS is a gorgeously framed period black and white piece (though there are a few splashes of colour) with convincing sets and a wonderfully created atmosphere that gives the film the look of the classic Samurai films, like those helmed by Master Akira Kurosawa. The audience is told that as the samurai world opens to the outside world, everything is turning to shit as the scene shifts to its protagonist, collecting shit (for manure) and making a living. Set near the end of the Edo period around 1958, the film presents a fresh take on samurai culture. Okiku (Haru Kuroki) is the daughter of a fallen samurai. The two of them now live in a tenement far from luxury. One day, she meets Chuji (Kanichiro) and love blooms. The problem is that Chuji is a manure man who collects excrement to sell to farmers. Despite the downfall of the Shogun era, there is still a social gap between them. The film is told in 7 parts, the last part is called OKIKU AND THE WORLD. Shit has never been so hilariously depicted in a film.
RELICS OF LOVE AND WAR (Canada 2023) ****
Directed by Keith Lock
There is much to learn and discover in this amazing 40-minute film by filmmaker Keith Lock, the film told mainly with a voiceover that puts together an amazing true tale using old photographs. Lock narrates the story of how his mother (directly from China, a petite 4 ft 10 inc but very pretty lady) married his father in Australia, who was training with other Chinese Canadian veteran volunteers for the top secret suicide mission, Operation Oblivion. This incredible story is set against the backdrop of the Second World War, at a time when Chinese Canadians could not vote, swim in pools, or hire white women for their businesses. Canadians were to sit at the back of the cinema, not allowed to vote and were only allowed to work in grocery stores, laundry, or restaurants. Yet they showed resilience and were found to show leadership and intelligence when trained by the military instructors. Lock’s film is a powerful yet nostalgic film that makes Asians (this reviewer included) stand proud and tall in an unjust world that needs them more than they need them.
Trailer:
SEAGRASS (Canada 2023) ***½
Directed by Meredith Hama-Brown
SEAGRASS has an idyllic opening on a ferry where two young sisters (Remy Marthaller and Nyha Huang Breitkreuz) playfully run around enjoying the view and the trip aboard the ferry. They are going to a retreat with their parents traveling via the ferry. Set in the mid-1990s, a Japanese Canadian woman, Judith (Ally Maki, THE BIG DOOR PRIZE) grappling with the recent death of her mother brings her family to a self-development retreat. When her distressed relationship with her husband (Luke Roberts, GAME OF THRONES) begins to affect the children’s emotional security, the family is forever changed. The film covers several key issues and explores questions relating to fear and security, it is about a distressed family, motherhood, grief, shame, intergenerational trauma and racial identity. It is about all these seemingly disparate things, but the thematic tissue that connects them all is “fear” and the various ways that uncertainty affects our relationships and sense of stability. Director Hama-Brown steers her relationship family drama into its emotional climax that includes a little suspense to boot in what can be termed s meticulously crafted gem.
SMALL FRY (South Korea 2023) **
Directed by. Joongha Park
A three-handler about three teens meeting with not much really happening. Ho-jun, a flailing actor, has found relative success as a social media influencer, hawking fishing hacks. He preps his live stream at his preferred fishing spot, only to be disrupted by an obnoxious stranger, Director Nam, a hotshot independent film director about to shoot his first feature. He has invited rising actress Hee-jin for a quiet pondside chat to convince her that his film will be a star-making breakout role—only Hee-jin isn’t sure about Director Nam’s film, or his ulterior motives. As the day progresses, links between Ho-jun, Director Nam, and Hee-jin entwine and unravel to reveal each character’s ambition, pettiness, and pathos as they try to reel in their respective dreams. Director Park devotes almost equal screen time between the two males with the female bridging the gap between the two male egos.
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FILM REVIEWS:
BURNING BETRAYAL (Brazil 2023) **
(O lado bom de ser traída)
Directed by Diego Freitas
This sexy misery romance drama is based on the book by Sue Becker and directed by Diego Freitas
Babi discovers a betrayal by her long-term partner and decides to embark on a new adventure in life. On this journey, she meets Judge Marco and they begin to live a story permeated by a lot of sexual tension.
The film begins with a sexy night motorbike encounter in which a girl rescues a fellow male biker before having torrid sex. Turns out to be a dream and the girl, Babi (Giovanna Lancellotti) is about to be married but ditches her fiancé, Caio (Laruzi Sampaio) after discovering his unfaithfulness. Babi meets the man in her dream in the form of a mysterious judge, Marco (Leandro Lima). Her best friend and office colleague, Thiago (Bruno Monteleone), who has the hots for her looks on.
All the goings-on are in reality pretty silly and ridiculous, all seemingly an excuse for a scenario for hot sex. The sex scenes are erotic enough with lots of contoured hot nude bodies performing the act in different positions. Babi appears to be in trouble but one could really care what happens to this loose lady. Both boring and silly, best to give this one a miss. BURNING BETRAYAL opens for streaming on Netflix this week.
