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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 16 June 2024

FILM REVIEWS:

BRATS (USA 2024) **
Directed by Andrew McCarthy

 

The new documentary BRATS that opens on Disney+ explores the Brat Pack, a group of young actors who frequently appeared together in coming-of-age 1980s films, and the impact on their lives and careers.  Emilio Estevez, Ally Sheedy, Timothy Hutton, Demi Moore, Rob Lowe, Lea Thompson and Jon Cryer appear in the film, as do Lauren Shuler Donner (producer), Howard Deutch (writer and director), and David Blum (journalist).  Blum is the journalist who can be considered the one who conned the term Brat Pack.  Blum popularized in a 1985 New York magazine cover story, which described a group of highly successful film stars in their early twenties.  He wrote the article after witnessing several young actors being mobbed by groupies at Los Angeles' Hard Rock Cafe.

When the piece ran, the actors all felt betrayed, especially Estevez. The article mentioned people in several films but focused on Estevez, Lowe, and Nelson, and portrayed those three negatively. The "Brat Pack" label, which the actors disliked, stuck for years afterward.\Before the article ran, they had been regarded as talented individuals; after the article, all of them were grouped together and regarded as unprofessional. Interviewed for Susannah Gora's 2010 book You Couldn't Ignore Me If You Tried: The Brat Pack, John Hughes, And Their Impact on a Generation, Blum admitted that he should not have written the article.  But in the interview with McCarthy in this doc, he was asked if he would have changed anything in his article and he replied ‘no’.

With the increased negative attention to them, the actors soon stopped socializing with one another. On the group's camaraderie, Ally Sheedy later said the article "just destroyed it. I had felt truly a part of something, and that guy just blew it to pieces."

The magic question is: Who makes up the Brat Pack?  An appearance in one or both of the ensemble casts of two specific films released in 1985—John Hughes's The Breakfast Club and Joel Schumacher's St. Elmo's Fire—is often considered the prerequisite for being a core Brat Pack member.[With this criterion, the most commonly cited members include:

Emilio Estevez

Anthony Michael Hall

Rob Lowe

Andrew McCarthy

Demi Moore

Judd Nelson

Molly Ringwald

Ally Sheedy

Obviously, there are a few other less recognizable members.  These include Oscar Winner Timothy Hutton (ORDINARY PEOPLE), Tom Cruise and Charlie Sheen, among many others. The doc has director McCarthy traveling around most of the time and meeting members of Brat Pack, most of whom he had not seen in 30 years.  They discuss the effects of being branded a member of the Brat Pack, mostly negative.   The trouble is whether we do care what these over-privileged actors feel.  They are wealthy enough to have people listen to their opinions, and the doc makes a point of the fact.  McCarthy tries to offer an insightful overview of a bygone Hollywood era as well as his deeply personal journey.   If  BRATS is a bittersweet reflection on childhood stardom, it needs more emotion and credibility.  In the end, the doc ends up having the pack and journalist Blum included, acknowledging the adverse effects of the article initially and then saying that it eventually did them well while justifying the actions they had overcome.  Again not many would care.

Trailer: 

 

DADDIO (USA 2024) ***
Directed by Christie Hall

 

DADDIO is a two-handler in which the action takes place in a cab ride from JFK Airport to the city.  It begins with two very different personalities with different moods at the time forced to spend the film’s running time together. She wants to be left alone while he wishes to chat.

After landing at JFK International Airport, a young woman (Dakota Johnson, who also produced the film) takes a cab back to her apartment in Manhattan at 44th, between 9th. and 10th.  During the ride, she and the cab driver, who reveals his name as Clark (Sean Penn), have unexpectedly honest conversations about numerous topics, including their past and present relationships, sex and power dynamics, loss, and vulnerability.

Despite the basic film premise of two strangers sharing views on different topics and their personal lives, the story requires credibility.  The audience must believe the conversation occurs in the film’s 100-minute running time.  The ride takes less time so the hurdle is overcome with the cab stuck in a traffic jam for some time.  To have the audience believe that the strangers can embark on honest dialogue, the dialogue is initially begun with small talk (Clark:  This is my last ride of the day; it has been a rough day), slowly leading to more personal issues.  The icebreaker comes from Clark who first talks about hating credit cards use for payment.  He then talks about other forms of money used in the past like salt and gold.  Clark also talks about his bucket list - meeting a cowboy, scuba diving and going to Japan.  As for the passenger, she slowly eases into the conversation even explaining to him the use of digital data, she confessing that she is a computer programmer.  It is about ‘1’s and ‘0’s and ‘I’ being an on and a ‘0’ being an off.

The big revelation of the passenger to Clark (not to be revealed in the review) is kept to the end of the film forming its climax.

The film is a very serious affair of serious talk with little humour.  The only humour, if it can be considered humour is the image of the girl’s boyfriend’s cock that he displays that she receives on her cell phone to show how horny he is.   The girl occasionally calls him DADDIO, which forms the title of the film.

In a more serious conversation, they discuss the ‘L’ word, and the reason one should never mention the word in a relationship.

DADDIO began as a spec script by Christie Hall.  A spec script, also known as a speculative screenplay, is a non-commissioned and unsolicited screenplay. It is usually written by a screenwriter who hopes to have the script optioned and eventually purchased by a producer, production company, or studio.  The film went on to make the "Black List" of the most-liked un-produced scripts in Hollywood.

The film’s interiors (i.e. the cab) are shot on a sound stage with some filming occurring in New York City and Jersey City, NJ in December 2022.   The modest production was shot in 16 days.

DADDIO opens June 28 across Canada, including Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal!

Trailer: 

DRAWING CLOSER (Japan 2024) **
Directed by Takahiro Miki

 

DRAWING CLOSER can be described as a light teen relationship tale about two teens who are terminally ill.   Akito has a tumor and was diagnosed with a year to live and is very unhappy at the news, but still goes about his daily activities.  The unhappiness is not shown.  His parents ponder if it was the right decision to let him know or if he might be happier in his last year of life,  Haruna has 6 months to live as she was born with a very rare condition that affects one in hundreds of thousands.  What this disease it is, is never mentioned.

DRAWING CLOSER immediately draws to mind the Darryl Duke (he directed the Christmas Canadian classic THE SILENT PARTNER) little heard of TV movie GRIFFIN AND PHOENIX (not the remake), though a TV movie that is far more superior to this one.  Geoffrey Griffin (Peter Falk) who has been diagnosed with terminal cancer in his chest, meets Sarah Phoenix (Jill Clayburgh) as they both attend a university lecture on the psychology of dying.  Sarah Phoenix has terminal leukemia, but Griffin doesn't know that, and she doesn't know that he is terminally ill. They start spending time together and fall in love, both struggling with their fate. This is the beginning of a beautiful and sad love story!  In real life, Clayburgh died of cancer and so did Peter Falk.

Akito, who is afraid to die meets Haruna who is looking forward to going to heaven.  The trouble with DRAWING CLOSER is that if falls into the category of goody-two-shoes.  Everyone is smiling and happy.  Hopes are high, even in the face of death.  Akito has a talent for art and Haruna paints pictures of heaven.  No one is angry.  If death is imminent one would expect much anger at the unfairness life has dished out.  Both Haruna and Akito should be mad (though Akitio displays a bit of despair) that they are only given a year and 6 months to live respectively.  In GRIFFIN and PHOENIX, there is a scene where Jill Clayburgh cries and screams at the top of her lungs at how life is so unfair, especially when she has found love finally and both are ill with terminal cancer.  This is one of cinema’s most riveting scenes.

For a movie about death, the film is treated as a fairy tale fantasy instead of a tragedy.  One might argue that one should always look positively at the bright side of things, but the darker side should not be overlooked, as in the case of this unrealistic treatment of the subject.  One would also expect the two to fall in love but they don’t.  Blame can be given to the source novel on which the film is based.

DRAWING CLOSER is a Netflix original Japanese film that opens for streaming this week.  Only mildly entertaining, this is a film that omits key issues while meandering aimlessly around the lives of its two subjects.

Trailer: 

THE ESCORT (ESCORT) (Bosnia 2023) ***
Directed by Lukas Nola

 

For the first time in his life, happily married filmmaker Miro (Zrvko Anočić) spends the night with a prostitute who was mysteriously sent to his hotel room after a business evening. After indulging in sex and drugs, he finds the girl dead in the bathroom and quickly covers up the unfortunate incident with the help of two hotel employees who suddenly start to play a major role in his life that will never be the same.

ESCORT plays like a Kafka-ish plot.  After the escort is found dead in his hotel room, the whole incident is taken matter-of-factly by the hotel staff.  Miro is told that the hotel staff has made his bed and asks if he wants to change his room.  This thing happens all the time Miro is told and thongs could be worse.  The staff then asks for 200 currency for ‘operating expenses’.

And as in all Kafka-sih incidents, Miro is asking himself; “Is this happening to me?”  Amidst all this, it is never made sure what happened so the audience is wondering if a crime was committed or not and if Miro is guilty of murder or not.

Director Nola proves himself apt at getting the audience's attention at inconsequential details.  The first 15 minutes of the film have a bar scene in which three men, Miro included getting pissed drunk and talking shit.  They talk about nonsense and flirt with the waitress.  The men men talk in a camaraderie reminiscent of the men in John Cassavetes’ HUSBANDS.  A few minutes are spent talking about the tattoo on the waitress’ arm, on water Miro still getting sex outside his marriage and other items that seem important to the drunk men and interesting enough for the audience, despite them not making any dent to the main plot.  And if all this is not enough to interest the audience, Director Nola includes lengthy erotic and intimate love-making scenes with full nudity.

Director Nola’s private joe includes inserting close-ups of animals at random at various parts of his film.  These include a fix, a rabbit a field mouse and even a crawling spider.

THE ESCORT has already won numerous awards.  Acclaimed on the festival circuit, THE ESCORT captured many awards including Best Feature Film at Lithuanian’s 2024 Voice of the Future Film Festival and 2023’s Portugal Indie Film Festival (Lisbon) and the Courtyard International Film Festival (Naples), as well as several awards, including Best Supporting Actor and Best Production Design at the Pula Film Festival, Croatia’s best-known fest. 

On a sadder note, THE ESCORT is also the final film from Director Lukas Nola, who passed away in 2022 after a long battle with cancer. From his feature film debut, Russian Meat, in 1995 to his final Lynchian thriller, Nola carved out a place for himself as one of Croatia’s best-known filmmakers, with gritty arthouse films such as 2013’s Hush and AFI Grand Jury nominee, Celestial Body, to his name.

THE ESCORT makes its North American debut on SVOD service INDEPIX Unlimited on June 28th, 2024.

Trailer: 

A FAMILY AFFAIR (USA 2024) **
Directed by Richard LaGravenese

 

An unexpected romance triggers comic consequences for a young woman, her mother, and her boss, grappling with the complications of love, sex, and identity.

A FAMILY AFFAIR is a romantic comedy of sorts that includes a family relationship that tests the romance between the older woman and the younger man.  The older woman is Brooke Harwood (Nicole Kidman, still looking gorgeous at her age) and the hot hunk movie star is Chris Cole (Zac Ephron).  The family involved is Brooke’s daughter, Zara (Zoey King) and Brooke’s mother Leila (the always watchable Kathy Bates).  The trouble is that Zara is the personal assistant of spoilt brat Chris Cole who gets her to do menial chores like getting him coffee and breakup presents for his dates, many of them when he breaks up with them.  Cole can never have a relationship.  He has no friends for the reason of his star status and haughty behaviour.  Ephron probably is like his character in real life, so he is basically playing a version of himself in character.

A FAMILY AFFAIR, written by Carrie Solomon and directed by Richard LaGravenese (the 2013 BEAUTIFUL CREATURES) strives to be a hilarious comedy, a family drama and a deeply felt love story but fails in all three.  The humour is slight and the jokes are not funny enough.  Credit should be given to that joke that is priceless - the one with the analogy of Zara's eyebrow piercing and sexual intercourse.  But that one joke can hardly be said to have saved the movie.  The love story is cliched and nothing that one has not seen in a romance film before, especially between an older woman and a younger man.  The family drama works better than the other two stories but the film is touted more as a comedy.

Joey King as the over-caring daughter who wishes to protect her mother from the otherwise womanizing Chris Cole is convincing.  She is able to elicit sympathy from the audience for his mistakes even though she is wrong.  The confrontation scene between her and her best friend is the most moving segment of the film.  Ephron with his good looks and misty eyes has difficulty projecting sincerity in the film.  When he says he really loves Brooke, which is the case according to the script, it hardly comes across as convincing.  He is more credible making his snide remarks with just words like “yeah”.  Ephron’s funniest role ever was in NEIGHBOURS where he played the out-of-control parking neighbour of Seth Rogen.  To Kidman’s credit, she does well as the mother looking for love once again after a long period of time without being kissed, after the death of her husband.  Bates plays the adorable grandmother who helps turn the family around.  Bates plays a well-known writer, shades of her Oscar Winning Best Actress leading role for MISERY.

A FAMILY AFFAIR is a Netflix original movie that opens for streaming on Friday, June 29th.

Trailer: 

GHOSTLIGHT (USA 2023) ***
Directed by Alex Thompson and Kelly O’Sullivan

The term GHOSTLIGHT with reference to the theatre is a light left lit overnight in a theatre.  GHOSTLIGHT tells the story of Dan playing Romeo in the Community Theatre whilst getting his life back together again.

When a film like GHOSTLIGHT begins with the spritely song “Oh, What a Wonderful Morning” from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s OKLAHOMA! (1955 film) one can tell that it is going to be the opposite.  It is going to be a trying and angry day for the subject Dan, a construction worker, in which life has given him a terrible dish of misfortune.  Firstly, he has to deal with the death of his son and currently the anger and rebellious nature of his daughter, who is about to be expelled from school.  Worst still his job is getting to him.  A car barely misses him at the construction roadside, just almost side-swiping him.  When doing his job, an irate person asks if he could turn the noise level down.  Finally, Dan loses it.  But somehow, by fate, he ends up playing a role in Community Theatre, that of the famous Romeo in ROMEO AND JULIET, this blue-collar worker not even knowing anything about the plight of the two Shakespearean lovers.

The premise of the film goes like this:  When melancholic construction worker Dan finds himself drifting from his wife and daughter, he discovers community and purpose in a local theatre’s production of Romeo and Juliet.  As the drama onstage starts to mirror his own life, he and his family are forced to confront a personal loss.  This sounds like something one would avoid at the cinema, being a downer and a drama that does sound quite cliched.

Surprisingly, GHOSTLIGHT turns out to be a hit thus far, a hit at the recent Sundance Film Festival and earning an almost perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of writing,

There is little humour in this otherwise serious venture, as many similar-themed films would have included lots of quirky humour.  The script by Kelly O’Sullivan avoids this easy way out and replaces humour with bouts of angry scenes and a few with uplifting moments.  The anger scenes include the one where Dan freaks out in public, his wife screaming at him when she thinks Dan is having an affair and the uplifting scene is the one where daughter Daisy surprises everyone, the audience included by singing “I Can’t Say No” also, from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s OKLAHOMA!

For a small production, GHOSTLIGHT contains big performances.  Keith Kupferer is as convincing as Dan and can also win the audience's sympathy.  Dolly de Leon plays the smart-mouthed Rita, last seen in the role of the toilet manager in the memorable hit TRIANGLE OF SADNESS.  But the prize performance belongs to Katherine May Kupferer who plays the volatile Daisy.

GHOSTLIGHT premiered at Sundance and has won numerous awards festival-wide.  It opened in the U.S. on June 14th and opens at the TIFF Lightbox on the 28th of June.

Trailer: 

GREEN BORDER (Zielona granica)(Poland/Czech/France/Belgium 2023) ***½

Directed by Agnieszka  Holland

 

The action of the film takes place at a GREEN BORDER.  A green border is a weakly protected section of the national border, and in this movie the border between Poland and Belarus. The term green border comes from the area covered with vegetation: green borders are usually forests, thickets and meadows, often with varied terrain.

In the treacherous and swampy forests that make up the so-called 'green border' between Belarus and Poland, refugees from the Middle East and Africa trying to reach the European Union are caught in a geopolitical crisis triggered by Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko. In an attempt to provoke Europe, refugees are lured to the border by propaganda promising easy passage to the EU. Pawns in this hidden war, the lives of Julia, a newly minted activist who has given up her comfortable life, Jan, a young border guard, and a Syrian refugee family intertwine.

Director Holland unleashes the emotional effects of the refugee crisis from the points of view of each of the different perspectives.  Julie, the activist is all out trying to help the refugees, while breaking the law and almost getting herself arrested.  The film shows her dedication and indeed there are many like her who are saints in their job, risking all.  There is also the troubled young border guard who is uneasy with the atrocities his fellow guards inflict on the refugees.  He takes the trouble home with the result of tension between himself and his wife.  But he is seen as a good person, able to separate his humanity against peer pressure.  He gets to do a good deed at the end of the film.  The family on the run is the most difficult to watch.  The refugee family consists of a father and mother, the grandfather, two young kids and a baby on the way.  The cat and mouse chases take a toll on the family relationships.  The grandfather is religious while the father is more skeptical of his religion.  The mother cares for her two kids but the pressure also gets to her.  At first patient with the younger daughter, the mother finally snaps at her when she wets her pants.  In the midst is a good Samaritan, a Polish schoolteacher who helps the family out in saintly ways.

The film competed for the Golden Lion at the 80th Venice International Film Festival, where it won the Special Jury Prize.  It received positive reviews from critics but was condemned by Polish government officials for its portal of the inhuman treatment of the refugees by the border guards, which includes one disturbing scene in which a guard places broken glass in a flask for a refugee to drink, and by some segments of the wider Polish nation.

GREEN BORDER runs a bit long because it tells in detail, the story of refugees from three different points of view.  It takes a little patience to wash the entire film as it is not an easy watch, it being a difficult subject but well worth it.

GREEN BORDER opens June 28th at the TIFF Lightbox in Toronto.

Trailer: 

 

KINDS OF KINDNESS (UK/Ireland/USA 2024) ****|

Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos

KINDS OF KINDNESS is written by director Yorgos Lanthimos and co-writer Efthimis Filippou.  They collaborated in the past in films just as weird, DOGTOOTH (2009,) THE LOBSTER (2007) and THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER (2019).  Their latest film KINDS OF KINDNESS is an anthology of three stories that can be classified as absurdist psychological horror black comedy.

