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FILM REVIEWS:
AUTUMN AND THE BLACK JAGUAR (Le Dernier Jaguar) (Canada/France/Germany 2023) ***½
Directed by Gilles de Maistre
If the director’s name sounds familiar, AUTUMN AND THE BLACK JAGUAR is the third film from Gilles de Maistre and Prune de Maistre following the hit family films MIA AND THE WHITE LION and THE WOLF AND THE LION. It marks another successful wild animal and human adventure story.
Growing up in the Amazon rainforest gave Autumn (Lumi Pollack) the rarest of friendships - a lost jaguar cub she discovers named Hope. When a tragic event forces Autumn to leave Hope for the unknowns of New York City, she dreams for years of going back to the rainforest and her friend. Aged 14, and having grown accustomed to city life, Autumn discovers her childhood village is under threat from animal traffickers and decides she must return to the Amazon to her beloved jaguar. Anja - Autumn's endearingly clumsy biology teacher (Emily Bett Rickards, providing some slapstick humour) - unsuccessfully tries to dissuade her from this reckless plan. Joined by Anja, Autumn embarks on a journey to reunite with Hope and save her from those who seek to destroy the rainforest and its wildlife.
This is a decent family film, entertaining while having a solid message on the environment and the saving of endangered species.
Some excitement is provided as well, as in one scene where Hope the jaguar fights off a menacing snake. The encounter between the jaguar and the snake is more exciting than the silly-looking battles in GODZILLA X KONG.
The issues covered in the film include deforestation in the Amazon which is huge and out of control. There is also animal trafficking like almost nowhere else in the world. Our films often come from a message that is more optimistic, taking a child’s point of view. and the film will speak equally to children from France, Colombia, China or Morocco. As in the Whitney Houston song "The Greatest Love of All”, the lyrics go: Children are the future, and they will lead the way. …. The director has made documentaries dealing with childhood for 40 years, and especially child suffering.
There are two real jaguars used in the film - no CGI. The filmmakers retrieved two baby jaguars from Mexican breeders (animal trade is legal there) and the animal coordinators immediately took care of them and their well-being. Jaguars are on the verge of extinction, mainly due to deforestation.
The film has a few sappy moments. For example: Autumn is told by her mother activist before she is gone: that she is to say the words: “I will always be loved. There is nothing to be afraid of. There is nothing I can do wrong.” To this effect, Autumn decides at the one-third mark of the film to leave NYC and travel back to the Amazon to save the black panther. “My father doesn’t understand me. You do not understand me! I know it is dangerous. My friend is in danger and I have to save my friend.” She says to her biology teacher who ends up trailing her.
AUTUMN AND THE BLACK JAGUAR opens in theatres on March 29th.
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FEMME (UK 2022) ***
Directed by Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping
With his performances as a drag queen at a London gay club, performance name: Aphrodite Banks, Jules (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, CANDYMAN) has a place among London’s celebrated drag artists. One night after a show, Jules steps out to get some cigarettes and is brutally attacked by a man (George MacKay, 1917), out with a gang of his friends. Although Jules recovers physically, he withdraws from the outside world, traumatized. Months later, he recognizes his attacker by chance in a gay sauna. Without make-up and wrapped only in a towel, Jules is able to approach the other man incognito and find out who he is. He begins an affair with the closeted Preston, with a plan to take his revenge.
Actor Stewart-Jarrett and George MacKay are both excellent performers who carry this sexually charged revenge drama. The dark and seedy atmosphere of the gay London clubs where bare walls showing bricks are reminiscent of the real gay clubs in London. Wherever there is a venue available, the gays will gather and party. Directors Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping keep their film on track as a steamy thriller though a few flaws exist in terms of credibility. The main one of Preston not recognizing Jules is one main factor. There is even a segment where Preston notices a scar from the bashing on his head. Jules dismisses it as a scar from a fight which Preston believes totally. “Give me a name and I will fuck him up,” is Preston’s response to Jules.
The film features both Preston’s friends (if one can call them friends, as they are just hang-outs) and Jules’ as well. These characters build up the world around the two main characters.
The villain of the piece, Preston, the gay drag basher is depicted in the film as totally despicable with zero redeeming qualities. This makes him too easy a target as a villain in the story. Preston admits that he has a short temper. Preston is manipulative, always angry, rude, demeaning, untruthful and of course, violent. He is also shown as a drug dealer and a showoff, driving his uncle’s BMW half the time. He is violent in both sex and behaviour. The only change in behaviour is shown as a change from dominant to a little submissive for the purpose of sex. If Preston had a few redeeming qualities, the revenge would not only be more difficult to plan out but create a more interesting story.
Actor George MacKay, best known for his performance in 1917, does a marvellous job as Preston. MacKay has donned many different types of roles to enhance his career, this one, one of his boldest. His portrayal of this explosive and volatile character makes the movie, though his conversion from dominating to submissive does not quote work, though this is not totally MacKay’s fault.
FEMME premiered at the 2023 Official Selection, Berlin International Film Festival where it received a standing ovation and was picked up by Elevation Pictures and opens at TIFF Lightbox on March 29th.
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GODZILLA X KONG: THE NEW EMPIRE (USA 2024) **
Directed by Adam Wingard
GODZILLA X KONG is the sequel to the largely successful 2021 epic GODZILLA VS. KONG. The latter film is set five years after the dragon-like extraterrestrial King Ghidorah awakened the monstrous "Titans" around the world and was defeated by Godzilla. Kong is monitored by Monarch within a giant dome on Skull Island, which has been taken over by the storm that previously kept it hidden from the world. Kong is visited by Jia, the last Iwi (Kaylee Hottle) native and young adopted daughter of Kong expert Dr. Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall). Jia is deaf and communicates with Kong via sign language.
In the new film, Kong and Godzilla now unite together against a mysterious Hollow Earth threat known as Skar King, an orangutan-like kaiju. The film also focuses on the previously untold origins of the Titans and Skull Island, which in reality is a complete bore on screen. The battles in the origins are depicted in a segment that looks out of place with the rest of the movie, confusing as it was not announced that it was a flashback.
Last year’s Japanese GODZILLA MINUS ONE is the better movie, a film that won an Oscar for Best Visual Effects. It had a more streamlined story and was more controlled and made more sense than this latest nonsense.
GODZILLA X KONG is all over the place and a basically emotionally hollow experience. The plot includes some mumbo-jumbo about Dr. Andrews and her adopted daughter Jia not being able to belong. It seems that this inconvenience is just put in the story for some human effect in the film, but the cliche-ridden ploy does not work. The film’s climax is the big battle between the monsters, all done with special effects, which means it is a complete emotionless bore again, with exploding pyrotechnics that mean nothing.
The film includes a short tribute to GODZILLA MINUS ONE (2023) with a shot of the ground bursting beneath Godzilla's footfall for the film's Rome sequence
Comic relief is provided by two actors, Dan Stevens who has worked with director Wingard before in the horror film THE GUEST and Brian Tyree Henry as podcaster Berbie. The latter wins more laughs than Stevens who is a more serious actor. Stevens plays a veterinarian called Trapper who specializes in Titans. In a red Hawaiian shirt, Aviator glasses and a goofily charming grin, Stevens could have been Dr. Andrews’ romantic interest.
The best King Kong/Godzilla movie remains the 1962 Japanese classic entitled KING KONG VS, GODZILLA. As a young kid, my parents brought me to see it several times. The night segment in which a train travels through the mountains where a monster appears remains the most frightening in a child’s (my) memory.
GODZILLA X KONG is less a movie than a video game in which the players are someone else. The film proves that two actors in Godzilla and Kong costumes can provide more entertainment and two CGI-generated tag team monsters. Despite all the expense and effort (the production reportedly costs $150 million), the ‘movie’ should have been better than it turned out.
GODZILLA X KONG opens in theatres everywhere on Easter Friday.
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HEART OF THE HUNTER (South Africa 2024) ***
Directed by Mandla Dube
The film is based on the book of the same name by Deon Meyer. This book was dense and complex, exploring historical, political, racial and cultural divisions as tangled as described in other police stories from the country of South Africa. The book earned rave reviews, being named one of the best thrillers of 2004 by the Chicago Tribune, and long-listed for what's now known as the Dublin Literary Award.
Tiny Mpayipheli, a giant man with a gentle demeanor, once earned his living as a government gun for hire. Tiny (named for irony? He is supposedly 6 ft 5 inches in the book) was once a feared assassin and freedom fighter, trained by the Stasi and KGB. In post-apartheid South Africa, he's happily working in a garage. The film disposes o the name Tiny for Zuko. Now leading a quiet, ordered life in the countryside, he is reluctantly summoned back into the game when a trusted old friend is kidnapped. With just seventy-two hours to deliver the ransom, with an army of security forces deployed to stop him, and with a diabolical double agent perilously close to assuming absolute power, Tiny races a hijacked motorcycle across the wilds of backcountry Africa in a thrilling epic adventure.
The fight scenes are done with a wry sense of humour. One fight scene at the start of the film takes place in an abandoned upper floor of a building, the two fight with just one piano in the background. The piano is obviously there for dramatic effect as they fight and bang against the keys, making plunking sounds. Why else is the piano there and one except for no other reason? More humour is provided in the dialogue, especially in the use of overused cliched sayings like Sometimes a few will suffer so that many can benefit. To make an omelet, it takes to break a few eggs. And another: The stone that the builder refuses eventually becomes the cornerstone. Another really silly line brings out laugh-out-loud humour. “I tell you not to give him her son) sugar early in the morning. “The mother says Zuko. “You’re my sugar,” he says humorously to her. These bits enhance the film’s entertainment value and lend a lighter touch to an otherwise serious action film. And another piano appears in another part of the film.
The film has a good build-up in terms of story, plot and suspense, one assuming that the film follows the book closely. Zuko is also retired and living with a woman and her son, which gives the story a romantic slant, The romance is well executed with strong Chemistry between Zuko and his woman, the woman who is then kidnapped for interrogation by the bad guys when Zukogoes off to do his job.
Zuko is supposed to fight for the Alkebu-lan though he says he is doing this for his new family and not for the Alkebu-lan shit, it being the ancient name of Africa meaning “mother of mankind’s ‘Garden of Eden”. HEART OF THE HUNTER is an above-average international (South African) action thriller, full of thrills, action, suspense, romance and colourful locations, not to be missed. The film opens for streaming on Netflix on Easter Friday.
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REST IN PEACE (Descansar en paz) (Argentina 2024) ***
Directed by Sebastián Borensztein
REST IN PEACE is an Argentinean crime drama that plays like a true story as it blends a real-life terrorist attack, the largest one in Argentinian history to its story, The drama surrounds the protagonist, by the name of Sergio who is heavily in debt. He figures there is no way out, until…..
It is all about debt and desperation, “Do you love yourself? Do you love your family?’ asks the debtor to Sergio. Sergio’s worried look tells all. “I want all the money by Monday,” the debtor adds. The threat to the family begins with photographs taken of Sergio’s wife and daughter.
The first 30 minutes of the film are dedicated to illustrating Sergio’s desperation. He has kept it from his wife till a thug from a borrower shows up at his daughter’s bar mitzvah. “You cannot afford to pay back your debt but you throw parties?” asked his biggest lender. A family party almost disintegrates into fistfights as Sergios’ father and brother.
Then a bombing is heard on the news - the AMIA bombing,
The AMIA bombing occurred on 18 July 1994 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and targeted the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA; translates to\: "Argentine Israelite Mutual Association"), a Jewish Community Centre. Executed as a suicidal attack, a bomb-laden van was driven into the AMIA building and subsequently detonated, killing 85 people and injuring over 300. To date, the bombing remains the deadliest terrorist attack in Argentine history. In 1994, Argentina was home to a Jewish community of 200,000, making it the largest in Latin America and the sixth-largest in the world outside of Israel.
Sergio, cornered by debt, decides to take advantage of a coincidence and an unpredictable circumstance to disappear. After many years of living away from his country, he moves to Paraguay, under a false identity, a chance discovery provides the irresistible temptation of wanting to know how the people of his town have moved on in his absence. The question becomes an obsession: Can an entire life disappear and be forgotten? Can you start from scratch and never look back?
The film concentrates more on drama than the crime itself, though the film is described as a crime drama. The drama is that of Sergio as the film is divided into three parts. The first is Sergio's debt, the second is his new life in Paraguay under his new identity with his new life and the final part of the re-unification of his family. The three parts are quite different but interesting enough as an entertaining film.
The script also blends into the social media platform Facebook. As Sergio tries to hide his identity, he discovers Facebook. The film is set in the time when Facebook was first reduced and becoming popular, For anyone wanting to disappear, Facebook poses a threat. Sergio enquires about Facebook at one point in the film.
REST IN PEACE is a Netflix original film from Argentina that opens for streaming on March 27th, 2024.
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RYUICHI SAKAMOTO | OPUS (Japan 2023) ***
Directed by Neo Sora
The word OPUS means work: especially: a musical composition or set of compositions usually numbered in the order of its issue.
The film is the work of Ryuichi Sakamoto (January 17, 1952 – March 28, 2023). Sakamoto was a Japanese composer, pianist, record producer, and actor who pursued a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO). With his bandmates Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi, Sakamoto influenced and pioneered a number of electronic music genres.
With regards to his contribution to film: as a film score composer, Sakamoto won an Oscar, a BAFTA, a Grammy, and two Golden Globe Awards. Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983) marked his debut as both an actor and a film-score composer; its main theme was adapted into the single "Forbidden Colours" which became an international hit. His most successful work as a film composer was The Last Emperor (1987), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Original Score, making him the first Japanese composer to win an Academy Award after which he continued earning accolades composing for films such as The Sheltering Sky (1990), Little Buddha (1993), and The Revenant (2015). He was awarded the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the Ministry of Culture of France in 2009 for his contributions to music.
On March 28th, 2023, legendary composer Ryuichi Sakamoto passed away after his struggle against cancer. In the years leading up to his death, Sakamoto could no longer perform live. Single concerts, not to mention sprawling global tours, were too taxing. Despite this, in late 2022, Sakamoto mustered all of his energy to leave the world with one final performance: a concert film, featuring just him and his piano. This is the film.
Curated by Sakamoto himself and presented in his chosen order, the twenty pieces performed in the film wordlessly narrate his life through his music. The selection spans his entire career, from his popstar Yellow Magic Orchestra period to his magnificent Bertolucci film scores, to music from his meditative final album, 12. Intimately filmed in a space he knew well, surrounded by his most trusted collaborators, Sakamoto bares his soul through his music, knowing this may be the last time that he can present his art.
RYUICHI SAKAMOTO | OPUS a film shot in black and white with just the maestro and his piano with the opus heard on the soundtrack is a celebration of an artist's life in the purest and unadulterated form, serving as Nakamoto’s definitive swan song.
The film screens at the Ted Rogers Hot Docs Cinema in Toronto as well as other cities across Canada on March 29th.
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SOMEONE LIKE YOU (USA 2024) **
Directed by Tyler Russell
Based on the novel by #1 NYTimes bestselling author Karen Kingsbury, SOMEONE LIKE YOU is an aching love story. After the tragic loss of his best friend, a grieving young architect launches a search for her secret twin sister.
The film begins with a C.S. Lewis quote: “If you love deeply. you will hurt badly.†C.S. Lewis was an Irish-born scholar, novelist, and author of about 40 books, many of them on Christian apologetics, including The Screwtape Letters and Mere Christianity.
The film is based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Karen Kingsbury, Kingsbury who co-wrote the film and also produced it, is a #1 New York Times Bestselling novelist who writes Life-Changing Fiction(TM) and has been called America's favourite inspirational author. There are more than 25 million copies of her award-winning books in print, including several million copies sold in the past year. Karen's last dozen titles have topped national bestseller charts.
Architect Dawson Gage fell in love with London Quinn in high school, even though she told him not to. Ten years later, the two are still best friends when tragedy strikes. Now, the grieving Dawson is compelled to do one final act of love for London. He launches an impossible search for her secret twin sister, twins separated during their parent's procedure.
States away, And Allen has no idea she was adopted as an embryo. The news rocks her world and sends her into a spiral that culminates in her leaving home to meet her biological parents. But what will happen when Andi walks through the door of the parents she never knew? All while she’s missing the parents who lied to her?
With one set of parents grieving the loss of a daughter, and the other set grieving the truth they never told, only Dawson can show Andi everything she missed about her twin sister. But neither of them imagined the attraction they would d feel for each other. Except maybe the audience of this film. Now can Dawson help Andi make her way back home, even though he has fallen desperately in love with her?
At its worst, this is one of those annoying films that is filled with lyrics of songs that dictate how audiences should feel throughout the film. The film tries its best to stay away from being goody-goody Christianity-based, But still, it cannot help but have to add a few segments like Andi suggesting to say grace at the dinner table at her new parents. The abandoned adopting parents also say: it takes a lot of faith to believe, though God is never mentioned.
After a slight argument with the couple London and David about attending church in which London says she will likely never go there, David is clearly annoyed which indicates that this could be one of those Christian faith movies. The script contains quotes from the Bible as in the scan during the final where St. John’s Gospel is quoted.
A mixed bag of tricks. SOMEONE LIKE YOU is at its worst, too sappy and faith-based, though it covers a good bit of a far-fetched story on forgiveness and the surprises that life can offer.
SOMEONE LIKE YOU opens theatrically across Canada beginning on Tuesday, April 2nd.