LOS DELINCUENTES (THE DELINQUENTS) (Argentina 2023) ****
Directed by Rodrigo Moreno
The difference between commercial filmmaking and non-commercial filmmaking is vast. The former follows formulaic rules like the Disney and major studio movies whose only surprises are often the innovative expensive special effects. Director Moreno, on the other hand, has surprised audiences at Cannes this year with his stranger-than-fiction bank heist movie THE DELINQUENTS. It is a different kind of bank heist film, just at the point in which one might term it ground-breaking filmmaking - and one to break the rules. This is what makes THE DELINQUENTS such a pleasure to watch. It is hard to predict where director Lorena will take the journey. Running a lengthy 3 hours, the film is divided into two parts - each part significantly different. THE DELINQUENTS refer to the two responsible for the cash stolen from a bank vault. The bank heist is surprisingly simple enough to execute, without much aplomb or ingenious planning. It is what happens after that is surprising. One can never foretell what life might dish out.
Fed up with his job as a longtime employee at a Buenos Aries bank, Morán (Daniel Eliás) helps himself to $650,000 – twice the amount he would earn if he stayed until retirement. Moran breezily strolls in stuffs the money in a case and walks out. Morán plans to turn himself in. Serving 3 ½ years in prison beats working 25 more years at the bank. But prison holds a few unexpected nasty surprises for Moran, He asks fellow employee Román (Esteban Bigliardi) to hide the money – in return for a percentage, once Morán is released. While Morán slogs away behind bars, Román heads out to bury the cash in the bucolic Cordoba foothills, where he meets locals Morna, Ramón and Norma (Margarita Molfino), the latter to whom he finds himself attracted.
Director Moreno invests a fair amount of screen time in the personalities of Moran and Ramon. Moran is shown to be calculative and rather cunning, smart in both literary and accounting and though looks loutish with his gut and balding head, displays a certain charm. One can see the reason Norma is attracted to this generally outward-looking unattractive man. Moran is one who plans and attempts to control his destiny. Roman, on the other hand, is more of a simpleton who lets fate control his life. As expected when the two clash, the unexpected occurs. There are a lot of ‘unexpected’s that appear in Moreno’s somewhat marvellous tale of fate and life. The life lessons taught in the film are subtle and rather brilliant.
The film progresses rather slowly and at the same pace throughout the 3-hour length. Yet Moreno is a superb storyteller who keeps his story interesting from start to end. He thankfully does not intercut the two stories that would destroy the intrigue built up in each. The one thing that might frustrate audiences with this film is the non-Happy Hollywood ending that Morena reveals at the end. However, on careful thought, the ending would have been the most likely outcome.
THE DELINQUENTS debuted in Un Certain Regard at Cannes 2023 – is Argentina’s Oscar 2024 entry for Best International Feature Film. Definitely a recommended watch, THE DELINQUENTS opens October 27 in Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal!
Trailer:
FREELANCE (USA 2023)
Directed by Pierre Morel
(Review embargo lifted on Thursday 3 am.)
Action pics with a solitary mercenary fitting against a massive enemy are currently a dime a dozen. Action stars range from Bruce Willis to Sylvester Stallone to Liam Neeson are just too many to name. Wrestling stars like Dwayne Johnson and now John Cena have jumped on the action bandwagon.
The question is what sets FREELANCE apart from the standard dime-a-dozen action flick? The unassuming title FREELANCE indicating the mercenary is freelanced is also not one to stand out. FREELANCE, to the film’s benefit, has a few benefits. Firstly, wrestler/scot John Cena is an actor with screen presence as well as muscle. Secondly, the director of FREELANCE is Pierre Morel who helmed the exceptional box-office successes of TAKEN DISTRICT 13 and THE GUNMAN and he is French. The third bonus is a script that puts more emphasis on the characters, though this might seem cliched or previously used. And lastly, there is some message here about American conglomerates out to make money at the expense of unknowing victims. FREELANCE is the feature writing debut of television screenwriter Jacob Lentz, who does not do a bad job at all. His one-liners are quite funny and reminiscent of the one-liners used by Clint Eastwood and Arnold Schwarzenegger in their action blockbusters.
The action sequences are sufficiently exciting with some hand-to-hand combat between Cena and the villain. This looks staged as one knows Cena is the stronger fighter, he has a wrestling background and muscles and all.
Years after retiring from the Army, former Special Forces operator Mason Pettits (Cena) takes a job providing security for journalist Claire Wellington (Alison Brie) as she interviews Juan Venegas, (Juan Pablo Raba) president of Paldonia. Paldonia is a fictitious South American country where the recent discovery of oil has attracted foreign interest. The film is shot in Colombia, Colombia standing in for Paldonia. Colombia looks completely stunning with its natural forests and rivers. When a military coup breaks out in the middle of the interview, the three are forced to escape into the jungle together.
FREELANCE is an entertaining enough action comedy with both action and laughs, illustrating that one does not need to spend millions of dollars (this film had a budget of a modest $40 million) with special effects or superstars to create.
FREELANCE opens in theatres on Friday, October 27.
Trailer:
HELL HOUSE LLC ORIGINS: THE IAN CARMICHAEL MANOR (USA 2023) ***
Directed by Stephen Cognetti
A group of cold case investigators stay at the Carmichael Manor, the site of the grisly and unsolved murders of the Carmichael family back in the eighties. After four nights, the group was never heard from again. What is discovered in their footage is even more disturbing than anything found on the Hell House tapes.