The three stories are of approximately equal length with a total combined running time of 142 minutes and it is difficult to determine which one is best.  The long-running time is not felt for the fact there are three stories with a surprise (or shock) around every corner.  No one can tell what to expect and what would happen next,  Twice Oscar Winner Emma Stone plays the lead in the third story which is the reason it is used as the last one.  Jesse Plemons plays the lead in the first two stories, with Emma Stone also appearing in minor roles.  Plemons is an exceptionally good actor, able to command screen presence as demonstrated in films like the recent CIVIL WAR and POWER OF THE DOG.  He commands attention as well in the first two stories, making them just as good if not better than the climactic third.  Plemons who steals the entire film, won the Best Actor Award for his role in this film at Cannes,

KINDS OF KINDNESS, described as a "triptych fable," consists of three distinct but loosely connected stories. The first segment, "The Death of R.M.F," follows a man who seeks to take charge of his own destiny after breaking away from his powerful boss. The second, "R.M.F. is Flying," depicts a man plagued by suspicions that his spouse, who has recently returned after being reported missing, is an imposter. The final segment, "R.M.F. Eats a Sandwich," revolves around a cultist's task to find a specific person with the ability to resurrect the dead.

The film’s original title was AND before the title was changed to KINDS OF KINDNESS.  The three kinds of kindness are demonstrated in each of the three stories.  In the first, Plemons plays a devoted employee who does everything unquestionably for his boss (Willem Defoe) including running his waiting car to crash on another passing by.  But he is unsuccessful in killing the second driver.  He refuses his boss’ request to attempt the deed a second time out of kindness not to kill another person.  The other types of kinds can be ascertained in the next two stories.

The film contains bouts of graphic violence like the cutting off of a finger, to be cooked and served with cauliflower for dinner.  There is also a foursome sex scene involving Plemons and Stone - more shocking than erotic.

The film was shot in was little in 3 weeks for a modest budget of $15 million.  One would have expected the film to cost more with Emma Stone in it, but she likely took a salary cut to work with Lanthimos whose films earned her two Academy Awards.  Stone has a chance to ham it up with a breakdance in the last story.

` This reviewer loves his films absurdist and weird so KINDS OF KINDNESS is a deliciously wicked delight.

A QUIET PLACE DAY ONE (USA 2024) **
Directed by Michael Sarnoksi

A QUIET PLACE has morphed into a noisy franchise that includes 3 sequels, the 4th one in the making and a video game to boot.  Enough is enough as can be witnessed in this third installment A QUIET PLACE: DAY ONE which is the only one in the franchise not directed by John Krasinski.

A QUIET PLACE is an American post-apocalyptic horror media franchise centring on a series of films set in a world inhabited by blind extraterrestrial creatures with an acute sense of hearing.  A QUIET PLACE (2018) is the first film in the series, which was followed by the sequel A QUIET PLACE Part II (2020), both directed by John Krasinski.  The spin-off prequel, A QUIET PLACE: Day One, is the one reviewed here and directed by Michael Sarnoski and will be released on June 28, 2024.  A third and final sequel, A QUIET PLACE Part III, directed by Krasinski, is in development and scheduled to be released in 2025. The franchise also includes A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead, a video game set within the same fictional universe.

This QUIET PLACE installment works as a standalone film.  The characters are new and different from the first two films.  Samira (Luputa Nyong’o), a terminally ill cancer patient, lives at a hospice in New York City with her service cat, Frodo.  One day, Reuben (a bearded Alex Woolf), a care worker, convinces a reluctant Sam to join a group outing to watch a play involving marionettes in Manhattan. During the trip, the group noticed meteor-like objects crashing into the city. Shortly afterward, hostile extraterrestrial creatures began to attack people. In the ensuing chaos, Sam is knocked unconscious.

Sam later wakes up inside the marionette theatre with Frodo and other survivors.  Everyone is quiet, and fellow survivor Henri signals her to avoid making any noise. Announcements from overhead military helicopters warn civilians to stay silent and hidden until rescues can be made, with the bridges leading out of the city being bombed to prevent the creatures from leaving the island. One of the survivors begins to panic, which causes Henri (Djimon Hounsou) to accidentally kill him in the process of calming him down.

As in the first two QUIET PLACE movies, the characters have to remain silent in order to evade the aliens.  The same occurs in this film too, and it gets quite monotonous after a while.  The aliens are given the setback that they cannot swim (an excuse) and thus enable the humans to escape by boat.  Sam’s cat is silent by nature which allows it to survive and also lead the humans to safety in certain scenes.  Director Darnoski moves his film at a snail’s pace with lots of attention to detail.  Manhattan is shown in destruction and disarray accounting mainly for the film’s enormous $65 million production costs.  Though the atmosphere of chaos and destruction is stunning, it is quite boring to have to sit through  99 minutes (the film’s running time) watching Sam and her cat Frodo.  Another character is introduced in the last thread of the film, a law student, Eric from Britain (Joesph Quinn) though this annoying person does not alleviate the tedium.

The film has unexplained details.  How did so many survivors get on the barge before Sam and Eric noticed it?  Why do the aliens suddenly appear or disappear suddenly?  Why did they come to Earth and why is there no other information on these creatures?

A QUIET PLACE DAY ONE IS definitely well made but the premise of sound-tracking aliens preying on human victims has worn out its interest in the third of the QUIET PLACE franchise resulting in a boring piece with portions that make no sense.

Trailer: 

 

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Details

Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 15 June 2024

FILM REVIEWS:

THE ACCIDENTAL TWINS (Hermanos por Accidente) (Colombia 2024) ***
Directed by Alessandro Angulo

 

It would be so cool to have an identical twin, says one of the accidental twins, the name of Jorge Bernal,  at the start of the documentary THE ACCIDENTAL TWINS.   Be careful what you wish for.  His following statement goes to to say that he could hardly believe that his entire life lived had been a lie.

The new Netflix original documentary from Colombia tells of two sets of identical twins switched at birth in Bagota, Colombia as it explores their complex history and new identities.

The doc, as expected, is divided into three parts,  The first is the discovery of the identical twin, the second is how the twins got switched at birth - by mistake or deliberate and the third is the reactions of the twins, how they cope with the new found truth and how they deal with the new truth.

The discovery occurs when Jorge’s co-worker, Yaneth, a girl goes to her boyfriend’s butcher shop to buy meat for a BBQ.  She notices a butcher who looks like Jorge and yells to him, with no response.  Jorge tells her when she tells him about the incident that he never worked at the butcher shop.  After some more fishing, She shows a photo of William (the guy at the butcher shop) to Jorge who is surprised.  The plot thickens.  Jorge has an identical twin that does not look like him.  It is then discovered when Jorge looks at a photograph of William and his twin, he finds that William’s twin looks like his twin.  This discovery portion takes around a third of the film’s length and is mildly interesting, though the discovery is important in the story.

The doc requires some following as there are two sets of twins that looks similar.  Names can be confused.  The main subject is Jorge and his non-lookalike twin is Carlos.  He discovers his real twin, William working at the butchers and William’s twin Wilber who does not look like William but like Carlos.  Once these identities are cleared, the film is easier to follow,   Director Angelo spaces the time of introduction of each of the 4 characters, so that the audience can take time to absorb the material without confusion.  The tactic works.

But the re-enactments are obvious.  These include the ride in the cab with Jorge and Carlos to meet their identical twins at the Plaza de Lourdes.  The doc is made up mainly of these re-enactments and interviews.  The re-enactments aid in making the film easier to follow though those involved in filmmaking or those who watch docs a lot of docs know that re-enactments are often made to fool the audience that what is taking place is taking place in real-time and not a re-enactment.

THE ACCIDENTAL TWINS does not glorify its subject but tells the story the way it is.  The story is nevertheless interesting enough to warrant a documentary in the making that does not take much research but more detective work.  The pieceing of the re-enactments together gives the doc a mystery element and works to bring up the entertainment level a notch or two.  Director Angelo ends his film on a feel-good, not about the power of the human spirit to forgive and to look at the good fate dishes out.

THE ACCIDENTAL TWINS opens for streaming on Netflix, on Thursday this week.

Trailer: 

 

THE BIKERIDERS (USA 2023) ****
Directed by Jeff  Nichols

 

Set in the 1960s, THE BIKERIDERS follows the rise of the Vandals MC, a Chicago outlaw motorcycle club.  Seen through the lives of its members and their families, the club evolves over the course of a decade from a surrogate family for local outcasts into a violent organized crime syndicate, threatening the original founder's unique vision and way of life.

The origin of the club featured in the film in the 1960s originated from a number of clubs the first one founded as early as in the 1930s.  The club featured in a work of photojournalism called The Bikeriders published in 1967 by Danny Lyon (played by, Mike Faist, recently seen in CHALLENGERS and in Steven Spielberg’s WEST SIDE STORY) a collection of photographs and interviews documenting the lifestyle of members of the club in the 1960s.  As depicted in the film, Lyon spent four years riding with the Outlaws' Chicago chapter beginning in 1963 and became a full-fledged member of the club in "an attempt to record and glorify the life of the American bike rider”.  It is also interesting to note that The Bikeriders preceded Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs by Hunter S. Thompson, who warned Lyon that he should "get to hell out of that club unless it's absolutely necessary for photo action.

The film is told from interviews given by Kathy (Jodie Cormer) to Danny Lyon.  Kathy is the wife of Ben (Austin Butler) one of the prominent dedicated and crazed riders of the Vandals, a sort of successor, handpicked by to the founder, Johnny (Tom Hardy).  As she tells the story, the film is intercut with the story of the Vandals, beginning with how Kathy met Benny at a bar and how they hooked up and married, though the wedding was never shown on screen, though is mentioned.  Another omission in the film is Johnny’s wife or woman, who only has two brief appearances in the film.  Given this interview, the otherwise male bike story is given a female perspective.  Kathy rates her feelings that she boldly tells the often emotionless Benny.  Kathy wants him to leave the bike club after a severe accident that causes Benny to almost lose his leg.

Credit to Nichols for creating a convincing and stunning period piece with great shots of motorbike riding.  Nichols elects superb performances from his entire cast, particularly Tom Hardy.  

Tom Hardy stands out as Johnny with his tough talk and leather gear.  His fight scenes aid in showing his masculinity and dedication towards the bike club.  He rarely shows kindness but serves to protect those around him, of course within reason.  Hardy speaks with a slurred accent, likely giving tribute to Marlon Brando who has a similar bike role in the 1953 film László Benedek's THE WILD ONES, the film given a nod in one scene.

THE BIKERIDERS opens in theatres on June 21st.  THE BIKERIDERS is a tough film about tough males, but given a female point of view, morphing it also into a love story.   It is worth a watch, the best film opening this week.

THE BOY IN THE WOODS (Canada 2023) ****

Directed by Rebecca Snow

 

The film is set in eastern Poland in 1943.  At this time, Eastern Poland was under Nazi Occupation for a period of 2 years.  In the local town of Buczach, the once-thriving Jewish Population has been decimated.  The last remaining residents are awaiting deportation.  This is where the film begins, based on a true story as the film titles announce.

The boy’s family is rounded up on the street about to be loaded into trucks, together with other families in the local neighbourhood.  At the chance that no guard is looking, the mother forces the boy to run and escape through a gate and he does.  He ends up with a rural family who discards the boy after he poses an extra threat to the family.  The father of the family is stern to the boy but has to give him up.  The father is played by Richard Armitage.  Jett Klyne who plays the boy delivers a powerhouse and convincing performance.

The film has the atmosphere of a Grimm fairytale, especially with the boy in the woods.  It feels like Hansel and Gretel as the boy is led to the woods by the man and never to return.  The boy does not meet a witch but has to live in a makeshift shelter of wood and branches, hiding away from ‘Jew Hunters’ who can earn a good buck if they catch the boy and turn him in.   The woods are the ones in Northern Ontario where the film is shot, a Canadian production.

Despite the seemingly simple premise, a lot happens.  The boy, Max meets another younger boy, Yank, who he promises to take care of.  With the need for companionship, the two become passionate friends while still living in the danger of being caught by the Jew Hunters.

The story is part coming-of-age story as Max grows up and learns about responsibility and survival and part survival story describing the strength of courage and the human will.

THE BOY IN THE WOODS is based on a true story.  Rebecca Snow took on the project of "The Boy in the Woods" inspired by Maxwell Smart's true story of survival. She met him while making the documentary Cheating Hitler.  The image of Max is shown at the end of the film during the closing credits, Max now being in his senior age.  The girl he had saved as a baby by the river just before the Germans surrendered is also shown in the closing credits.

Trailer: 

INHERITANCE (Polish title: Spadek)(Poland 2014) ***
Directed by Sylwester Jakimow

 

What won’t a person do for money?  This is the question an old gentleman asks at the beginning before firing a bullet from a gun, the bullet flying off in slow motion.

Family fighting for an inheritance is not a new premise in murder comedies.  The recent one on Netflix from Italy THE PRICE OF NONNA’S INHERITANCE that opened last month had a family trying to murder the rich grandmother’s new younger fiance to save their share of inheritance proved quite funny.  INHERITANCE from Poland has a a family gathering at a wealthy dying uncle’s estate fighting for a larger portion of the inheritance.  Uncle isn’t really dying but is murdered.

The film challenges itself.  Voiceover (the voice belongs to one of the family members) says that inheritance will turn a large family into lunatics.  And how about an abnormal family?  The statement primes the audience to expect more from the film.

Is the family abnormal?  There is a gay member who shows up with his lover and an older member with her much younger boyfriend who the family thinks is after her money.  The audience soon learns that the uncle, who is actually not dying is a practical joker and totally fucked up.  He initially fools the family during the reading of the will that would leave the entire inheritance to the local orphanage before suddenly appearing behind them and laughing at them from looking at their faces.  He invents a game to be played by the family the next day to keep them closer together as a family.

To make matters worse and as the plot thickens, a blizzard occurs that isolates the family from the outside world.

The trouble starts with the rich uncle.  No one knows the truth but rumours are that he was a spy, or that he was the first TV game show host or that he was an inventor.  Needless today, he was very rich and even if you inherit a million zlotys, you feel that you lost if someone else inherited two million.

Uncle is dying.  Ore is he?  He insists on having his family, extended ones included at his estate.  They all arrive and prove to be a whole assortment of characters, who obviously for entertainment's sake, do not get along with each other.  They also try to outdo each other, while trying to impress their rich uncle with the big inheritance, to gain his favour and a bigger portion of the inheritance.

Soon, as the film progresses, Uncle dies.  Is he dead?  There are shades of Agatha Christie akin to a film like Neil Simon’s MURDER BY DEATH.  It is barely funny with the murder plot clouding the humour.  The game that Uncle forces the family to play is at least quite inventive though nothing to write home about.

INHERITANCE, a Netflix original movie from Poland and in Polish opens Wednesday this week for streaming on Netflix together with another one from Poland, a magical fantasy, KLEKS ACADEMY.

THE OMICRON KILLER (USA 2023) *** ½

Direct by Jeff Knite

 

The film opens with the date November 7th, 2020 with the Omicron Killer and then flashes forward to the year 2021, November 7th with the imitation Omicron Killer after the original killer has died.

A copycat serial killer, killing his last victim on the anniversary of the death of the original killer, decides to retire from his life of murder.  But his retirement doesn’t last for long. Attacked by vicious thugs, left severely wounded and hospitalized, The Omicron Killer returns, hellbent on vengeance as he embarks on a new reign of terror!

“If looks could kill, you would be dead by now!” says one nurse to another as the Omicron Killer is examined in the hospital after he has killed the three thugs who attempted to rob him.”  He had done away with the three viciously.

From the beginning 15 minutes so far, the violence is extreme and escalates in intensity as the film progresses, with  low-brow humour put in.  The three thugs who got killed trying to rob the Omicron Killer sure got what was coming to them.

Omicron (B.1.1.529) is a variant of SARS-CoV-2 first reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) by the Network for Genomics Surveillance in South Africa on 24 November 2021.  It was first detected in Botswana and has spread to become the predominant variant in circulation around the world.  Following the original B.1.1.529 variant, several subvariants of Omicron have emerged including BA.1, BA.2, BA.3, BA.4, and BA.5.  Since October 2022, two subvariants of BA.5 called BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 have emerged.  The film is called The Omicron Killer because this killer is like the Omicron virus, a copycat or variant and a deadlier killer than the original COVID-19 virus.  The Omicron Killer is initially made fun of as a pathetic copycat of a serial killer, with the fact that serial killers are already really pathetic as they are.  With this in mind, director Knit plays his film like a black comedy, also with loser detectives, made even funnier by having their hard-ass foul-mouthed female boss, constantly abusing ten as well.

The film plays like a horror slasher black comedy.  The humour is as crude as the characters are.  The film is effectively set during the Pandemic with many characters wearing a mak.  For a small-budget movie, director Jeff Knite has created a cultish and very entertaining slasher horror black comedy.   A side plot involves a band of cultists led by a female who calls herself the Empress who with her followers, who she often refers to as idiots, try to resurrect the original serial killer on the night of the Blood Moon (A "blood moon" happens when Earth's moon is in a total lunar eclipse. While it has no special astronomical significance, the view in the sky is striking as the usually whitish moon becomes red or ruddy brown.)

The Omicron Killer is a big and fat motherf***ker who never says a word.  He would dispense with anyone who gives him a hard time, and that would be quite many people.  He can be seen as a man who is being abused by society and decides that he's fed up and is not going to take It anymore.

THE OMICRON KILLER opens on Digital Platforms on June 25th.

Trailer: 

OUTSTANDING: A COMEDY REVOLUTION (USA 2024) ***
Directed by Page Hurwitz

 

On a serious note,  the new Netflix documentary, OUTSTANDING: A COMEDY REVOLUTION chronicles the history of LGBTQ stand-up and considers the importance of LGBTQ stand-up as a driving force for the gay movement at the same time.   But it is quite funny as the doc is interspersed with comic routines as well as funny gay anecdotes that are guaranteed to make one laugh out loud many a time.

The doc begins humorously with Margaret Cho, a gay comic icon doing her routine saying: “When I was 14, I told my mother I wanted to be a comedian.  She replied (doing a Korean accent), “Maybe it is better that you just die!”

Robin Tyler says it all in a moving interview.  If you are in a closet, you’re in a vertical coffin.  All you do is suffocate to death.  She is Canadian from the prairies, what one might call a prairie dyke.  She came out young and was never in the closet.

The impressive cast of LGBTQ comedians includes  Lily Tomlin, Rosie O’Donnell, Eddie Izzard, Sandra Bernhard, Billy Eichner, Fortune Feimster, Tig Notaro. Margaret Cho and Solomon Georgio, who are among the many performers who recount their personal stories of developing their comedic styles and grappling with homophobia.

As much as the doc makes one laugh, there are also sad and moving moments.  The doc includes the history of fighting for gay rights.  The anti-gay activist Anita Bryant who fought to remove gay rights and to remove gays from jobs and work is displayed as saying that lesbians cannot reproduce and so they recruit our children.  Following is Harvey Milk, a gay elected official who says: “I am here to recruit you.”  These scenes including the riots of the Stonewall uprising remind LGBTQ people, how much they had to fight to have their voices heard.  Though homophobia is still rampant around the world, one must admit that there has been much improvement as well as much more to do.

