Two entertaining and compelling documentaries to watch include CON MUM from Netflix and AUM about a Japanese killer cult. Two excellent films, MISERICORDIA from France and GRAND TOUR, are Must-Sees!
FILM REVIEWS:
AUM: THE CULT AT THE END OF THE WORLD (USA 2023) ***
Directed by Ben Braun and Chiaki Yanagimoto
The doc begins with the deadly nerve gas attack at several key Tokyo subway systems. Footage shows police entering the stations while casualties are carried by medics to ambulances. The incident occurred in 1995.
In 1995, the world was horrified when the release of a deadly nerve gas in Tokyo’s crowded subway system killed thirteen people and injured thousands more. But what came next was even more unbelievable: The attack was the work of a doomsday cult. In AUM: THE CULT AT THE END OF THE WORLD, directors Ben Braun and Chiaki Yanagimoto shine a bright light on a dark story that is little known today, even in Japan, tracing the shocking evolution of a spiritual group into a terrorist organization stockpiling weapons of mass destruction from the collapsed Soviet Union. With a wealth of historical footage as well as in-depth interviews with the courageous few who were willing to take on the cult when Japan’s police and mass media were looking the other way, AUM: THE CULT AT THE END OF THE WORLD is a potent reminder of just how dangerous unchecked fanaticism can be.
The timeline of the events (Warning: Spoilers) that are documented in the doc include:
1983. A man named Chizuo Matsumoto, who changed his name to Shoko Asahara, founded a spiritual group in Japan for the stated purposes of meditation and yoga and began gathering followers.
1985. Asahara is covered in Japanese occult magazines "Mu" and "The Twilight Zone" and gains a following among youth at the time.
1987. The group renames itself Aum Shinrikyo and continues to grow. Shoko Asahara travels to Tibet and arranges to have a picture of himself taken with the Dalai Lama. He publishes books and produces anime claiming that he has supernatural powers.
1989. Aum purchases land in a remote village near Mount Fuji called Kamikuishiki Village. They begin construction on a large-scale facility meant to house Asahara and live-in followers. The total number of followers has grown to 3,000 by this time.
1989. A lawyer named Tsutsumi Sakamoto, who has been investigating Aum Shinrikyo on behalf of parents concerned about children who have joined the cult, goes missing along with his wife and their one-year-old son.
1990. Members of Aum Shinrikyo, including Shoko Asahara himself, form a political party and run for twenty-five seats in Japan’s House of Representatives. They pour millions into the campaign but lose in a spectacular way, not winning a single seat. After this loss, some members begin to leave Aum Shinrikyo.
1991. In the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union, Shoko Asahara and some of his followers start a long process of recruiting followers in Russia. In Japan, He appears on Japanese television shows promoting the group. They are increasingly focused on Armageddon and interested in weaponry; in Russia, they begin to purchase weapons, including rifles, a heavy-duty transport helicopter. In Germany and the United States, they acquire industrial chemicals with the intent to create a nerve agent.
1993. Aum Shinrikyo members secretly begin construction on a chemical lab within their facility in Kamikuishiki with the intent to produce Sarin, a deadly nerve agent.
1994. Aum Shinrikyo members release Sarin in Matsumoto City. Seven people are killed and hundreds more are injured in the immediate aftermath of the attack. Matsumoto resident Yoshiyuki Kono is falsely accused of being responsible for the attack.
1994. Individuals (lawyers, journalists and parents) who are sounding alarm bells about Aum Shinrikyo find themselves under attack by the cult. AUM: THE CULT AT THE END OF THE WORLD
January, 1995. An article in a major Japanese newspaper, the Yomiuri Shimbun reports on Sarinbeing detected in Kamikuishiki groundwater, which happens to be right near Aum's facility. Most people only know Kamikuishiki as an obscure city near Mount Fuji.
March 20, 1995. Aum Shinrikyo members release Sarin on five subway cars traveling through busy Kasumigaseki Station in Tokyo. Thirteen people die; thousands are injured.
March 22, 1995. The police raid Aum Shinrikyo facilities and find Sarin and weapons.
May 16, 1995. Shoko Asahara is discovered hiding in a secret chamber at the Kamikuishiki compound.
September, 1995. The bodies of Tsutsumi Sakamoto, his wife and their son are found using a map provided by a member of Aum Shinrikyo, a map that had initially been sent to police five years earlier.
October, 1995. Aum Shinrikyo is dissolved.
February, 2004. Japan’s high court sentences Shoko Asahara to death.
July 2018. Shoko Asahara is executed along with twelve of his followers. Former Aum spokesman Fumihiro Joyu is not among them; Joyu was released from prison in 1999 and is now leading a new group called Hikari no Wa (The Circle of Light).