HELL HOUSE LLC ORIGINS : THE IAN CARMICHAEL MANOR is the fourth film in the Hell House LLC series. But rather than being considered a ‘part 4’ or a prequel the film contains a stand-alone original story within the Hell House LLC universe yet is set in the present instead of making a precursor to the original trilogy. The film explores some of the themes and origins of the hotel’s mythology while introducing new characters and mysteries surrounding the events that took place in 1989 in a stand-alone origin story.
The story takes place in 2021 and follows a group of internet sleuths who travel to the remote Carmichael Manor. The film begins with the co-founder of a group called Net Sleuths interviewing a crime writer before moving to two females getting permission and travelling to the mansion. Located deep in the woods of Rockland County, New York, the estate is the site of the infamous 1989 Carmichael family murders that have gone unsolved to film’s setting day. What they discover are secrets that have been hidden away for decades and a terror that has been lurking in the shadows long before Hell House. The audience is brought to date with the murders. Mother and daughter are found brutally murdered i bed while the father, Arthur, the chief, and the son Patrick have gone missing.
Director Stephen Cognetti uses the found footage technique in this entry of HELL HOUSE. To his credit, Cognetti builds up each character in the story so that his audience can connect with each character, The film is an example of low-budget filmmaking, the director reported to be working full time while making this film.
The film ends up a combination of a haunted house and found footage horror that works reasonably well given the limitations of the script. Horror fans should not complain.
The film will screen at the IFC Center Theatre on Tuesday, October 24 in New York as part of the Shudder Showcase, a monthly series that serves up special advance screenings of some of the leading genre platform's most exciting and provocative upcoming titles.
The film will be available to anyone with a Shudder or AMC+ subscription in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Latin America, Spain and Portugal.
Shudder offers a promotion to watch HELL HOUSE ORIGINS for free, For fans who do not yet have a subscription, Shudder offers a 7-day free trial. Terror Films Releasing has teamed with Shudder to offer this special promo code: HELL HOUSE LLC The code will be good for a 14-day Free Trial from the date of activation, but this special code expires on October 21, 2023, so be sure to activate it before October 21 but no earlier than October 18 to catch the premiere of Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor on October 30.
Trailer:
THE KILLER (USA 2023) ****
Directed by David Fincher
Filmmaker David Fincher took the project to Netflix knowing that he would be allowed more freedom and perhaps more money for THE KILLER, a nuanced thriller from a nuanced and stylish director known for breaking the rules in his creation of crime films like THE USUAL SUSPECTS, his biggest and critically successful hit. Netflix has again got a winner, which explains Netflix being the best and most profitable streaming service in the world, hands down. Netflix stock has gained 16% in one day as a result of beat earnings and subscriber growth. Netflix notably finances films from other countries making it profitable in those countries as well.
Three ’S’s best describe THE KILLER. Slick, stylish and sexy.
The film begins with THE KILLER (Michael Fassbender) priming a kill, after spending many days in observation. THE KILLER then describes how boring the job of a killer like himself is, and if one cannot survive boring, then this job is not up your alley. “How difficult it is to endure boredom,” he says. Yet, believe it or not, director Fincher attempts to prove otherwise - that boring can be entertaining and succeeds tremendously in proving the fact. Director Fincher shows boredom without being boring. This of course shows director Fincher’s prowess, with some groundbreaking filmmaking, With long waits for a killing and with things going wrong, and with lots and lots of voiceovers of the killer contemplating what life means, like being part of the few but not of the many; the importance of not being recognized erc.. The story unfolds in a no-nonsense, very slick way, divided into 7 parts (maybe a nod to Fincher’s film SE7EN), each party with the killer targeting a different hit. They all tie into the story in a very stylish way.
The fight choreography, especially the ultra-violent extensive one in the middle of the film is reminiscent of JOHN WICK 4, though this is by far, the more superior film. Scenes like Michael Fassbender crouching naked in a shower stall are also tremendously sexy as is the aforementioned macho fight between the two muscled men.
The film is not without humour, and the humour is a mix between deadpan and observational. The funniest remark is made on the Tilda Swinton character. “What does she look like?’ The killer asks. “She looks like a cotton swab,” comes the answer. And the description is dead correct, which the killer also admits. There are quite a few surprises in how things turn out in each of the killer’s targets, and it is neat to note how everything turns to shit after his first mistake of missing his target. But one has to dismiss a bit of creditability as the killer has managed to attain dozens of different passports and lots of cash and weapons, with no reason given. But such are expert killers in the field. No one ever questions how James Bond can become on top of everything.
The film is an adaptation of the Matz French comic book The Killer, with Allesandro Camon writing the script. The script gets my vote for one of the best-adapted screenplays of the year.
THE KILLER opens for a limited run at the TIFF Bell Lightbox before streaming onto Netflix. Best scene on the big screen and maybe a repeat screening on Netflix.
SISTER DEATH (Spain 2023) ***
Directed by Paco Plaza
Somewhat related to the well-known horror flick VERONICA, this Spanish horror movie is a well-crafted horror film from start to end.