The biggest hero (or heroine) in the doc is Sandra Bernhard.  She was a fighter, in theatre, and a musician in comedy.  She fought the fascists like ex-President Ronald Reagan and Jerry Falwell, an American pastor and televangelist.  The doc includes clips of her speeches and performances, all both heartbreaking and moving,

As much as gay culture progressed in the 70s and 80s, there was a huge pushback in the arrival of AIDs. This brings the doc to a more sombre tone.  Politics are also brought in with clips of speeches by ex-Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton

In the words of comedian Judy Gold: A great comedian will make you laugh and make you think and maybe change your mind.  Such is the importance of LGBTQ comedians.

OUTSTANDING: A COMEDY REVOLUTION covers material that most audiences are familiar with, but a reminder of history and what the LGBTQ community has gone through is important as it is part of History while accomplished in a humourous entertaining way.

OUTSTANDING: A COMEDY REVOLUTION opened for streaming this week Tuesday on Netflix.  Worth a watch, for sure.

Trailer: 

THELMA (USA 2023) ***
Directed by Josh Margolin

 

In the new senior action comedy THELMA, 93-year-old Thelma Post gets duped by a phone scammer pretending to be her grandson.  Against all odds, she sets out on a treacherous quest across the city to reclaim the $10,000 that was taken from her.

Everyone needs an action hero.  Even seniors!  June Squibb who is now at the ripe age of 94, plays a very credible action hero (with a nod to Tom Cruise and his MISSION IMPOSSIBLE action flicks) who takes on the evil villain scammer guy (Played by Malcolm McDowell best known for his performance in Stanley Kubrick’s A CLOCKWORK ORANGE) in what is a likable movie for seniors and those a bit younger as well.  It is difficult not to like a 93-year-old character making matters right and getting her money back.

THELMA tackles the difficulties seniors go through.  One of the most pressing challenges seniors have is getting familiar with technology including the Internet.  Thelma is the first senior section superhero.  But mostly, the story is credible as it shows the challenge a senior has in learning how to use a computer and search the internet. In THELMA, Thelma is aided by her grandson Danny who helps her search the internet which also includes banking.  The villain is also aided with computers by his nephew, Colin. 

The film has a few major plot flaws - one being that no one would be able to do a bank transfer of an amount as large as $10,000 in one transaction.  Anyone who’s tried to make an e-transfer with a large amount would know the fact. 

Most important of all, seniors in real life are easy targets of scammers.  Thelma was an easy target, too trusting and easy on giving up her cash,

Director Margolin works well with his senior actress/star as is evident in the film.  He also creates a few highlights as in the scene where unexpectedly, she fires a gun.  Another is Thelma stealing the mobile scooter of her friend Ben played by Richard Roundtree, best known in the role of Shaft in the original SHAFT film.  

Thelma is the first senior section superhero.  But mostly, the story is credible as it shows the challenge a senior has in learning how to use a computer and search the internet.  In the film, Thelma has the aide of her grandson, Danny who is amicable played by Fred Hechinger. 

Apart from the old actors, there are two young ones, Danny (Thelma’s grandson) and Colin The villain’s nephew). It would have been cool to have a scene with the two youngsters fighting it out in an action scene.

In real life, June Squibb is an action hero to many.  Her resume proves the fact.  She began her career by making her Broadway debut in the musical Gypsy (1959). Her first film role was in the 1990 romantic comedy ALICE by Woody Allen. She later had supporting roles in films The Age of Innocence (1993), In & Out (1997), Meet Joe Black (1998), About Schmidt (2002), and Far from Heaven (2002).  Her breakout role wasin 2013.  Squibb appeared in the comedy-drama film Nebraska and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

THELMA is June Squibb’s first leading role at the age of 94.  She will soon appear in the remake of the black comedy Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead and also is set to appear as a lead character in the drama film Eleanor the Great.

THELMA opens at the TIFF Lightbox June 21st.

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 28 May 2024

FILM REVIEWS: 

BACKSPOT (Canada 2023) ****
Directed by D.W. Waterson

 

A driven cheerleader (Devery Jacobs) struggles to handle the pressure when she and her girlfriend are both selected for an elite cheer squad, in D.W. Waterson’s feature directorial debut.

The BACKSPOT is the person in a cheerleading stunt (school or all-star/competition) who stands behind the stunt and holds the flyers butt/ankle/thighs and exerts control over the process.

Riley (Devery Jacobs, who also produced) cannot afford to make that wrong move as a backspot. The ferocious competitor and furious perfectionist finds herself under pressure when she and her girlfriend Amanda (Kudakwashe Rutendo) are both selected for an elite cheer squad. As the diamond-hard coach, Eileen (Evan Rachel Wood) and her assistant, Devon (Thomas Antony Olajide) put them through their paces, Riley’s anxiety escalates, and compulsive behaviour intensifies.  Something’s going to break… likely both physically and emotionally.

The one complaint about the film is director Watefrson’s too frequent use of close-ups.  Her camera is often right in your face, and though effective in many scenes, it can be quite jolting especially combined with her jittery hand-held camera frames.  Her presentation of the cheerleading world, behind the scenes is remarkably informative and one can learn a thing or two about what these girls go through to make their male athletes look good at their sport.  This issue is briefly addressed in the film but effectively as one girl who does not make it into the elite team complains tat she did not get in because she does not have the body for it.  Waterson's world is totally LGBT+.  Riley is gay as is her best friend.   The coach Eileen has an ex-wife and the assistant coach, Devon doubles a second life at a male gay club.  The heterosexual world seems nonexistent.  Even at a straight bar, Riley is upon by another girl.

BACKSPOT features a remarkable performance by Devery Jacobs, who carries the film largely on her shoulders, like the backstop position she holds in the cheerleader's team.  A decade after her revelatory turn in Jeff Barnaby’s RHYMES FOR YOUNG GHOULS (2013), Jacobs has grown into a performer who holds the screen like no one else.  She, besides being pretty, understands that acknowledging one’s vulnerability is a formidable strength, and BACKSPOT is also about watching her character Riley figure that out as well. a few magnificent performances from the supporting cast that deserve mention.  Evan Rachel Wood steals the show as does Antony Olajide whom gets my vote as best breakout performer in a new film this year.  He nails the part of a strict but caring coach.  

BACKSPOT premiered at TIFF 2023 in the Discovery and TIFF Next Wave section.  Director D. W. Waterson’s debut is remarkable.  Waterson is a Canadian DJ, drummer, writer, director, and web series creator.  She serves triple duty as director, editor and also music performer for a couple of the songs on the soundtrack.  Waterson is also known for working as a performer and for creating, writing, and directing the award-winning web series That's My DJ (2014–2017). 2023.

Trailer: 

BIONIC (Bionicos) (Brazil 2024) **
Directed by Afonso Poyart

 

The film is set in the year 2035 when bionics have altered the para-olympics. Fitted with prosthetic limbs, athletes can do better than champion athletes.  When the film opens, an ex-boxer fitted with one such arm, after his boxing arm is injured, breaks into the vault of safety deposit boxes to steal valuable gems.  He does not get away.  His brother swears to continue.  This is the action story.

Bionics or biologically inspired engineering is the application of biological methods and systems found in nature to the study and design of engineering systems and modern technology.

The word bionic, coined by Jack E. Steele in August 1958, is a portmanteau from biology and electronics which was popularized by the 1970s U.S. television series The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman, both based on the novel Cyborg by Martin Caidin.  All three stories feature humans given various superhuman powers by their electromechanical implants.  This film iOS obviously thus inspired,

In this dystopian future where robotic prosthetics redefine sports, two sisters compete in the long jump, but their rivalry leads them down a sinister path.  Directed by Afonso Poyart and starring Jessica Córes, Bionicos tells the tale of Maria, a woman whose life is transformed after a severe accident. Selected for a clandestine government program, she receives advanced bionic enhancements that grant her superhuman abilities. As Maria adjusts to her new reality, she discovers the darker motives behind the program and the dangers that come with her new identity. Battling against those who seek to exploit her, Maria embarks on a journey to reclaim her life and expose the truth behind the bionic project.

The script has quite a preposterous premise.  The voiceover claims that there are three types of people.  There are the people who fight for themselves, the ones who fight for others and the ones who fight to the end.  The audience is also led to believe that bionics sports have taken over the world of professional and Olympic sports.  The bionics prosthetics company that claims that athletes can now possess 30% more of their capability wants more profits and their product to win the games.  So Maria’s brother Gus, who calls himself Uncle Hard (not too funny), introduces him to the brother of the deceased brother, named Heitor, who wants her in his next heist.

All this is less interesting on screen than it sounds.  There is a bit of romance added in, between Heitor and Maria and some humorous bits here and there, nothing really hilarious.  The whole exercise is all over the place and not quite believable.   But going for the film that stands out are the special effects.  The mechanism of the bionic weaponry, as can be observed in the initial safety box robbery looks amazing on screen.

BIONIC never succeeds as a sports drama, action heist flick, romance, light comedy, or dystopian sci-fi saga though it contains elements of each - a case of too trades and master of none.

BIONIC opens for streaming on Netflix this week.

Trailer: 

COLOURS OF EVIL: RED (Poland 2024) ***½

Directed by Adrian Panek

 

To set the record straight, there is no real reason that red is associated with evil.  One might say though that it is pretty common for satanic figures to be associated with red.  But in the film, the victims' red zone of their upper lips were removed by what the coroner believes, is a utility knife. Hence, the film’s title.

  COLOURS OF EVIL: RED is an impressive Polish movie directed by Adrian Panek starring Jakub Gierszal, Maja Ostaszewska and Zofia Jastrzebska.  This film is among those films about serial killers, investigations, crimes, and nightclubs, that leave an unpleasant aftertaste for the audience.  But the film is actually quite good, all things given.

When a girl's body is found on a beach, a prosecutor teams up with the victim's mother on an impassioned quest for the truth.

This detective mystery thriller has quite a lot going for it.  One can tell at the 15-minute mark that audience anticipation is at its peak.  The pervert that all the characters think is the one responsible for violently murdering Monika, the daughter of the judge, has just jumped out the window of the police station and is dead.  The police close the case as the main suspect is dead even though he was not found guilty.  The irony is that the dead girl sneaked into a dance club that got her killed.  After entering the club, she sits by the bar counter and begs the owner to hire her despite her lack of work experience.  She says that she can draw an awesome crowd. The dead girl’s T-shirt was found in his shed. But the prosecutor Bilski thinks otherwise, that maybe the shirt was planted there as the pervert, just released from jail for the murder of his fiancé has talked to him about his innocence though he was found legally guilty.  So much has gone on, relevant to the plot at the 15-minute mark.

The Tri-City beach thus becomes a place of dramatic discovery when the sea washes up the body of a young girl. The victim's unusual mutilation points to murder. The investigation is headed by an ambitious and tenacious prosecutor, Leopold Bilski. The victim's mother, Judge Helena Bogucka, is also involved in the investigation.  All clues lead to one of the seaside clubs, called Shipyard, which turns out to be related to the murder of a woman from 15 years ago.  There is a nude scene of Monika riding their owner on the night of the murder so that when the body first shows up, the audience thinks he did it,  From the information collected during the investigation and the evidence concealed for years, the dark face of the criminal Tri-City slowly emerges. Bilski and Bogucka's discoveries begin to be very inconvenient for the local police who deter the investigation.

The film follows Bilski’s investigation that is intercut with flashbacks to what happened to Monika at various points in time.  So the explanation is dished out as the clues are presented.

The film plays more like a mystery with hardly any action but the end result is a violent satisfying crime thriller with quite a few twists and turns in the plot.

COLOURS OF EVIL: RED opens for streaming on Netflix this week.

Trailer unavailable.

ENTER THE CLONES OF BRUCE (USA 2024) ***
Directed by David Gregory

 

Who is Bruce Lee?  After first seen as the side-kick of THE GREEN HORNET, Bruce Lee rose to fame as fast as his unexpected death in 1974 due to a brain disease.  Born in San Francisco but thought by most to be Asian born and bred, Lee starred as the lead in the game-changer film for Golden Harvest Studios’ THE BIG BOSS before making other blockbuster box-office  Hong Kong hits like FIST OF FURY, WAY OF THE DRAGON and ENTER THE DRAGON before tragedy stuck.  At his death, many fans believed that this strong and invincible star was still alive.  So much for the power of the media and films.

What ENTER THE CLONES OF BRUCE LEE attempts to do is to look at the clones of Bruce Lee, given stage names like Bruce Li and Bruce Le, followed by dozens of Bruceploitation films that all made money.  Bruce Lee fans are apparently inexhaustible for Bruce Lee action-packed martial arts flicks.

The two Bruce Lee clones Bruce Le and Bruce Li as well as the lesser-known ones, Bruce Liang and Dragon Lee, all speak to the camera, now in their later years about their fame and films.  The problem is that they are hardly that interesting and still follow in the shadow of the real fame of Bruce Lee.  They talk about their fake names, how they copy the movements of Bruce Lee and the filming sequences of the rip-off films.

What is more intriguing about the doc and also more interesting to Bruce Lee fans is the history of the arts films, starting with swordplay films.  The film pays tribute and devotes screen time to the Shaw organization that promoted all the Hong Kong Swordplay films followed by the martial art films.  Though Bruce Lee was never employed by Shaw Brothers but by an independent Studio at the time called Golden Harvest, the story is more than intriguing.  The reason Bruce Lee was never employed at Shaw Studios was that Lee was too cocky and the famed directors at the time that included Chang Cheh and Low Wei did not think Lee was worthy.  Director Change Cheh’s stars David Chiang (interviewed aged) and Ti Lung are also featured in the film.  Other stars at the time such as Jimmy Wang Yu (the original ONE-ARMED SWORDSMAN, a high Shaw hit directed by Chang Cheh is also mentioned.

Also interesting are the other stars that made big after starring with Bruce Lee in his films.  Among them are Jim Kelly, a black-muscled actor and Angela Mao who is also a Kung-fu fighter.

ENTER THE CLONES OF BRUCE  is at its best sporadically entertaining.  There are so many stories following the fame after the death of Bruce Lee that one can understand the decision of what to include in this doc.  The clones though emphasizing the fame of Bruce Lee are unfortunately not as interesting as the real biography of Bruce Lee.  There have been countless rip-off forms claiming to tell the story of the late Bruce Lee but a true biopic doc of Bruce Lee is what is needed for the Bruce Lee fans that will finally tell the truth and do the star justice.

ENTER THE CLONES OF BRUCE plays at the Ted Rogers Hot Docs cinema in Toronto on May 31st.

Trailer: 

EZRA (USA 2023) ***
Directed by Tony Goldwyn

 

Tony Goldwyn is best remembered as that handsome actor who played the best friend but villain of Patrick Swayze in GHOST.  Goldwyn directs once again (he made CONVICTION in 2010) in a decent but predictable drama about a father who is at a loss for how to protect his autistic son.

New Jersey stand-up Max (Bobby Cannavale) tells stories, not jokes, about ordinary chaos.  And there is no better source of chaos in his life than his son, Ezra (William A. Fitzgerald).  Diagnosed with autism, Ezra is precocious and precarious: he’s been reading The New York Times since he was five, but his impulsive behaviour often gets him into trouble and sometimes even poses a danger to himself and others.   His quirks include not letting anyone, not even his parents touch him and occasionally rattling on and on.  A doctor insists Ezra be sent to a special school and medicated.  Ezra’s mom, Jenna (Rose Byrne), who shares custody with Max, is inclined to go along with the program, but Max will have none of it. Jenna is going out with a new boyfriend played by none other than director Goldwyn himself.  This is pretty serious stuff, but light moments are provided by Max’s father (Robert De Niro).

The script, written by Tony Spiridakis appears to be trying its best to push all the right buttons that it looks too obvious.  Max’s stand up comedy lines at the clubs are not funny bat all and to be given a spot on Kimmel Live” is hard to believe.   But director Godwin does have comedic timing despite the generally unfunny script especially when Max’s father drives him back home from prison (yes, Max is still living with his father) after he attacks his son’s doctor, saying that he should not be too proud at being rescued by his wife’s boyfriend.  Max is given a retraining order for not seeing his son, Ezra.

All things break loose when one night, Max, who has been promised a spot on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, takes  Ezra on a cross-country excursion — without the permission of Jenna or his father (De Niro), whose car Max has “borrowed.”  Things get worse when Jenna finally goes to the police and a state-wide amber alert is out on Max and Ezra.

One trouble with the film is that of Max’s character.  Though one understands that his character is supposed to be flawed, the script makes him annoying and disliked for all that he has attempted instead of having the audience on his side.

The film livens things up a bit with Oscar nominees Whoopi Goldberg playing Max’s agent and Vera Farmiga as Max’s ex-flame who gives Max some help.  But it is William A. Fitzgerald as the autistic kid Ezra hostess the show.

The film attempts a dramatic happy ending where the family reconciles while coming together, which is more of a cop-out than anything else.

EZRA premiered at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival and opens in theatres across Canada on May 31.

Trailer:  

THE MATTACHINE FAMILY (USA 2022) ***

Directed by Andy Vallentine

 

This LGBT+ film is all about family and the importance of family.  Though it could have been a heartbreaking drama, director Vallentine takes the feel-good route, resulting in THE MATTACHINE FAMILY becoming an easy and pleasant watch while still getting its message across.  One thing to note is that the couple could be a straight male and female couple instead of a gay couple with not much changed in the film's storyline.

The film centres on Thomas (Nico Tortorella) and his family.  The photographer, Thomas, captured his life story with photos. He realized he was gay when he saw a cartoon with muscular men. Thomas tells the story of Oscar (Pablo DiPace), a famous child star on a popular sitcom whose acting career ended with a tabloid story that outed him. Eventually, Thomas would marry Oscar.  When the film opens, Thomas and Oscar have a loving relationship and have adopted to foster a child.  But there is trouble in paradise.  The child’s birth mother wants her child back.  Thomas and Oscar knew that it would be temporary, but they had not foreseen they would have that much attachment to their adopted son.  So when the child leaves, the couple is heartbroken.  The question then arises whether they should adopt a child for good or not go through any adoption process again.

The film shows that having an adopted child does not make a complete family.  Thomas’ complete family does not only consist of Oscar but his best friend and neighbour, Jamie (Jack Choi) who he has allowed to stay with him and Oscar when he was kicked out of his family for coming out gay.  Thomas has two very close female friends - a lesbian couple with Jamie and Oscar from his family.

The film tackles the issue of what happens in a relationship if each member wants completely different things.  In the story,  Oscar goes away to film a TV show while Thomas embarks on a personal odyssey that connects him to his friends, family, and the past to explore what it means to make a family.  Thomas has decided that he wants to adopt a child for real while Oscar does not want to, as he has a career in L.A. with filming.  Oscar wants Thomas to move but that involves Thomas sig all that he has built up.  Their discussion seems to have no solution.  It is clear the reason.  Thomas wants a child to make the family complete.  Oscar wants the job as he always wanted the scuffs all his life and it finally arrived.  Both have got ether individual dreams at arm’s length and have trouble sacrificing it.  So what would be the viable solution?  It would give up his dream but what if neither can submit?  This important answer to the question is left to the climax of the film.