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STOLEN TIME (Canada 2023) ***½
Directed by Helene Klodawsky
STOLEN TIME is a documentary about unsung hero Melissa Miller. This unsung hero fights battles in a different type of battlefield. She is a personal injury lawyer for the most vulnerable - the elderly. From the very start of director Helene Klodawsky’s documentary, she gets the audience all riled up at the injustices committed by the conglomerates who earn big profits at the expense of the elderly in nursing homes.
The audience hears of unspeakable acts. There is no nurse working in one nursing home for 100 days. A change in medication cannot be realized for a substantial period of time. Elderlies are sedated without consent to the point that they cannot eat, drink, or move.
This is a compelling call for justice, as the film follows charismatic elderly rights lawyer Melissa Miller as she takes on the corporate for-profit nursing home industry—an industry notorious for its lack of transparency and accountability. As the legal battle unfolds, families, frontline caregivers and change-makers chronicle an urgent crisis with ramifications—and inspiration—for us all.
The film chronicles Miller’s most challenging case yet: a mass tort representing hundreds of families fighting some of the world’s most powerful long-term care corporations.
Her adversaries stand accused of neglecting their vulnerable charges as they reap huge profits. Booming elderly populations worldwide add urgency to holding these corporations to account.
In STOLEN TIME, desperate families turn to the courts as a last resort. The audience witnesses shocking testimonies and images from researchers, advocates and, most notably, frontline caregivers whose work is often undervalued but disproportionately blamed for what goes wrong. The film is a rare and required inside look at a crucial legal battle and an emerging elder justice movement.
Much insight is provided regarding the litigation. The insurance companies are the ones that will be paying out and the staff is normally blamed. The corporations that made lots of money from the homes run off scot-free.
The film also deals with the Pandemic. The government passed a legislature to protect the homes from lawsuits.
Caregivers are also given the spotlight. They are overworked, frustrated and underpaid. Nursing homes can be joyful places and sometimes, there are. The system has been set up for failure. Up to this time, Melissa’s mass tort is still continuing, The film chooses for its climax the wins of Melissa’s court cases, in which a monetary settlement is awarded to the plaintiffs.
STOLEN TIME asks the question how far would one go to protect our loved ones? This shocking eye-opening doc on the abuse of the elderly in nursing homes can hardly be called entertaining for what it reveals on-screen.
Playing in Toronto:
Tuesday, April 2, and Wednesday, April 3, at the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema in Toronto
Presented as part of Doc Soup, a screening series from Hot Docs. A bonus is filmmaker Helene Klodawsky and elder rights lawyer Melissa Miller being in attendance, with a Q&A on both nights. In addition:
Doc Soup will also be streaming Stolen Time online for subscribers.
More info: hotdocs.ca/whats-on/films/ds-stolen-time
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- Details
- Written by: Gilbert Seah
- Parent Category: Articles
- Category: Movie Reviews
FILM REVIEWS:
24 HOURS WITH GASPAR (Indonesia 2023) ***
Directed by Yosep Anggi Noen
The 24 hours of the title refers to the 24 hours left Gaspar has left to live, as predicted by his doctor after a malfunctioning mechanism that keeps his heart working. Gaspar has a heart condition with the heart on the left side of the body. (Writer’s note: I know someone with this condition, heart on the left side of the body, who functions perfectly normally without any contraption.) Question: Does Gaspar have one hour more or less if it is daylight-saving time? The film countdowns the number of hours left starting from the 24 count, and with the sound of the heartbeat on the soundtrack,
24 HOURS WITH GASPAR is essentially an action film set in a futuristic dystopian society of Jakarta, Indonesia. Laced with heavy voiceover throughout talking about philosophy and how human beings should react, the film tries to be a worthy adaptation of Sabda Armandio’s 2017 novel ’24 Hours With Gaspar’. To the director and his D.P.’s credit, the film has a seedy and depressing dystopian atmosphere, a look that appears characteristic of all films in this genre. The explanation given is the spread of some plague, which is likely inspired by Covid-19 that the real world is still recovering from. When the film begins, the characters hang out in a FIGHT CLUB setting, where fight after fight is carried out with a winner eventually becoming a loser and so on.
There are two stories on display in the film, the two stories however linked.
Gaspar (Reza Rahadian), a somewhat punk amateur detective, investigates a government-involved mass slaughter case. During the process, he stumbles upon clues about his friend who disappeared without a trace during childhood and traces a human trafficking villain. However, due to a malfunctioning artificial heart, Gaspar has only twenty-four hours left to live. With little time remaining, aided by friends Agnes and Kick, he seeks to exact revenge.
This gloomy-looking present is contrasted with the bright sunlight and pastel colours of repeated flashbacks where 11-year-old Gaspar (Ali Fikry) is a lonely lad who makes a cherished friend Kirana (Shofia Shireen). Of all the wishes in the world, the lonely boy wishes for a friend, so he becomes obsessed with her when she goes missing after he returns from a procedure at the hospital regarding his heart.
The action set-pieces are exciting enough, though nothing as spectacular as in some Martial-Arts or Hollywood action films. The narrative, however, is blurry and more clarity would help the story along. There is more voiceover and less character dialogue in this film compared to other films in this genre.
24 HOURS WITH GASPAR had its world premiere at the 28th Busan International Film Festival on 6 October 2023, competing for Kim Jiseok Award. The film was scheduled to be screened in Indonesian cinemas in 2024. However, the plan was altered with Netflix acquiring its distribution rights, releasing it on 14 March 2024. The film premiers on Netflix streaming beginning Thursday 14th of March.
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THE ANIMAL KINGDOM (LE REGNE ANIMAL)(France/Belgium 2023) ***½
Directed by Thomas Cailley
Films of the dystopian genre often have one parent and one daughter or son escape from predators while etching out survival in the country. THE ANIMAL KINGDOM puts a bit of spin on the genre with a father and son left alone in the dystopian futuristic society in which the mother had turned into an animal.
Set in the near future, Thomas Cailley’s The Animal Kingdom (La Règne animal) is a trippy French thriller about a mysterious phenomenon that is gradually transforming parts of the population into human-animal hybrids.
There is a disease unexplained (the film avoiding to offer any clues) that turns humans into animals. Mother is supposed to be recuperating and getting better. But the son is transforming. The father tries his best to protect his son.
When humans start sprouting things like feathers, beaks, wings, or scales, these “critters” – as they are derogatorily called – are considered dangerous. In fact, they are sent to specialized centres in an attempt to stop their mutations and control their seemingly violent tendencies. When his afflicted wife is sent to such a facility in the south of France, François (Romain Duris) moves with his teenage son Émile (Paul Kircher) to be near her. But a convoy carrying mutants (including his wife) crashes, scattering the occupants into the forest. As François searches the wilds for his wife, he loses his grip on Émile, who himself has started to transform.
Also in the mix are a policewoman (Adèle Exarchopoulos) who is at odds with her colleagues, Émile’s school friend (Billie Blain) who has overcome issues of her own, and a bird-like mutant (Tom Mercier) who opens Émile’s eyes to the humanity of the creatures in the forest.
The film’s impressive most intimate moment occurs when father and son are searching in the forest for their transformed mother. The father is playing the mum’s favourite song, cheesy though he admits it may be, while both are screaming her name “Lana” in the car as it whizzes by the forest.
Though not a comedy, director Thomas Cailley captures a few laugh-out laughs with his superb timing - either dramatic or comedic. When Emile’s wound from a supposed dog bite, is stitched up at the hospital, the nurse tells him, that if happens again, he has to be put down.” “The dog, not the boy,” he says in what is a rare lighter moment in an otherwise serious movie.
The film was shot during the pandemic which makes the incidents in the film - the unknown disease and the scramble to contain and understand the disease all the more relevant.
The film runs a bit over 2 hours with a few stretched-out parts. The film could have been shortened and made more efficient.
THE ANIMAL KINGDOM is more of an emotional drama of relationships set in a sci-fi setting rather than a sci-fi dystopian thriller. It succeeds well with director Cailley bringing his roller-coaster emotional ride to a satisfactory climax.
THE ANIMAL KINGDOM opened Un Certain Regard at Cannes 2023, winning many awards, including five at the 2024 Césars(Visual Effects, Sound, Cinematography, Costume Design, Original Music) and New Voices New Visions at Palm Springs 2024.
THE ANIMAL KINGDOM opens on March 15in Toronto (TIFF Lightbox) and Vancouver (VIFF Centre)!
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THE ART OF LOVE (Turkey 2024) **
Directed by Recai Karagoz
Directed by Recai Karagö and written by Pelin Karamehmetoglu, THE ART OF LOVE is a combination of art heist and romantic comedy which explains the title of this Netflix original light comedy. Original in concept it might be, or parts of it, but the film is a total dud.
For one the chemistry of the two leads just isn’t there for the making. The actress and actor both prance around as if they are the best-looking human specimens on the planet, attitudes included. The result is two arrogant characters that the audience will not care for.
After learning that the art thief, Guney (Birkan SokulluHakan) Alin (Esra Bilgiç) has been chasing her ex-lover, an officer working for Interpol concocts a plan to catch him red-handed. How she discovers and convinces her boss that billionaire Guney is the thief is beyond belief. The reason they have broken up is not revealed at first, not that anyone cares.
Apart from a few stylishly shot scenes, (there are lots of use of reflections), there is nothing particularly exciting or interesting about any of the film’s parts.
After a third of the film’s running time, one can surely predict where the film is headed. Unfunny and not really romantic, the film ends up a boring dud.
THE ART OF LOVE opens for streaming on Netflix on Thursday, March 14th.
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CLUB ZERO (Austria/UK/ Germany/Denmark/France 2023) ***½
Directed by Jessica Hausner
CLUB ZERO is often a pitch-black horror film added with deadpan humour and a bit of satire on food consumerism.
The club of CLUB ZERO refers to the group of students led by their teacher of the course called Conscious Eating that leads towards removing the need to eat. At an international boarding school, an unassuming, yet rigorous, Miss Novak (Mia Wasikowska) joins the teaching staff to instruct a new class on “conscious eating.” Her impressionable teenage students each have their own reasons for joining the class – to improve fitness, reduce their carbon footprint, or get extra credit. Although early lectures focus on mindful consumption, Miss Novak’s discussions soon become increasingly disordered and extreme. A suspicious headmistress, concerned parents and the failing health of her students lead everyone to question the inscrutable Miss Novak’s motivations for teaching the class. As a few devoted pupils fall deeper under her cult-like tutelage, they are given a new, even more sinister goal to aspire to – joining the ominous CLUB ZERO.
Director Hausner’s film competed for the Palme d’Or at Cannes last year. She is known for her earlier films such as LITTLE JOE and HOTEL.
Words on the screen warn at the film’s start that there is disturbing behaviour control and eating disorders displayed.
At the time of the writing of this review, CLUB ZERO had attained a Rotten Tomatoes Rating of only 57%. Who really cares about whether the film really comes together as a cohesive whole or whether it is satisfactory? This film is so compelling in its viewing that many would just be mesmerized by where the events in the story would lead to.
The film is to be praised for its creation of atmosphere, fear, dread and anticipation. The pounding new-aged sounding soundtrack, and the weird art decor in many of the wealthy homes including the school are all to be praised.
There was a complaint years back that there have not been enough female-represented films. The opposite seems to be true these days as this film emphasizes the strength of the feminine gender. The protagonist is female and most of the pupils’ mothers have an important say. The protagonist also prays to the Almighty Mother, a female God who guides her through (though not necessarily correctly) her daily routines and goals.
The dialogue is also deliberately ambiguous and mind-boggling titillating. Take a sample of the film’s dialogue lines many of which create much audience anticipation;
- The parents pay a lot to send their children to this school. They expect not to be bothered.
- You have been chosen to follow the great path. Once chosen there is no turning back.
- It is not easy to do the right thing. You don’t have the slightest idea of what you are capable
The film contains good irony. It is realized that the parents of the children who had stopped eating because of Miss Kovacs now need to trust her to convince their children to continue eating, Will the parents get her re-instated after she had been fired and if so, will she convince the children to resume eating?
CLUB ZERO opens theatrically on March 15th.
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FRENCH GIRL (Canada 2024) ***
Directed by James A. Woods and Nicolas Wright
Sweet Gordon (Zach Braff), an affable English teacher in Brooklyn, has beaten the odds; a French Girl, Sophie Tremblay (Evelyne Brochu) has fallen in love with him and he’s fallen even harder back. But their future is thrown into limbo when she interviews for an executive chef position in her hometown of Quebec City. It is a variation of MEET THE PARENTS. But another threat is looming. To Gordon’s dismay, her future boss (Vanessa Hudgens) also happens to be her former lover, a celebrity Chef with oceanic eyes and a hit TV show. Can love survive the odds of a possible breakup? All fans of romantic comedies will easily die you the answer. So, Gordon Kinski follows his girlfriend and chef Sophie Trembla\NCto her hometown of Quebec City where she is testing for the Michelin 3-star restaurant of super-chef Ruby Collins.
Firstly the title of the film should be QUEBEC GIRL. There are distinct differences between France and Quebec, in terms of culture, language and practices. At least all the actors playing
Written and directed by James A. Woods and Nicolas Wright, both of whom are from anglophone and francophone parents put their experiences of their parents into the conflict of cultures in the romantic comedy. The credibility is a major plus and the film has sufficient set up quirky incidents to both keep the film moving and to keep the interest of the story going while keeping boredom and cliches at bay. Most romantic comedies do not have a villain, but this one has in the form of Sophie’s ex-lover, Ruby whose evil motives are revealed at the end of the film. The gay ex-relationship between Ruby and Sophie is taken as a given and is accepted as the same as a straight relationship, even with a farming family. This updates the film to the present where gay relationships are no longer frowned down upon. A host of solid Quebecois actors join the cast led by the famous Lucy Card who pays Sophie’s father. It is the Quebec French. that is spoken throughout the film and not the French French. The swear words heard in the dialogue are ‘tabernacle’ instead of ‘putain’, for example.
The one flaw of this romance comedy is the hilarity that is lacking. The humour is amusing at best and there are too few if any laugh-out-loud moments. At the Q&A after the promo screening, the two writers/directors when asked where they got their jokes from, confessed they took it from A.I. They might be joking but the jokes in the film often fall flat. One that is unfunny is the running gag of the family goose that keeps chasing Gordon around the farm. The comedic set-up piece of Gordon kicking out his future father-in-law by accident in an MMA match generates a few laughs as well, though it moves the plot along.
FRENCH GIRL is a satisfactory entertaining rom-com that is interesting for its different set pieces and different premise but lacks the edginess and hilarity that is often missing in this film genre.
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HIGH & LOW (UK/France/USA 2023) ****
Directed by Kevin Macdonald
Kevin Macdonald is a top Scots director who has astounded the film world with his excellent documentary films like ONE DAY IN SEPTEMBER in 1999 and TOUCHING THE VOID in 2003, docs that made my Top 10 List of those years. HIGH & LOW does not fall behind and tells the highs and lows of the controversial design celebrity of the House of Dior, John Galliano.
Director Madonald’s film begins with the December 2010 encounter at a Paris bar one evening when a drunken Galliano insulted a group of Italian women in Paris with antisemitic slurs, which was caught on camera. The video resurfaced in February 2011, just before Paris Fashion Week Autumn/Winter 2011/2012. Facing public and legal scrutiny, he was fired from his role as creative director at Dior. What did the man say? At the Paris bar La Perle, he was quoted as saying: "I love Hitler... People like you would be dead. Your mothers, your forefathers would all be fucking gassed." The video is revisited after the halfway mark of the movie. It is a powerful scene that obviously affected the life and career of Galliano.
Galliano dressed some of the most beautiful and prominent men and women in the world for almost 15 years at Givenchy and Dior and was widely recognized as one of the most successful fashion designers of the 1990s and 2000s. However, his career abruptly ended when he was caught on camera in 2011 hurling antisemitic and racist insults at bystanders outside Paris's Café La Perle.
The doc is not a biopic of Galliani though there is some mention (only briefly, of him being abused by his father) of his childhood. But it does inform of his humbler begins studying at St. Marvin’s School in London. It is not an easy watch as Galliano is often out of control with his alcohol, drugs and overwork.
HIGH & LOW showcases archive footage of the breathtaking haute couture and high-fashion runways of the period, and features extensive interviews with Galliano himself, alongside conversations with Naomi Campbell, Kate Moss, Penelope Cruz, Charlize Theron, Anna Wintour, Edward Enninful and more, this nuanced look at Galliano confronts the toxic work culture behind-the-scenes of the fashion industry.
There are two excellent achievements from director Macdonald’s documentary. One is the intercutting with Abel Glance’s French masterpiece NAPOLEON, the film whose costumes and look inspired the designs of John Galliano. The intercutting occurs throughout the film and shows the influence the film had on Galliano. The other is Macdonald’s ability to get Galliano to earnestly speak his mind. candidly on camera. MacDonald asks pertinent questions to Galliano: “Do you think you are racist?” and also elicits important responses. Macdonaald’s film is well constructed and well crafted and delivers in the same spirit both uplifting and gut-wrenching as Galliano’s mixed excess lifestyle.
The film opens in theatres on March 15th.
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RE: UNITING (Canada 2023) ***
Directed by Laura Adkin
The film follows Rachel, played by Michelle Harrison, who receives life-changing news, she secretly grapples with her mortality while playing host to her friends who have grown up and gone their separate ways since college.