The film begins with an ambiguous scene in which a young girl holds a cross to defend her villagers from some evil, seen at a distance. She has some powers as the villagers congregate around her. The film flowers 10 years later in what is now the present and Chapter 1 of the story entitled “The Holy Girl”. The audience sees a new nun entering a school concerted from a previous convent. The girl is now this sister being shown the ropes at the new school.
But the sister has doubts. She confesses to the priest that she is not ready. “And what if the vision is not the Mother Mary? she asks. The priest says that things would get better if she fasted and prayed, but she is still not convinced. And things get strange.
Director Plaza enlivens his film with some humour. Mother Superior tells the sister: “You think Was not young and beautiful like you? I would have become a cabaret artist.”
SISTER DEATH is not a bad horror film, though a bit of a slow burn (her first class is tense and two of her pupils have to be excused from the class, one peed in her clothes), but beware and be warned, aided by some solid period atmosphere. The cinematography is stunning with the pretty nuns all clothed in pure white amidst an often dark and black background.
It is surprising Shudder did not pick this film up. SISTER DEATH opens for streaming this week (October 27th) on Netflix.
WHEN EVIL LURKS (Argentina 2023) ***½
Directed by Demian Rugna
WHEN EVIL LURKS from Argentina, marks one of the best possession horror films in a while. One of the possessed persons is just a bundle of boils and pus and downright ugly to look at if one can bear to look at him. WHEN EVIL LURKS is one prized horror film, in fact, one of the best acquired for premiering on Shudder, the horror streaming network, Though the film is premiering at TIFF Midnight Madness, the film is available for preview on Shudder for Shudder press.
WHEN EVIL LURKS (an excellent title for a horror movie - one just has to love the word ‘lurks) has all the elements of a good horror film. There is lots of audience anticipation, violence and gore, evil in its vilest form and a confrontation climax where the evil is finally dealt with.
Director Rugna creates new rules for his demon possession pic. It is not the Roman Catholic church against Satan. The new rules include not turning electric lights on as the demon can hide in their shadows; no guns can be used to eradicate the possessing demon and staying away from animals which the demon can easily enter. There is also a special gadget that can be used at the end of the film to fight the demon. Though these are creative and spin a change over past rules like Dracula being afraid of sunlight or demons of the cross, it is not established where the origin of these rules or the gadget really comes from.
Pus and Blood is a favourite horrific site used in horror films. LORD OF THE RINGS, New Zealand director Peter Jackson took this to the extreme in his horror flick BRAINDEAD (also released a cut version, direct to video under the new title DEAD ALIVE with several cuts made. I was fortunate to see the uncut version at the Toronto International Film Festival and again on video in its cut version with the pus scene modified In the original BRAINDEAD, the mother, turning into a zombie, is at the dinner table. Her ear falls off into her custard and the pus and blood from one of her boils shoots and lands in the bowl of custard of a dinner guest, who unknowingly scoops a large spoonful of custard hiding the bodily fluids into his mouth, In WHEN EVIL LURKS, the possessed person, after being possessed by a couple of months is in a very sorry state. He is in this case a big pus ball, constantly emitting pus and blood through erupting boils on his face and other parts of his body. It does not help that he is also an obese person, wheezing and begging for someone to kill him and end his suffering. It gets more bloody disgusting, in a good way, if one can take it, as his huge corpse is dragged in a bed sheet out to the car outside, the sheet then ripping and the body falling to the ground. “Get a blanket,” shouts one of the bearers. This is the film’s most grotesque and best scene.
WHEN EVIL LURKS builds up extremely well but suffers a slight letdown at the end. Still, this horror flick has plenty of innovations and scares to offer.
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Highly Recommended and my best international film of the year AUTONOMY OF A FALL opens 25th. Martin Scorsese's epic saga of the Osage murders KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON opens. this week. These two are must-sees.
FILM REVIEWS:
ANATOMIE D’UNE CHUTE (France 2023) ***** Top 10
(The Anatomy of a Fall)
Directed by Justine Triet
The film that both received great applause during the screening at Cannes and the coveted Palme d’Or (Best Film) is a taut courtroom drama and thriller that keeps one glued to the screen from start to end.
Great performances from all especially the lead, Sandra Huller and including the dog that vomits and has its eyes rolled and whitened.
Sandra (Sandra Hüller) is a successful German writer who lives in the French Alps with her husband Samuel (Samuel Theis) and their visually impaired son Daniel (Milo Machado Graner). The son had suffered a visual loss due to a car accident that the father blamed himself for. A brilliant, decibel-bursting opening scene suggests tensions in their isolated chalet, so when Samuel is discovered dead in the snow beneath one of their windows, suspicion is quickly aroused. Did Samuel take his own life, or was he pushed to his death? When the police investigation proves to be inconclusive — its varying angles hinting at the microscopic examination to come — Sandra is ultimately indicted and put on trial.
Sandra insists “I did not kill him.” But her lawyer says that, that fact does not matter and that what matters is what it looks like in court. The prosecuting attorney is understandably nasty and can twist all the evidence against Sandra, forcing her to unveil her emotions and her life. The twist near the film’s end ties all the ends tidily in what is an excellent film all around.