THE MATTACHINE FAMILY feels like a TV movie, likely for the reason that it feels smooth and takes the felt-good less dramatic route.  The film still covered the important matters in a relation and in this respect, the film works.

THE MATTACHINE FAMILY arrives nationwide on all major digital platforms on Tuesday, June 4 from Giant Pictures.

 

 

A PART OF YOU (En Del Av Dig) (Sweden 2024) ***½

Directed by Sigge Eklund

 

Agnes, a teen envious of her popular older sister Julia, faces upheaval when tragedy strikes. Forced to reinvent herself, she's on the cusp of attaining her dreams but must navigate the consequences of her choices.

A PART OF You is a teen coming-of-age film set in small-town Sweden dealing with grief and acceptance.  The protagonist is Agnes who after her older sister’s accident, starts imitating her, beginning by wearing her clothes, which upsets many of Julia’s friends at school

If one can remember the gay coming-of-age also Swede film by Lukas Moodysson in 1998 SHOW ME LOVE (Swede title: FUCKIN AMAL), a quiet, small production gem that took the world by storm, A PART OF YOU bares many similarities with that film.  In that film, two teenage girls live in small-town Sweden Elin is beautiful, popular, and bored with life.  Agnes is friendless, sad, and secretly in love with Elin.  In A PART OF YOU, there is a key bonding scene in the family home where the two siblings are watching TV and they are watching SHOE ME LOVE.

The film features a supporting role by Zara Mari Larsson who plays Julia, Agnes’ sister who dies in a car accident.  Julia leaves the movie at the 15-minute mark but Larsson has an important role as she is supposed to play the charismatic but troubled older sister. For those in the know and for those wondering, she is a Swedish singer and songwriter. She first rose to prominence in 2008 after winning the second season of Talang, the Swedish version of the Got Talent format. She later attained international recognition with singles including "Lush Life" (2015), "Never Forget You" (2015), "Girls Like" (2016) with Tinie Tempah, "This One's for You" with David Guetta, "Ain't My Fault" (2016), "I Would Like" (2016), "Symphony" (2017) with Clean Bandit, "Ruin My Life" (2018) and "On My Love" (2023) with David Guetta.  Larsson is likely a reason many teen Swedes would watch this movie; truth be told, she nails the part.  She gets to sing too, during a party scene, the one after which she gets killed.

Director Eklund delves into the routines of the troubled teens, illustrating the drug and alcohol use while also emphasizing the tension and stress that youth face (i.e. the MEAN GIRLS” mentality).  Through the actions of Agnes who also has to deal with the grief of her sister’s death, one cannot help but both sympathize and root for the film’s protagonist.  Director Eklund clearly moves his film effectively, gearing it to an explosive climax.  The magnificent performances of both Larsson and Felicia Maxime in the title role of Agnes aid all this.  

A PART OF YOU opens for streaming on Netflix on Friday, May 31st, 2024.

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 24 May 2024

FILM REVIEWS:

INSIDE OUT 2 (USA 2024) ***½

Directed by Kelsey Mann

 

INSIDE OUT 2 has hard shoes toil.  The original 2015 film premiered at Cannes and went on to win the Oscar for Best Animated Feature.  It was directed by Pete Docter who served as producer for the sequel.  The film follows the same path as the origin; and can be described as a coming-of-age movie of Riley who now reaches puberty with making the hockey team the most important point in her life.  Nothing else matters - not even her friends.

In the mind of a young girl named Riley are a series of personified basic emotions that influence her actions: Joy, Sadness, Fear, Disgust, and Anger.  Riley's experiences become memories that are stored as coloured orbs and are sent into long-term memory each night.  The aspects of the five most important "core memories" within her personality take the form of five floating islands. Joy acts as the leader; she has a new threat as Riley matures.  She has to deal with a new emotion Anxiety (Maya Hawke daughter of Ethan Hawke), one that causes Rile to behave irrationally as a teenager, as can be observed in one scene where for no reason she bursts out in anger at her parents.

Set one year after the last film, Riley (Kensington Tallman) has just turned 13 and is about to attend high school. Her emotions, Joy (once again voiced by Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Fear (Tony Hale replacing Bill Hader), Anger (Lewis Black) and Disgust, (Liza Lipira)  have since created a new section of Riley's mind called her Sense of Self, which houses memories and feelings that take up Riley's core personality. Riley goes to hockey camp so that she can apply for a hockey team at her designated high school, the Fire Hawks.  Wanting to make a good impression, the emotions use a mechanism Joy has created to launch any negative memories into the back of Riley's mind. On the night before she leaves, the emotion console sounds off a "Puberty" alarm. After the emotions get rid of the alarm, a group of mind workers barge into headquarters and cause a mess in the place while upgrading the console and warn the emotions that "the others" are coming.

All these lead to a secondary set of emotions led by Anxiety.  There is no evil villain in all this, except for perhaps Anxiety who really has the best intentions for Riley though going about it in the wrong way.  It does not take a prodigy kid to guess that Joy and Anxiety will at the end put their differences aside and become friends, as feel-good stories like this usually turn out.

Story aside, Disney’s Pixar animation is once again nothing short of astonishing, as can be obscured throughout the film, especially in the segment where the emotions led by Joy ride, like surfing the entire mount of coloured orbs.  The hockey scenes are also well executed mirroring the excitement of real matches.  There are also some neat fresh ideas in the plot, that should not be revealed in the review.

INSIDE OUT 2 opens in theatres on June 14th.

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KIDNAPPED: THE ABDUCTION OF EDGARDO MORTARA (Rapito)(Italy/France 2023) ****
Directed by Marco Bellocchio

 

KIDNAPPED is based on the Mortara case that became a cause célèbre in the 1850s and 1860s, capturing the attention of Europe and North America. 

The Mortaras are a Jewish family living in Bologna, which belongs to the Papal States where Pius XI (Paolo Pierobon) is Pope King.  In 1858, Papal soldiers burst into the Mortaras’ home and took away their six-year-old son Edgardo (Enea Sala, later played by Leonardo Maltese), claiming that he had been secretly baptized as a baby.  The Papal law is unquestionable.  The boy must receive a Catholic education.  While his parents (Ronchi and Fausto RussoAlesi) fight to get him back, the Pope says “non possumus” (“we cannot”). 

  Spanning 20 years, the story takes many twists – a trial, a confession, political changes and Edgardo’s last (and heartbreaking) conversation with his mother. 

The immorality of the kidnapping is effectively and emotionally demonstrated in a number of ways.  One is the child’s point of view and the other his parents.  When the child is kidnapped and in the process of travelling to Rome by boat, he wakes up one morning to witness a funeral procession with the cross held ahead of the procession.  The image of death is a frightening one, especially for a child seeing it for the first time.  He is then brought to Rome where he is, alone, faced with practices as strange and foreign as it is unbearable.  Fortunately, he is befriended by a fellow kidnapped boy named Rio, who shows him the ropes.  His father, with the relatives, drafted a letter to the Council of Constance.  The mother cries that words will not help, to which the father replies that so far, it is the only weapon they have.  In these times of colonization of native Indigenous children taken away and re-schooled, the tragedy is made even more current.

The villain of the piece is the Pope.  The Pope ignores all the pleas to free the boy, including those made by dignitaries like Napoleon III.  “I only answer to God,” the pompous Pope claims.

The film offers some shocking insights.  The kidnapped boy, similar to what is known as Stockholm Syndrome, grows to love his new lodgings - the routines including the mass, the warmth, the food and the other comforts.  The film also demonstrates the love the boy’s parents have for him, despite the fact that he is one of half a dozen children they have.

Director Bellocchio paints a bleak picture of the period.  Yet his camera still reveals a magnificent picture, often in pale and dark colours, of the Italian landscape, both of the countryside and the interior of the Catholic architecture.

KIDNAPPED is a film about survival, the survival of culture and religious beliefs, and the survival of individual rights in the face of systematic and prejudiced injustice.

The film is directed by Marco Bellocchio, a mainstay of Italian cinema for almost 60 years, who co-wrote the script with Susanna Nicchiarelli, in collaboration with Edoardo Albinat and Daniela Ceselli, loosely inspired by Daniele Scalise’s book Il caso Mortara, 

After premiering in Competition at Cannes 2023, the film went on to dominate the 2023 awards from the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists, winning Best Film, Director, Screenplay and Actress (Barbara Ronchi).  It opens June 14 in Toronto and Vancouver and opens throughout the summer in other cities.

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THE MYSTERIES OF THE TERRACOTTA WARRIORS (UK 2024) ***½

Directed by James Tovell

 

From Netflix comes this impressive and well-made documentary fifty years after the Terracotta Warriors' discovery (the beginning shows a clip set in 1974) that unearths (pardon the pun) new secrets from China's first emperor's mausoleum and its 8,000 pottery soldier guards from China's first emperor's mausoleum and its 8,000 pottery soldier guards.

The Terracotta Warriors warriors represent the army that Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China will require in his afterlife.  The Emperor lived 300 years before Christ before Jesus’ birth, which is a very long time ago, and something almost impossible to fathom.  Times can be hard, but no one could imagine the hardships some of those under this cruel Emperor’s rule must endure.  This documentary through its clippings, interviews of archeologists and historians, and the videos of restoration and excavation delve deeper into the aftermath of Qin Shi Huang’s demise. It provides apt information that tells us about the happenings.  This documentary is comprised of clippings, interviews of archeologists, excavators and restorationists (mainly Chinese) and historians, re-enactments, as well videos of restoration and excavation that delve deeper into the aftermath of Qin Shi Huang’s demise.

This Emperor QChi Hunags is more well known in the East (Asia) as Shih Huang  Ti,  In Singapore where this reviewer comes from and is educated, all history books in primary Schools featured studies on this Emperor.  He is taught to be the First Emperor of China, the one to conquer and unite the 6 Kingdoms as mentioned in the doc, but also known to be the one to burn all the books in China, a fact that is not mentioned ninth film.  As a schoolboy, this made him kind of a hero, as this would mean no more staying if there were no more books.  Of course, the burning of books means the destruction of knowledge.  The doc shows the Emperor to be cruel, relentless, haughty, womanizing and an overall bad person, which means that this is a most intriguing subject for a doc, more intriguing than his Terracotta Warriors.

The directors are aware of this fact and devote a fair amount of screen time to the Emperor’s tactics as well as the politics of his rule, especially after his death when his youngest son usurped the throne.  All the information is obtained from scholastic historical records, which are verified by the archaeologists excavating the ancient tomb.

The film contains a fair amount of re-enactments, showing the workers toiling away to build the tomb as well as the conspiracy of the youngest son and the two ministers to usurp the Kingdom.  Here, the film looks like a period Chinese film - the type of sword-fighting sagas that Shaw Brothers used to make.

THE MYSTERIES OF THE TERRACOTTA WARRIORS opens for streaming on Netflix on Wednesday, June 12th on Netflix and is worth a watch, especially for North Americans who might know little about Chinese History.  For those in the know, the fascination continues.

QUEEN RISING (USA 2019) **
Directed by Princeton James

The film is about the QUEEN RISING while keeping it together.  Keeping it together is what this film is all about.  Madison (Maddy)(April Hale) is struggling and has to make mortgage payments with difficulty.  She juggles teaching work with writing a book.  She has to contend with her past and the College Town Slayings she had to up with.  She has to keep it all together.

However, the title is derived from a memory Maddy has at the dinner table with her little sister, father and mother, after a recent incident with her sister Shauna at school when she was called the ’n’ word.  The father talks about protecting the homestead and tells Maddy that she will grow up to be a queen and that she is a QUEEN RISING.  This is an important scene not only because the title of the film comes from it but because this scene is shown in flashback as Maddy as a grown up tells Shauna that this is one of her best memories.

Queen Rising follows a young woman, Maddy, who's on the brink of losing everything. Struggling to make ends meet as a school teacher, Madison is approached with a life-changing opportunity: to turn her dark past into a thriller novel. Skeptically, Madison accepts, and dives into her history of a once terrorized community during the "College Town Slayings".

As her trauma unfolds, Madison discovers unsettling connections and soon realizes her past may not be as dormant as she once believed. With the spectre of danger looming over her, she must confront the demons to secure her future, navigating a treacherous journey of redemption and self-discovery where the line between fiction and reality blurs.

The film covers many important current issues, the most important one being racism.  Maddy’s ancestors were civil rights activists.  Issues of racism are also brought up at various points in the film.  Other topics covered include sibling relationships, therapeutic conditioning and the psychology of the killer instinct and of course, keeping it all together.

Through flashbacks, the audience sees Madison as she dates in college.  Darius follows Corey before she meets Ben.  Excepting his outburst of temper, Madison loves Ben but always has to calm him down.  Ben turns out to be a problem even slapping Madison at one point during his outburst.  This causes Madison (yes, this is quite laughable) to take up kick-boxing as self-defence,

The various topics and the film’s shifts of mood do not always work well.  The romance, mystery, drama and dance elements create a bit of a mess and the director’s confidence in the material causes her to overlook the film’s shortcomings, especially the twist at the end that reveals the killer of the College Town Slayings, resulting in a hard to believe story resulting in its tackiness. 

QUEEN RISING though made in 2018, is premiering on video on demand on Tuesday, June 18, 2024 as well as Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, DirecTV, Vudu, XBox, Google Play and other leading platforms on June 19.

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QUEENDOM (USA/France 2023) ***
Directed by Agniia Galdanova

 

In defiance of Russia's anti-LGTBQ laws, a queer, 21-year-old artist risks his life performing in surreal costumes throughout Moscow. Jenna Marvin's radical public performances blend artistry and activism in this SXSW documentary.

This amusing light-hearted documentary that covers tough issues follows the celebrity Jenna Marvin also known as Gena Marvin.

Marvin is a Russian performance artist known for his surreal and creature drag, as can witnessed throughout the documentary.  His art focuses on themes of identity, self-acceptance, different forms of beauty, and the surreal.

Gena Marvin was born in Magadan, Russia.  Though not indicated in the doc, he grew up practicing drag makeup in secret in her parents' house.  He said he was bullied (understandably so, and still occasionally inched out as an adult) and tormented growing up in her small village. This, alongside the tale of Slender Man, would become a major inspiration for her artwork.  He attended two colleges and said she experienced homophobia at both.  He was expelled from the second college a year before graduating.

Marvin's art primarily consists of creature drag, and he often wears latex, gloves with exaggerated fingers, platform heels, and white face paint.  In the doc, much of his performance art is shown with the reactions of others to her appearance, mostly negative and bordering on aggressive un-acceptance.  

Director Galdanova stays her film away from a biopic of Gena.  As far as the audience knows, he is now living with her grandfather and grandmother.  The grandfather is understandably, upset at Gena’s behaviour in public, wishing him to etch out a life that can support himself.  Always on his case, Gena is always very adamant in his ways.  Yet, the grandfather still pays for Gena’s way, showing the power of familial relationships.

Although she performed in public in Russia, she has spoken of the danger she faces in doing so and has said she feels safer posting her artwork on social media platforms including Instagram and TikTok. One of her performances involved wrapping her body in tape, expressing her belief that Russia had "no freedom and where the freedom of my body was not permitted".

One scene illustrating unacceptable and aggression has the queen and his friend accompanied out of a supermarket store for him wearing a coat over lingerie.  “Your lingerie is showing, there’s kids and elderly in the store,” claims security,  For those in the know - like filmmakers, or those in the industry, or seasoned documentary goers, this scene could be a re-enactment clearly as one cannot have a real crew following the two around everywhere they go unless a camera crew is following the performance artist JENNA MARVIN at the point in time.

Gena has a difficult life because of the choice he has made in his life,  At the end of the film, after protesting Russia; 's invasion of Ukraine, he flees the country to Paris where he feels he can flaunt his wares on the streets without fear of violence.  

The film premiered at South by Southwest and won the Next: Wave award at Copenhagen's CPH: DOX and The Audience Award at the Camden International Film Festival. The film premiered in cinemas in the United Kingdom on 1 December 2023.  QUEENDOM opens in theatres and nationally on-demand June 14.

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RED FEVER (Canada 2024) ***
Directed by Catherine Bainbridge and Neil Diamond

 

The new documentary RED FEVER begins and depicts a positive and spirited view of the Red Indian indigenous people of North America.  Images of brave warriors standing proud or riding tall on horses and dressed immaculately in colourful attire bursts on the screen.  This is followed by the soundtrack of the Bee Gees Staying Alive from  SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER as the audience sees Neil Diamond strutting down the street in New York City very much like John Travolta did going to his job in a paint store in SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER, Diamond dressed in a bright red indigenous outfit.  The scene is intercut with scenes of old movies with stars like Jon Voight, Jeff Bridges, Jennifer Lopez and even Elvis Presley all dressed in outfits from recognizable Western classics.

Diamond talks of the romanticized view the world has of the Indians.  When they first meet him, they are disappointed that he does not meet the standards that they have of the Indian.  The film demonstrates in a light and entertaining fashion, the history, and beauty of the Indian culture, and how it has affected the world in terms of fashion, beliefs and way of life.  All cowboy attire, the audience is told comes from them.

RED RIVER is co-directed by Indigenous filmmaker Neil Diamond (Reel Injun) and Catherine Bainbridge (Reel Injun, RUMBLE: The Indians Who Rocked the World, which won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize for Masterful Storytelling).

RED FEVER follows Cree filmmaker Neil Diamond's (not the singer/songwriter)journey to the four corners of North America and to Europe to uncover why the world is so fascinated with Native Americans and why the same images persist year after year until today. The first chapter is titled ‘Fashion’ (Spirit).  Through iconic and entertaining pop culture images, and a rocking Native American soundtrack, Red Fever looks at the roots of how and why Native American cultures have been revered, romanticized, and appropriated -and in the process uncovers the truth about the profound impact of Indigenous peoples on western culture.

From fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi drawing inspiration from Nanook of the North to the Carlisle Indian Industrial School’s impact on the NFL, Diamond assembles a compelling collage packed with pop-culture references. Examples of appropriation are revisited by Indigenous scholars, artists and community members, who are revitalizing their cultures and dispelling the myths and lack of understanding that have persisted for more than a century. Clothing, sports, systems of government and agricultural practices all have clear lines to Indigenous ways of knowing and being. As a new generation of Indigenous Peoples draws strength from their ancestors and reclaims their rights, there’s hope for a future where credit is given where it’s due.

The film has an extended segment on American football, that is derived from rugby.  Bill Thorpe is one of the best, most fit and respected players and coaches as well and the doc shows how he changed the game.  These segments add excitement to the doc.

RED FEVER opens at the TIFF Lightbox with limited screenings JUNE 14-JULY 21.

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REVERSE THE CURSE (USA 2024) ***
Directed by David Duchovny

 

REVERSE THE CURSE is the new David Duchovny film starring and directed by him based on his novel entitled “Bucky F****** Dent”.  Dent plays baseball for the Boston Red Sox.  In the climax of the Fate movie, the mighty Bucky Dent hits his way into baseball history with the unlikeliest of home runs, this tender, insightful, and hilarious novel demonstrates how life truly belongs to the losers, and that the long shots are the ones worth betting on.