Director Atkins's film’s premise is nothing fresh, the subject is already covered well and very well in two films by inevitable comparison. One is Lawrence Kasdan’s THE BIG CHILL (1983) in which a group of seven former college friends gather for a weekend reunion at a South Carolina vacation home after the funeral of another of their college friends. Then there is Denys Arcand’s 1986 THE DECLINE OF THE AMERICAN EMPIRE (Original title: Le déclin de l’empire américain) in which sexual revelations emerge when a group of academics and their partners spend a weekend at a country retreat. The former was nominated for 3 Academy Awards and the latter for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. Director Adkin has tough shoes to fill.
` Adkin’s film is Canadian like Arcand’s and set in Bowen Island, British Columbia, Canada. It is the story of six friends reuniting at a giant waterfront house 25 years after their college graduation. Bowen Island is an idyllic destination in the middle of Howe Sound, just a 20-minute ferry ride from Horseshoe Bay, West Vancouver. Quiet and alluring, a short distance from Vancouver, it’s a welcome escape from the stresses of city life. As the host of the reunion says: “Forget all the stresses of city life. It is time to party.”
Director Adkin aims for a lighter version of THE BIG CHILL or THE DECLINE OF THE AMERICAN EMPIRE going for more humour and more quirky characters.
Among the six are the main character Rachel, the host of the perfect house, a loving husband (Jesse L. Martin), and happy kids, but seems to be carrying the weight of a secret. Natalie is a neurosurgeon with a penchant for shooters. The male characters are made more complicated. There is Danny, played by Adkin’s husband David James Lewis His character is the perennial party animal we meet naked in bed one morning (at the start of the film), still handcuffed to a one-night stand he may or may not recognize. The film was shot during COVID-19 with all the prowls in place.
Laura Adkin, born and raised in Vancouver, BC, began her career almost 20 years ago as an actor then moved behind the camera as a producer, writer and director. Her directorial debut The Goodnight Kiss received the Bravofact grant and went on to play festivals around the world earning many awards.
The film plays in Toronto at Cineplex Cinemas Yonge-Dundas with a Q&A with Adkin on March 15th, in Vancouver at Cineplex Odeon International Village with a Q&A with Adkin and select cast on March 16th and at The Vic Theatre in Victoria with a Q&A on March 17th. In Toronto and Vancouver, the film will be screening until March 21st.
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UPROAR (New Zealand 2023) ***½
Directed by Hamish Bennett and Paul Middleditch
There is something to be said bout this rare gem from New Zealand that features a Maori teenager, an unknown but with acting experience in the title role, which means that he has to carry the movie on his own shoulders. The Maori actor is to a hunk of great physique but looks are not everything. Julian Dennison plays 17-year-old Josh Walker. Dennison delivers another powerhouse performance after DEADPOOL2 and Taika Waititi’s HUNT FOR THE WILDERPEOPLE. There is one reading scene in the film that illustrates the fact, the one in which Josh ‘wow’s his teacher who invites him to go audition for a prestigious drama school.
The story is set in 1981, the year the South African rugby team toured New Zealand, sparking protests across the country about the government’s decision to let them play, given South Africa’s apartheid policy. Mandela is in prison and there are protests to free Mandela. While this battle for the nation’s identity rages, 17-year-old Josh Walker (Julian Dennison) has to figure out his own place in the world. Robert Muldoon was the then Prime Minister of New Zealand.
Within the first 10 minutes of the film, a lot of information is disseminated to the audience, so much so that one has to be totally alert. The audience learns of Josh Walker’s family - his widowed mother, Shirley (played by Minnie Driver) and a disabled older brother Jamie (James Rolleston), who is in a numb stasis after an injury has kept him from continuing his rugby career. Their mother Shirley spends most of her time working to keep the family afloat. While rugby is on everyone’s mind at home and in school, one of his teachers (Rhys Darby) pushes Josh to audition for drama school. This opens up new ways of looking at the world, and soon he starts to see the activism in his community differently.
The film succeeds as a bright and funny coming-of-age story with a Maori teen trying to find his identity and place in a racist society. A few feel-good moments will have many cheering in their seats. On the more serious side, the racism examined exists in South Africa and New Zealand. A lot of good people surround our young titular hero. There is his drama teacher etching him on, his hard-working motor working as a cleaner in the school making ends meet for the family and mostly his disabled brother who offers him the best and most direct advice of all - that it is ok to be different as the world is different and to stand up in society. The film contains moving moments as well. Josh’s drama teacher admits that he is a coward. He says in an intimate moment to Josh that he is against apartheid but is afraid to speak out of fear of losing his job Yet, he does what he can on the side like forming his drama society known to the authorities.
UPROAR premiered at the Special Presentation TIFF Next Wave Selects Section at the Toronto International Film Festival last year and opens in theatres on March 15th.
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CANADIAN FILM FEST 2024
Canadian Film Fest (CFF) presented by Super Channel, the indie-spirited festival dedicated to celebrating Canadian filmmakers, today announced its lineup for the 2024 edition. New this year, CFF is extending the Festival to six days and expanding its shorts programming by screening six dedicated Homegrown Shorts programs, including a spotlight on Toronto filmmakers. CFF will return to Cineplex’s Scotiabank Theatre in Toronto, showcasing 11 features and 45 shorts and will take place March 18 - 23, 2024. Tickets go on sale March 4 and can be purchased at canfilmfest.ca.
CFF will transport cinefiles across Canada with feature films from Nova Scotia, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba and British Columbia. The Festival will kick off with Ian Harnarine’s Doubles, about a Trinidadian street vendor who travels to Toronto to decide if he will help save his estranged father from dying. The film is adapted from Ian’s acclaimed short Doubles with Slight Pepper, which won Best Canadian Short Film at TIFF 2011 and Best Live Action Short Drama at the 2012 CSAs. Other festival highlights include Audrey Cummings’ Western Place of Bones starring Heather Graham and Tom Hopper about a bank robbery gone wrong in 1876; Anna Fahr’s compelling Valley of Exile, about two sisters seeking refuge in Lebanon after fleeing their home during the Syrian civil war; Winnipeg director Sean Garrity’s moving film The Burning Season chronicling an affair unfolding backwards in a reverse narrative; and the deeply personal documentary WaaPake (Tomorrow) where director Dr. Jules Arita Koostachin shares the impact and suffering of residential school Survivors.
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Capsule Reviews of Selected Films
THE BURNING SEASON (Canada 2023) ***
Directed by Sean Garrity
Seasoned (sorry, had to use the word) Winnipeg director Sean Garrity returns with another adult relationship drama in a tale told backwards, except for the opening scene in which two youths watch a hiring shack promising each other to tell no one about it. The film ends with a prologue that returns to this scene. The film then begins with Chapter 7 in which Alena and Tom meet at JB and Poppy’s wedding only to have JB’s and Alena’s affair exposed. The film then moves back chapter by chapter to Chapter 1 and then the prologue to tell director Garrity’s story. The tactic works in the way a mystery unravels with the reasons behind each chapter revealed. Actor Jonas Chernick has played in many other of Garrity’s films including their breakthrough film INERTIA which won the Best Canadian Feature at TIFF in 2001. Garrity’s THE BURNING SEASON, as in his other films, is an adult drama that feels close to home, never forced and thoroughly entertaining. The film has been chosen as the Closing Night Film of CFF.
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DOUBLES (Canada 2023) ***
Directed by Ian Harnarine
Chosen as the Opening Night Gala for the Canadian Film Fest, DOUBLES (the title deriving from a popular Trinidadian dish) is a heartwarming film about a son’s struggle to keep his family afloat and his dream of owning a restaurant alive. The dream is a decent one but still one that has to be worked diligently on. When the story starts, Dhani (Sanjiv Boodhu) is serving food as a street vendor with his mother while his father lives in Toronto, apparently according to Dhani, had abandoned them. Dhani needs the land deed of the land signed over to him and his mother so that they can have a better life and so travels to Toronto, only to find the father in ill health and unwilling to sell the land, it being passed down generations. That is much as the story, a familiar one goes. The Trinidadian cuisine, simple but looking delicious is on full display here as the Trinidadian customs and practices. Dhani speaks English with a Trinidadian accent. made light so that North American audiences can follow.
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LOOK AT ME (Canada 2023) ***
Directed by Taylor Olson
The film begins with a warning that the film includes strobing images, internalized fatphobia and an insecure male protagonist who many might find disturbing. LOOK AT ME, the quote taken from the phrase made famous by actor Sir Lawrence Olivier is a fictional autobiography of Taylor Olson written and directed by Olson based on his play. This is not his first feature and the sophomore effort shows. He directed BONE CAGE in 2020 and one of his actors in BONE CAGE appears as Simon, Taylor’s male fling in this film. Taylor is bi-sexual. Taylor is a self-destructive actor who has an eating disorder matched only by his destructive nature in relationships. Not a bad film, quite original in delivery but yet a difficult watch owing to its disturbing nature. One does hope that things will turn outwell for Taylor for all his efforts but the film shows him his own worst enemy,
PLACE OF BONES (Canada 2023) ****
Directed by Audrey Cummings
PLACE OF BONES begins with the feel and atmosphere of a classic western. An image of a grave is seen with a cross lying over it, Nearby is the homestead of what is assumed to be the living quarters of the widow and his daughter. The two women live in a harsh and unfair dangerous environment and have to protect themselves. Mother and daughter argue as normal mothers and daughters do, but band together when danger lurks. The first arrives in the form of a wounded man with two gunshots who lies near the grave. A saddle bag of cash is found beside him. The setting is 1876. A mother and daughter alone on a remote ranch fight for survival against a gang of ruthless outlaws. Directed by a woman, this is a rare and excellent, brutal and exciting western complete with a HIGH NOON-styled showdown that looks at the western from a feminine point of view. Taken with much humour and a pinch of salt, the women folk in the film are demonstrated to be much smarter than their male counterparts. “Most men will not admit that the trouble they get into is entirely due to their doing,” is what the mother, tells her daughter, at one point.
WITH LOVE AND A MAJOR ORGAN (Canada 2023) **
Directed by Kim Albright
Written by Julia Lederer and directed by Kim Albright, this female-oriented film is a strange one - as strange as the art gallery that the protagonist attends, consisting of paintings with just a black spot or black rectangular shapes. The film is set in an alternate world where hearts are made of objects and suppressing emotions is self-care, a lonely woman rips out her own heart for the man she loves, only to discover that he has run away with it. People are ruled by LifeZapp, an app controlling every detail: eating, sleeping, and whom they interact with, all except for their emotional well-being. Hearts are removable objects that reflect our personalities, things we can dig out of our chests to make life less emotional. I feel like trudging in my gut, she says at one point in the film after attending a self-help session. The film feels the same way, watching it a trudge of confused ideas. One wonders what the message (if there is one) is or where the film is leading. The dialogue is also laced with poetry that hardly makes any sense except maybe for the rhyming.
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FILM REVIEWS:
5 LBS OF PRESSURE (USA 2023) ***
Directed by Phil Allocco
The film 5 LBS OF PRESSURE (the title is derived from the force that comes out from a particular gun) begins like the steam in a pressure cooker - waiting for the nozzle to be opened to be hissing out. The first 30 minutes introduce the audience to a variety of its many characters. Nothing can be determined of the plot yet but the decision to devote screen time to its characters works. It is an absorbing watch as one wonders where the plot leads or who the main protagonist is. Each character has a past, and most of them have volatile personalities - uncontrollable explosive or under control. For a crime drama, it is hard to feel sympathetic or emotional for any character, this film included. The best alternative is just to make the characters watchable,
The opening scene takes place outside a bar called the Mirror Bar. Nothing is seen but there is the sound of gunfire. Flashback to “Four Days Earlier.” Adam DeSalvo (Luke Evans) is approaching the end of three years’ probation following 16 in prison for flareup. Adam’s kept his nose clean, but he is not seeking a fresh start elsewhere. Fresh out of prison after serving time for murder, Adam (Luke Evans) returns to his old stomping grounds to seek out a son who doesn't know him (Rudy Pankow). Eli (Zac Adams), the brother of the man he killed is looking for revenge. Mike, is trying to escape a life of crime living under the thumb of his gangster Uncle Leff (Alex Pettyfer).
More like a crime melodrama than a crime thriller and a crime drama, interesting though each character is, the story falls ten into cliched territory together with the fact that too many incidents happen that credibility is stretched too far. Every character is down on his or her luck and things do not look as if it is going to get any better The main protagonist is Ada, determined after the frost 20 minutes or so, who serves time because of a killing when he was a kid. Down on his luck, he survives time in prison in the hope of seeing bis boy, the photo of his baby kept by him (sob-sob) all the time. He still loves his girl, who wants to protect the son from him. The three eventually meet for more heart-breaking melodrama. One can tell things are not going to look good see, for obvious reasons. Another story involves Mike played by Rory Culkin, brother of the HOME ALONE kid star, who is forced to drug deal. As if things cannot get worse, he falls in love with his violent uncle's lover and decides to run away from the money tube made from a drug deal that eventually goes wrong. All the bad stuff culminates at the Mirror Bar the scene which bookends the film.
There are some plusses in the film that include the gritty dark atmosphere of the film. The film was shot in Manchester, England, a grim and dark industrial city where the black of the coal can still be seen on the buildings.
5 LBS OF PRESSURE is a decent crime thriller and melodrama, not without flaws but interesting enough for its story of down-on-the-luck losers with no way out, no matter how hard they try, The film opens in theatres and on-demand on March 8th,
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AMERICAN DREAMER (USA 2022) **
Directed by Paul Debtor
Based on a true story. Sort of… That is what the audience is told at the beginning of the comedy/drama AMERICAN DREAMER, which means the filmmakers have taken the liberty to do changes to the true story for the purpose of entertainment. American Dreamer, based on a true story from Chicago Public Radio’s The American Life, is the story of Dr. Phil Loder (Peter Dinklage), a twice-divorced, frustrated, underpaid professor of economics, whose grand dream of home ownership (the American dream?) is tragically out of reach. When an incredible, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity comes his way, Phil strikes a deal with Astrid Finnelli (Shirley MacLaine), a lonely, childless, near-death widow who offers her sprawling estate for pennies. The deal is that he is to be a live-in at the estate, inheriting it when she passes as she has no offspring. This is what he learns and signs with the real estate agent, played with gusto by Matt Dillon, But Phil quickly learns the deal is too good to be true and the American dream is not quite what it used to be.
For those familiar with the work of Peter Dinklage, who rose to fame after his debut in THE STATION AGENT, he is a fine actor of ‘little’ status. Lately, his height has not hindered him from playing roles of normal beings as evident in films like I CARE A LOT and SHE CAME TO ME. In fact his character requires him to be kind of a Don Juan that all the ladies in the film wish to and do get to go to bed with (him). Here the Emmy and Golden Globe Award Winner serves also as producer. He is joined in the cast by Academy Award Winners Dillon and MacLaine. Needless to say, fine performances are delivered in the film.
Hapless professors in colleges have recently been fond fodder in films like THE HOLDOVERS and AMERICAN FICTION, In AMERICAN DREAMER the professor is again the hapless hero and once again as in AMERICAN FICTION, the professor takes his frustration into the lecture room that gets him in trouble with the authorities.
A few things that do not work in the film are Loder’s slapstick comedy like falling off half the time, either cutting himself or breaking things. The obsession of Loder having to own property is also not that credible though it is based on a true story. The other fact that stretches credibility is the woman’s attraction towards Loger. Height aside, the personality of the man is annoying, angry and stressful, not to mention his dirty habits like being untidy, keeping a filthy unkept drawer and eating sandwiches out of vending machines, not to mention his constantly disheveled appearance. What is really interesting is MacLaine’s character talking about past lives as MacLaine in real life does believe in and has written books on past lives as well claimed sight of phenomena like UFOs.
But there is something that can clearly be felt missing from this comedy-drama, be it the conviction of getting the story’s message across. For sure is the fact that there is a message on the American Dream and the futile desire for material wealth. But it is too bad that the message fails to hit harder at the audience that got lost in the way.
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KUNG FU PANDA (USA 2024) **½
Directed by Mike Mitchell
When KUNG FU PANDA opens, the titular hero Po (Jack Black) is about to retire from being the Dragon Warrior, to step down to take on the new position of the Spiritual Leader of the Valley of Peace. The same might be applied to the 4th installment of the KUNG FU PANDA franchise. Perhaps it is time to retire the hero as ideas are running scarce, as this sequel shows,
Po is once again the goofy-eyed lazy and chubby panda who prefers eating dumplings to practicing his Martial-Arts. Still, he prides himself on kicking butt. Instead of hearing the words ‘Inner Please’, he hears the words ‘Dinner please’.
The jokes turn out pretty lame. Examples are the quotes of ‘words of the street’ like you can’t trust anybody, used at an appropriate moment. There are also jokes on little voices. Po hears the voices of different Pos who all say the same thing, that Po does not want to hear. Whatever humour that makes an animated feature (take Eddie Murphy’s Donkey as the best example in SHREK) is clearly missing here.
Still, director Mitchell (TROLLS) and writers Jonathan Abel, Glenn Berger and Darren Leake all do try their best to give this 4th installment everything they got. For one they have created a supervillain that can steal the superpowers of all of Po’s past villains as Tai Lung, Lord Shen and Kai the Collector thus making her more than invincible. The chameleon (voiced by Viola Davis) can shapeshift as well as harness the powers with the use of Po’s trident. A new character in the form of a fox called Zhen is voiced by Awkwafina who livens the story up several notches. She is Po’s new friend and sort of disciple. But a fox is a cunning animal as will be revealed later in the story.