There are many segments that demonstrate both the director’s Triet’s mastery and cinematic verve. The scene in which the judge brings the son into her chambers to tell him that she will not allow him in the court because the trial might be too disturbing for a young kid is a case in point. The boy argues that he has already been hurt by the father’s death and the mother’s trial. When the judge insists that certain facts should not be known to the boy, Daniel replies that he will learn everything from social media and the internet. The camera moves away from the boy’s face to reveal a dilated pupil of his eye, reminding the audience that Daniel is visually impaired. The judge’s reply is not heard but the next scene shows the boy attending the trial. The segment also shows that the judge is not one that always has the correct answers. Another lengthy segment is a recording the court hears of an argument between Sandra and her husband before the accident. Director Triet has the ability to draw her audience into their argument. Their reasons for fighting are very real and something that every couple can relate to.
Director Triet’s film runs over two hours but the time flies in this compelling film. I have seen the film twice once at the Toronto International Film Festival and again with a screen prior to the film’s release. The strength of an excellent film must survive a second viewing. intriguing second viewing.
A must-see for all those who love courtroom drama and relationships/family conflict. The couple fight vigorously but “Samuel is my soul-mate” Sandra declares. ANATOMIE D’UNE CHUTE is filmed in French, English, and a little German.
Trailer:
THE DEVIL ON TRIAL (USA 2023) **
Directed by Christopher Holt
THE DEVIL ON TRIAL explores the first -- and only -- time "demonic possession" has officially been used as a defense in a US murder trial. Including firsthand accounts of alleged devil possession and shocking murder, this extraordinary story forces reflection on the fear of the unknown. According to the doc, there have 3 such cases in England, two involving arson and one rape all three left the defendants acquitted.
It is quite obvious the intention of the doc, just like the intentions of the couple that work as demonologists in the film - out to cash in a quick buck. The doc poses the question of whether the possession is a lie. The answer is given at the end, though there is also some room for doubt.
When the doc’s main subject, David was a child, he was possessed. The adult David speaks to the screen of the past and how does not like all the publicity that goes with it. The obvious question that comes to mind is why then is he doing the interview? This casts a shadow of doubt over what he is saying in the interview. He for one, believes he was truly possessed and gives vivid accounts of several episodes. Apparently, during his exorcism, the demon was challenged by Arne, who was present and the demon entered Arne. Later on, during one drunken night, Arne stabs and kills his landlord. Arne claims he was possessed and the trial goes on. The verdict of the trial, though quite obvious, not to be revealed in this review, occurs at the 15-minute mark at the end.
The doc gets quite preposterous at one point when it presents the different stages of possession as if it was an authority on the issue. One can only shrug at the sheer audacity of forming rash conclusions.
There are a few questions posed that will answer the question if Arne was possessed when he stabbed his landlord. Firstly, was Arne possessed? The second question is whether Arne was possessed at the time of the stabbing. It is quite obvious that the jury would not fall for the ploy. Director Holt’s doc seems more interested in creating a spectacle than anything else. He includes in the doc footage taken by David’s family, their audio recording, which the film claims are all actual recordings. But it could also be a fact that his son David is playing it up for the parents, as one segment explains the possibility. Director Holt also plays down the verdict of the trial, with the verdict not revealed at the very end, but close to the end.
THE DEVIL ON TRIAL ends up a curiosity piece, basically a tale of a fucked up family and demonologists that would do anything to make a quick buck. Director Holt appears slanted towards not believing all the possessions less the fact that One the murderer was innocent and should be acquitted.
THE DEVIL ON TRIAL is currently streaming on Netflix.
KILLERS OF A FLOWER MOON (USA 2023) ***** TOP 10
Directed by Martin Scorsese
The 3-and-a-half-hour Osage epic marks another lengthy Martin Scorsese picture collaboration after THE IRISHMAN. The film opens in a western town struck rich by oil finds elaborately staged complete with panoramic shots and epic music that sets the stage for another Scorsese masterpiece. If the first 15 minutes of the film is a prelude to what is to come, then the lengthy running time of the film should be a worthy and compelling watch. And it is. A following shot of hundreds of coloured flowers by the mountain explains the use of the film’s title as the audience is also slowly introduced to the ‘killers’ of the story.
In 1897, oil was discovered on the Osage Indian Reservation, or present-day Osage County, Oklahoma. The U.S. Department of the Interior managed leases for oil exploration and production on land owned by the Osage Nation through the Bureau of Indian Affairs and later managed royalties, paying individual allottees. The Okage Indians, the audience is told, are the wealthiest and have the highest pa capital income in America. As part of the process of preparing Oklahoma for statehood, the federal government allotted 657 acres to each Osage on the tribal rolls in 1907. Thereafter, they and their legal heirs, whether Osage or not, had headrights to royalties in oil production, based on their allotments of lands. The headrights could be inherited by legal heirs, including non-Osage. The tribe held the mineral rights communally and paid its members a percentage related to their holdings. This is the background of the story written for the screen by Eric Roth and Scorsese.
Murders were committed for the purposes of taking over the land and wealth of Osage members, whose land was producing valuable oil and who each had headrights that earned lucrative annual royalties. Investigation by law enforcement, including the Bureau of Investigation (BOI, the preceding agency to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, or FBI) revealed extensive corruption among local officials involved in the Osage guardian program.