The main story is the father-and-son relationship of Marty (Duchovny) and Ted (Logan Marshall-Green).  One would think the sexy Duchovny from the X-FILES would play Ted, but the now 60-year-old plays the father instead.

Ted is a failed writer-turned-Yankees Stadium peanut slinger.  His meeting with the publisher makes the film’s funniest moments.  When Ted hears the news that his estranged father, Marty, is dying of lung cancer, he immediately moves back into his childhood home, where a whirlwind of revelations ensues. The browbeating absentee father of Ted’s youth tries to make up for lost time, but his health dips drastically whenever his beloved Red Sox loses. And so, with help from Mariana (Stephanie Beatriz_―the Nuyorican grief counsellor with whom Ted promptly falls in love―and a crew of neighbourhood old-timers (all of who regularly congregate at the local barbershop), Ted orchestrates the illusion of a Boston winning streak, enabling Marty and the Red Sox to reverse the Curse of the Bambino and cruise their way to World Series victory.

The inspiration for the story comes from director Duchovny’s own experience as a father.  When Duchovny’s daughter was 9 months old, she got her first cold, much as is recounted in this movie with Ted taking the place of the ill baby.  That is the autobiographical part of Duchovny’s story. A few days later, she was in intensive care, and her mother and he were terrified, in the midst of a nightmare.  The daughter is fine now —a vibrant and talented young actress.   But the psychological repercussions seemed endless, the fear that remained after she’d gotten better,  and moreover, the repercussions in the way of loving her after her illness—-overprotective, hyper-alert to any sniffle, not trusting that she was ever going to be okay.  That is the source of the father’s fear in this movie and the source of the son’s questioning of his father’s love as he understandably misinterprets his father’s discomfort with him as disapproval or lack of love in the story.

REVERSE THE CURVE is a story about losers, as director Duchovny confesses in the press notes.  Losers cannot change the ending to their stories, or even the facts of what happened.  Duchovny’s film changes the way the story is told so that the art of storytelling can empower the perspective of the change.

REVERSE THE CURSE opens in Theatre and On Demand on June 14, 2024.

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TUESDAY (UK 2023) ****
Directed by Daina Oniunas-Pusić

 

A mother and her teenage daughter (must confront Death when it arrives in the form of an astonishing talking bird.  From debut filmmaker Daina O. Pusić, TUESDAY is a heart-rending nightmarish fairy tale about the echoes of loss and finding resilience in the unexpected.

The film is called TUESDAY as Tuesday is the middle name of the terminally ill protagonist.  Lily Tuesday Markovich (Lola Petticrew), has been ill for years, wheelchair-bound at times (she is shown mechanically lifted from her bed to the wheelchair in a beginning scene) and is tended to by a young, observant nurse (Leah Harvey) while her mother, Zora Julia Louis-Dreyfus), engages in an elaborate game of avoidance, understands precisely what is going on when the bird enters her bedroom.  The mother and daughter also never mention or talk about reality.  Their life is a pretense that often explodes in loud and crude arguments.  But soon she’s given the macaw bird (Death) a reason, for the first time in countless years, to speak using actual words rather than his usual guttural grunts. She helpfully offers a bubble bath to solve the problem of the sticky goo covering his talons (contracted on a previous mission). In an enchanting sequence, Death shrinks to just an inch or two high and swoops into the sink to rinse off, eons’ worth of soot and grime released into the water as he swims.

Death has come in many forms in films.  The most common is the grim reaper wearing a dark cloak bearing a sickle as in serious films like Ingmar Bergman’s THE SEVENTH SEAL or even in hilarious comedies like MONTY PYHON’S MEANING OF LIFE.  At the beginning of TUESDAY, a film about impending death, death arrives in the form off a macaw as the audience sees a bird’s eye view of the planet Earth.  The last time death came from a bird’s eye view is that of a raven in the horror film OPERA by Dario Argento, the raven hovering over the opera performance before swooping down to pluck its victim’s eye.  TUESDAY’s death macaw is as weird as it can be, so the audience should be prepared for a wild ride.  But a wild ride that pays off in this surreal, insightful and very innovative look at death.

What is odd is that the time of death is bargained by Tuesday’s mother Zora.  In the process, Zora suffers some size-shifting moments.  At one critical discussion with death, Zora asks whether there is a God or if there is an afterlife.  If there is an afterlife, then she can be together with her daughter and look after her.  If not whatever.  Death informs Zora, in deadpan humour that there is no God.

Best performances are delivered by both principals Petticrew and Louis-Dreyfus,

Daina Oniunas-Pusić is a Croatian multi-award-winning writer and director based in London.  She learned her craft while studying film and television directing at the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb before relocating to the U.K. to study at the London Film School.  She won the under 30 Best Filmmaker in Croatia which led to her first short THE BEAST.

The film is bookended by the macaws flying or looking down on the planet Earth before coming abruptly to an end.  TUESDAY is a magnificent nightmarish exercise in originality, though the not-so-adventurous audience should take caution.

TUESDAY opens in theatres on June the 14th.

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ULTRAMAN RIDSING (Japan 2024) **
Directed by Shannon Tindle

 

ULTRAMAN is an ultra-popular Japanese superhero that began as a TV series from Japan exported all over the world.  It was cheesy with a human wearing an Ultraman costume (typical for a Japanese film) fighting giant monsters saving Japan and the world.  Kids loved it and many of these kids who are now adults would still probably love Ultraman.  Fans will be delighted with the new ULTRAMAN RISING, a Japanese American co-production that is being simultaneously released on Netflix and in theatres,

There have been also multiple Ultraman series that have been made over the years.

It should be noted that there are two versions - the English and the Japanese versions  Christoper Sean voices Ultraman in the English version while Yuki Yamada does the same in the Japanese side.  The actor Sean is Japanese on his mother’s side and Latino on his father’s.

ULTRAMAN RISING is the new upcoming animated superhero film based on Tsuburaya Productions' Ultraman franchise.  A Japanese-American co-production between Netflix Animation and Tsuburaya Productions, with animation by Industrial Light & Magic, it is the 44th film in the franchise.  Directed by Shannon Tindle (in his feature directorial debut), who co-wrote it with Marc Haimes, the film stars Christopher Sean as Ken Sato/Ultraman, alongside the voices of Gedde Watanabe, Tamlyn Tomita, Keone Young, and Julia Harriman.

The protagonist is Ken Sato, a famous but egotistical baseball player living a secret life as the giant superhero Ultraman.  He is forced to balance his career and hero duties while reluctantly adopting a baby kaiju after defeating her mother.

The film assumes the audience has some basic knowledge of Ultraman.  The kanji monsters are all creatures that appear without much explanation.  The origin of Ultraman is also omitted.  The KDF Organization also appears out of nowhere.  Compared to the TV series with humans in monsters and Ultraman suits, the film is complete animation.  The colours are chosen and the design is opted for a manga-type look.

This is a superhero movie that combines the family element.  The result is the film getting too sappy at times.  The part of Ken Sata looking after the kanji cutesy monster and how he learns both to become a father and an adult is a bit too much.  The film adds the component of a father-and-son relationship, with Ken having trouble speaking to his father.  His mother came to all of Ken’s baseball games as a kid while his father was always absent.

The film cannot decide whether it should be an action superhero movie, relationship drama or a family (family is everything is the message put across with decisions made to protect the ones we love) animation movie.  It is occasionally all over the place, even with swear words, though never spoken but implied with the ‘f’ sound occurring at various points in the film.

ULTRAMAN RISING opens at the TIFF Lightbox on June 14th.  The film also opens for streaming on the same date on Netflix.  ULTRAMAN is a Netflix is an original Netflix movie.

Trailer: 

ESPARANDO A DALI (WAITING FOR DALI) (Spain 2023) ***

Directed by David Bujol

 

Before one can dismiss this little unheard-of culinary comedy as a small-budget foreign forgettable, WAITING FOR DALI in its first 10 minutes proves that it is a film to be reckoned with.

It opens with a scene of the Franco riots framed by two walls where the action is seen from the alley before the rioters run into the alley towards the camera.  It is a well-shot, fresh, exciting and well-thought-out filmed process.  This is followed by one in a restaurant kitchen where the authoritative chef goes around bullying all the kitchen staff who can only respond with the words: “Yes, Chef!”  This follows with two of the staff taking away from the restaurant to work in another one far away to escape the police for their rioting.  The beach restaurant is owned by a ‘crazy for Dali’  owner, Jules who is first seen inviting Savaldor Dali to his restaurant for dinner.  His assistant says: “If you want to invite Dali to your restaurant, you have to pay 100,000 dollars to which he replies that he does not have that much money.  The assistant then advises him that he should have been a fisherman instead and tears up his invitation card.  Jule is obsessed with Dali and his dream is to have him dine at his restaurant which he christened El Surreal.

Fleeing political turmoil in Barcelona, the culinary duo of brothers Fernando and Alberto seek refuge in the enchanting seaside town of Cadaqués. Here, they land jobs at El Surreal, a whimsical restaurant run by Jules, a man with a consuming obsession for local resident Salvador Dalí.  Jules crafts quirky and extravagant gastronomic experiences, each a theatrical spectacle, hoping to lure the renowned artist to dine there.  Fernando's unparalleled culinary flair soon sees him rise to the helm of El Surreal's kitchen, when he begins to fall for Lola, Jules' fiercely independent daughter.

Despite El Surreal’s burgeoning fame and Cadaqués' alluring facade, shadows of political discontent loom large and tensions escalate between the tyrannical Lieutenant Garrido and the town's free-spirited hippies, joined by Alberto. Will these mounting pressures result in Dalí's eagerly awaited arrival at El Surreal?  WAITING FOR DALÍ is a fanciful tale of love, art, and revolution — all set against the backdrop of culinary genius and surrealism. 

Director Bujol possesses a sense of style and an almost perfect comedic timing.  There are hilarious, laugh-out-loud moments scattered throughout the film, and his weird placement of the camera all adds to the fun of the comedy.  The feel-good tone feels forced at times and the story is predictable with Dali finally dining at El Surreal.

ESPARANDO A DALI (WAITING FOR DALI) shot in both Spanish and French based on the real-life restaurant El Bulli is a deliciously hilarious comedy full of heart and emotion with a little political background that has rarely a dull moment from start to finish.  It is also well-shot and shows the stunning beach sights of the enchanting seaside town of Cadaqués.

ESPARANDO A DALI (WAITING FOR DALI) is available nationwide digitally (in the U.S. and Canada) on Tuesday, June 18 and also available to rent or purchase on all major digital platforms.

Trailer: 

 

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 20 May 2024

Toronto
2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival

In-Person and Online

May 24 - June 1, 2024

 

 

Capsule Reviews of Select Films:

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

 

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

Trailer:  

 

 

EXTREMELY UNIQUE DYNAMIC (USA 2023) ***
Directed by Harrison Yu, Ivan Leung and Katherine Dudas

 

In this (likely) first-ever and (possibly) award-winning feature, Ryan and Daniel, two childhood best friends and aspiring actors, spend one final weekend together before Ryan moves from LA to Canada with his fiancé. Wanting to create one lasting memory, they decide to make a movie... about two guys making a movie… about two guys making a movie. Along the way, bottled-up secrets arise as they unpack their decades-long friendship and prepare for the next chapters of their respective lives.

The concept is neat and kind of stoned confusing who the directors play with quite a bit throughout their film.  The concept gets a bit tiring after a while and watching the childish antics of these two young adults can get quite challenging.  But the two actors Harrison and Ivan are quite endearing and they keep pushing the lines until something works.  Thankfully, the film shifts into gear in the second half when thongs get quite tense.  One does sympathize with the gay Daniel who keeps the secret of his sexuality from his best friend Ryan.

The story covers a topic seldom mentioned in films.  How does one tell one’s best friend that one is gay?   The subject is dealt in detail and sincerity upping the film several notches from being just a dumb stoner movie.

EXTREMELY UNIQUE DYNAMIC is maverick no-budget filmmaking and one has to give credit for the filmmakers for their tireless energy.

The Meta-Asian-Stoner-Bromantic-Coming-of-Age Dramedy, EXTREMELY UNIQUE DYNAMIC celebrates its International Premiere at the 2024 Inside Out 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival May 25th 7 PM at TIFF Lightbox.  Trailer: 

SPARK (USA 2024) ***
Directed by Nicholas Giuricich

 

SPARK is a wildly creative noir-inspired LGBTQ+ drama about a hopeless romantic stuck in a time loop with a handsome and mysterious stranger.  Aaron (Theo Germanine), a hopeless romantic, finds himself reliving the same day after an awkward but intense encounter with the mysterious Trevor (Danell Leyva).  His excitement at the opportunity for a do-over soon turns sour as Aaron suspects Trevor may be the cause of his time loop.  Every time they fuck, Aaron returns to the start of the morning of the events.  Aaron tries to push the boundaries by prolonging the days and eventually figuring out what is happening Director Guiricich’s film takes a while to get its footing, and once it does, it becomes a creative sexy LGBT+ original mystery,  Can Aaron break out of this cycle, or is he destined to live out his life stuck in the same patterns?  SPARK, the film is so called because love begins with a spark that can kindle into a fire.  SPARK is anchored by three standout performances: acclaimed non-binary actors.  The film premiers the first day of the fest, Friday, May 24, 2024, at 9:30 pm.

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 14 May 2024

 

 

BABES (USA 2024) *
Directed by Pamela Adlon

 

BABES follows inseparable childhood best friends Eden (Ilana Glazer) and Dawn (Michelle Buteau), having grown up together in NYC, now firmly in different phases of adulthood.   When carefree and single Eden decides to have a baby on her own after a one-night stand, their friendship faces its greatest challenge. BABES delves into the complexities of female friendship with a blend of laughter, tears, and labour pains.

The film gets terribly irritating at the very beginning when the very pregnant Dawn goes for a restaurant Thanksgiving dinner with Eden.  Her water trickles and she screams at the top of her voice annoying not only all the other restaurant clients but the audience as well.  Dawn is loud, obnoxious, rude and crass.  Eden sort of allows the behaviour.

        The segment in which Dawn crawls on all fours at the hospital when she is in labour  says it all in terms of overdoing a situation,

It does not take a genius to guess how the story turns out.  It turbans out just like a romantic harlequin book would.  The best friend would argue and have a major fallout before becoming best friends forever again.

There should be a contest to see who is the more annoying character.  Eden or Dawn?

From co-writers Ilana Glazer and Josh Rabinowitz and directed by Pamela Adlon, BABES is described in the press notes as a hilarious and heartfelt comedy about the bonds of friendship and the messy, unpredictable challenges of adulthood and becoming a parent.  What the filmmakers want their film to be and how it turns out is a totally different thing.  With respect to the film, the filmmakers seem totally out of touch with what is happening.  The best way to describe the film is being drunk and totally out of intro.  The drunk and totally drunk person is having a hell of a good time, but the other, looking after the drunk friend is having a horrid time.

BABES is a terribly annoying female slant comedy in which the filmmakers think what they are proving on screen is funnier than what it is.  Shouting and screaming half the time, I wanted to walk out of the cinema at the one-hour mark.  And I should have!

BABES opens in theatres on May 24th.

Trailer: 

EXTREMELY UNIQUE DYNAMIC (USA 2023) ***
Directed by Harrison Yu, Ivan Leung and Katherine Dudas

 

In this (likely) first-ever and (possibly) award-winning feature, Ryan and Daniel, two childhood best friends and aspiring actors, spend one final weekend together before Ryan moves from LA to Canada with his fiancé. Wanting to create one lasting memory, they decide to make a movie... about two guys making a movie… about two guys making a movie. Along the way, bottled-up secrets arise as they unpack their decades-long friendship and prepare for the next chapters of their respective lives.

The concept is neat and kind of stoned confusing who the directors play with quite a bit throughout their film.  The concept gets a bit tiring after a while and watching the childish antics of these two young adults can get quite challenging.  But the two actors Harrison and Ivan are quite endearing and they keep pushing the lines until something works.  Thankfully, the film shifts into gear in the second half when thongs get quite tense.  One does sympathize with the gay Daniel who keeps the secret of his sexuality from his best friend Ryan.

The story covers a topic seldom mentioned in films.  How does one tell one’s best friend that one is gay?   The subject is dealt in detail and sincerity upping the film several notches from being just a dumb stoner movie.

EXTREMELY UNIQUE DYNAMIC is maverick no-budget filmmaking and one has to give credit for the filmmakers for their tireless energy.

The Meta-Asian-Stoner-Bromantic-Coming-of-Age Dramedy, EXTREMELY UNIQUE DYNAMIC celebrates its International Premiere at the 2024 Inside Out 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival May 25th 7 PM at TIFF Lightbox.  It is the opening night Gala.

Trailer: 

 

 

FURIOSA: A MAD MAX SAGA (USA/Australia 2024) ***½

Directed by George Miller

 

No more Mad Max, but a new character Furiosa arises from the last MAD MAX: FURY ROAD film in the new MADS MAX franchise FURIOSA: A MAD MAX SAGA.  Having the same visionary director George Miller who helmed all the previous Mad Max movies, the latest edition is similar to FURY ROAD in the sense that it is a continuous action-packed film one action sequence after another with no intention of stopping.  Anya Taylor-Joy replaces Charleze Theron as Furiosa.  Miller is a visionary and his MAD MAX film franchise shows him directing all 5 films, MAD MAX, ROAD WARRIOR, BEYOND THUDERDROME, FURY ROAD and FURIOSA.  Miller won an Oscar for directing the animated feature HAPPY FEET,

The story does not really matter much as the importance is only secondary to the action sequences.  So despite a loose narrative with loose ends as well, director Miller’s film still succeeds, thanks to his visionary look of a dystopian desert landscape similar to that of the Australian desert where much of the film was shot (in New South Wales).

Miller co-wrote the with Nico Lathouris. It is the fifth installment in the Mad Max franchise, serving as both a spin-off and prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road (2015). The film stars Anya Taylor-Joy and Alyla Browne as younger versions of the title character Imperator Furiosa, originally portrayed by Charlize Theron. Chris Hemsworth and Tom Burke also star.

The film begins with a young Furiosa abducted from her homeland, known as the Green Place of Many Mothers, by members of the Horde of the Biker Warlord Dementus (Hemsworth). They hope to use Furiosa to find the place of abundance she hails from, but Furiosa keeps it secret and escapes with the help of her mother Mary Jo Bassa. Dementus captures Mary and executes her and takes Furiosa as his own. She is encouraged by Dementus’ History Man to make herself invaluable, but she plans to escape back to green.  History Man tells her to study and learn so that she can be useful to Dementus.  Dementus and his horde run into a war boy while looking for the land of abundance and believe the Citadel he speaks of is the land. They go to the Citadel, where Dementus tries to rally the people there against their leader to his side. The leader turns out to be Immortan Joe, the war boy turns out to be a red herring and they destroy Dementus’ horde, seizing his bikes and weapons as he and a few of his men manage to escape with the young Furiosa.