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SATANIC HISPANICS (Mexico/USA 2022) ***
Directed by Mike Mendez, Demián Rugna, Eduardo Sánchez, Gigi Saul Guerrero and Alejandro Brugués
SATANIC HISPANICS is a horror anthology of different horror stories bound together by the thread called ‘The Traveller’ of a man questioned by the police as he tells the stories.
SATANIC HISPANICS is directed by top Latin filmmakers and showcases the skills of Hispanic talent, both on and off-screen.
It all begins when police raid a house in El Paso, they find it full of dead Latinos, and only one survivor. Known as ‘The Traveller’, he is taken to the police station for questioning. There, he recounts tales of horrors from his life, chronicling portals leading to other worlds, mythical beings, demons and the undead; he speaks of legends from Latin America. “Death is never the end. There are portals between life and death and sometimes the portals don’t close.”
The first one occurs in Chapter 2 called ‘Tambien Lo Vi’ (translation: ” I saw it too”) with a character called Estrada who has a special sight. He can see what others cannot see. Apparently, he can see this portal between death and the living. This chapter does not make much sense but it contains solid scares and has great atmospheric effects,
Chapter 3 is called El Vampire and yes, as the traveller says to the cops: It is a Vampire Story. This segment is clearly the silliest but it is not without laughs. A vampire is enjoying the best night in his life on Halloween drinking blood unaware that he would lose an hour of night owing to daylight savings time. He has to make it back to his coffin before daylight. A funny comedic set piece involves two cops witnessing him after killing three victims, thinking that it is all a prank.
Chapter 4 is called Nahuales. It begins when the cops question the vial of red fluid which the traveller claims he obtained from a shaman’s ceremony after it was over. A nahual is a human being who has the power to transform either spiritually or physically into an animal. The traveller goes on to relate is story that makes this chapter. This tale is the most violent of the lot and with the least humour,
Finally ‘the traveller’ tells his last story in Chapter 5 about a guy called Malcolm. At this time, the two cops have already lost their patience as has the traveler who has to leave his custody or his predator will get him as the traveler cannot remain in one place, he always manages to be several hours ahead of it. This story involves a weapon called ‘the hammer of Zanzibar’ which is a giant dido used to, yes, fuck up the demon.
SATANIC HISPANIC is a horror anthology in the old tradition of classics like the 1945 British DEAD OF NIGHT, famous for the last episode about a mad ventriloquist. Though the film is a mixed bag of tricks, it is still a blast of gore and laughs, a few better than others and a few funnier or scarier than the others, the anthology showcases the talents of the 5 Latino directors Mike Mendez, Demián Rugna (of the recent WHEN EVIL LUKS), Eduardo Sánchez, Gigi Saul Guerrero and Alejandro Brugués. The film premiered at Fantastic Fest in 2022 and opens on Shudder on March 8th.
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FILM REVIEWS:
500 DAYS IN THE WILD (Canada 2023) ***½
Directed by Dianne Whelan
Award-winning director and cinematographer Dianne Whelan is the only person to complete this epic journey of discovery—hiking, biking, paddling, snowshoeing and skiing across the country.
The film begins with a very angry woman throwing things into the fire one evening, She is full of disappointment and anger, mainly of the deaths of too many indigenous women. The woman turns out to be filmmaker Diane Whelan who wants to get away from it all - people and technology. She sets to make a doc on the longest trail in the world, travelling from east to west (as to follow the sun, she says) starting from the TransCanada Highway in St. John’s Newfoundland, The trail contains 487 different routes on water and land which she will travel by bike or canoe.
Whelan is not an extreme sportsperson but an extreme filmmaker. Here she will be filming herself as she has filmed sports extremists in the past. For a woman in her 50s who is not an extreme athlete, it was sometimes gruelling, occasionally harrowing, often exhilarating and always surprising. She started out alone, disillusioned with the state of the world and worried about climate change, to look for different ways of caring for the land and each other. She ended the journey a bit wiser, more hopeful, in love and with a passion to share this story.
In case one is wondering about the filming process, Whelan makes it clear from the very start of her doc how this is done. She is doing most of the filming on her own, as she carries a tripod and camera on her bicycle. She mentions that she is also getting the help of friends with the filming as well as the use of drones. The latter seems awkward as one of the purposes of other ventures is to get away from technology. Guess, it is impossible to get away completely from technology,
Whelan also makes it clear that is is mighty dangerous out there. First of all, she is a woman, not to mention being all alone most of the time. She could be attacked by a bear or by nasty people. And there is no lock on the tent which is her daily living quarters.
The most dangerous part of Whelan’s journey is by canoe through the world’s largest freshwater lake, Lake Superior. She paddles by canoe while large shipwrecks of steel ships lie beneath its cold waters. It is said that water is so cold that dead bodies do not float in the water. (Whether this is true needs to be examined as the density of water is at its maximum at 4C).
The journey takes Whelan to the famous Bruce Trail around Toronto. It was then -18C and after crossing a stream she and her friend of 20 years, who was helping her along were both soaking wet. Everything is frozen. The trail is not a straight path, up and down hills and with fallen small trees often blocking the paths.
500 DAYS IN THE WILD is a beautiful film that also displays the beautiful country of Canada in all its 4 seasons and terrain. Director Whelan also makes sure the message of getting connected with Mother Earth gets through to her audience.
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CODE 8 PART II (Canada 2023) ***
Directed by Jeff Chan
A sort of Canadian filmmaker’s dream come true, it all started with his 2016 short film called CODE 8, a science fiction action short film directed by Jeff Chan, co-written by Chan and Chris Paré. The film is a futuristic vision taking place in a world where 4% of the population is born with some supernatural ability. The idea is somewhat similar to the Marvel X-MEN comic book series where certain humans are harvested and schooled for their unique super-powers. Instead of being billionaire superheroes, most ‘specials’ live in poverty and resort to crime, forcing the police to become more militarized. Starring Robbie Amell, Stephen Amell (the Amells are cousins) and Sung Kang, the film was expanded into a feature-length project, also titled Code 8.
The feature film CODE 8 in 2019 is set in the early 21st century (could be the present), when the public becomes aware of people with superhuman abilities, known as Powers. This results in the government passing a law requiring all Powers to register their abilities. Although they are initially popular in the workforce, as the Third Industrial Revolution begins, Powers are marginalized. A crime syndicate known as The Trust has flooded the streets with an addictive drug called Psyke, made from the spinal fluid of trafficked Powers. Police departments begin using drone-deployed robots, called Guardians, and facial recognition software to combat Power-related crime while a citywide Powers ban is debated. Connor Reed (Robert Arnell), a 26-year-old Electric (electrokinetic) looks after his mother Mary, a Cryo (cryokinetic), whose ailment impedes her from controlling her powers. In this film, he comes across baddie Garrett (Stephen Arnell) as well as crime boss Marcus.
All these characters and the identical background appear in the latest, CODE 8 PART II. But it does not require watching the short of the first CODE 8 as the script is easy to follow. Once again as stated by the opening credits the film centres around the 4% of people living in fictional Lincoln City who possess special abilities. It follows the journey of a teenage girl, Pavani (Sirena Gulamgaus) fighting to get justice for her slain brother at the hands of corrupt police officers., led by Sergeant ‘King’ Kingston (Alex Mallari Jr.). After becoming a witness to the cover-up, she becomes a target and enlists the help of an ex-con, Conor and his former partner-in-crime Garrett.
Highlights of the film include the police robotic canines nicknamed K9. Meticulously designed so that they function almost like real dogs but programmed so that they are almost perfect animal machines so that no crook, Powers included, can escape from their clutches or mechanical paws.
The film is a blend of sci-fi, action, super-hero action and drama and does not concentrate on any of these genres. The film is a pleasant enough entertaining watch, suitable for the family with a possible message of the immense potential danger of A.I. and the subject of falsifying effective policing in a community. The producers are already thinking of another sequel, with the film’s ending priming for a continuation. Why not, if Netflix is picking up the cost tag?
The film is shot around Toronto and Hamilton. The film’s rights have been acquired by Netflix. The film opens on Netflix for streaming on February 28th.
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DUNE PART 2 (USA 2024) ***
Directed by Denis Villeneuve
Frank Herbert’s novel DUNE is a complex and complicated novel not easily be transformed into a film. The first attempt directed by David Lynch (MULHOLLAND DRIVE, BLUE VELVET) was a mess that most audiences could not understand. When Canadian helmer Denis Villeneuve was offered the job, he negotiated a two-film deal due to the novel’s complexity.
Most of the story of DUNE PARTY 2 has been established in Villeneuve’s first DUNE in 2021.
At the end of DUNE Part 1, Baron Harkonnen gives command of the conquered Arrakis to his nephew, Rabban (Dave Bautista), and orders him to restart spice production to recoup the cost of the invasion that occurred in DUNE Part 1. Paul Atreides (Timothee Chamalat) and Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson) are found by Duncan and Kynes, and Paul discloses his plan to marry one of Shaddam's daughters to avert the civil war that would ensue from news of the Emperor's treachery. Duncan sacrifices himself to enable Paul and Jessica to escape; Kynes is mortally wounded and lures a sandworm to devour her and the Sardaukar. In the deep desert, Paul and Jessica encounter Stilgar's tribe, including Chani (Zendaya), the girl in Paul's visions.
In DUNE PART 2, Paul Atreides continues his journey, united with Chani and the Fremen, as he seeks revenge against the conspirators who destroyed his family, and endeavors to prevent a terrible future that only he can predict.
Director Villeneuve’s film lasts a full 2 and three-quarter hours. The production sets, set decor and art direction are nothing short of stupendous making a watch on iMAX a solid must.
On the other hand, the film contains a lot of CGI special effects. The film is a demonstration of CGI gone mad. It is hard to get excited watching 20 thousand CGI figures battling another 20 thousand CGI figures on the big screen. The film’s most exciting part is the old-fashioned hand-to-hand combat (between Butler and Chamalat) at the end. Despite the main actor Chamalat’s emotional performance, the story can hardly be felt by any audience. The first half of the film is boring as nothing much happens, the only pleasure derived from the film being the production values.
The all-star cast contains big names including Austin Butler (ELIVS), Florence Pugh, Josh Brolin and Javier Bardem, though a few of the faces are hardly recognizable under the makeup.
At best, DUNE PART 2 is visually stunning in all departments and despite its lack of a human story with emotional impact, the film should satisfy sci-fi space fans, hands-down. As for the future, Villeneuve has expressed interest in making a third film based on Dune Messiah, the second novel in the series
The film’s production budget is listed as a hefty $120 -190 million. With all the hyop]e of the DUNE book and this being the first blockbuster of 2024, DUNE PART 2 will most likely make a profit considering the first DUNE in 2021 made $440 million on a budget around the same size as this one. The estimated gross for the first weekend is projected at $65 million.
DUNE PART 2 opens in theatres on March 1st. See it in iMAX.
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MY NAME IS LOH KIWAN (South Korea 2024) ***
Directed by Kim Hee-Jin
For North Koreans trying to flee their country, making it often takes crossing the border to China that is only the beginning of a torturous journey toward freedom. That journey and the motivations of North Koreans who want to defect are the subject of the recent and excellent documentary called BEYOND UTOPIA. The Chinese government has a hard-line policy of finding North Korean refugees, arresting them and detaining them and then forcibly sending them back to North Korea, where they will face investigation, torture and a range of harsh punishments.
MY NAME IS LOH KIWAN, based on the book of the same title tells the difficult story of fleeing North Korea to China and then to Belgium from the point of view of twenty-somethibg Loh Kiwan (Song Joong-ki). Films on or about North Korea are few and far in-between and one knows very little about North Korea. A film like MY NAME IS LOH KIWAN is a welcome entry to Netflix. The recent refugee film IO CAPITANO which opened last week about two Senegaleses making a death-defying journey against all odds for a better life in Italy, this film also shows the difficulty in perilous joinery from a different adventurous look.
It is not mentioned in the film whether this is a true story, but it is, possibly partly.
When Loh tells his mother before his defection that he regrets putting her through all the hardship while is is still young and able, his mother replies: “Having a healthy son is all that every mother wants.” Dialogue like this one tells a lot about the personalities of the characters and also sets the tone of the film.
Besides dialogue, a lot can be read from the actions of the characters. When Loh just lands in Belgium and the broker waves him off, the broker gives Loh his card and tells him to call if he (Loh) ever wishes to return to China. The next scene shows Loh crushing the card. Loh walks past a litter bin on the street but he does not toss the crumpled paper away. Another scene at the film start has Loh wiping away what appears to be blood on the street. Nothing is explained at this point
Escaping from China, North Korean defector Loh Kiwan sets out to fulfill his mother's dying wish, to find a place where he can truly own his name and live on his own terms. He travels to Belgium to seek refugee status but ends up being in limbo with no means to make a living or put a roof over his head. Marie, who used to represent the Belgian national shooting team and is now battling her inner demons, chances upon an exhausted Kiwan and steals his wallet. The two end up in a heated confrontation.
The film depicts Loh’s very difficult and tiring defection process showing his impoverished living conditions and the equally gruelling enrollment procedure for refugee status. Mostly, the moving film credibly and effectively shows that life is not always dished out on a silver platter and one like Loh has to make do while taking one step at a time.
Director Kim appears to love the use of flashbacks. He uses it once at the film’s start when he tells the story after Lot wipes away the blood on the street and again after the immigration officer questions if it is Loh’s mother who gave him the money to travel to Belgium.
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THE PARADES (Japan 2024) **
Directed by Michihito Fujii
What happens when one dies? This is the magic question that many filmmakers examine, from Albert Brooks’ excellent DEFENDING YORU LIFE in which the dead has to defend his or her life to move forward to the afterlife. Albert Brooks falls in love with Meryl Streep at this point. But another film that really surprises is the 1999 masterpiece Hirokazu Kore-eda's AFTER LIFE, a film that reaches out gently to the audience and challenges us: What is the single moment in our own lives we treasure the most? In the film the dead is asked to recall the happiest moment, which is filmed and the dead will take this as a memory for eternity forgetting everything else. This film put Kore-eda on the filmmaking map. In THE PARADES, a similar premise holds.
Japanese director Michihito Fujii (HARD DAYS, THE LAST 10 YEARS) has hard shoes to fill. The title of the film THE PARADES is so called because from the parades held every month, the deceased gather to find the person they long to see again, slowly reaching into the depths of everyone’s hearts.
Though the film takes 15 minutes or so to establish to the audience that the main character is already dead, those going into the film likely already know the fact.\, an thus have to play along patiently. The film begins on a beach covered with trash, a sorry sight, where Minako (Masami Nagasawa) wakes up. She is servicing her lost son Ryo, She frantically runs around asking anyone insight whether they have seen him. She encounters Akira (played by Kentaro Sakaguchi), a former gang member Katsutoshi (played by Ryusei Yokohama), a former film producer Michael (played by Lily Franky), and their friends, only to realize that she has already passed away. She is unable to move on to “the beyond” due to unfinished business in this world, she is told.
Though intriguing as the plot can be, the story also dwells on the stories of the others, which tends to eclipse the main story of Minnako. Unfortunately, there are too many other stories, and these including the story of Mink can hardly be described as terribly interesting. Director Fiji’s director character might be a reflection of his own character, but he comes across as a person too full of himself. His character is always able to get what he wants. Even the Yakuza gangster, the most interesting of all the dead characters follows his advice.
THE PARADES is essentially a ghost story of regrets and redemption. It has recently been done in ALL OF US STRANGERS and in other after-life films like DEFENDING YOUR IFE, AFTER LIFE and done much better, The stories are also not convincing enough as they seem to be just put on for show.
As they say in many funerals, the film is a celebration of life rather than about the end of it.
The Netflix movie THE PARADES will be released globally on Thursday, February 29, 2024.
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SPACEMAN (USA 2024) **
Directed by Johan Renck
Tech space giants are charging an arm and a leg to travel into space. Most vacancies have been filled. But many do not really have the reality of the tedium and danger of such an excursion. The recent disaster of the vessel designed to look at the Titanic shipwreck going bust is a case in point where millionaires have died while paying for the trip. SPACEMAN illustrates and demonstrates the other side of space travel - dangerous, unhealthy, psychologically damaging and the possibility of other mishaps.
SPACEMAN is a 2024 American science fiction drama film directed by Johan Renck and written by Colby Day. It is based on the 2017 novel Spaceman of Bohemia by Jaroslav Kalfař. The film stars Adam Sandler in a serious role, Carey Mulligan, Kunal Nayyar, Isabella Rossellini, and the voice of Paul Dano. As an astronaut, Jakub Procházka (Sandler) is sent to the edge of the solar system to collect mysterious ancient dust and finds his earthly life falling to pieces, he turns to the only voice who can help him try to put it back together. It just so happens to belong to a creature, Hanus (voice of Don) in the shape of a spider from the beginning of time lurking in the shadows of his ship
Adam Sandler (Jakub) is not a happy camper. To make things worse, the toilet isn’t working from the very start of the film. When he asks for the toilet to be fixed, Control tells him the camera gets first priority. (What is a Sandler movie without a toilet joke?)
The accents are out of the ordinary, Sandler puts on a slight but weird Czech accent while Carey Mulligan as his wife, Lena keeps her British accent. The rest of the cast spot a variety of different accents. Jakub looks dishevelled owing to his beard throughout the film. 6 months apart insulation is enough to make anyone go mad.