The film is based on the 2017 book written by David Grann based on these murders. More specifically, members of the Osage tribe in northeastern Oklahoma were murdered under mysterious circumstances in the 1920s, sparking a major BOI (which became the FBI in 1935) investigation directed by a 29-year-old J. Edgar Hoover and former Texas Ranger Tom White, described by Grann as "an old-style lawman.DiCaprio) who underestimates the evil of his uncle which includes murder and more murder. FBI agent Tom White (Jesse Plemons) eventually brings the truth to light.
The stellar cast provide stellar performances. DiCaprio and De Niro ship as do Brendan Fraser and Jesse Plemons.
Director Scorsese takes a risk at a surprise ending (not to be revealed here) that goes completely against the grain of his entire film. The gamble works, however. KILLERS shows the Master attempting and succeeding at diverse filmmaking.
Apple Original Films’ KILLERS OF A FLOWER MOON starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, and Lily Gladstone premiered at Cannes to rave reviews and a standing g ovation opened in theatres around the world, including IMAX® theatres, on Friday, October 20, 2023.
Trailer:
NIGHT OF THE HUNTED (USA 2023) ***
Directed by Franck Khalfoun
Why is this happening to me? This is the all-important question the protagonist, Alice, the victim of an unknown sniper who has her trapped in an isolated gas station store needs to find out, in this low-budget, basically single handler horror suspense flick entitled NIGHT OF THE HUNTER (not to be confused with the noir classic Charles Laughton’s 1955 NIGHT OF THE HUNTER).
When an unsuspecting woman (Camille Rowe, NO LIMIT) stops at a remote gas station in the dead of night, she is made the plaything of a sociopathic sniper with a secret vendetta. To survive she must not only dodge his bullets and fight for her life, but also figure out who wants her dead and why.
The film opens with quite a number of clues, though one suspects that many will be false ones. The woman has just completed her company conference and is on the way the next morning to a fertility clinic. The husband on the phone ushers her on. She is picked up by a colleague in his car in the very early hours of the morning. They take a detour on Route 51 and end up at the gas station doing a fill-up. As the woman enters the gas station store to get a few what-nots, the sniper strikes. Her colleague is outside in the car, wondering why she is taking so long. As the colleague enters the gas station store to look for her, another bullet from the sniper catches the man in the jugular.
Though NIGHT OF THE HUNTED is not half bad, the premise of the sniper trapping his victim in the store has its limitations and one can only do so much with the limited scenario which means limited opportunity for suspense. Director Khalfoun, to his credit, creates quite a few little side distractions, mainly in terms of random cars entering the gas station. The sniper targets these random customers too. Director Khalfoun also adds as much blood into his feature as he can to up the angst - as the sniper hits John’s (the colleague) jugular and wounds Alice in several bloody spots. The mystery of who the killer is is also limited by the number of characters ninth story. It does not really matter who the killer is as the story is not set to be a whodunit. One hint is that the killer knows Alice very well. Another hint is the affair that might be going on between the colleague, John, and Alice. (They share the same bed at the motel while attending the conference. Yet another hint is the predator’s occupation, such he is such a good shot, hardly misses a thing. Director Khalfoun uses the night seeing at one point by Alice hits the light switch to turn off the lights in the ninth store so that the viper cannot see her. She also pushes the rack of products, using it as a shield. The film also offers lots of opportunities for product placement as Alice hides at several different areas in the store from the pop refrigerators showing various Coke products and shelves showing canned goods from Hormel and other companies.
Director Khalfoun put in his two cents worth regarding social issues like the ethics of pharmaceutical companies and the Iraq War.
NIGHT OF THE HUNTED is a Shudder original film and opens for streaming this week on the horror streaming service.
NYAD (USA 2023) ***½
Directed by Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi
NYAD tells the amazing true story of Diana Nyad (Annette Bening) who on her fifth attempt finally made the open water swim from Cuba to the Florida Keys. In Greek Nyad, means water nymph, the name her Greek father (though not her biological father), gave to her. Nyad believes the name water nymph is linked to destiny. Though hardly necessary to be shown as flashbacks, there are a few flashbacks of a young Nyad seen training in swimming with her Greek father.
Annette Bening and Oscar Winner Jodie Foster star in this film depicting the true story of Diana Nyad’s attempt to become the first person to swim from Cuba to the US without a shark cage, decades after she retires from the sport. She finally made it in the film's last reel, no spoiler here, as it is already record-breaking news,
At the age of 60, Nyad is frustrated about the way she left her swimming career behind and starts training once again to do the marathon swim she failed 30 years prior. Her best friend, Bonnie Stoll (Foster), thinks it is a little foolish, but has no choice except to jump in as her coach once it becomes clear that Nyad is not backing down. It is made known from the beginning of the film, that both females prefer same-sex relationships, and though they had dated in the past, have remained best friends at all costs. When navigator John Bartlett (a more serious Rhys Ifans), comes on board with the project, they finally have someone to guide her through the shark-infested waters of the Florida Straits. The arduous swim takes a shocking toll on her body, and Nyad’s obsession starts to wear on the team.