There is not much left in terms of the story except the battle going on between Dementus’ horde and Joe’s men.   There is no good or evil but the audience tends to take the side that Furiosa is on - which is not Dements’ side.  One point in this saga is that Furiosa would be expected to return to the land of abundance which never happens.

Trailer;

THE GARFIELD MOVIE (USA 2024) **
Directed by Mark Dindal

 

GARFIELD, the world’s most lovable cat, or at least the most popular being the most syndicated cat comic strip in the United States gets to star in his own animated feature opening this week.  Director Mark Dindal (originally from Disney who had worked on THE LITTLE MERMAID, ALADDIN and WB’s CATS DON’T DANCE) plays it safe with the Jim Davis comic strip, keeping the spirit of things - which means like the strip, it gets pretty boring with the monotony of Garfield’s high jinx.  GARFIELD held the Guinness World Record for being the world's most widely syndicated comic strip

The film chronicles the life of the title character Garfield the cat (Chris Pratt), his human owner Jon Arbuckle (Nicholas Hoult) and how they met in a generally unfunny restaurant sequence (except maybe funny for children), and Odie the dog ( Harvey Guillén).  True to form, Garfield controls everything with Odie just playing along.  Garfield eats lasagne, hates Mondays (the only thing missing issues is the Carpenters’ song ‘Rainy Days and Mondays’) controls his owner and gets into mischief ever so often.  He also watches Catflix on TV.

In the film, the rut is attempted to be broken when Garfield ventures out to discover his father, voiced by Samuel L. Jackson.  Garfield is thus set to have a wild outdoor adventure  Garfield’s long-lost father – a scruffy street cat Vic who turns out to be more than expected – Garfield and his canine friend Odie are forced from their perfectly pampered life into joining Vic in a high-stakes heist.  Garfield goes through some life lessons on the way and learns more about his father.

Every story needs a villain and the villain in this film comes in the form of Hannah Waddingham as Jinx, a villainous Persian cat.  The villain does not appear too villainous and does not have any scheme such as destroying the universe or the world or even the world of cats.

The story gets sappy along the way, probably the sappiest film on record that Samuel L. Jackson has been in.  He does not get to use the ‘mf’ word that comes with him being in the movie.  The film’s animation is colourful and lively enough and with the film keeping true to the comic strip ends up being a mild and barely entertaining exercise.  Children will find Garfield’s antics more cute and amusing.

The product placement is obvious to the point of embarrassment.  The filmmakers make no attempt to subtly put the advertisements in place.

This is the second GARFIELD movie, the first one opening 20 years ago in 2004 to awful reviews (less than 20% acceptance on Rotten Tomatoes).  This one has got better reviews so far (over 70% on Rotten Tomatoes), though the film has not turned out as hilarious or adventurous as promised in the trailer.

Trailer: 

GARFIELD opens in theatres on May 24th.   The film opened in 18 countries on May 3, and grossed $22 million in its first weekend. Its largest markets were Mexico ($8.8 million), Spain ($3.2 million), Brazil ($2.2 million), Italy ($1.6 million), and Peru ($1.3 million).

HIT MAN (USA 2023) ***½

Directed by Richard Linklater

 

Richard Linklater whose film DAZED AND CONFUSED broke him to fame continues his fresh look at the criminal commonly as the hit man, one frequently hired to do some nasty service like doing away with someone’s enemy.   A bit of morality comes into play too as to whether the hirer or the hit man is the criminal, with the hit man brought to court in a number of scenes.

The film begins with the words that what one is about to see is a somewhat true story,  Truth be told, the end credits inform that the story is based on a magazine article, which implies of course, that changes have been made for the purpose of dramatization and entertainment.  Drama and entertainment, HIT MAN provides.  Though the title implies an action movie, Linklater’s film is clearly not but a wry look at the hitman genre with humour and romance tied in.  The romance is believable enough, as Linklater has proved his mettle in the romance genre with films like BEFORE SUNSET, BEFORE SUNRISE and BEFOE MIDNIGHT.  HIT MAN is best described as a somewhat true crime comedy thriller about role-play, romance, and the precarious pursuit of self-knowledge.

HIT MAN serves as the perfect vehicle for Everybody Wants Some!’s Glen Powell.  This is Powell’s best and most believable role, discounting his terrible teen adult romance ANYONE BUT YOU and playing second fiddle to Tom Cruise in TOP GUN MAVERICK.

Gary Johnson (Glen Powell) is a philosophy professor by day, lecturing his students on theories of morality.  Gary gets to propel his views on the students.  “Life is short!  Push yourself out there!”   Needless to say, his hitman job gets Gary to put his theories to the test.  In his downtime, he works with the police in surveillance vans as a tech-savvy staff investigator during undercover sting operations.  When the temperamental officer who normally plays the role of hitman is placed on leave for misconduct, milquetoast Gary is asked to step in because he vaguely resembles the ousted officer. To everyone’s surprise, Gary proves himself more than adequate in the restaurant segment where he performs his first sting.  After that, Gary thrives impersonating the fabricated killer for other clients, putting them in the slammer for murder intent..

One day, Gary, in character as Ron, the charismatic lone-wolf hitman, meets would-be client Madison (Adria Arjona), who is desperate to get out of her abusive marriage.  Sparks fly. Soon, he reaches out to Madison outside of their arrangement to start a decidedly non-professional but steamy fling.  But as Gary attempts to keep his various personas separate, his lies accumulate and someone actually ends up dead.  He finds himself in the middle of a real crime with all evidence leading back to him.

The script written by both Powell and Linklater contains enough twists and turns with a good Chemistry-romance between the leads.  Powell and Linklater make a good team as did Linklater and Ethan Hawke.

Trailer: 

HIT MAN had its international premiere at the 80th Venice International Film Festival on September 5, 2023, followed afterward by its North American premiere on September 11 at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).  It is scheduled to be released in select theatres in the United States on May 24, 2024, before streaming on Netflix on June 7, 2024.

 

ILLUSIONS FOR SALE? THE RISE AND FALL OF GENERATION ZOE

(El vendedor de ilusiones: El caso Generación Zoe)

(Argentina 2024) ***

Directed by Matías Gueilburt

 

Generation Zoe is the company founded by Leonardo Cositorto.  Generation Zoe, is a spiritual coaching network hiding the most unusual scam in Argentina's history.  Ordinary folk who have a hard time with their lives suddenly get greedy and take a risk to invest all their savings to achieve what they believe is an accessible dream.  And then they lose everything,

This is the crime documentary of the genesis, growth, and fall of the most bizarre and ambitious financial platform in Latin America, which turns out to be, to a large extent, a faithful reflection of its eccentric creator: Leonardo Cositorto.

The doc spends the first three quarters on the introduction and growth of the company.  Then, a reporter finds something fishy and writes to the Security Commission to find out that there is no trading thee with Generation Zoe.

One of the interesting subjects tackled in the doc is ontological communication.  Ontology is the philosophical study of being. It investigates what types of entities exist, how they are grouped into categories, and how they are related to one another on the most fundamental level (and whether there even is a fundamental level).  Ontologists often try to determine what the categories or highest kinds are and how they form a system of categories that encompasses the classification of all entities.  And the reason Leonardo Cositorto is so effective in convincing so many victims is ontological communication.  Ontology is important in communication studies because it provides a context for understanding how humans communicate. Ontology is the basis for all human existence, which includes the way of communicating. To understand and approach communication studies requires an understanding of the ontological principles.

Cositorto was attracted to Vila Maria in the province of Cordoba in Argentinian, a rich city.   and the head town of the General San Martín Department. It is located in the centre of rich agricultural land. The area leads the country in the production of milk. The city has a population of 72,162 per the 2001 census (Greater Villa María: 119,000), which makes it the third largest city in the province.  This is where it all started.

Then came March 20th, 2020 when the Pandemic began.

Interesting too is to watch how everything spiralled.  The company Zoe owned dealerships, health food stores, and name brands as well as started having its own cryptocurrency.  The bigger the rise, the harder would be the fall.  

The doc being a little tech savvy and easy to understand is an easy watch for those not well versed with investing,  As every person dreams of riches, the doc is of interest to almost everyone,  And there are important lessons to be learned in this fast-moving documentary.

ILLUSIONS FOR SALE? THE RISE AND FALL OF GENERATION ZOE are professionally made, made even more credible as it features interviews with the President of the Company as well as the Vice President Max Batista, together with a couple of poor victims who had their hopes dashed as well as money lost.

The doc opens for streaming on Netflix this week.

Trailer: 

MY ONI GIRL (Japan 2024) ***½

Directed by Tomotaka Shibayama

 

Though unfamiliar to North America, the word one is a valid word in the English language.  In Japanese folklore, a type of demonic creature is often of giant size, great strength, and fearful appearance. They are generally considered to be foreign in origin, perhaps introduced into Japan from China along with Buddhism. Cruel and malicious, they can, nevertheless, be converted to Buddhism.  In the new Japanese animated feature MY GIRL ONI, the one is in the form of a teenage girl.

Yatsuse Hiiragi, a first-year high school student, is the type of person who cannot refuse requests because he wants to get along well with the people around him and not be disliked by them. However, nothing he does goes well and he has no one he can call a best friend. One summer day when it snows out of season, he meets Tsumugi, a demon girl who has come to the human world looking for her mother. Tsumugi, who has a personality opposite to Hiiragi and does not care about what others think of her, takes Hiiragi on her journey.

One change of scenes is done initially at the start of the film when Yatuse is on a mountain of snow and the background changes from the snow to the subway train he is in, on the way to school.  The same scene change occurs when the background of the school gym changes to an outdoor eating place.  This technique gives the impression that what is occurring on screen is with real characters in typical movies and not animation.  The animation of the character looks as if they are taken right out of a Studio Ghibli animated feature, such as HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE or the recent  THE BOY AND THE HERON the films directed by Master Japan animator Hayao Miyazaki.   It is a good feeling as there are not enough features coming out of Ghibli Studios, the films are usually of outstanding quality entertainment.

The film is available in two formats - the dubbed version and the original Japanese version with English subtitles.  The one on Netflix I viewed is in the original Japanese with English subtitles.   

The best things about MY ONI GIRL are its Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki look, its fascinating Japanese folklore and a coming-of page story that feels unrushed and genuine.

The film is part of a three-film exclusivity deal between Colorido and Netflix that started with Hiroyasu Ishida's DRIFTING HOME that released in September 2022.

Trailer: 

 MY GIRL OMI will be released simultaneously in Japanese theatres and on Netflix globally on May 24, 2024.

THE SALE GIRL (Mongolia 2022) ***
Directed by Janchivdorj Sengedorj 

From Mongolia comes this rare coming-of-age tale set in contemporary times and in the city and filmed in both Mongolian and Russian. THE SALES GIRL is an edgy sexy comedy drama that gives audiences a glimpse into modern Mongolia.

When college coed Saruul takes a temporary job as a clerk in a sex shop, her poker-faced indifference makes her the perfect foil for the shop’s clientele, who range from slightly sheepish and cautiously curious to downright perverse.  But it’s the shop’s flamboyant, eccentric female owner, Katya who initiates Saruul’s journey into adulthood – taking her under her wing, teaching her the art of living, and gently guiding her on the path to self-discovery.

Saruul looks young enough to be underaged, but she is old enough to be selling toys in the sex shop.  Even Katya makes the remark at one point in the film: “You want me to get arrested when the cops find you, underage working in my shop?” to which Saruul unequivocally gives her her I.D. as proof of her age.

There is a neat scene of Saruul, while taking public transport noticing the runaway dog running in a pack of other strays, apparently enjoying itself in its new freedom.  Her character is somewhat similar to the dog’s having found her new freedom.  Saruul had initially remarked that the dog looked bored and did not behave like a dog.

Though all of Arum’s coming-of-age lessons come from the shop owner, she is also aware of her own present life.  At one point, she rightly chastises the owner that there are poorer people who are unable to enjoy freedom due to poverty and commitment.  They are stuck in their chores like cooking and routine, unable to get out of the rut.  Saruul, is stuck with strict parents, her strict demanding father and her mother who is only concerned with family.  The parents’ greatest shock occurs in one scene where Sorrel is caught nude with her mate, yes, removing his cum that has got stuck on the ceiling.

Saruul also faces the odd awkward situation during her deliveries of the shop’s merchandise when customers make sexual advances towards her.

Besides being set in the city, the film contains seldom-seen scenes of the Mongolian countryside like the steppes and rocky landscapes.  A candid look at a more rural Mongolia has Saruul and the owner stopping to buy mushrooms from a country girl in the rural areas.

THE SALES GIRL is a humorous coming-of-age story set in a different setting of the sex toys trade and in Mongolia, a place unfamiliar to North Americans, two facts make this film worth a look.  The film has made a successful run in film festivals around the world winning many awards in the process.  Among them (only the ones that the film has won awards are included):

Udine Far East Film Festival (2023) | Winner, Audience Award, Nominee for Best Screenplay

Vesoul Asian Film Festival (2023) | Winner, Best Film

Bangkok World Film Festival (2023) | Nominee, Best Film

Osaka Asian Film Festival (2022) | Winner, Best Actress (Bayarjargal Bayartsetseg)

New York Asian Film Festival (2022) | Winner, Best Feature Film

Adelaide Film Festival (2022)

Trailer: 

THE SALES GIRL premieres via VOD and Digital on May 24th. 2024.

SILENT LAND (Chica Ziemia) (Poland/Italy/Czech 2021) ***1/2

Directed by Aga Woszczyńska

 

SILENT LAND traces the downward spiral of a bourgeois Polish couple’s relationship from the very start to the end of the film.  Though on paper, the story looks simple and plain, director Woszczyńska who also co-wrote the script, delivers a deliciously wicked comedy (or drama) of manners that has the feel of a classic Chabrol movie, even to the extent of the possibility of a murder.  The film is also reminiscent immediately of Dominik Moll’s Cannes Opening film LEMMING (10 years or so back) which traces a couple’s suffering relationship.

Aki Kaurismaki the Finnish director of minor masterpieces like FALLING LEAVES, DRIFTING CLOUDS A NEW HOPE is known for his deadpan comedy.  SILENT LAND explores deadpan drama in which the characters are mostly silent while the drama is still intense and intrinsic as if waiting to explode.

This is a tale of bliss interrupted. In her feature debut, director Aga Woszczyńska (her short FRAGMENTS debut at Cannes in the Directors Fortnight in 2014) chooses taut, thoughtful sequences to peel back the veneer of success from this beautiful bourgeois couple.

The setting is an Italian holiday vacation rental which the couple )seeking Polish) is staying at.  The couple, assumed wealthy are both white, blonde and arrogant in wanting the best for their vacation.  The husband is upset that the fan is not working and later is even more upset when he discovers the pool empty and not working,  Their Italian host swiftly sends over a local worker to fix the situation.  The young, muscular migrant Arab worker immediately faces a language barrier with the couple. When he suffers a terrible accident poolside, it is as if fate had been conspiring against all three of them from the beginning.  The worker falls in and drowns.  The local police are called in.  All the Italian host can say is that at least the pool has been fixed.

The film has a similar feel to the Oscar-winning ZONE OF INTEREST in which a German family worries about their posh residence beside the Nazi concentration camp next door.  In SILENT LAND, the rich couple is unaware of their poor surroundings on the island they are vacationing.  They want the pool filled regardless of the water shortage the island is facing.  They are oblivious to the fact and even if they knew, it would likely not have made a difference,  Director Woszczyńska sublimely builds up an atmosphere of dread and menace culminating in a surreal scene at the end that is kept as a surprise.

SILENT LAND played at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2021 when I first saw the film.  The film took it time to get a release but is worth a look, standing the test of time.  SILENT LAND opens on SVOD, Film Movement PLUS on May 21st, 2024 the best film opening this week.  The film is shot in different languages with Polish, English and French spoken.

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 14 May 2024

FILM REVIEWS:

BAD BOYS: RIDE OR DIE (USA 2024) **
Directed by Adil & Bilall

 

The ghost of Captain Conrad Howard (Joe Pantoliano) plays two parts in the film RIDEOR DIE.  Firstly, he is the reason for the film’s title RIDE OR DIE.  Ride or die is a colloquial expression indicating extreme loyalty to someone or something.  The late Captain Conrad is accused of drug trafficking but the bad boys Mike and Marcus believe him to be innocent and go about proving his innocence at all costs, thus riding or dying.  Secondly, the ghost tells Marcus in a vision, while he is suffering a heart attack, that his time has not come yet, which results in Marcus attempting death-defying stunts believing that he cannot die.

After the wedding of Detective Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) and Christine, his physical therapist, Mike and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence), his partner and fellow detective, investigate corruption within the Miami Police Department: their late Captain Conrad Howard is posthumously accused of being involved with drug cartels. Mike and Marcus ask Armando Aretas, Mike's son, in jail for having murdered Howard,[a] and he tells them that he is positive Howard was not corrupt and that he can identify the man who ordered their superior's murder as he remembers his face. Howard has left clues behind and they want Armando to run through them to possibly find the mysterious man. While they transfer Armando to Miami on a helicopter, Mike and Marcus are set up in the process and, although they survive an attack and the subsequent helicopter crash, they are considered fugitives by the police, the manhunt being led by U.S. Marshal Judy Howard (Captain Howard's daughter). Not only that, they are eventually being hunted by every criminal gang in Miami.  And the story goes on to the final reel when the Bad Boys solve the case.

Duo their credit, directors Adil and Billall (Belgian film and TV directors) do their utmost best to keep their film moving at a brief pace.  They also directed the last BAD BOYS film BAD BOYS FOR LIFE in 2020 and this film is a directed sequel to it.

BAD BOYS: RIDE OR DIE is the BAD BOYS franchise's 4th installment.  One would think that enough is enough and truth be told, the franchise has run out of ideas.  The camaraderie of the two cops is pushed to the limit again but their friendship prevails.

There are hardly any surprises in this installment.  The cameo surprises of Vanessa Hudgens, Alexander Ludwig and D.J. Khaled (who appears for a mere minute) do not help much.  One would wonder if this film will make money and whether Will Smith’s disastrous act of slapping Chris Rock will affect the box-office potential of the film.  The film even so far as to have Will Smith’s Mike Lowry slapped three times by Martin Lawrence in one scene, which did not get much response from the audience of the screening I attended.

BAD BOYS: RIDE OR DIE opens only in theatres on June 7th.

 

 

BASMA (Saudi Arabia 2024) ***
Directed by Fatima Al-Banawi

 

The film title BASMA is the name of the film’s protagonist, a young woman arriving back from the United States to her home in Saudi Arabia after graduating.  It is also after the Pandemic and she has not seen her family for a full two years.  Her sister’s children have grown.  Basma cut her hair short before her arrival.  But there are family secrets in store for her.  Her family has kept news from Basma, much to her consternation  The film is a family drama.