The special effects and art decoration are worthy of mention. Jakub is often seen floating in his cabin without the effect of gravity. This is likely the first space film that shows how untidy and cluttered, again mentioning the malfunctioning toilet the inside living quarters of a spaceship can be, in contrast to neat, efficient and modern as in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001A SPACE ODYSSEY or any other space movie. The reason is to emphasize the discomfort and monotony of a long flight into space.
Adam Sandler has proven his acting mettle in man-child comedies but in serious films like PUNCH DRUNK LOVE and UNCUT GEMS gaining the respect of critics that many comics do not have. SPACEMAN adds to the list but unfortunately is not one of his better Sandler films. Despite incidents occurring at a regular pace as the film progresses, the whole exercise involving the beginning and end of time and Jake’s realization of the failure of his marriage is a turgid affair. The introduction of Hanus the talking spider does not help either. No one is ever sure what is happening or what could happen. The way life’s discovery and regrets for Jakub are realized is not convincing enough.
SPACEMAN debuted in theatres beginning last week (the review was not posted then, as a link was not made available till this week) but opens for streaming on Netflix. SPACEMAN is a Netflix original Adam Sandler film.
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- Written by: Gilbert Seah
- Parent Category: Articles
- Category: Movie Reviews
FILM REVIEWS:
Lots of small-budget indies opening this week. The standout of the lot is RIDDLE OF FIRE which premiered at Midnight Madness TIFF last year.
COMING TO YOU (South Korea 2021) ***
Directed by Gyiro Byun
A documentary from South Korea on personal LGBT issues!
Gyuri Byun's emotional heartfelt Korean documentary centres on two working-class mothers, Nabi and Vivian. Like many in South Korea, where there is a distinct lack of legal protections for queer communities and gay marriage remains illegal, neither women gave much thought to LGBTQ+ rights or its growing advocacy among the country's younger generations. Therefore, their lives and perceptions were upended when their respective children came out to them — Nabi's as trans, and Vivian's as gay. Reluctant to accept this news at first, both women's reactions reveal deep-rooted discriminatory beliefs about queerness. This is not uncommon in South Korean society, which makes their respective transformations all the more impactful — both women grew to not only accept their children's gender and sexuality but became activists in their own right as members of Parents, Families, and Allies of LGBTAIQ+ People in Korea. Both Nabi and Vivian grapple with the pain and loneliness their children feel, the struggle to access gender-affirming care, and the yearning for societal and familial acceptance. Without shying away from their initial discriminatory opinions, Byun's impressive film tells an unflinchingly honest story of hard-won allyship and gives faith to the idea that people can change their minds.
Director Byun’s doc can hardly be called groundbreaking as the issues of coming out have been covered countless times since the times when gays were ostracized till now when gays are largely accepted. However, the emotions experienced by the 4 subjects (each given around equal screen time) are still felt everywhere and it is still heartbreaking to see what the subjects went through.
The emotions and reactions are different. Nabi’s trans wishes to do an FTM (female-to-male transition)but the mother disapproves initially. She says on camera that she hates her mother. After much thought and examination, the mother, Nabi finally relents. An emotional “Thank you, Mother” means so much to Nabi after she is acknowledged. The issue of how difficult the operation needs to be approved (needs to be approved by a judge; needs parental consent despite the fact that the person has come of age) is also observed in the film. On the other hand, Vivian’s son still loves his mother. The process of coming out to his mother is a curious one. He leaves a letter to his parents while returning later. The letter is a coming-out letter that describes how much he is going through. The surprise for her is that the son has come out to his friends first.
Vivian 55, is a veteran firefighter while Nabi 50, is a flight attendant. The process of acceptance of their LGBT children forms a major part of the film. The climax of the film shows both of them at a support group meeting where they speak out.
COMING TO YOU has won many documentary awards as it was screened in international festivals. The film premieres via VOD and digital outlets on March 22nd, 2024
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DAD & STEP-DAD (USA 2022) **
Directed by Tynan Delong
DAD & STEP DAD is a micro-budget DIY (Do-it-yourself) movie that prided itself as a film with no script (actually not a thing to be proud of) while containing lots of improv.
An improv film suffers from a lose-lose situation. If part of the film is changed because the improv did not work - then the film can no longer be considered improv. On the other hand, if the entire film is improv, then it will have to include the parts that do not work. A film that is planned and well-written would most likely turn out better than one that is unplanned.
DAD & STEP-DAD comedy about family, communication, insecurity, and the fragility of the male ego, the film follows Jim and Dave, a dad and a step-dad, as they struggle with bonding during a weekend upstate with Branson, the son they share.
DAD & STEP-DAD first began as a series of improvised shorts created by DeLong, Colin Burgess, and Anthony Oberbeck in 2018, allowing the trio years to hone their characters and comedic sensibility before growing the project to feature-length. Inspired by cinéma vérité documentaries, ASMR, and Japanese environmental music, the formally and tonally unique character-driven slow-burn was shot in four days during the summer of 2021 with a production budget of $18,000 and is entirely improvised, based on a robust outline and several rehearsals.
The three actors are comedians with an impressive acting resume. To their credit, they interact in their scenes credibly and the chemistry works well. Though occasionally repetitive in their dialogue, expected for improv, it is what it is. The characters of the dad and set-dad etch out different personalities. The character of the mother appears unnecessary, except to put some tension in the relationship between the stepdad and the family.
The 13-year old son Branson is played by 30-year-old actor Brian Fiddyment. Fiddyment looks 30 despite the way he is wardrobed in the film and not 13. This is odd casting indeed. One assumes the credibility of the characters is not of importance.
On the positive side, the film has garnished rave reviews for an improv film. Already named one of “The Best Movies of 2024 (So Far)” by Esquire, DAD & STEP-DAD became an instant cult comedy hit and screened as part of the inaugural New/Next Film Fest in Baltimore, programmed by veteran curator and taste-maker Eric Allen Hatch, where Paste praised it as, “a movie made for next to nothing by a group of filmmaking friends, Dad & Step-Dad is the closest thing in body and spirit to the kind of DIY cinema that put New/Next’s forerunner, the Maryland Film Festival, on the map some 15 years ago.”
The film is released by NoBudge. NoBudge, the premiere streaming platform for young and emerging filmmakers launched by filmmaker Kentucker Audley in 2018 —and where 15 of DeLong’s short films can currently be found— makes its first move into the realm of distribution
A year after a packed premiere in New York at the Nitehawk Cinema Prospect Park and a week of sold-out screenings at Spectacle theatre, DAD & STEP-DAD celebrates their long-awaited arrival to digital platforms worldwide on Friday, March 22.
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THE FOX (Les Fuchs) (Austria 2021) ****
Directed by Adrian Goiginger
An introverted young farm labourer (Simon Morzé), indentured and seemingly abandoned by his poor family as a child, volunteers for Austria's army but soon finds himself part of Nazi Germany's vast military machine. When he discovers an orphaned fox cub he adopts it and clings to it as the last vestige of his humanity amidst the carnage of WW2. Based on the true story of Franz Streitberger, the director's great-grandfather.
What is interesting to watch and also to note is the behaviour Franz under the circumstances of his youth. Being sold by his father out of poverty to a richer farm for the reason that he is unable to fend for his son, Franz grew up solitary serving as a farmhand to his new owner till he reached his adult age he was then set free to go. The scene where the son realizes that he is being sold and yet refuses and has to be taken kicking and screaming by his father is a scene defiantly difficult to forget. Franz’s new owner wrote about Franz that he is of good character and a hard worker but not a happy one. After enlisting in the army, his fellow soldier asks him to tell him a story to break away the monotony. To his surprise, France is silent, giving absolutely no story to tell. Franz has difficulty adjusting to his fellow soldiers causing him to go screaming in the forest on the first day after an incident regarding him keeping the cheese that is shared with the rest of the soldiers.
The transition of Franz from the boy to the adult is too abruptly done. It takes a while for the audience to relate to the protagonist of the film. One might initially wonder the reason for the full half hour of the film devoted to the boy when the rest of the film centres on the adult Franz. The reason is clearer towards the end of the film, as the audience needs to understand the feelings of the boy. The story is based on the true events of the director’s great-grandfather.
The story shifts to Franz as a soldier who discovers a fox cub with a broken paw. Franz gets the paw healed and looks after the cub for a year or so. And yes, the fox cub is so incredibly cute that anyone would fall in love with it. But looking after the cub as a soldier out fighting in the war is a dauntless task. The fox cub is extremely cute, in fact so cute that one can see the reason Franz decided to adopt it. (It is difficult to dislike a movie with such a cute animal, believe me.
The war fought by Franz is with the Germans against France, Britain and their allies. The evil of Hitler’s Third Reich clad the Nazis are never their issue here and omitted as it has nothing to do with the story of Franz and his fox cub.
There is a romance in the story as Franz, the solitary and socially awkward Franz deals with his romantic fling with a French girl.
The main purpose of the story is to relate Franz’s attachment to the fox cub to his childhood experience of being sold by his father to the richer farmer who could then tend and feed Franz. The purpose is made clear as the film’s climax and is emotionally gut-wrenching.
THE FOX (LES FUCHS) is a gut-wrenching emotional true story set in WWII told with conviction and credibility. From Austria, the film has garnered multiple awards and comes with this reviewer’s high recommendation. The film opens on Prime and Apple TV on March 22nd.
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THE FRAGILE KING (South Africa 2022) ***½
Directed by Tristan Holmes
The emotional drama based in part on the true events of the director’s relationship with his grandfather forms the basis of this low-budget but effective gut-wrenching film. The film is not about royalty. The ‘king’ referred to in the title happens to be the last name of a grandfather and son, the subjects of the story. The story focuses on the relationship between two estranged characters Michael and his grandfather, Gerald King.
After the tragic death of his mother in a car accident, 15-year-old Michael King (Alex de la Rey) is sent to live with his grandfather Gerald (Andrew Buckland), whom he hardly knows. The emotional gulf between the traumatized boy and cantankerous old man is immense, but during a road trip across South Africa's Northern Cape to reunite Michael with his estranged father, a relationship of understanding and trust slowly emerges. After going their separate ways, the two reunite a year later, and through one final unexpected journey, the King men finally come to realize a true sense of love and belonging in each other.
It is hard not to get emotionally connected with a subject that is unloved by all including family. Michael is loved by his mother but that love is soon lost. His mother is not the ideal role model, a woman who brings her son bowling, skipping his school while she skips work at the same time. Drunk often, Michael feels destitute and can be seen to long for a more responsible parent. The longing is made worse when his mother dies in a car accident, He meets his grandfather who had abandoned both his daughter and her son. Unwanted, Michael is brought to the home of his biological father after a road trip and discovers he is not wanted by the father’s family as well.
Alex de La Rey plays the boy, who is the major focus of the story and film. Needless to say, the success of the film lies solely on his shoulders. Fortunately, Alex is a very talented, photogenic and convincing performer for his young age. He also possesses an impressive bio as follows. Alex de la Rey is a recent graduate from St John's College, South Africa, where he was enrolled for 10 years from the ages of 9 to 18. THE FRAGILE KING was his debut in the film industry at the age of 15 in 2019 when the film got started. Prior to this debut, Alex has been heavily involved in theatre both with and independently from his school. He was the recipient of 'Best Director' and 'Best Playwright' for his student production "CO7ID" - which tackled the social problems and mental health issues within the privileged first class of South African scholars that arose as a result of quarantining - at the National Festival of Excellence in Dramatic Arts (FEDA). This South African teen will definitely go far and be an actor to be reckoned with.
THE FRAGILE KING, winner of Best Director at the New Renaissance Film Festival and the Jury Prize for Best International Film at the Overcome Film Festival is a powerful tale of heartbreak, healing and self-discovery.
THE FRAGILE KING makes its North American premiere on SVOD Indiepix Unlimited on March 22, 2024.
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GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE (USA 2024) ***½
Directed by Gil Kenan
The GHOSTBUSTERS franchise has been super successful beginning with the first with GHOSTBUSTERS in 1984 with the cast of Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, the late Harold Ramis and Annie Potts. Two successful sequels followed together with a most horrible reboot in 2016 also called GHOSTBUSTERS, a female version set in an alternate universe. That was totally awful. The original GHOSBUSTERS was fun but by no means a masterpiece so thankfully, this new and latest version entitled GHOSBUSTERS: FROZE EMPIRE succeeds easily as an entertaining sequel, also directed by Gil Kenan who also directed the second sequel GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE which is a sequel to it. The film is co-produced by Jason Reitman, son of Ivan Reitman, the director and producer of the original film
The Ghostbusters franchise consists of American supernatural comedies, based on an original concept created by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis in 1984. The plot ostensibly centres around a group of eccentric New York City parapsychologists who investigate, encounter, and capture ghosts, paranormal manifestations, demigods and demons.
In GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE, the Spengler family decides to leave Summerville, Oklahoma and go back to where it all started – the iconic New York City firehouse – and help the original Ghostbusters, who've developed a top-secret research lab to take busting ghosts to the next level. But when the discovery of an ancient artifact unleashes an evil force, Ghostbusters new and old must join forces to protect their home and save the world from a second Ice Age.
The impressive casting includes the original cast of GHOSTBUSTERS, Bill Murray, Dan Skrpyd and Annie Potts and the cast of GHOSTBUSTERS III: AFTERLIFE which is a sequel of. A big risk in casting is the introduction of a new character, the Firemaster played by comedian Kumail Nanjiani, best known for the rom-com THE BIG SICK to fight the evil ice villain. Annoying initially, the Pakistani/American actor eventually proves himself funnier than most of the other cast members.
The film works for a variety of factors. Firstly, the blend of comedy and scary effects works well, with the ghosts being scary fun while not too frightening for the kids. The Splenger family (played by Paul Rudd, Carrie Coons, Finn Wolfhard and Mckenna Grace) are the heroes of the film, a family with normal problems with the kids having growing up problems like other families. There is enough family in the story without boring audiences. All the beloved in the GHOSTBUSTERS franchise is included, especially the equipment to aid in the capture and containment of ghosts. Their equipment includes proton packs, used to control and lasso ghosts; ghost traps, used to capture ghosts; and PKE meters, handheld devices used to detect psychokinetic energy. The famous and catchy GHOSTBUSTERS song is reserved for the end, a song that will have GHOSTBUSTERS fans cheering in their seats. There is a subplot looking at the ghosts’ perspective of the afterlife with Mckenna Grace as a ghost needing to prove herself. subplot. Everything in this film appears to work, and fans and not-so-diehard fans should not be disappointed,
GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE is available to be viewed in iMAX and opens in theatres worldwide on March 22nd.
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GOLDEN YEARS (DIE GOLDENEN JAHRE)(Switzerland 2022) ***½
Directed by Barbara Kulcsar
GOLDEN YEARS is a sincere senior comedy-drama, unlike most Hollywood senior comedies in which the older stars still cannot get over their aging process. The aging process in GOLDEN YEAYS is covered with heart and credibility, with the points of view of both the male and female gender.
Alice and Peter are celebrating their retirement – and with it, a new phase in their lives. The film opens with Peter leaving his office after his retirement. “Who is taking over the office?” he asks. He finds out that it is going to be the room for a new computer server, However, shortly after the couple’s retirement party, a sudden tragedy befalls Alice’s best friend Magalie. The film shifts, comfortably from Peter to Alice as the film now clearly indicates that both points of view will be examined in the story. Peter, sympathetic to the suffering of Magalie’s widower, Heinz, invites him on the retirement cruise their children gave them. Alice had hoped this trip would infuse fresh life into their marriage, but instead of enjoying their time together, they find themselves drifting further apart.
The important question of sex still arises for Peter and Alice and indeed for many older couples as well. Peter has lost interest in sex, period not particularly for Alice but for anyone. Naturally, Alice is upset.
Thus, disappointed and hurt, Alice doesn’t reboard the cruise ship during a shore excursion and instead embarks on a journey of self-discovery, taking her across Southern Europe and bringing her into a community of older people finding joy outside traditional notions of gender, marriage, and the later years of one’s life.
During the retirement party at the film’s start, a friend talks about retirement and life’s three regrets. `1) I should not have worked so much. 2) I should have shown my true feelings and 3) I should have dared to live one's life.
For the first two regrets, Peter and Alice have those for sure. As for the third, the film shows them daring to do what they should have done with their life. As for Alice, this means abandoning the cruise ship and for Peter, to do what he enjoys without Alice’s nagging. The insightful film shows that the two of them can still have the love they had shared throughout their marriage while still doing the things they wish, with a little separation - no harm done.
GOLDEN YEARS is a different look at one's senior years from both a husband's and wife's points of view, demonstrating that one does not expect that love can still exist through separation and the key is to be able to live one’s life joyously doing what one wants without nagging and restraint, GOLDEN YEARS is funny, romantic, charming and also entertaining fare.
Barbara Kulcsar (The Two of Us, Blush) directs from a screenplay by Petra Volpe (Heidi, The Divine Order), skillfully balancing drama and comedy in an affectionate story of an older couple.
GOLDEN YEARS opens on digital on March 26th.
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IMMACULATE (USA 2024) **
Directed by Michael Mohan
Directed by Michael Morgan and written by Andrew Label this under 90-minute horror movie is short and not-so-sweet, but short because it is short of material, which means that the film requires more technique like atmosphere and anticipation to achieve satisfactory scares.