The doc follows the timeline closely, thus providing an informative if not educational, account of the deadly cult. The doc also demonstrates how foolish the masses are in following fanatical, power-hungry, evil people, once again reflected by the Trump supporters at present, who are following and accepting everything the hateful man does.
AUM: THE CULT AT THE END OF THE WORLD is available everywhere You Rent movies on March 28th.
Trailer:
CON MUM (UK 2025) ***½
Directed by Nick Green
CON MUM is a Netflix original British crime drama. But the perpetrator in this case is not what would be expected of a criminal. The con artist is an 85-year-old lady in a wheelchair. CON MUM is perhaps one of the most intriguing and emotional scams one can come across. The doc begins by telling the audience that the mum (mother) is a con mum and shows how the alleged son is pulled into her grand scam.
CON MUM has inconsistent (it can hardly be called goofs) subtitles. ‘Favourite’ is the British spelling, and ‘favorite’ is the American spelling. The American spelling is used in the subtitles while the short form of mother used is ‘mum’, the British short form while ‘mom’ is the American equivalent. One can probably surmise that a Brit and American did different parts of the titling.
A few lessons on life can be learnt from the doc. One is that people do not change. Dionne (one of the names Con mum uses) has been a con artist from day one, in her youth right up to her old age. She even admits that she cannot change. Another lesson that can be observed is the need of humans for love and acceptance. This is the reason Graham was so easily conned into believing that Dionne was his mother, despite not taking DNA tests or having sufficient proof. Graham also accepts and cherishes the so-called mother’s maternal love without question or doubt, even to the destruction of his marriage.
The film benefits from footage taken of Graham and Dionne as well as others who have fallen prey to the con. The victims also speak candidly to the camera. The doc plays like a detective mystery, even though the culprit is known. CON MUM is definitely an engaging watch that keeps the audience glued to the story. While one feels sorry for Graham, one also knows that he is deserving of what he suffered for being so gullible and foolish. One can consider that the amount of money he has paid is for the unrequited maternal love.
The doc also proves once again how easy one can be scammed, and again, investment and greed come into play. The other victims of Dionne accepted her proposed investment in the hope of making more money. The key triggering point is when a scammer asks for money. Whenever money is to be taken out of one’s account, warning bells should sound right away. As in the case of Dionne’s victims, they have ignored the warning bells. One fortunate prey is Graham’s good friend Juan, who fortunately had a limited amount of money to lose.
The well-made documentary also takes the audience globe-trotting from London to Switzerland with posh hotels on display, like the one in London with multiple views of Tower Bridge and the Thames,
The best thing about CON MUM is the huge twist in the ending. There are actually two of them, the second one a minor but still intriguing one. These will not be mentioned in the review as the two twists serve to up the ant of the documentary.
CON MUM is available for streaming this week on Netflix.
Trailer:
DEATH OF A UNCORN (USA 2025) **
Directed by Alex Scharfman
From the American independent company A24, which has been incredibly successful with hits like MOONLIGHT, EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONE and HEREDITARY, comes a horror comedy DEATH OF A UNICORN. However, as much as a copa y can have a string of hits, they can come up with a dud as well. DEATH OF A UNICORN, written nd directed by Alex Scharfma,n is an incredibly stupid dud.
For one thing, horror comedy is not a genre that is easy to work with. Peter Jackson’s BRAINDEAD (RECUT AND RETITLED DAED ALIVE) is one of the best films in the genre. DEATH OF A UNICORN is not funny at all; the only comedic antics are the characters in the story who generate zero laugh-out laughs.
Elliot Kintner (Paul Rudd) and his teenage daughter, Ridley (Jenny Ortega,) accidentally hit a unicorn while en route to a crisis management summit with Elliot's boss, Odell Leopold (Richard E. Grant), and his family. The Leopolds seize the unicorn, and their scientists discover that the creature is endowed with supernaturally curative properties, which the Leopolds seek to exploit. However, as they delve deeper into their research, the unicorn's parents arrive and begin to slaughter one by one those involved in the exploitation of their dead foal.
The premise looks like an all right script for a horror comedy- though a totally predictable one. Predictable it surely is, with hardly any surprises or twists in the plot. The addition of the daughter and the father's troubled relationship aims at some human aspect to the story.
Another flaw of the film is the unlikable and sad character Elliot Kinter. His goal in the story is to make a buck with the Leopolds to support his family, totally disregarding the advice and warnings of his daughter. Elliot is totally spineless and changes his mind while lying to further his goal. With such a likeable character, it is difficult for the audience to like the film at the same time. The change in the heart of Elliot only comes too late at the end of the film.
DEATH OF A UNICORN looks like something that can be written by a primary school pupil at that. The special effects are nothing to write about either. The audience is led to believe that unicorns exist in the present world, with no explanation why they were not discovered in the first place. The premise that these mythical creatures cannot die is also too incredible to believe. Then, there is the question of why they turn on humans like the dinosaurs do in the Jurassic Park movies. However, the film has garnered a positive rating at the time of this writing of a mere 63% at Rotten Tomatoes. Audiences do not seem to realize how awful this film is.