Basma returns home right at the celebration of Eid.  Eid is the time the family celebrate giving each other presents.  For those unfamiliar with Eid, Eid al-Adha, or the Feast of Sacrifice is the second of the two main holidays celebrated in Islam. In Islamic tradition, it honours the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son as an act of obedience to God's command.  Both Ishmael and Isaac are referred to with the honorific title "Sacrifice of God”.  In the house, the first thing Basma notices is that there are no signs of dad.  Basma’s father and mother have divorced (not common in the Islamic religion) and the father has moved out of the house,  The family did not inform Basma as they were afraid that the information might distract her from her PhD degree.  Basma is as expected furious.  She loves her father and can’t understand the reason the family ditched him.  But her father is suffering from an illness.  In desperation, Basma moves in with her father who suffers from paranoid delusions.  He has the windows of of his run-down apartment in which he stays alone all covered up in newspaper.

There are two plusses going for this Saudi Arabian family drama.  Firstly, unless one is Arabic or Muslim, there are a lot of practices and mores that North Americans are unfamiliar with, and these that are revealed (like Eid) on screen are both intriguing interesting as well as educational.  Secondly, Saudi Arabia and all its modernity can be witnessed, from the ultra-modern airport to the high-rise buildings as well as the beautiful sea surrounding the city.  The film is set in the city of Jeddah on the Red Sea’s eastern shore. 

There are very few films from Saudi Arabia, partly due to the fact there are no theatre no cinema complexes in the country.  The cinema of Saudi Arabia is a fairly small industry that only produces a few feature films and documentaries every year. Theatres were closed after religious activism in the 1980s. Saudis wishing to watch films have done so via satellite, DVD, or video.  

Despite the mentioned plusses, BASMA offers nothing fresh that has not been seen in one form or another in an American film.  Basma has to deal with her dysfunctional family during a celebration (It is usually Christmas or Thanksgiving in a Hollywood film.)   Basma has a romantic fling with her childhood best friend.

Al-Banawi wrote, directed and stars as BASMA, which opens for streaming on Netflix this week.

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COTTONTAIL (UK/Japan 2022) **

Directed by Patrick Dickinson

 

The premise of the film COTTONTAIL involves a widower and his son travelling from Japan to England's Lake District to scatter his wife's ashes there, as she grew up loving the stories of Beatrix Potter.  Potter was based there.

The widower Ken (Lily Franky) comes across his dead wife’s letter involving a request for the scattering of her ashes.  His estranged son, Toshin (Rio Nishikido) insists on coming along and ends up with his wife and himself travelling with his father to England.  Ken is not too pleased.

It is never made clear the reason the film is called COTTONTAIL  The word cottontail can take several meanings and one of them is rude.  But it also refers to a kind of rabbit as well as the name of the youngest sister of Peter Rabbit in the Beatrice Potter Peter Rabbit books.  The Lake District reference is that it is the place where Beatrice Potter wrote her Peter Rabbit books.  (Personal note:  On my first trip to the UK. I took a train trip to the Lake District including Lake Windermere and it is a very English and pristine place.)  The Lake Windermere is a huge area and the widower has to find the exact place the wife had wanted her ashes to be scattered.  All he has is a photograph of the place.

The film is a slow burn with not much happening making the film one requiring a bit of patience.  Though veteran star Ciaran Hinds has star billing, he only appears after the hour mark and only for a brief part of the film.  Hinds plays John who Ken comes across after getting lost in traveling to Lake Windermere.  John is living with his daughter Mary (played by his real-life daughter Aoife Hinds).  John and Mary are very kind to Ken, in fact too kind for credibility, which includes John volunteering to give Ken a long drive to Lake Windermere.

There are too many coincidences such as Ken’s son suddenly meeting and appearing at the same spot of the Lake Windermere area.  Ken also finally manages later to find the exact spot in the photo.  The reconciliation between son Toshi and Ken is also a bit too convenient and looks like a cop-out happy ending.

Actor Lily Franky is too sedate in his performance to be both a father and husband in anguish.  It is also hard to believe that he would travel all on his own in an unfamiliar country like England to scatter the ashes.  Rio Nisgikido as the son Toshi also appears too patient and eager to reconcile with his father, after Ken has abandoned him and his wife to go on his own.

The big argument between Ken and Toshi occurs in the heavy rain, obviously, to emphasize the gravity of the situation, though the setup is a bit obvious,  Director Dickinson eventually guides his story to a predictable end.

COTTONTAIL is released by Level 33 Entertainment from Academy Award(R) and BAFTA Nominated Producer GABRIELLE TANA and opens exclusively in theatres on June 7th and On Demand on July 9th.

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EDGE OF EVERYTHING (USA 2023) ***
Directed by Sophia Sabella and Pablo Friedman

EDGE OF EVERYTHING boasts a raw coming-of-age story of a 15-year-old teen, Abby who is rebellious as hell and who does not care who she hurts as long as she gets what she wants.    Her words turn upside down when she straddles the line between childhood and adulthood when she is forced to move in with her father and his younger girlfriend after her mother's death.

Abby (Sierra McCormick) is a young girl who is on the cusp on turning 15.  Her life is thrown out of balance with the untimely passing of her mother, as shown at the start of the film.  Abby is shown putting down her mother’s friends at the funeral, unsympathetic, which prompts the audience to feel the same way about her as the protagonist,  She stays with her estranged father, David (Jason Butler Harner) and his girlfriend, Leslie (Sabina Friedman-Seitz) much to her dismay.  Her father and girlfriend try their utmost best to gain her acceptance, but Abby blames her dad for not being there for her, 

As the film progresses, Abby is seen hanging out with friends who are decent, and not as rebellious as her.  The story takes a turn when Abby meets a drunk Caroline (Ryan Simpkins) at a bar who she takes after.  Caroline does not give a f*** at anything, which is the reason Abby is attracted to her.  Her world slowly downwards spiral as she lives at the edge of everything,  Abby’s dad confronts her after his girlfriend, Leslie finds weed in Abby’s bag which causes Abby to hate the girlfriend even more.  When Abby tries coke to be cool, the audience loses all sympathy for her,

EDGE OF EVERYTHING is a difficult film to watch because directors Sophia Sabella and Pablo Friedman does not compromise Abby’s personality.  This is the director’s debut writing and directing feature and they have a bit to learn about making their film likable while tackling a tough film on a tough subject.  To the actress’ credits, McCormick and Simpkins both deliver credible and impressive performances.   When Abby finally tells Caroline off that all she does is care for herself and nobody else, which is true, Caroline runs away saying that Abby is her new best friend, which is also true.

The coming-of-age experiences include drug taking, flirting, and sex with boys and learning to choose true friends.  The females are shown in a better light than the males in the film.  All the boys that Abby, Caroline and her friends encounter are mostly idiots and care for nothing except drugs and making out.  Abby's father ends up saying the wrong things most of the time leading to his girlfriend, shown as a sort of ‘Mother Teresa’ walking out on him at one point.

My best coming-of-age films are Ken Loach’s KES set in Northern England and Francois Truffaut’s LES QUARTE CENTS COUPS (400 BLOWS) about a young lad in a French seaside town.  EDGE OF EVERYTHING also lacks to show how the film’s setting affects Abby in her behaviour.

The film opens via VOD & Leading digital platforms on June 7th, 2024.

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HOW TO ROB A BANK (USA 2024) ***

Directed by Seth Porges and Stephen Robert Morse

 

HOW TO ROB A BANK is a fancy title for a doc, one that opens for streaming this week on Netflix.  Truth be told, it does give audiences a few tips on how two rob a bank (checking time of day of delivery of cash to the bank, timing of police patrol cars, security setups), while also detailing the life of one of the most prolific bank robbers in the United States.  The bank robber nicknamed Hollywood is Scott Scurlock who operated in Seattle in the 1990s.  He was the most prolific bank robber in the Pacific Northwest.

Hollywood is the nickname (the FBI loves to give nicknames to bank robbers)  for this bank robber, who hits banks as if following a film script.  Hollywood, according to the film’s voiceover at the film’s beginning is one of the most wanted persons by the FBI.  They had no idea who he was or which bank he would hit best.  According to the FBI, Hollywood was a smart robber who knew the security system and how long he had been in a bank before leaving.

The setting is 1990s Seattle.  A flood of money came to Seattle from the technology boom - with a bank around every corner. 

There is a clip from the Kevin Costner film, ROBIN HOOD; PRINCE OF THIEVES (1991) as Hollywood was described as robbing the rich to give to the poor.

The doc switches, without notice to focus on another man called Scott, a muscular man who builds a tree house.  The reason is that Scott is the man called Hollywood.  Scott Scurlock (March 5, 1955 – November 28, 1996) born William Scott Scurlock in Fairfax County, Virginia was the son of a minister. He was nicknamed the Hollywood Bandit (or simply Hollywood).  He got this nickname from his involvement in bank robberies in the Seattle area during the 1990s during which he used acting makeup and disguises.  Using Hollywood quality make-up he successfully robbed 17 banks. His last attempt ended in a police shootout with Scurlock escaping the scene.  His two accomplices were captured and one gave Scurlock up. He eventually shot himself in the head as FBI agents waited outside a trailer (shades of bank robbers BONNIE AND CLYDE) he was held up in and called out to him to surrender.

Again out of the blue, the film focuses on Mark Biggins.  Biggins was a close friend of Scott who Scott helped out when Mark was in trouble with his marriage and in money.  “Move u[ here,” Scott invited Mark to live in the treehouse.  The treehouse was elaborate and had a free-range stove and a toilet.  The film then focuses on the stories of Mark Biggins and Steve Meyers, two men behind 19 confirmed bank robberies across Seattle that netted them over $2.3 million. 

The occludes interviews from key personnel.  These include friends and family members as well as members of the FBI who worked on the bank robbery case.

HOW TO ROB A BANK is an often fascinating doc on a particularly fascinating individual who robs banks as a challenge rather than for the money.  It opens for streaming this week on Netflix.

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LONGING (USA 2024) ***
Directed by Savi Gabizon

 

LONGING is a remake of the Israeli film of the same name.  The original was also directed by Savi Gabizon, the writer and director of this new version.  The director wanted to make a movie about his experience with his divorce  The new version has powerhouse star Richard Gere (AMERICAN GIGOLO, AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN) in the title role of the divorced Daniel.

Daniel, a wealthy New York bachelor (Richard Gere), is forced to evaluate his life choices when he discovers that a Canadian ex-girlfriend, Rachel (Suzanne Clément) had given birth to their son, Allen  (Tomaso Sanelli) after they split up 20 years ago.

When Daniel meets Rachel in a New York restaurant, Rachel reveals that his son Allen (Tomaso Sanelli) turned 19 two months ago.  “Sort of takes after you,” she says.  Since Rachel knew that Daniel didn’t want kids, she never told him she was pregnant.  But when Rachel drops another bombshell that the son has died from a car accident, Daniel decides to visit Canada (specifically Hamilton, where Allen grew up).  As Daniel meets his son’s best friend (Wayne Burns), his favourite teacher (Kruger) and his girlfriend (Jessica Clement), he’s in for even more surprises.

Director Gabizon’s film is one of awkwardness - in which there are many moments of awkwardness.  The first segment in which Daniel meets Rachel in the restaurant after a 20-year absence is indeed an awkward moment for the two.  The sparseness of dialogue and the awkwardness of their small talk emphasizes the situation, not to mention the difficulty of presenting news Rachel has for him.  Not only does she reveal that Daniel had a son but that the son had been killed in a car accident.  Then Daniel is surprised by an unexpected visit by one of his son’s best friends, Mikey (Wayne Burns) who asks him to help him pay his son’s share of a drug deal owed to a drug lord.  Daniel declines claiming that he does not want to finance a drug deal to which the young Mikey chides him for not caring as a father, who has the money but refuses to help.  “He would not be too proud of you.” are Mikey’s words to Daniel after meeting him in the hotel lobby.

The film is shot mainly in Hamilton (partially in Kitchener and Cambridge) by cinematographer Paul Sarossy which includes the familiar bridge with the church behind it, one of the town’s landmarks.  

Things get weirder when Daniel meets his son’s girlfriend who reveals more unexpected information regarding his son, Allen.  Then Daniel meets Alice (Diane Kruger), Allen’s French Literature teacher, who apparently his son has fallen in love with.

Gere plays his dramatic role with a quiet and calculated intensity that suits the mood and atmosphere of the film.  A film of self-discovery and a sort of alternative coming-of-age story of an older adult, the film has enough plot twists to keep the film both intriguing and entertaining,

LONGING opens June 7 in Toronto, Vancouver!  The film also opens on June 14 in Montreal and throughout the summer in other cities.

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NELMA KODAMA: THE QUEEN OF DIRTY MONEY 

(Original title: Doleira: A História de Nelma Kodama)

(Brazil 2024) ***
Directed by João Wainer

 

Nelma Kodama: The Queen of Dirty Money is a Netflix original documentary from Brazil about one of Brazil’s most notorious female criminals.  As the tone of the film title implies, the filming subject is treated in a humorous way while never diminishing the severity of the crime she committed.

Out of prison, notorious black-market currency trader Nelma Kodama (she plays herself and talks candidly about herself and her crime and is the star of the Documentarian herself) exposes her part in a major Brazilian corruption scandal.  She is under house arrest as the camera at the beginning of the film moves down her leg to reveal her ankle tracer. This is a humorous humorous to her and she goes about showing off the tracer as if it is worn in fashion.

This woman, as she admits it herself, has style and lots of it and she is not afraid to flaunt it.

Nelma Kodama is a Brazilian businesswoman who went to prison for corruption, organized crime and currency evasion during Operation Car Wash after she was caught trying to board a plane with 200 thousand euros in her underwear in Guarulhos airport (Sao Paulo).   She talks to the camera about her methods of moving money and the mechanics of it all.  How it all works appears quite simple to her, as she explains everything joyfully, but truth be told, it is not easy to understand how everything works and how she comes to make so much money.  Her tactics also involved hiring children carrying bags of money.  Funny enough, she would also get robbed.

Is she breaking the law?  She says she is not breaking any law, but that is the way things can be done by bypassing the law, which makes it illegal.

Whether Nelma is inspiring - the answer is definitely ‘maybe’- to some for her verve and success as a woman.  She comes across like a Tammy Faye or a Mrs. Imelda Marcos.  Like Imelda Marcos, she admits to loving shoes. But one must give credit to Nelma for succeeding as a female in what is a male-oriented crime syndicate.  Most of her ‘business’ colleagues are men.

As for romance, she has two lovers simultaneously.  She also describes on screen the definition of the term ‘lover’.  Her two beaus also end up in jail.  These two including other accomplishers get to share their stories on screen as well.

NELMA KODAMA: THE QUEEN OF DIRTY MONEY, in Portuguese with English subtitles, opens for streaming on Netflix this week.

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THE PRICE OF NONNA’S INHERITANCE (Ricchi a tutti i costi)(Italy 2024) ***

Directed by Giovanni Bognetti

 

THE PRICE OF NONNA’S INHERITANCE (Ricchi a tutti i costi) is a cheesy Italian comedy that is so silly and preposterous that it ends totally hilarious and entertaining.

The film opens with Anna meeting her old flame, Nunzio who still tries to make his moves on the married Anna.  Anna has already a husband and two thirty-something kids and her mother.  The mother has 6 million worth of inheritance that the entire family wants to grab hold of as part of their inheritance.  So imagine their distress when the grandmother announces that she has the intention of being married again after finding the love of her life.

To the family’s horror and particularly to Anna’s, the grandmother’s grand announcement of her new husband turns out to be Nunzio.  Anna is convinced that her family’s Nunzio is marrying the much older mother for her money.  So, the family comes together to commit a murder.  Can the family come together to commit a murder?  That is the question that the movie attempts to answer.

It is a silly premise, but director Giovanni Bognetti, who also wrote the script proves himself (this is his third feature) excellent at comedy,  There is a high hit-and-miss laugh ratio and the comedy centres on the typical Italian family nuances, which makes it even funnier if one is familiar with Italian culture.

Take this family dinner scene where they discuss committing the murder.

The mother says: “You have to believe we can do it as a family.  You have to believe in yourself.”

The daughter, Giuliana replies: “You always treat us like idiot children.

Apparently, Giuliana, her brother and Nunzio were at a cliff earlier in the day.

Giuliana says: “Emilio was there but did nothing.  Just like leaving the dinner table when the table needs to be cleared.”

And the mother complains about Giuliana: “She took up swimming but could not compete.  She took piano lessons but could not perform.  Now she was there but could not push him off the cliff.

Giuliana’s reply: “Murder.  It is not the same thing.”I am going to the restroom.“

Then comes the clincher as the mother laments: “It is sad to think that we cannot come together just to commit a murder.”

The comedy heightens with the arrival of Nunzio’s best man, who happens to be blind.  The family now is afraid there might be a witness to the crime.  But at least he is blind, the best type of witness says a family member.

There are a few excellent very imaginative comedic setups, thanks to a really funny script and to the director’s excellent comic timing,  One is the brother and sister/s search for a poisonous plant in order to do off with Nunzio.  The other is the family dinner segment that is already described.

The film is an easy-going, guilty pleasure that is perfect for a family to laugh it out at themselves at what a family could be.  NONNA’S INHERITANCE opens for streaming on Netflix this week.

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ROBOT DREAMS (Spain/France 2023) ****
Directed by Pablo Berger

 

Robot Dreams is a 2023 animated tragicomedy film written and directed by Pablo Berger. A Spanish-French co-production, it is based on the 2007 comic of the same name by Sara Varon.  It is about the friendship between a dog and a robot in New York in 1984. The film does not contain any dialogue, which means that it is accessible to any country of any language.  The characters just utter grunts, screams or make animal noises, since after all, they are animals.   As the setting is in the United States, signs are in English.

In 1980s Manhattan, Dog lives alone.  Dog does everything on his own and is a lonely dog.  The question: Are you Lonely?  pops up.  And the answer is obvious.  While watching TV, he notices an advertisement for a robot friend and immediately calls to order it. Dog receives Robot in the mail sometime later and assembles him. The two become instant friends as Dog takes Robot out to explore Manhattan. Over the course of the summer, the two become inseparable friends.  Like lifelong companions.

Near the end of summer, Dog takes Robot to the beach. After a long day of playing in the water, the pair fall asleep. Upon waking up well after all the other visitors have left, Dog realizes that the water has caused Robot to rust. Unable to move Robot, a disheartened Dog is forced to head home for the night.  Dog returns to the beach the following day to discover that the beach has been closed until June the following year, with a large barbed wire fence constructed which prevents him from reaching Robot. After being denied access to the beach by the city, Dog tries to break past the fence illegally. However, he is caught by police and is arrested. Afterward, a disheartened Dog relents to wait until he can go and rescue Robot, placing a note on his refrigerator as a constant reminder.