A devoutly religious woman named Cecilia (Sydney Sweeney from the recent ANYONE BUT YOU) is offered a role at an illustrious convent in the Italian countryside. The explanation for her going to Rome is that her convent closed in the United States. But this eager young beaver is all devout and ready but does not realize what’s in store for her. Her faith is to be put to the test. On her arrival and introduction to the Reverend Mother, she is warned by the other sisters of some nasty goings-on. “Death is part of life here,” Cecilia is told. When she sees that the place is crawling with patients who are not all there in the upstairs department, Cecilia is told to play along, unless the patients get violent. The audience is put on horror anticipation mode, spoilt by silly jump scares, but a few chills still keep the audience's interest at bay, Her seemingly picture-perfect new home is soon revealed to hold horrifying secrets. Sister Cecilia becomes pregnant, apparently without intercourse, and the pregnancy is deemed a miracle by all.
The film, being set in Italy and shot in vivid colours like red, has the feel of an Italian Giallo film and also Roman Polanski’s classic ROSEMARY’S BABY, as Cecilia will eventually give birth to a devil baby. What she is going to do with that has the same scare as the climax of ROSEMARY’S BABY. The arrival of Cecelia at the Italian convent also felt similar to the arrival of the girl at the Music Academy, actually a witch’s haven in Dario Argento’s Giallo classic SUSPIRIA, which had been re-made horribly by Hollywood, A girl alone in a scary and strange environment where evil lurks is an often fond and scary scenario for a horror film.
The film is mostly a one-handler with the success of the film largely lying on Sydney Sweeney’s shoulders. But she can only do so much as what transpires onscreen has been seen at one time or another in a horror film. It does not help that nothing is explained about the pregnancy. The ending before the climax where the priest chases and attacks Cecilia plays like a cheap slasher film where the killer never dies. The priest is burnt in an explosion in a room but is still able to come after Cecilia. The climax *(not to be revealed here) sort of sums up the film, but it takes too long to reach this point,
The beginning scenes are effectively scary though they might’ve little to do with the story. A sister desperately tries to escape the convent before the opening credits roll. Her legs get caught in the railings of the front gate and the nuns pull her legs back breaking them, The next scene has her in an enclosed space. She lights up a match (indeed where would she get a match from at this point in time or place) and it is revealed that she is enclosed in a coffin.
IMMACULATE had its world premiere at South by Southwest on March 12, 2024. The film opens in theatres on March 22nd.
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PROBLEMISTA (USA 2024) ***½
Directed by Julio Torres
PROBLEMISTA is the story of Alejandro, as the voiceover narrates at the start of the film.
Alejandro is an aspiring toy designer from El Salvador struggling to bring his unusual ideas to life in NY. He wishes to work for Hasbro, the world-famous toy manufacturer, responsible for toys like Lego. He leaves El Salvador but needs to be sponsored by a company or employer in order to fulfill his dreams of working in the U.S. As it goes, he gets fired from his first job for the reason that is to be seen to be believed - the segment that could appear as an SNL skit. As time runs out on his work visa, a job assisting an erratic art-world outcast, Elizabeth (Tilda Swinton) becomes his only hope to stay in the country.
There is the running joke of updating the file software in order to coordinate all of Elizabeth’s artwork which is quite funny, as is most of Torres's humour.
Julio Torres has the enormous gift of looking below 20 when his real age as of the day is 37. He wrote, directed and starred as a preschool character in his debut feature PROBLEMISTA. Who is this Julio Torre?
Julio Torres was born in 1987 in San Salvador, El Salvador. He says he has always wanted to pursue a career in writing for comedy. Torres worked as a writer on The Chris Gethard Show before he was hired to write for Saturday Night Live. He worked at SNL from 2016 to 2019, writing sketches including "Papyrus" and "Wells for Boys” He was nominated for four Emmys as a member of the SNL writing team. Torres is definitely a very gifted talent and this fact is evident in his debut feature.
Acting heavyweights Oscar Winner Tilda Swinton and Isabella Rossellini (narrating the film) lend their hands to the film, showing their faith in Torres. Swinton is simply marvellous and unrecognizable as the neurotic Elizabeth.
There is an odd scene in the film where he is invited to an apartment to perform a cleaning that ends with him getting sucked off by the Asian employer. He gets paid nonetheless and the gay issue is brushed off. In life, Torres is gay. He said in June 2020, a fact that is evident in the theme throughout his film, ”I never want to claim to speak for anybody else's experience. I am not here representing gear-paid immigrants. I am not here representing Salvadorians, Hispanics, or gay people. I can only share what's in me and that may or may not ring true with people, but I have never wanted to use any of those things as a calling card.
PROBLEMISTA has the feel of a Spike Jonze film though Torres’s film clearly has a distinction of his own. Occasionally all over her place with a message that is left ambiguous, the film is still entertaining, inventive and playful showing PROBLEMISTA as a worthy debut for the talented JulioTorres, a new comedic filmmaker and a talent to be reckoned with.
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RIDDLE OF FIRE (USA 2023) ****
Directed by Weston Razooli
The film plays like a fairytale that contains witches, a princess with a castle and an enchanted forest, and three ‘innocent’ children. They get lost in the woods and encounter evil creatures. But if one expects to watch a family-type Grimm’s fairy tale - no such luck. But director Razooli’s film offers quite a surprise. Director/writer Weston Razooli’s fresh and inventive neo-fairytale RIDDLE OF FIRE marks one of the best surprises this year at the cinema.
Three rascal children run afoul of an enigmatic coven in Weston Razooli’s whimsical neo-fairytale, which evokes a menagerie of esoteric genres and dreamy cult-film vibes.
The film begins with the three rascals riding their bikes and arming themselves with weapons that can hurt like a paintball gun The three plan to hijack the latest video game from Otomo in a warehouse. They call themselves the Three Immortal Reptiles, and are made up of two brothers and a girl. For Hazel (Charlie Stover), Alice (Phoebe Ferro), and Jodie (Skyler Peters). But they are unable to play the game as their game console is password protected by the boys’ mother who is ill in bed with the flu. The kids beg for the password but the mother utters a very stern no. But the kids aim to win their mother’s heart and the password, by getting her favourite blueberry pie from the store. The story goes all over the place - but in a good and humorous way and the kids end up having to bake the pie on their own after getting the ingredients that includes one speckled egg. The search for the speckled egg ends up with the trio finding themselves whisked away through woodlands dark, running afoul with the infamous Enchanted Blade Gang, an enigmatic coven led by an honest-to-badness witch (Lio Tipton) who is able to cast spells to enchant others.
Director Razooli’s story takes place in the least of expected places for a fairy tale- in the area around Ribbon in Wyoming - which makes the film every weirder and dead-pan. Razooli is clever enough to get his audience on this side of the kids. All the adults are enemies or obstacles for the kids with the only adult that has a good heart being the mother with the ultimate prize of the password for the game console. It is a kids adventure in the spirit of the Enid Blyton children’s books like The Famous Five but for adults in an adult setting. RIDDLE OF FIRE is that rare film that can play both at a children's film festival and at the Midnight Madness section at TIFF.
The kids are not perfect kids. They steal and lie and fight among themselves but they are real kids, more real than one can imagine - not like the goody-goody ones in the Disney world. The dialogue among the adults, the kids and the fairytale poetry is often pricelessly funny.
RIDDLE OF FIRE premiered at the Director’s Fortnight at Cannes followed by screening at TIFF’s Midnight Madness section. The film is not a horror movie but is more quirky than most.
RIDDLE OF FIRE film in theatres on March 22nd.
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SHAYDA (Australia 2023) ***
Directed by Noora Niasari.
Inspired by Niasari's childhood experiences, the story follows an Iranian immigrant woman in Australia, Shayda (Cannes Best Actress Winner for HOLY SPIDER, Zar Amir Ebrahimi) who is raising her young daughter in a women's shelter.
It takes a while for the film to set its footing and for the audience to determine what the story is in SHAYDA. The audience soon learns that Shayda and her daughter have moved into a female shelter where she looks after her daughter with other mothers facing the same dire circumstances. There is of course friction between mothers, between the young children, all heightened by the stress of leaving one’s home. The audience soon learns that Shayda has been abused by her husband. She is filing for divorce and he is filing for custody. Presently, the child is with her. In the preparation of the court case, the audience learns the details of the physical abuse. He had grabbed Shayda and pushed her against a wall, thus having sex with her claiming that she would not leave him now that she would be pregnant with the second child. Most of the important incidents are revealed secondhand through words, and not seen in its execution. Yet the abuse can still be emotionally felt.
SHAYDA is being blamed for the abuse done to her by her husband and for her running away with her daughter. This the audience learns from Shayda’s telephone call with her mother. “People are talking,” the mother says. “He is a good father. After he graduates and becomes a doctor, he will get his life together.” Everyone seems to have a good impression of doctors. But in another scene, the husband tells the daughter that he wants to cure all the sick cows in Tehran. So, whether he is studying to become a veterinarian or a human doctor is never made clear.
Women in Iran have been portrayed in a really bad light lately. The film demonstrates the empowerment of women and sends a necessary and strong message that women must stand up and fight for what is right in their lives. And men should know better and be more sympathetic. The film picks up when Shayda attempts some normalcy in her. She wears a shiny dress and goes dancing in a club, wearing what she wants to wear and not dictated by Iranian norms. But the danger of her daughter being abducted and her worries about her abusive husband still loom in her mind,
SHAYDA has already made the film circuit through film festivals worldwide. SHAYDA had its World Premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival on 19 January 2023, where it won the Audience Award in the World Cinema Dramatic competition. In August 2023, it was screened as the opening film at the Melbourne International Film Festival for its Australian premiere, and it closed the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland. It was also scheduled for screening at the Toronto International Film Festival last September. SHAYDA was also Australia’s entry for the Best International Feature Academy Award this year. It opens in theatres on March 22nd.
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YOU’LL NEVER FIND ME (Australia 2023) ***
Directed by Josiah Allen and Indianna Bell
Patrick, a strange and lonely resident, lives in a mobile home at the back of an isolated caravan park. After a violent thunderstorm erupts, a mysterious young woman appears at his door, seeking shelter from the weather. The longer the night wears on and the more the young woman discovers about Patrick, the more difficult she finds it to leave. Soon she begins to question Patrick's intentions, while Patrick begins to question his own grip on reality.
The film is essentially a two-hander with two actors enclosed in a claustrophobic setting. It is a simple premise and a low-budget production, but the directors prove that there can always be more than meets the eye.
So the story has two people stuck in a shack because of a furious storm that shows no relentless stopping. The girl seeks shelter from the storm. In an initial scene, she bangs on the door, to which the man responds with a loud: “Fuck Off”. The man gives her shelter and the cat-and-mouse game begins.
Who is the predator? It is the mean-looking loner who is different from the world? Or is it the intruder? Directors Allen and Bell keep their audience guessing from the very start. He could be a serial killer hiding out in the woods away from civilization. On the other hand, perhaps, the girl, the intruder knows the man and has planned a visit to exact an act of revenge. The plot thickens with lots of lumps in the gravy. It is near the two-third mark and more hints are given to the audience to bow the audience’s mind with no clear result in sight It is a good tactic to keep interest at hand with the audience always wondering who the villain is. Perhaps both of them are. This could also be a possibility.
“Like I said, I think you will be here for a while.” The power is out before flicking causing the light to go on and off and the music from the radio to sound intermittently. All these effects create a more sinister atmosphere of dread and danger.
The title of the film YOU’LL NEVER FIND ME could refer to the old man’s lodging. “What are you hiding from?” she asks him at one point in the film adding that wherever one might be, tap water will never taste differently.
The grounds where the man resides are locked. “If the gate is locked, how did I get in?” quizzes the girl to the old man. “That is exactly what I was going to ask you.” answers the man. The conversation is left hanging.
“I would like to leave now, “ says the girl.” The gate’s locked,” the man retorts. “I will find a way for you, “ she replies to which volunteers to take her there when the weather improves. The question of her earrings comes into the discussion whence finally gets upset saying that she will then leave.
The ultimate segment comes when the two are stuck together in the house and playing cards. “My name is Patrick, by the way,” the man volunteered his name to which she did not reply with her name. “You look familiar, Have we not met before?” he asks.
YOU’LL NEVER FIND ME has an excellent build-up - too good that it is hard to reach a climax that meets the audience’s anticipations. Watch the film for the buildup anyway, and forget the muddled ending. The film streams on Shudder on March 22nd.
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YUNI (Singapore/Indonesia/Australia/France 2021) **
Directed by Kamila Andini
The third film of director Andini to premiere at TIFF, YNUI is the story of an Indonesian teen school girl by the name of Yuni, played by Arawinda Kirana. Yuni loves the colour of purple (not THE COLOUR PURPLE film), has a clique of close friends, and characteristically teenage views. She longs to study in college, hopefully winning a scholarship in the process. Her loving family is more bound to tradition than she is. When her family receives the first one, then a second proposal of arranged marriage for her, Yuni’s grandmother urges her not to refuse this “blessing.” With each passing day, at home and at school, Yuni sees her horizons closing in. Director Anini paints a troubled teen life and the audience gets to learn what Indonesia is like as well as what teen girls have to face. But director Andini takes on a bit too many issues that include her literature teacher turning out gay and proposing to her as well. Whether Yuni wins her scholarship is not the key issue of the story here, and one wonders what (the key issue) is after the film concludes with an open ending. Perhaps director Andini wishes her audience to figure it out.
YUNI won TIFF’s Platform prize in 2021. The film premieres on VOD and digital on March 22, 2024.
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- Written by: Gilbert Seah
- Parent Category: Articles
- Category: Movie Reviews
FILM REVIEWS:
578 MAGNUM (Vietnam 2023) ***
Directed by Dung Long Dinj
578 MAGNUM is, as the film title implies, an action film. This one is from Vietnam! Though not as fortunate as Hollywood action films blessed with large production budgets, 579 MAGNUM does its best with what it’s got - a modest budget.
After leaving the Special Forces, container truck driver and single father Hùng (Alexandre Nguyen) dedicates his life to raising his six-year-old daughter. But when she gets kidnapped and assaulted, Hùng relies on his martial arts training and combat skills to hunt down the twisted millionaire responsible. His mission of vengeance takes him on a journey deep into the Vietnamese underworld, where he faces off against legions of bloodthirsty gangsters working for one of the world's most dangerous crime syndicates.
The action set pieces are well staged including one where Hung fights his foes while moving under and out of a tractor-trailer. Another well-staged piece deserving of mention is a hand-to-hand fight taking place atop the slippery top of a storage container during a heavy downpour.
There are a few points that differentiate this action flick from the ordinary. There is more emotion in the story, the main one involving the father reuniting with his kidnapped daughter, Director Dung milks the emotional impact for all it is worth. The beauty of Vietnam is also on full display here, including the sea around the country. The theme of the triumph of the human spirit is also on display here - the father, Hung going all out in the hopes of finding his daughter. The theme of parent and child is also examined - both between the hero and his daughter and the billionaire villain and his son “When my son cried at night as a baby, I stayed up all night,” says the villain. The film also has a good build-up ending with the climactic fight between Hung and the billionaire villain. There is also a side theme of being a good Samaritan, hung aids a helpless female truck driver with truck trouble, who repays him later.
Award-winning director Dung Luong Dinh makes a 180-degree turn from his two previous films Father and Son and Drowsy City, to deliver an action flick from Vietnam, a welcome change, The film features action sequences by Oh Sea Young (Avengers: Age of Ultron), 578 MAGNUM, nominated for the Grand Prix Award at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, was selected as Vietnam's 2023 official Oscar Entry for Best International Feature.
It is no surprise that the film did not even make the Oscar Best International Feature shortlist. Every country in the world vies for the coveted award and it is hard to compete with countries like France, Italy, Denmark, and other wealthier Western countries. Even France’s THE TASTE OF THINGS and Denmark’s THE PROMISED LAND made the shortlist but failed to make the 5 nominated films. A martial arts action flick would be the least likely contender. Even as an action flick, it is pale compared to this year’s already-released action flicks like THE BEEKEEPER. But the film still holds its own. The well-staged action set pieces and other differences like a plot with more emotional impact involving human courage make this Vietnamese action film stand out.
579 MAGNUM premieres via VOD, Digital and Film Movement Plus on February 23, 2024.
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ABOUT DRY GRASSES (Turkey/France/Germany/Sweden 2023) ***
Directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Dedicated teachers or just plain teachers and their demise have been favourite fodder for dramatic stories in films. At TIFF alone this year, there are similar stories to be told in THE TEACHER’S LOUNGE and L’ETE DERNER (THE LAST SUMMER)but not so elaborate as Nuri Bilge Ceylon’s (WINTER SLEEP, ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA) masses. Elaborate it is as the film runs a full three hours and 20 minutes allowing Ceylon time to tell his take without rush or even urgency.
The film is set in a tight-knit community that seems to only experience two seasons, just summer and winter in Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s masterfully character-driven return to the screen probes into power dynamics and the darkest regions of the human soul, as reflected ninth film’s setting.