For the Leopold Estate and surroundings, the film is partly shot in British Columbia.
DEATH OF A UNCORN premiered at the 2025 South by Southwest on March 8, 2025, and is scheduled to be released in the United States and Canada on March 28, 2025.
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GRAND TOUR (Portugal/Italy/France/Germany/Japan/China 2024) ****
Directed by Miguel Gomes
The story of Edward and Molly is the story of unrequited love, even though the two had met only a handful of times after being engaged for a period of over 7 years. The idea pokes fun at the institution of marriage, which is always frowned upon and disbelieved in the stories of W. Somerset Maugham. (The narrative is based on the short story "Mabel" by W. Somerset Maugham, though no mention of it can be found in the credits.) It is not surprising that the film is based on his work ‘Mabel’, which follows the travels of both Edward and Molly. Edward is a coward, escaping marriage by running away from place to place while Molly doggedly follows him on, missing him at each corner.
The setting is 1917, colonial Burma. Edward (Gonçalo Waddington), a civil servant for the British Empire, jilts his lovestruck fiancée Molly (Crista Alfaiate) the day she arrives to be married. He escapes into an unexpected odyssey across Asia, from Singapore to Thailand to Japan and even Vietnam. She quickly follows suit, amused by his moves.
The film features two subjects, Edward and Molly, given equal screen time. Both are annoying creatures - Edward the coward and Molly the obsessive finale who giggles as if she is spitting saliva. The story first unfolds from Edward’s side and then continues with the original timeline from Molly’s story.
The film works as a romance, travelogue and comedy-drama, with the comedy coming across as odd but workably funny. The director’s style might take some audiences to get used to, and its slow pace can get a bit testy. This is not a Hollywood-styled romantic comedy, that is for sure, and one must look at Gomes’s style as a welcome thing.
Period scenes were shot in a studio. Present-day scenes were shot live on location without a script. There is one scene in which Edward takes the train from Bukit Timah station to Thailand through Malaysia. There is no Bukit Timah railway station in Singapore and there never was. The only railway station is the one close to the causeway going directly to Johore, Malaysia. Other than that, the period scenes of the ancient boats and sampans all serve to effectively create an authentic piece of filmmaking.
Also stunning and deserving of mention is the artistic and local Burmese puppetry (show puppetry) that has never been seen on the other side of the world. The musical selection ranges from Johann Strauss II's "On the Beautiful Blue Danube" (1866) to Charles Trenet's "La Mer" (1946), in a 1959 version by Bobby Darin, to Gabriel Ruiz Galindo's classic "Amor" (1944), are performed by a band of old Chinese jazzmen in the film. There is also a marvellous segment of a marching band playing in the rain as Edward arrives at a port.
Rendered in stunning black-and-white period visuals interspersed with modern-day documentary footage, Grand Tour–Portugal’s Best International Feature entry to the 97th Academy Awards®. The film also won its director, Miguel Gomes (TABU and ARABIAN NIGHTS), the Best Director Prize at Cannes in 2024.
GRAND TOUR opens in theatres in Canada starting March 28th, in Toronto at the TIFF Lightbox on April 4th, and will be available for streaming on MUBI starting April 18th, 2025.
Trailer:
THE LIFE LIST (USA 2025) **
Directed by Adam Brooks
THE LIFE LIST is written and directed by Adam Brooks and adapted from the novel of the same name by Lori Nelson Spielman.
After the death of her mother, Alex (Sofia Carson) follows a teenage wish list her mother leaves for her to complete. In the process, she revisits her childhood aspirations, endeavouring to achieve her old goals, only to discover that pursuing these lifelong dreams takes her on an unforeseen and surprising journey.
From the beginning, the premise is nothing more than a disguise for a romantic comedy, and at over 2 hours long, it is a too lengthy one at that. Mildly funny (if you find something like Hawaiian dancing in the bedroom with one’s long erect in front of kids funny), irrelevant and tedious, the film is fortunately a Netflix original, which means that one can take a break from the film. Alex is disappointed, if not terribly upset for not inheriting her mother’s somatic business.
The film’s message of disposing of fortune and to look instead of what life has to offer, is a bit too obvious for anyone’s taste.
The various actors appear to go through the motions of acting, with no standout performances.
THE LIFE LIST opens on Netflix for streaming Friday, the 28th of March, 2025.
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MISERICORDE (MISERICORDIA) (France 2024) ****
Directed by Alain Giuraudie
Returning to Saint-Martial for his late boss's funeral, Jérémie's stay with widow Martine becomes entangled in a disappearance, a threatening neighbor, and an abbot's shady intentions.