Running at two hours directors Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin make sure no stone is left unturned in terms of the torture and sacrifice both Nyad and her dedicated team (a total of 40) endure. The directors are no strangers to extreme endeavors, using their documentary background from FREE SOLO and THE RESCUE to help frame this voyage with archival material where we get to see and hear a young Diana Nyad dive into her passion.
The film includes a subplot involving the friendship of Bonnie and Diane. They have a big argument confrontation - a scene that demonstrates the power of these two excellent actors, both deserving of an Academy Award nomination - no less.
At the end of the swim and success, Diane Nyad offers three solid pieces of advice to the world. Never give up on your dreams and two other ones that will not be revealed in this review. The film ends with shots of the real Bonnie, Nyad and John Barnett, the latter who has sadly passed away.
NYAD premiered at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival with director Chai present for a Q and A. The film opens Friday, October 20th at the TIG+FF Bell Lightbox. NYAD is a Netflix original film and will be streaming on the streaming service.
Trailer:
OLD DADS (USA 2023) ***
Directed by Bill Burr
OLD DADS (USA 2023) **
Directed by Bill Burr
OLD DADS is filmmaker Bill Burr’s comedic debut. He writes( with co-writer Ben Tishler), directs, and performs in OLD DDS a comedy about 3 friends who become fathers at a later age and learn about child rearing with a time context. So, they find themselves battling preschool principals, millennial CEOs, and anything created after 1987.
It is a simple premise which means there is no plot restrictions in the opportunity (in this case, the comedy comes with pervasive language, drug-use, and other warnings) of comedy. Like harlequin romance novels and such based films, there is always some obstacle to the romance that must be overcome in order for the romantic happily-ever-after Hollywood ending. The same goes for comedy. There must be some problem that comes in the way of the subjects, a problem or obstacle that must be overcome with perhaps some life lessons learned on the way. The problem with Jack (Burr) is his calling Doctor L, the principal of his kid’s preschool a stumpy cunt. he has three months to make amends as she has the power to recommend Jack’s son to the better schools. This is hard for foul-mouth, impatient, and opinionated for Jack to do. The main obstacle to a happy ever-after story in the film is Jack's anger. He cannot control his anger, especially when he is told what to do. The comedy is not as funny as Burr and his ci-writer think, but they do give the humour their best shot. But the film’s unfortunately full of cliches, so do not expect any surprises from this comedy,
“Don’t bring up politics. Don’t bring up religion. Don’t tell another how to raise their kids.” appears ti be one life lesson. This is the philosophy the 3 men have to maintain their friendship.’ The magic question in all this is whether the films are funny. The dialogue might be comedic but other components like the actors and director’s comedic timing are more important factors. The first scene has one kid beating another with a stick and the dads accessing the situation, just as the audience accesses the film. It is amusing like the movie, but nothing groundbreaking in terms of comedy. One should give filmmaker Burr full marks for trying.
The film does manage to pull off a few genuine funny scenarios, like the one where Dr. L, the lady principal that jack just cannot stand (yes, the one he had previously called a stumpy cunt) decides to guide Jack to find the proper way. When Jack brings an olive tree to the school as a peace offering, Dr. L not only claims that the plant will bring insects not compatible with the ecosystem but laughs at the fact that she believes the olive tree is a plant version of Jack. Other than that
One surprise is the appearance of Bruce Dern as a driver, his name only appears in the closing credits.
OLD DADS is a Netflix original comedy that opens for streaming on Netflix on October the 20th, 2023.
AIN HUSTLERS (USA 2023) ***
Directed by David Yates
The film introduces its protagonist Liza Drake (Emily Blunt) as an awful person. As her co-worker interviewed by the crime squad describes her; she would do anything it takes and is an awful person. But can one blame her, is the question the film seeks to examine.
So, the film paints a different picture - that of a desperate person, initially a pole dancer who tries her best to make it good for her epileptic daughter and herself. One can surely sympathize with a single mother sacrificing for her daughter, despite also caring for herself. This is all not too rare as the story is based on the real-life story of capitalism run amok in a journal article — chronicled by journalist Evan Hughes in his 2022 narrative non-fiction book, The Hard Sell.
Like the book, the film lures one into the glamour and excitement of success, however, it may be achieved. Liza Drake is a single mum working as a dancer at a bar when she meets Pete Brenner (Chris Evans), a greasy drug rep for a pharmaceutical startup on the verge of bankruptcy. Two desperate people meet. Desperate times call for desperate measures. With a hunch about her talent, he recruits her to peddle a new kind of opioid designed to give pain relief to cancer patients.
The film is interesting enough to show all the ins and outs of the pharmaceutical marketing business and how these companies make their money at the expense of sufferers. It is clearly the pharmaceutical company that is the villain of the piece and the film treats this as so, with the victims as innocent manipulated employees. Predictable but still entertaining. A Netflix original film, PAIN HUSTLERS is also besides being entertaining, informative and insightful with a message to boot.