Middle-aged Samet (Deniz Celiloglu) is a quick-witted and quick-to-anger elementary school art teacher–cum–amateur photographer in a traditional village who dreams of a posting in his native Istanbul. shares lodging with his more attractive and likable colleague Kenan (Musab Ekici) and spends his nihilistic days developing an inappropriate fixation on 14-year-old teacher’s pet Sevim (Ece Bagci). When a love note written by Sevim is confiscated in a school-wide search, Samet’s rotten-to-the-core fantasies grow. The search clearly violates personal privacy, an issue that will never be tolerated these days in North American or Western schools. Meanwhile, Sevim, who suspects her teacher of stealing the letter, makes her heightened discomfort with his behaviour known to the school authorities and an investigation is launched. Enter Nuray (Merve Dizdar), a fellow teacher whose past political activism has rendered her disabled, allowing her to choose postings anywhere in the state — just the escape Samet needs. The only problem is that Nuray seems to favour Kenan.
The film is beautiful to look, at the vast ice and snow of the landscape and even the flowing river during summer. The film is poetic and reflective of the emotions of its characters. But the film is far too long, good as it is, and can be shortened without compromise.
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BRING HIM TO ME (Australia 2023) ***
Directed by Luke Sparke
In the film’s first 30 minutes, the camera shows a mole in the middle of the road. The car skids pass barely missing it. The scene has nothing to do with the story but the scene shows that there is some spirit and verve involved in the making of the movie. Other notable camera work shows a man walking towards a car as seen in the car’s mirror and a closeup of the car’s glove compartment revealing a photo of a kid informing the audience that the protagonist has a son. There are impressive night scenes of a lit-up fair and some neat editing in the way the story is introduced in flashbacks. Director Sparke performs multiple film duties including editing and production design,
The title of the film tells the simple plot. Under orders from a ruthless crime boss, a getaway driver with no name (Barry Pepper) must battle his conscience and drive an unsuspecting crew member, also of no name (Jamie Costa) to an ambush execution. There is a long drive ahead. The simple story sounds mundane enough and it is of no surprise that anyone watching the movie would have quite low expectations. But truth be told, this Australian film that poses as an American film has its pleasures. There are several Australian actors in the cast including Sam Neill (actually New Zealand) and Liam McIntyre but they all pass with their American accent. Expect little and the film turns out better than expected. This film certainly does. The film contains a solid script by Tom Evans and apt direction by Luke Sparke.
The lead is Barry Pepper playing the getaway driver. Pepper spots an ugly beard and moustache and his 53 years of age is showing. Pepper is an extremely handsome chap in his younger days and is Canadian-born (in British Columbia) and has always delivered solid performances in films like WE ARE SOLDIERS, THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES ESTRADA, FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS and TRUE GRIT among others). Here it plays a driver with no name or unknown background who shows his mettle in a surprise scene where he beats up two assholes at a gas station.
The film is aided by the fact that it contains two likable characters, one veteran who can stand no nonsense and the other, a kid who is nothing but nonsense. The two opposing personalities make good chemistry as crime partners.
One can tell that there are a few twists in the story. The crime boss tells the driver: “Don’t trust him.” “What did he do?” the driver asks the boss. What are you gaping to do to him?” What the kid apparently did is disclosed in time to the audience but it is again neat to note that the disclosure might not be the truth.
BRING HIM TO ME opens on February 23 on digital and on-demand (Apple TV, Cineplex, Bell, Google Play, Rogers, etc) and is certainly worth a watch.
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DRIVE-AWAY DOLLS (USA 2023) **
Directed by Ethan Cohen
DRIVE-AWAY DOLLS is a comedy caper with a nod to THELMA AND LOUISE that follows Jamie (Margaret Qualley, daughter of Andie MacDowell and with credit in films like POOR THINGS and SEBERG), an uninhibited free spirit bemoaning yet another breakup with a girlfriend Sukie (Beanie Feldstein), and her demure friend Marian (Geraldine Viswanathan) who desperately needs to loosen up. In search of a fresh start, the two embark on an impromptu road trip to Tallahassee, but things quickly go awry when they cross paths with a group of inept criminals along the way. No drugs are involved, just penises.
Ethan Coen goes solo without his brother Joel, in this raunchy comedy about two teenage lesbians as they take across the country, There is obviously play of opportunity for high jinx, but these have to be inventive and funny.
DRIVE-AWAY DOLLS would be more appropriately titled DRIVE-AWAY DIKES as indicated at the end of the film, though many entering to see this movie would not think that this is a gay-themed film about two teen lesbians trying to find love in what might also be considered to be a partial coming-of-age movie. The film is not bad with an atmosphere similar to the Coen Brothers’ RAISING ARIZONA but because of its downright outrageousness in the plot evolving penises, also bears similarity to the Farrelly Brother’s comedies such as THERE IS SOMETHING ABOUT MARY. Truth be told, DRIVE-AWAY DOLLS is not bad but a disappointment, considering that one has come to expect a lot from the Cohen Breathers, Ethan aside, nonetheless.
One flaw that can be noticed is the fact that the filmmakers particularly Cohen have tried too hard in what could also be a nod to the classic THELMA AND LOUISE and ROMY ND MICHELLE’S HIGH SCHOOL REUNION films. The six penises, the simulated sex scenes, and the lesbian orgy are examples of extremes the film has taken to surprise the audience. This is Cohen’s first film since THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS in 2018, he claimed that he was bored with the filmmaking process like his brother Joel was, though much more than him. The boredom can be observed in the film which lacks fresh humour relying on gross dick/dildo jokes.
Matt Damon has a cameo at the end of the film as a senator with a questionable character, But the best cameo belongs to Bill Camp who plays a character called Curlie who is being called Curlie unless you know him well.
There is one huge error of miscasting at the end of the film. The person who plays Marian’s aunt is clearly Afro American while an East Indian performs Marian. It is as if audiences are not given credit for distinguishing different races of darker skinned races,
The best thing about the film that brings the most laughs and surprises is Beanie Feldstein (BOOKSMART) who plays Sarah’s ex-girlfriend, a hard-nosed cop. The film soars whenever she appears on screen.
Despite efforts to be naughty and funny, DRIVE-AWAY DOLLs is a huge Ethan Cohen disappointment illustrating his statement that he had recently gotten bored with the filmmaking process.
HISTORY OF EVIL (USA 2022) **
Directed by Bo Mirhossen
HISTORY OF EVIL is set in a dystopian future of 2045 in the United States where chaos needs to be contained where evil arises. It is the age-old fight between good and evil but now in a political setting. However, director Bo shows that evil can come from both human and the supernatural.
In the near future, war and corruption will plague America and turn it into a theocratic police state. The opening words on the screen describe civil war and unrest, very similar to what one would expect if Trump got into power during the next election - with misuse of power, rise of the red-necks and loss of democracy. But there is hope.
Against the oppression, ordinary citizens have formed a group called The Resistance. One such member, Alegre Dyer (Jackie Cruz, ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK), breaks out of political prison and reunites with her husband Ron (Paul Wesley, STAR TREK, STRANGE NEW WORLDS) and daughter Daria. Daria does not recognize her mother upon seeing her. On the run from the militia, the family takes shelter in a remote safe house. Why this particular place? Because the family is told, that no one wants to come near it. Some audience anticipation is invoked that maybe this is a haunted mansion. But their journey is far from over, as the house’s dark past begins to eat away at Ron, and his earnest desire to keep his family safe is overtaken by something much more sinister.
As in the spirit of Master of Suspense, Hitchcock, there is another audience anticipation scene of what is yet to come in a scene when Maria and her mum, Alegre is play a game of guessing how many fingers the mother has up behind her back. Daria guesses right three times and when asked how she does it, Daria says that the boy behind her mother is helping her. At that point in the film, there is no supernatural occurrences as yet.
But the film fails to satisfy the build-up of suspense and audience anticipation,. Not much is seen of the resistance fighters except for the family.
Director Bo Mirhossen has based this horror film on his past experiences. Bo is an Iranian director living in the United States. His parents were activists during the 1070s in Iran, during the revolution, a very dangerous period for his family. He combines his experiences with his love for horror films to create HISTORY OF EVIL.
HISTORY OF EVIL is a horror film in a political setting in which horror exists in both human and supernatural forms. Director Bo creates and intimidating atmosphere that a family has to overcome in order to survive as a family unit. Unfortunately, the film does not come together as a whole, as the supernatural portion that occurs only during the last third of the film makes little sense. Why the house is haunted and why the ghosts appear in the forms shown are never explained as a lot of other loose ends. The film starts off well and slowly deteriorates which is a shame.
HISTORY OF EVIL (a Shudder original film) premieres on Shudder the horror streaming service on February 22nd.
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IO CAPITANO (Me, Cap[tain) (Italy 2023) ****
Directed by Matteo Garrone
Two teenagers, actually cousins, Seydou and Moussa (wonderfully portrayed with sincerity by non-professional actors), leave their home in Dakar for a hellish odyssey through hazardous seas, arid deserts (the Sahara), and a Libyan detention centre, all in pursuit of the dream of living in Europe.
The 2024 Oscar nominee for Best International Feature comes with a warning of Content advisory: explicit violence; scenes of surgery; crude content; frightening scenes and mature themes. These include a torture scene involving scorching of naked bodies, bodies hung from limbs as well as horrific scenes of men trapped in a boat's engine room.
Seydou and Moussa transit through Mali equipped with a false passport ()costing them a hefty $100 each) and, although the scam (the clothes worn in the passport photo are the same as the ones currently worn by them) is discovered by a policeman, they avoid prison in exchange for 50 dollars. Once in Niger, they face the desert until they enter Libya, where they are arrested and taken to separate detention centres.
Seydou is subjected to torture but manages to get out, as another inmate pushes him to offer himself as a bricklayer like him. Having worked well, both are released and their trip to Tripoli is paid for. In the Libyan capital, Seydou meets Moussa, with whom he resumes his journey toward Europe.
The last leg of the journey will not be revealed in this review, except to say that it is just as harrowing as the other parts of the journey. But it is during this part that Seydou shows his true human courage and sympathy.
This review was written this review on Rotten Tomatoes. “Kinda weird to center half of the movie's runtime on Libya.... with actors that are supposed to be Libyan, but don't speak Libyan and instead speak Algerian, which is not the same dialect nor the language nor the country at all. Imagine if a movie was centered around Argentina, but every Argentinian character in it just spoke Castilian Spanish... Also, in one of the scenes, the characters were supposed to speak 'Libyan Arabic', but they were (no exaggeration at all) just making racist gibberish sounds and yelling 'yala' with guns... beyond disrespectful and disgusting.” Being no expert in African languages, I am assuming that there might be some truth in his/her saying that put some downer points to Garrone’s otherwise credible opus.
Garrone’s film also opens further questions. When the two finally arrive in Italy, the film ends with what is assumed to be a happy ending. But what is there to say these people will not be sent back to where they came from? The two are neither refugees though they have done their fair share of suffering and they do not have immigration status.
Still, despite its flaws of the abrupt open ending, Garrone’s film is well researched, harrowing in its depiction of the joinery while keeping on its theme of the triumph of the human spirit,
IO CAPITANO the film is so titled for the reason that is explained at the end of the film The film is Italy’s Academy Award Entry for Best International Feature. It has the shortlist and also the final 5 nominees, It stands up to fight another film likely its main competitor, that deals with suffering, rescue and the triumph of the human spirit - Netflix’s SOCIETY OF THE SNOW.
IOP CAPITANO opens at the TIFF Lightbox on Friday, February 23rd.
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MEA CULPA (USA 2024) ***
Directed by Tyler Perry
MEA CULPA is a Tyler Perry film from Tyler Perry Studios. Perry is one of the most successful black artists today - and a popular artist at that. Tyler Perry is an American actor, filmmaker and playwright. He is the creator and performer of Mabel "Madea" Simmons, a tough elderly woman, and also portrays her brother Joe Simmons and her nephew Brian Simmons. His films vary in style from orthodox filmmaking techniques to filmed productions of live stage plays, many of which have been subsequently adapted into feature films. Madea's first appearance was in Perry's play I Can Do Bad All by Myself staged in Chicago.
Tyler Perry is best known for his drag performance as Madea, a hard-hitting, no-nonsense often foul-mouthed middle-aged black woman who always has her say. This character appears as Mea’s mother-in-law, but since this character is more acerbic than Madea, Perry has got someone to play her, instead of himself.
Tyler Perry knows comedy and he mixes it with real bitchiness in the mother-in-law segments. She is hitting hard,” the protagonist Mea Harper (Kelly Rowland) is told by her best friend, also her sister-in-law at her mother-in-law’s birthday dinner, only to add: “Don’t worry, she is really drunk and will pass out in time!” The mother-in-law quips: “What did I miss over there?” The mother-in-law is white a sort of clever reversal of black inclusion in a white cast movie.
MEA CULPA is Spanish for 'through my fault'. The story turns into a murder thriller that follows Mea as an ambitious criminal defense attorney who, in her aspiration to be named partner, takes on the case of an artist accused of murdering his girlfriend.
Tyler Perry is known to be a born-again and practicing Christian and his films are sometimes preachy. One wonders the message he is putting across with this latest film of his. But MEA CULPA has a strong feminine presence. The wife works today the bills while the husband is out of a job, spending the money.
What makes this thriller work, despite the questionably silly ending, is that it deals with down-to-earth issues that audiences can relate to. Issues like husband and wife quarrels, mother-in-law problems, job conflicts of interest and feminine issues are all treated to the typical Tyler Perry touch. This film moves more toward serious thriller territory. His films might not win awards for artistic merit (though his films have won a few BET awards), but they are always entertaining to watch, MEA CULPA included.
Tyler Perry has already 3 more films in the making after MEA CULPER - MADEA’S DESTINATION WEDDING, BLACK WHITE AND BLUE and DIVORCE IN THE BLACK.
MEA CULPA, a Netflix original movie, is open for streaming on Netflix from February 23rd.
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THE MONK AND THE GUN (Bhutan, France, United States of America, Taiwan 2023) ***
Directed by Pawo Choyning Dorji
THE MONK AND THE GUN is set in Bhutan and is a Bhutan production.
Bhutan is a landlocked country in South Asia situated in the Eastern Himalayas between China in the north and India in the south. With a population of over 727,145 and a territory of 38,394 square kilometres (14,824 sq mi), Bhutan ranks 133rd in land area and 160th in population. Bhutan is a constitutional monarchy with a king (Druk Gyalpo) as the head of state and a prime minister as the head of government. Vajrayana Buddhism is the state religion and the Je Khenpo is the head of the state religion. For most people, Bhutan is known as a base for Mount Everest climbers and a place where lot of monks live and have an influence.
THE MONK AND THE GUN serves to educate audiences about Bhutan and its history of democracy while sending a message as well.
Set in 2006, when the Kingdom of Bhutan the film examines]its transition to democracy. Writer-director Pawo Choyning Dorji is a poignant parable about the impossibility of embracing modernity without reckoning with the past.
The year 2006 marked a historical turning point for the Kingdom of Bhutan: with the abdication of its King, it began its journey to becoming the world’s youngest democracy together as the last country to have television and the internet. Following the adventures of monks, villagers, urbanites, and one hapless foreigner, this big-hearted ensemble drama captures that moment of transition in all its strangeness and wonder.
Government officials stage a mock election as a training exercise — though even registering folks to vote is a challenge in regions where people don’t know their birthdates. In the village of Ura, an elderly lama, recognizing the great change sweeping his country, instructs a monk (Tandin Wangchuk) to obtain a pair of guns. Meanwhile, Benji (Tandin Sonam) takes a gig hosting and translating for Ron (Harry Einhorn), an American antique arms collector who has come to purchase a coveted 19th-century rifle. With a tremendous fee on offer, Ron assumes the transaction will be a slam dunk. He fails to anticipate that, just as the Bhutanese are unfamiliar with democracy, they are also less persuadable when it comes to the laws of commerce.
One thing director Pawo portrays is the naivety of the Bhutan people to the point of spicily and occasional ignorance of the ways of the West. But he also shows with naivety comes innocence, sincerity and human goodness.
Directed by Pawo Choyning Dorji, best known as the director of 2019’s Oscar-nominated Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom, which made the top 5 nominated International Features and set against Bhutan’s snaking streams and verdant hills, THE MONK AND THE GUN unfortunately did not make it to the top 5, a hard top 5 to beat. There is a reference to a yak in this film as it is said to be worth two cows as the neighbour has sold two cows to buy a yak in order to show off his wealth. For all that is worth, THE MONK AND THE GUN is an earnest and simply made film with heart and a message for peace that is well made and entertaining enough.
THE MONK AND THE GUN opens FEBRUARY 23 at the TIFF Lightbox on February 23rd.
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SEAGRASS (Canada 2023) ***
Directed by Meredith Hama-Brown
SEAGRASS has an idyllic opening on a ferry where two young sisters (Remy Marthaller and Nyha Huang Breitkreuz) playfully run around enjoying the view and the trip aboard the ferry. They are going to a retreat with their parents traveling via the ferry. The following scene shows the children in the back seat of the family car while the father drives off. They sing the song: "When you are happy and you know it”, while the camera has a shot of the mother, suddenly frowning in the car’s passenger seat. It is a beautiful beginning, also beautifully shot, displaying the beauty of the Canadian province, of British Columbia while sending a shiver down one’s spine from the mother’s frown that something ominous is about to occur.
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 goes deep into the success and problems of a relationship and marriage, At the retreat, Judith talks to a fellow retreater on the topic, where she confesses her unhappy marriage, Does there need to be a reason to be unhappy? There needs to be work in a relationship. These are some of the questions asked She also talks about the duty of marriage reflecting back to other parents, about how unhappy they were. A quote from Buddha is also mentioned for good measure “A man who conquers himself is greater than one who conquers a thousand men in battle.” The film slants more toward the female perspective. Not much is revealed about how the husband feels. The husband reacts, most of the time to the emotions of his wife.