MISERICORDE has the feel of a Claude Chabrol murder film in which the cat-and-mouse tale is mainly the mouse outwitting the cat with the aid of his cohorts. The film is a prized twisted macabre tale with bouts of unexpected humour from the director of the 2014 gay hit L’CONNU DU LAC (Stranger by the Lake), this one with the fabulous Catherine Frot as a widow. who takes in Jérémie (Félix Kysyl) as a lodger whose sensual presence is immediately and progressively destabilizing to everyone around him. Martine (Catherine Frot) happens to be the mother of his childhood friend, the brutish Vincent (Jean-Baptiste Durand).
Catherine Frot is always a pleasure to watch, she being one of my personal favourite French actresses. Newcomer Félix Kysyl is also marvellous as the quietly sexy troublemaker, who has fate both work against and for him, depending on how one looks at it. The twists of fate and unexpected bouts of humour are what make director Giuraudie's film so entertaining. MISERICORDIA means Mercy in English.
The film demonstrates that actual fake rain need not be used in a scene that involves it. One scene has the sound of heavy rain, followed by a scene with Jeremie drenched from head to foot. But there is no rain seen in the background. Yet, the scene is credible enough for the audience to believe that it rained.
Subtlety in the script also provides additional pleasure in the film. "We are all entitled to a private life,"says the preist at one point in the film, his homosexuality hidden and never practiced till then.
The duo’s interactions are terse and laden with resentment but clearly erotically charged. When a fight goes awry, Misericordia swerves into noir territory with absurdist undertones, and an ensuing investigation spirals around a loner neighbour, ineffectual gendarmes, and a nosy country priest — seemingly the only inhabitants in this dewy, mountainous village perpetually bathed in twilight. No sex scenes but there are two with full penises on display, that are both erotic and hilarious. MISEROCORDE, extremely well plotted and executed, is a total wicked delight!
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THE PENGUIN LESSONS (UK/Spain 2024) ***½
Directed by Peter Cattaneo
From the director, Peter Cattaneo of THE FULL MONTY, comes arguably the most charming movie at TIFF. In the spirit of films like TO SIR WITH LOVE and GOODBYE, MR. CHIPS comes this endearing story of an English teacher working in politically dangerous Argentina. The year is 1976. Tom (Steve Coogan) lands in Buenos Aires to take up a teaching position at a prestigious English boarding school. When a coup d’état shuts down the school, he hops next door to Uruguay to party. A romantic foray leads to a walk along the beach, which leads to the sight of a penguin drenched in oil from a spill. Against his better judgment, Tom rescues the bird, which unlocks its undying loyalty. He's forced to sneak the flightless beast back to Argentina and thus begins a strange and beautiful friendship. Slow-moving and never rushed, the message of humanity and kindness amidst a cruel world comes across clearly in this crowd-pleaser.
A WORKING MAN (USA 2025) ***
Directed by David Ayer
Action super hero Jason Statham delivers, almost without fail, a solid action picture every year. He is tough to beat and cannot even beat himself. Last year, 2024 saw Statham deliver his career-best movie THE BEEKEEPER directed by David Ayer, who also directs Statham’s new film opening this week, A WORKING MAN. THE BEEKEEPER follows a retired government assassin who sets out for revenge after his kind-hearted landlady falls victim to a phishing scam.
The working man in the film is Levon Cade (Statham), an ex-Royal Marines commando who leads a peaceful life as a construction worker in Chicago. Levon tries to be as ignite as he can, but fate forces him to come out of hiding. However, Levon is forced to use his old set of skills to find his boss's (Michael Pena) teenaged daughter, Jenny (Arianna Rivas), who had been kidnapped by human traffickers, and soon uncovers a conspiracy of corruption and government agents' involvement in human trafficking.
The film is based on a novel by Chuck Dixon and written by Sylvester Stallone and director Ayer. The film contains the melodrama of ROCKY, especially embarrassingly noticeable at the end of the film, a Stallone trademark. The relationship between Levon and his real daughter, Merry Cade (Isla Gee) could have also been toned down a little. On the positive side, the film contains an array of solid baddies that propel the audience to wanting more violence inflicted on them. Among the villains are Jason Flemyng as Wolo and a host of others, but the scene stealer is Max Osinski as the drug-fueled manic Dimi. The villains actually lift the film up several notches; in fact, they are more interesting than the action set pieces themselves.
The film has an odd history. Sylvester Stallone originally developed an adaptation of the Chuck Dixon novel Levon's Trade as a television series with Balboa Productions. The project changed into a film that was up for sale at the 2023 American Film Market.
The bottom line is that I liked this new Statham actioner more than I should have. Though not as good as his previous career-best BEEKEEPER, WORKING MAN proves Statham retains the title of the current cinema's last action hero. A WORKING MAN opens in theatres on March 28th, 2025
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