THE PERSIAN VERSION (USA 2023) *** ½
Directed by Maryam Keshavarz
THE PERSIAN VERSION is a personal, semi-autobiographical film (a true story - sort of, the words on the screen tease) about a young Iranian American woman who strives to balance her two opposing cultures (American and Iranian), a story that also serves to be a universal one about mother and daughter, families and secrets.
The film begins with a humourous and light though quite lengthy introduction of Leila and her family, before moving to the present day and the business at hand. The film then moves to the Present day, 2000s New York/New Jersey. As the sole girl among eight brothers, Leila (Layla Mohammadi) leads a lifestyle that disappoints her mother Shirin (Niousha Noor) – be it her same-sex relationship (now over) or her career choice (filmmaking, not academia). Then Leila impulsively hooks up with an English actor (Tom Byrne) after a Halloween party where she dons a burkini (burka and bikini) and he wore the drag queen costume from his lead role in Hedwig and the Angry Inch. It seems her mother is going to be disappointed again.
Meanwhile, Leila’s father Ali Reza (Bijan Daneshmand) is getting a heart transplant. Shirin tells Leila to leave the hospital (although her brothers are there) and instead take care of her mamanjoon/grandmother (Bella Warda). To Lelia’s surprise, mamanjoon brings up a family scandal. Scandal? The scandal is the twist in the story that is revealed only at the end of the film.
The film then flashes back to the 1960s (and later to other decades) in Iran when a very young Shirin (Kamand Shafieisabet) married newly graduated doctor Ali Reza (Shervin Alenabi).
Spanning 50 years, the film offers several flashbacks, including 1985 Iran when, as a kid, Leila (Chiara Stella) was the only sibling allowed to travel there because girls couldn’t be drafted into the Iranian military. Even then, she was strong-minded, smuggling tapes of American music into the country.
The film is brimming with explosive colour, vibrant dance scenes (Persian style that looks similar to the Bollywood choreography), and lots of pop, including Cyndi Lauper’s original “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” and a reworked Persian version of the song that plays over the end credits.
There are a number of reasons THE PERSIAN VERSION stands out as enduring entertainment. Among them:-
It is an international story one with the American and the other with the Iranian points of view.
It is a personal story that the audiences can root for, as well as to be able to relate to.
There are colourful characters Like the family matriarch and the grandmother as well as colourful situations (the partying; heart transplant surgery)
The easy-flowing nature of the story unfolds - within different decades, yet flows so smoothly
The film contains a few highs as well. One is the applause Leila recovers once her short film has been screened in a theatre. Another is the mother getting the news that her neck injury wins her enough money to cover her husband’s medical bills.
One of the film’s more amusing segments plays like an old Sergio Leone Italian Spaghetti Western complete with Ennio Morricone-like whistling musical score. And Leila’s aunt rides around on a bicycle reminiscent of the “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head” segment in George Roy Hill’s BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID hit.
In 2011, the director's first narrative feature Circumstance – about the sexual desire between two teen girls in Iran – won the US Dramatic Audience Award at Sundance but also got her banned from ever returning to the Islamic Republic THE PERSIAN VERSION opens on October 20 in Toronto (Varsity & Empress Walk), Vancouver (Fifth Avenue) and Montreal!
Trailer:
SICK GIRL (USA 2023) **
Directed by Jennifer Cram
The new ‘female buddy’ comedy SICK GIRL is so called because the woman-child Wren has not grown up while her other three friends have, two of them having kids. “Why do people change?” Wren complains while in a jail cell after being arrested for attacking a bartender. Her friends put up with her, but just barely. “I can only have one child,” one complains.
When Wren Pepper (Nina Dobrev) feels her closest friends slipping away, she lets loose a little white lie that snowballs into a colossal, life-altering event. She claims she has cancer, to invoke sympathy and hope to get the attention missing recently from her other three friends. Hence the title of the comedy - SICK GIRL. This is Jennifer Cram’s feature film debut, a take on the price of insecurity and the rewards of true friendship. Wendi McLendon-Covey (The Goldbergs), Dan Bakkedahl (Veep), Bran Another point is the question of why Wren’s three friends are so clueless on whether Wren is telling the truth about the cancer.
There are some horrific segments like the one in which the 4 girls dance, trying to look cool and funny. The comedy has degraded to pathetic at this point. So what else can happen after Wren lies about her cancer? Apparently, not much, Other desperate attempts at laughter include the automatic cost of the mini-van door and baldness related to cancer.
The story includes a slight romance between Wren and a coloured cancer patient named Leo, suffering from liver cancer from her cancer support group. The romance also increases the monotony of the proceedings
She lies in a fit of desperation, at the film’s 15-minute mark that she has cancer is the point at which one should make the inevitable decision whether to quit this sorry comedy or carry on, hoping that it will get better. The answer is left to the viewer.
So in a story like this, the truth about Wren’s lie will eventually surface. As the old adage goes: The truth will out! This is the only thing that the story heads to is what happens then.
Adele Lim’s co-wrier of CRAZY RICH ASIANS) JOY RIDE, the other female young adult comedy which co-stars Sherry Cola, also in this film looks like a masterpiece compared to SICK GIRL.
Jenifer Cram’s SICK GIRL opens in theatres as well as on digital and on-demand on October the 20th, 2023.
Trailer:
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