The child actors are marvellous. Director Hama-Brown captures both the innocence and mischief of children, also showing both the fun and trouble kids can bring to the parents. At one point, they break the closet door by accident causing Judith to question whether she is a good mother after scolding them.
The issue of racism is also covered in the subject of Judith’s parents being interned during WWII. One of her children’s friends also remarks that she does not look ‘normal’ as she is mixed.
SEAGRASS is written and directed by Meredith Hama-Brown, the cinematographer is award-winning Norm Li, CSC (Beyond the Black Rainbow) and is produced by Experimental Forest Films' Tyler Hagan (The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open) and Ceroma Pictures' Sara Blake (Until Branches Bend) and distributed by Game Theory. The project was predominantly shot on Gabriola Island (BC) with a few additional days shot in Tofino and Ucluelet (BC).
Director Hama-Brown steers her relationship family drama into its emotional climax that includes a little suspense to boot in what can be termed s meticulously crafted gem.
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STOPMOTION (UK 2023) ***
Directed by Robert Morgan
A stop-motion animator, Ella Blake (Aisling Franciosi) struggles to control her demons after the loss of her overbearing mother. Suddenly alone in the world, she embarks upon the creation of a macabre new puppet film, which soon becomes the battleground for her sanity. As Ella’s mind starts to fracture, the characters in her animated film take on a terrifying life of their own, and the unleashed power of her imagination threatens to destroy her.
The film opens with an odd-looking woman shown in flashes (like stop-motion) sneering and silently snickering on screen.
Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames is played back. Any kind of object can thus be animated, but puppets with movable joints (puppet animation) or plasticine figures (clay animation or claymation) are most commonly used. Puppets, models or clay figures built around an armature (described as the skeleton in the film) are used in model animation. The new British horror film STOPMOTION is about a girl, recently left alone after her domineering mother (Stella Gonet) (move it 1 millimetre; move it half a millimetre; is it too much to ask that we finish this film before I die?) is hospitalized from a stroke.
The animation that Ella is working on with her mum deals with a cyclops who has traded one eye in order to see her destiny only to see her own death.
When Ella shows a little girl (Coiling Springall) her work, the little girl says it is boring. Little girl: It must take forever. Why bother?
Ella: It feels like bringing something back to life.
The little girl suggests that Ella re-do the whole story and start anew and they indulge in a conversation,
Little Girl: There is a girl lost in the woods.
Ella: Why is it scary?
Little Girl: Because there is someone coming. Someone no one wants to meet.
Before you know it, Ella re-does the stop-motion animation. Then Ella shows the little girl the work:
Little girl: She does not look real
Ella: She is not supposed to look real.
The puppet of the girl lost in the woods is quite odd-looking and definitely scary for children to look at. Director Morgan ups the ante in creating a scary gothic atmosphere by the use of multiple techniques including thumping and screeching sounds, colours, odd image and innovative camera angles. Filming locations include director Morgan's sitting room.
Ella gets more obsessed with her work, refusing to eat and ignoring her boyfriend, Tom (Tom York) who eventually loses his patience with her.
One thing that can be said for sure about the atmosphere of Morgan’s film is that no one can be sure of what is actually happening, less guess what is going to happen.
STOPMOTION opens in theatres on February 23rd and everywhere for rent March 15th. The film is also available on Shudder, the horror streaming service in May.
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YOUTH (SPRING) (Luxembourg/Franxe/Nerehrlands
Directed by Wang Bing
Running at 3 hours and 30 monies. YOUTH (SPRING) is a candid examination of the youth garment workers working in the textile capital, Zhili, China. Unlike the youth of Western countries, these young people live in closed and often filthy quarters, worn more than 8 hours a day, and away from their families. Yet, they share the common trait of their Western counterparts of lively spirit, off flirting with the opposite sex and also running into mischief. The work ethics of the textile companies also come into question. The bosses are rude to the young workers, calling them morons and refusing to look at fir pay for their work. Shot over the course of five years, from 2014 to 2019, in the city of Zhili, one of the main hubs of the country’s textile industry, the film condenses 2,600 hours of footage into a three-and-a-half-hour document of considerable visual strength and impact. What emerges is a vivid portrait of not only a regional economy, but the love, tenderness, and friendship experienced by its young textile workers. These 20-year-olds have migrated from their hometowns to work for a period of time in the sweatshop capital of China. They share everything. They stay and eat in common dormitories, meet in corridors or on balconies, and, above all, spend 15 hours a day at work, the constant hum of sewing machines forming the soundtrack of their destinies. There is no story or narrative but what occurs onscreen tells more stories about human youth than anything else.
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THE ABCS OF BOOK BANNING ***
Directed by Trish Adlesic, Nazenet Habtezghi and Sheila Nevins
In the United States, school boards across the country have banned children’s books from the curriculum and the library. Some of the books are famous such as Margaret Atwood’s THE HANDMAID’S TALE. The short begins with and is bookended by an invigorating speech by a 100-year-old woman speaking out against the school board. She is the widow of a husband who died in the war defending America’s freedoms. She claims, and with reason that words should never be banned and the banning prevents knowledge from being passed down. The topics of the books being banned, restricted, or classified include Jewish persecution; LGBT issues, racism, and feminine and black issues. Various children around the age of 10 also have a say through quite a few series of interviews. What is missing is the rebuttal of the school board. It would be definitely interesting to hear their defense.
THE AFTER (UK 2023) ***½
Directed by Mishan Harriman
There are two scenes in this 20-minute short that would affect one emotionally, the second one enough to get tears swelling in the eyes, and especially more so if one has experienced traumatic grief in the past. Shot on location in London, one can see the Overground tube as the ride-share driver (David Oyelowo) drives his car around after the death of both his daughter and wife after a random stabbing The random stabbing segment is shown and executed extremely well. The segment in less capable hands would definitely look silly or unbelievable. Actor Oyelowo is a terrace actor able to communicate tons with the use of minimal dialogue, This is not the only short film nominated in this category about grief, the other being KNIGHT OF FORTUNE which looks at grief differently with deadpan humour.
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THE BARBER OF LITTLE ROCK (USA 2023) ***
Directed by John Hoffman and Christine Turner
THE BARBER OF LITTLE ROCK explores America's widening racial wealth gap through the story of Arlo Washington, a local barber whose visionary approach to a just economy can be found in the mission of People Trust, the nonprofit community bank he founded. The short traces how Mr. Washington progressed from his barber shop to loaning the local black community loans before setting up the trust, Experiencing the effects of generational poverty and structural racism firsthand, Arlo understands his hometown of Little Rock, Arkansas and the profound mistrust of financial institutions that have historically excluded his community from financial stability and economic mobility. “Give me a chance. I will succeed,” says a client. Operating as the sole bank within a ten-mile radius, Arlo's People Trust fosters economic progress for underserved and underbanked residents, providing an economic beacon of hope that could reshape the future of banking. Nothing spectacular but an earnest portrayal of the bias black people face in baking and all other facets of life.
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THE ISLAND IN BETWEEN (USA 2023) ***
Directed by S. Leo Chiang
Filmmaker S. Leo Chiang reflects on his relationship with Taiwan, the United States and China from the islands of Kinmen, just a few miles from mainland China. For seven decades, this small island of around 70,000 residents has been caught in the middle of a geopolitical power struggle. Kinmen is part of Taiwan, but is located hundreds of kilometres from Taipei, while just a few kilometres across the strait, visible through the haze, is mainland China.
In 1949, this island was the front line in a bloody civil war between the Communists and the Nationalists, which saw Kinmen separated from the Chinese mainland and become part of Taiwan. Director Chiang shot his doc, essentially a home movie, during the Pandemic dealing with his feelings and how Taiwan, China and the United States are all vying for his attention like a quarrel among three parents. THE LAST ISLAND is not particularly spectacular, and it would be a major surprise if this one won the Oscar. Educational and informative though!
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THE LAST REPAIR SHOP (USA 2023) ***** Top 10
Directed by Kris Bowers and Ben Proudfoot
Spectacular, heart-breaking, moving and inspirational, THE LAST REPAIR SHOP gets my vote and is almost certain to win the Oscar for Best Doc Short. It tells the story of four unassuming heroes who ensure no student in L.A. is deprived of the joy of music. It is also a reminder of how music can be the best medicine, stress reliever and even an escape from poverty. It has an unbelievable stupendous ending with the orchestra playing illustrating that music and instruments are everything. “We do what we can to make sure that no child goes without an unprepared instrument,” so says the tireless and dedicated workers of the shop. Interspersed with the intricate repair needed to fix the broken instruments, no matter how minute, the metaphor for fixing one’s life makes the point. The four stories of the repair staff, one of a gay man, another of a refugee and the young musicians who share their experiences add to the narrative.
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NAI NAI AND WAI PO (USA 2023) ***½
Directed by Sean Wang
In Mandarin, the words mean grandmother and old lady. This short doc is a love letter of director Wang to his two grandmothers. The doc was shot during the Pandemic. The camera follows the two women, who are really close (they share the same bed) and enjoy each other’s company. The audience sees their daily routines which include eating, sleeping, dancing and reminiscing about life. One of them looks at old photographs daily. The one who is 84 says she feels as if she was 20 while the 92=3 says she feels like a hundred, They also talk about the sensitive topic of death, saying that many of their friends and loved ones have passed on. They claim that they are not afraid of dying.
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INVINCIBLE (Canada 2022) *****
Directed by Vincent Rene-Lortie
“You know why nothing is going to happen to me?” asks the boy to his little sister. “Because I am INVINCIBLE. I will be back to annoy you, “ he continues as he gives her a big hug. At this point, one wonders what is going on as it is after the scene where he had just driven a stolen car into the river and just emerged from the water in a completely different setting, not with his family by a lake. Inspired by the true story of Marc-Antoine Bernier, a 14-year-old boy on a desperate quest for freedom. According to the director, who was Marc’s good friend of the same age, for a year, Marc went from being a bright, curious, loving boy to an angry and troubled young man. Marc’s death raised many complicated questions the powerful film dives into that dark, tragic abyss in order to better understand teenage mental health and behavioural issues. Montreal Director Rene-Lorte uses dreamlike and surrealism to create a poetic tale that is both a mesmerizing and innovative look at a boy’s life.
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RED, WHITE AND BLUE (USA 2023) ****
Directed by Nazrin Choudury
Rachel (Brittany Snow) is a single mother living paycheck to paycheck with her young daughter of around 12 years and her son. When an unexpected pregnancy threatens to unravel her already precarious position, she's forced to cross state lines to Missouri in search of an abortion. She takes Rachel to celebrate her birthday in a girl's out and contemplates the series of events that necessitated this journey and the obstacles placed in her path. The short seems to go along smoothly with no hitches but a major shock is in store for the audience at the abortion clinic, not to reveal the twist in the story, The film is extremely moving, emotional and tender which marks it as special enough to warrant an Oscar nomination.
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THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF HENRY SUGAR (USA 2023) ****
Directed by Wes Anderson
Currently on Netflix. What is more wonderful than a short by both Wes Anderson and Roald Dahl? The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More is a 1977 short story collection by British author Roald Dahl, aimed at a slightly older audience than many of Dahl's other children's novels. The stories were written at varying times throughout his life. Henry Sugar, an independently wealthy man who enjoys gambling, finds and reads a doctor's report on a strange patient who called himself "The Man Who Sees Without Using His Eyes". Henry learns how to read playing cards, and wins a large sum of money that he throws out his window only to cause a riot in the street below. A police officer (Ralph Fiennes) scolds Henry (“You are an idiot!)” and suggests that he find a more legal form of charity, and Henry vows to establish the most well-equipped and supportive orphanages on the planet. Director Anderson makes sure his audience is always aware that they are watching a film with the props and sets moving around as in a studio set. The same tactic is also used with actor Benedict Cumberbatch who plays Henry Sugar. Ralph Fiennes plays the writer, who one assumes is the writer Roald Dahl himself.
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I’M HIP (USA 2023) ***½
Directed by John Musker
The short I’M HIP tells a super kool cat that is totally hip - so hip that a totally new song and musical numbers are designed format by its director John Musker, shows the cool cat (literally) fancies himself as the hippest in the room. The gags come at a rapid pace and are all synchronized to the jazzy tune by co-writer and vocalist Dave Frishberg. The short contains spirited colourful palettes and musical numbers that are fun to watch from start to end, there is no story or narrative but who really cares as the short is entertaining just as it is. Musker is known for working as half of the team that helped revolutionize Disney animation as co-director of The Little Mermaid, Aladdin and many others. This short confirms his talent for entertaining audiences.
LETTER TO A PIG (Israel/France 2022) ****
Directed by Tal Kontor
An extremely effective and emotionally animated short down largely in what looks like charcoal sketching tells about Haim, a Holocaust survivor who reads a letter to a classroom he wrote to the pig who saved his life. A young schoolgirl hears his testimony in class and sinks into a twisted dream where she confronts questions of identity, collective trauma, and the extremes of human nature. The film is divided into parts. A venerable man, the survivor of Shoah, confessing his experience in a time of Nazi period, reading behind the students a letter to his saviour. Teens reactions. A girl is developing, in her thoughts, with imagination and sensitivity, the narrated story of old Haim. The teen reactions are mixed and one disturbing reaction stands out is one boy who makes fun of the whole matter and as a result, is sent out of the classroom. This underlines words in Haim’s letter that humans are more inhuman than pigs, whom he first was taught to be disgusting and dirty till the one who took him in at the sty and treated him as one of his own,. The third part is the most surreal while bringing the short to its conclusion.
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NINETY-FIVE SENSES (USA 2023) ***½
Directed by Jared Hess and Jerusha Hess
This 13-minute short is an ode to the body's five senses delivered by a man, Coy (voiced by Tim Blake Nelson, THE BALLAD OPF BUSTER SCRUGGS) with little time left to enjoy them as he is now in his senior years and serving time. The five senses of smell, hearing, touch sight and taste are talked about as well as which sense goes first upon death. Why is the short called ninety-five senses? Because perhaps humans are endowed with a hundred senses only fire of which we experience when alive and the other ninety -five during the life after. “That is a nice thought,” voices Coy at the end of the short. It is a contemplating piece animated by 5 different animators, each for each sense, voiced with a stern accent as Coy (Nelson)is a hillbilly who claims that he has never used a cell phone inches life, the effect of which destroys sight.
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OUR UNIFORM (Iran 2023) ***½
Directed by Yegane Moghaddam:
In the film, an Iranian girl recalls school-age memories through the wrinkles and fabrics of her old uniform, quite literally. Rather than using paper, canvas, or a digital medium, Moghaddam painted directly on the cloth used for making school uniforms to tell the story of a character who dreams of a better future. The director is against wearing the hajib, emphasizing that outside of Iran, they can wear and do practically anything the girls want. Also, the girls paint lipstick on the lips of an Ayatollah painting. Schoolchildren wear uniforms for a major part of their lives.
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PACHYDERME (France 2021) *****
Directed by Stéphanie Clément
When the short opens, the colours immediately remind one of the famous Van Gogh paintings. This short is a meticulously crafted and ultimately most beautiful and nostalgic look at a child’s memories. “I don’t like to be left alone.” says the 9-year-old girl, Louise left at her grandparents' for 10 days. During the 10 days, the audience is whisked to a wonderful fairytale land of childhood memories that include both fascination (butterflies), fear (of monsters at night and eyes on the ceiling) staring at her and beauty. At the same time, this little girl i growing up, as her grandfather removes the stabilizers of her bicycle for the very first time. The short is narrated by the adult Louise as heard in the voiceover throughout the short putting perspective to the story.
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THE WAR IS OVER! (UK 2023) ***½
Directed by Dave Mullins
In an alternate WWI reality, a heroic pigeon delivers messages across the battlefield, from one side to the other. The messages are exchanged by two soldiers on opposite sides (British and German), who, unaware of who their opponent is, are playing a game of chess against each other, each move transmitted by a carrier pigeon, As the fighting and the game both escalate, they continue to exchange their chess moves, delivered by this brave pigeon, that flies amidst bomb explosions. The beautifully crafted and moving short is inspired by the Music of John and Yoko that features John Lennon and Yoko Ono's peace anthem "Happy Christmas (War Is Over)". A relevant piece considering the wars between Russia and the Ukraine, Israel and Hamas that are presently going on. The short emphasizes the message that there are no winners in any war, only casualties like the poor innocent pigeon.
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WILD SUMMON (UK 2023) ***
Directed by Karni Arieli and Saul Freed
A natural history fantasy film, following the dramatic lifecycle of the wild salmon in human form. Narrated by Marianne Faithful WILD SUMMON is an epic story of nature that all children should be told in one form or another - and this animated short intends to do so by humanizing the take of salmon spawning. Salmon are born and travel to the sea but eventually travel back upstream against incredible odds to their place of lay new roe. Dangers include Predators birds, and bears but worst of all mankind in terms of pollution that kills sea life. The salmon are animated as human figures with pink wetsuit flippers and goggles that swim through the water complete with limbs. One of these is tagged by scientists to study the breeding patterns. The short is largely narrated with a voiceover that explains the entire spawning process. The shot is as informative as it can be but one still wonders the reason the filmmakers have decided not to represent the salmon and salmon.
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