For an animated feature, there are quite a few obvious product placements such as Goodyear Tire and Tab drinks, making it look like a joke (there is also a company label Berger Enterprises’ - Berger is the director’s last name), soon wonders if it a joke or whether it is truly product placement.  Director Pablo loves to animate as if the camera is placed in different areas, such as inside a microwave or from the fish's point of view from under the lake water when dog is fishing.

The question is how the two will survive e after separation by fate.  Dog and his robot companion have become so close that they are companions for life with unconditional love.  When they are separated, depression sets in.  They cope in different ways.

Robot gets a makeover with spare parts and learns to bond with his new owner, helping him in painting as well as with other jobs.  For dog he engages in new activities like sledding.  The sled segment in which he runs down a black diamond hill is simply hilarious,  But during a kite flying incident, he bonds and has a girlfriend in the form of a cool duck,  But duck leaves for Europe.  Dog then copes by getting another robot a tin bot which is a floor model.

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ROBOT DREAMS is an amazing feel-good and fresh innovative animated feature full of rich nuanced emotions including many spirited segments like the snow sled segment in which dog rides his out-of-control self with his tiny floppy waging behind.

ROBOT DREAMS was nominated for the Best Animated Feature Oscar and is also the winner of the Toronto Film Critics Association prize for Best Animated Feature.

UNDER PARIS (SOUS LA SEINE) ***

Will the triathlon athletes survive as they dive into the Seine in the film’s final scene?  The answer is a big surprise proving UNDER PARIS (Sous La Seine) the best shark horror movie after Spielberg’s JAWS.

Click link below for full review:

https://toronto-franco.com/article/21-cinema-movies/409-film-review-sous-la-seine-under-paris

THE WATCHERS (The Watched) (USA 2024) ***
Directed by Ishana Night Shyamalan

  

THE WATCHERS (titled The Watched in the United Kingdom and Ireland) is a 2024 American supernatural horror film written and directed by Ishana Night Shyamalan, produced by M. Night Shyamalan, and based on the novel of the same name by A. M. Shine.

The film stars Dakota Fanning as Mina, the main character while  Georgina Campbell, Olwen Fouéré, and Oliver Finnegan play ‘the watched’.

The film is shot in Galway and in the forest of West Ireland.  Everyone in the film speaks with an Irish accent except for the main character who is American and a standout as a foreigner.

Mina (Fanning) drives her car on delivery of a bird on rolling green hills and bumps over rural lanes lined with fluffy sheep and tall, waving grass.  Her car’s engine sputters to a halt and she cannot call a tow truck because your phone has died.  She leaves the car and ventures into the woods, following an unseen figure and ending up in what will be known to her as the coop, a safe place to hide when daylight is gone from beasts known as THE WATCHERS.

Director Shyamalan creates a solid suspenseful and frightening atmosphere from the start when  Mina is lost right up to the beginning of the last 15 minutes of the film when the film becomes quite silly.  The atmosphere is created in several ways through screams that are loud and vicious and hungry, and blurred images while keeping the audience's curiosity hand.

In the coop, she is given instruction by who appears to be the leader due to her being their the lowest.  Madeline has rules that must never be broken.  The rules include never going out at night, never leaving your back to the mire and never going down the burrows where the watchers are supposed to go during the day.

There are quite a few good scary set pieces including the one where Mina enters the burrow and the one where she is shut out of the coup as night falls.  Director Shyamalan also makes good use of the woods and the gloom of the grey skies.

THE WATCHERS is not a M. Night Shyamalan-directed film though his name is splashed on the poster.  He acts as the film’s producer for his daughter’s filmmaking debut,   Ishana has a lot riding on this movie, this being her feature debut while riding on her father’s reputation.  Shyamalan directed and wrote several episodes of the horror TV series Servant, for which her father was the showrunner.  Shyamalan also directed the second unit on her father's films Old (2021) and Knock at the Cabin (2023). Truth be told, she deserves credit for keeping a consistent suspenseful atmosphere throughout the film - clearly no easy task, especially for a first-time feature director.  The film only falters during the last 15 minutes where too much happens, though one can blame the critical flaw due to the source of the material, the novel.

THE WATCHERS opens only in theatres on June 7th.

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 04 May 2024

Three horror films debut this week.  The best of the lot is MONSTER from Indonesia on Netflix

FILM REVIEWS:

I SAW THE TV GLOW (USA 2024) **
Directed by Jane Schoenbrun

 

I SAW THE TV GLOW is a 2024 American psychological horror-drama film written and directed by Jane Schoenbrun.  It stars Justice Smith and Brigette Lundy-Paine, with Ian Foreman, Helena Howard, Fred Durst and Danielle Deadwyler in supporting roles. Teenager Owen is just trying to make it through life in the suburbs when his classmate (two troubled friends) introduces him to a mysterious late-night TV show — a vision of a supernatural world beneath their own. In the pale glow of the television, Owen’s view of reality begins to crack.

Emma Stone and Dave McCary serve as producers under their Fruit Tree banner.

I SAW THE TV GLOW tackles fear like being trapped in a body or dimension in which one tries the hardest to escape but is totally unable to, while still able to experience all the emotions and pain.  Or entering another dimension through the television or the internet.

The story often burrs the line between reality and the imaginary which makes everything all the more scary.  The protagonist is somewhat stuck in the young adult series ‘The Pink Opaque’,   The trouble with the scenarios is that no explanation is given for the opening up of the other universe, nor is there any attempt to do so.  One finds it hard to feel sympathetic for Owen though the script offered many reasons like his sick mother and sick father or the audience to do so.

The frequent use of saturated colours reminds one of the films of Belgium director Bertrand Mandico who made THE WILD BOYS and the recent SHE IS CONANN.  His films are often adult fantasies that contain an atmosphere and feel similar to I SAW THE TV GLOW.  However, the overuse of colours in this film, as in the Mandico films, gives a plastic artificial look that instead of aiding credibility to the story makes it more fantasy-horror.  One admires director Jane Schoenbrun for this for her specific style though it does not fully work.

Despite the film’s many rave reviews, this reviewer found the plot detached and the story all over the place where anything can happen.  Though one might expect some intrigue, the exercise gets quite boring after a while, especially when one can hardly care for any character given that anything can happen at any time or in any universe.

Schoenbrun appears to enjoy tackling films of a similar premise,  The directorial debut in 2018 was the documentary A Self-Induced Hallucination.  The film centres on the narrative of the fictional horror character and internet phenomenon Slender Man, as told through a found footage compilation of existing YouTube videos.  Similarly in I SAW THE TV GLOW, a poster called Mr. Melancholy haunts the characters.  Though it was formerly available to view on Vimeo, the film has since been removed. Schoenbrun has stated that profit from A Self-Induced Hallucination was not a goal.

Based on a micro-budget, the film has impressive production values.  One wishes that director Schoenbrun would have developed a more solid and credible story than this fantasy anything can happen with no explanation plot.

The film opens in theatres across Canada on May 17th.

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MONSTER (Indonesia 2024) ***
Directed by Rako Prijanto

 

In the 2020 low-budget horror film THE BOY BEHIND THE DOOR, written and directed by David Charbonier and Justin Powell, Bobby and his best friend Kevin are kidnapped and taken to a strange house in the middle of nowhere.   Bobby manages to escape. But as he starts to make a break for it, he hears Kevin's screams for help and realizes he can't leave his friend behind.

The new Indonesian horror film opening on Netflix this week is a remake of THE BOY BEHIND THE DOOR which is not a horror classic though not bad, thus allowing MONSTER to be an improvement.  The point is obviously taken to heart as director Prijanto employs various camera angles including log tracking and overhead shots to show the kidnapping.

It was supposed to be a normal day for Alana and Rabin. A day when they came home from school, rode their bikes, and then spent time by the river, reading their favourite comics, which they had just rented from the library. However, that day became the most terrifying day of Alana and Rabin's lives, when a strange man kidnapped them both.   It all begins when the car stops allowing Alana and Rabin to cross the street on their bikes.   They enter ‘Artopus’ to play video games,  The man drugged and gagged them in the trunk of his car and took them, far away, to another area, at the top of a mountain. Rabin is dropped off first and kept in a room in a villa. Alana, who was left in the trunk, managed to escape. Alana immediately ran away, but Alana remembered the whereabouts of her best friend who was still in the Villa. Alana decided to go back and use all means to escape the threat of the ‘Monster'.  With no other choice, they have to fight by any means necessary.

MONSTER as a horror film contains several differences.  The first thing is that the two protagonists are children.  There is boo reason offered for the purpose of the kidnapping.  Another difference is the film's sparseness.  There is not much plot and a lot of screen time involves Alana moving about the house.  There is little to no dialogue.  Harley anyone speaks as there is no reason for them to speak as there is no one around.  The kidnapped boy and girl scream and shout out each other’s names - as far as the dialogue goes.  Director Prijanto does not skimp with the horror.  Alana’s escape from the boot of the car, all gagged, blindfolded and tied up has her removed her tape bindings by having the tape ripped apart by a huge rust nail, with blood emerging from the scrapped skin as well.    Worse, she later witnesses the monster cutting up the corpse with a chainsaw.

Alana and Rabin are two children who have to do anything it takes to escape and survive the monster and his girlfriend.  The film plays like a horror version of HOME ALONE with kids vs. adults and A QUIET PLACE where the children have to be very quiet.   To director Prijanto’s credit, the film contains quite a few scares that are guaranteed to make audiences jump from their seats.

The soundtrack containing jarring and whirling sounds accompanied by haunting music aids in the creation of an eerie and frightening atmosphere.

MONSTER opens for streaming this week on Netflix.

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POWER (USA 2024) ***

Directed by Yance Ford

  

Everyone desires per.  Power implies possession of the ability to wield force, authority, or influence. the power to mold public opinion.  This involves the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behaviour of others, the ability to control people and events, and the possession of control.  The new documentary looks at power from the policing standpoint.

The doc POWER Explores the scope and scale of the American police over hundreds of years. Tracing the money, political power, and bipartisan support that has created modern policing.

Director Lance Ford is a transgender black filmmaker.   In 2018, Ford with Joslyn Barnes was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for producing and directing STRONG ISLAND. As such, he was the first openly transgender man to be nominated for an Academy Award, and the first openly transgender director to be nominated for an Academy Award.

The doc asks the question who is more powerful?  The people or the police?  The police are out of control. They possess power -   Director Ian Olds Ford and co-writer put into their doc a structure of the police with lots of archive footage, even from as early as the 1800s and 1900s all black and white.  The doc at best serves as a history lesson and an examination of the police as a force or power that has gotten out of control.

POWER had its world premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival on January 18, 2024, and was released in a limited release in the U.S. on May 10, 2024, before streaming on Netflix on May 17, 2024.

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THE STRANGERS: CHAPTER 1 (USA 2024) ***
Direct by Renny Harlin

The new slasher horror film THE STRANGERS CHAPTER ONE is based on the horror series of the same name created by Bernard Bertino.  Bryan Michael Bertino is best known as the writer/director of THE STRANGERS (2008), as well as writing its sequel, THE STRANGERS: PREY AT NIGHT (2018), with Ben Ketai.

A bit of history about the film should be noted to see where this film fits in.  The Strangers film series consists of American psychological horror films.  Based on an original story by Bryan Bertino, the plot centres around three masked psycho-sociopathic home invaders that prey on innocent owners.  The films are marketed as "based on a true story”, informing the audience that violent killings are common and occurring frequent in the United States.

The series continues with the release of a standalone prequel trilogy of films starting with THE STRANGERS: CHAPTER 1, set to be released on May 17, 2024, directed by Finnish director Renny Harlin, best known for his hits CLIFFHANGER with Sylvester Stallone, DIE HARD 2 and horror film NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 4.   Two more sequels, Chapter 2 and Chapter 3, are expected to follow, with Harlin directing.

THE STRANGERS: CHAPTER 1 provides nothing really fresh in the horror genre, and can better described as a homage to the 60s and 70s slasher horror films.  The film contains typical cheap shocks and jump scares such as door slamming and things that go thump in the dark.   Director Harlin ups the ante on the gore and violence.  The film begins with a victim running in the woods away from his predator, at night of course.  The titles then describe that there are 14.2 million killings in the United States.  Comically, yes, the film has a welcome dose of humour, that 7 would have already occurred since the film began.  It goes on to say that this story is one of the most violent ones in history.  The victim is then hacked to death with the axe.

Maya (Madelaine Petsch) drives across the country with her longtime boyfriend, Ryan (Froy Gutierrez), as the pair begin a new life together in the Pacific Northwest. Along the way, their car breaks down in Venus, Oregon and they are forced to spend the night in an isolated Airbnb home. Through the night, they are terrorized by three murderous masked strangers.   This is pretty much the story of the 90-minute film, pretty much a non-story as stories do not really lay a part in slasher-type horror flicks.

One cannot say that the film falls into cliched territory as it pokes fun at the typical horror scenario.  One of the film’s best scenes shows Ryan trying to start up a truck to escape from the killers. Lots of scares here in this well-executed segment.

Director Harlin is a Finnish director who has some worthy films to date including the major flop CUT THROAT ISLAND that resulted in the film company going bankrupt.  He was formerly married to Geena Davis.  To his credit, his films are seldom boring and he knows how to push the correct buttons for an action flick, this film included.

THE STRANGERS: CHAPTER 1 is a very violent slasher horror film on house invasion with little plot or story, paying tribute to the horror films of the past and succeeding in this respect.

THE STRANGERS: CHAPTER 1 opens in theatres across Canada on May 17th.

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TISH (UK 2023) ****

Directed by Paul Sng

 

Newcastle upon Tyne is currently quite a modern city close to some nice beaches, myself having visited the North England town a few years ago as I met with a resident who was in Athens when I was there.  (I recognized his Geordie accent when we were at the hotel counter, a point that made us good friends.)  The subject of this eye-opening documentary, Tish Murtha lived and worked in the city.

Patricia Anne "Tish" Murtha (14 March 1956 – 13 March 2013) was a British social documentary photographer best known for documenting marginalized communities, social realism and working-class life in Newcastle upon Tyne and the North East of England.  In 1976, aged 20, she left home to study at the School of Documentary Photography at The University of Wales, Newport, set up by Magnum Photos member David Hurn.  After graduating in 1978, she returned to Newcastle and set out to document “marginalized communities from the inside”. Unlike other photographers who came to document social poverty in the region at the time, Murtha did not just document it, she actually lived it as the third of ten children of Irish descent, brought up in a council house in Elswick in Newcastle. She captured the lives of her friends, family and the community around her while she was on a job scheme for the unemployed.

Paul Sng’s powerful film celebrates the work of Murtha and her commitment to fighting for communities like the one she grew up in.  This was the Thatcher era de-industrialization of local communities.  Her striking black and white photos convey a tenderness and intimacy that set her apart from her peers and her work would become a powerful record of a world decimated by a new and ruthless form of capitalism.

The film brings back memories of the excellent film about two boys living similar lives to the youth of this community.  Clio Barnard’s THE SELFISH GIANT, a contemporary fable about 13-year-old Arbor and his best friend Swifty, both excluded from school and outsiders in their own neighbourhood, making deals with a local scrap dealer, where they embark on a dangerous job collecting copper from wires and cables left behind by the electrical companies.

The film follows Tish’s daughter Ella as she revisits key moments from her mother’s life and work. She is accompanied by people who remained close to Tish throughout her life, and who are committed to ensuring her remarkable legacy is recognized.

The doc’s most riveting segment involves the interview with Tish’s brother  He talks about her while the actress voicing Tish, talks about the lost generation of youth under Thatcher’s rule as Tish’s photographs are shown depicting the deplorable conditions of the Newcastle area.  Her words that were heard in Parliament were being and effective, as her photographs speak and reveal the horrors of the times.  Youth would graduate from school but there were no jobs and no hope for them.  Another moving segment involves the formation of juvenile bands run by sadistic ex-WWII army personnel who would mistreat the kids, while the project would get funds from the government with help from the taxpayer,

“The photography world and those who operate it make you sick at times.”  These are the words of Tish when dealing with authorities oblivious to the poor.

TISH is an excellent blended doc that ties together the photographer's work with the conditions of her childhood horrors, which earned the BFE nomination for the Best Edited British Documentary or Non-Fiction Programme.

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YOU CAN’T RUN FOREVER (USA 2022) ***
Directed by Michelle Schumacher

 

One has to hand it to director Michelle  Schumacher to absolutely grab the audience’s attention at the start of her film about a sociopath killer.  The killer (J.K. Simmons) rides to fill his bike at a gas station where he witnesses a small barking dog.  The owner asks his dog to shut up, mistreating it, while an onlooker asks the owner to shut his dog up.  The killer pulls out a pistol and does away with the dog owner.  Is the killer doing a good deed or is he purely psycho?  Whatever the reason, the audience is fixed.

If one wonders the reason J.K. Simmons plays this silly role as a killer, it is because Simmons is the husband of the director so he is obviously lending her his support.

J.K. Simons gets top billing for his role as the sociopath killer in the film.  Simmons won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in WHIPLASH and is good in almost every role he is in.  As the villain killer in this film, it seems a waste of his talent.  But he does a good job at being a total psycho who is established at the start of the film after he shoots the owner of a dog that keeps barking and the man who complains about the noise.  “Why are you doing this?” asked the onlooker just before he too was shot.  “Does it matter?” comes the answer.  Simmons plays a professor at some school teaching the laws of survival, which will be put into practice in the film.  His real name is Wade and he goes on a killing spree for no rhyme or reason.  The problem of the film is the credibility of the story.  But this is, after all, a slasher horror movie so: “Does it matter?”

The main thread of the story involves a teenage girl, Miranda (Isabelle Anaya) suffering from anxiety due to a tragic event from her past (the death of her father), finds herself hunted through the woods by a sociopath on a murderous rampage after he shoots her stepfather.

The film’s main flaw is the silly plot involving the psycho killer who dispenses his victims without reason or remorse.  Simmons does his bet forces role but it still lacks credibility.

A few loopholes in the plot involve the killer.  If he does away with victims with such ease, how come there has been no report of any killings before the gas station shooting?  The story gets a bit confusing too as cell phones keep changing hands and tracking of the cells is done by both the cops and others.

There are, to the scriptwriter credit (script is co-written by the director and Carolyn Carpenter and both being female, gives the film a strong female slant. The males are either done away with (the stepfather), the psycho killer, or inept police officers who by the book in their investigations.  Another female, Miranda’s half-sister, Jenny (Fernanda Urrejola) takes control to help Miranda in the woods after realizing the officers are not capable of doing enough.

The spine-tingling thriller, YOU CAN’T RUN FOREVER despite its flaws should keep audiences at the edge of their seats.  The film will be released in Theatres, On Digital and On Demand NEXT WEEK on Friday, May 17 (Lionsgate) in the US and Canada.  (Lionsgate has two horror slasher films out this week - THE STRANGERS CHAPTER ONE and this one.)

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Written by: Gilbert Seah

Parent Category: Articles

Category: Movie Reviews

Published: 03 May 2024

FILM REVIEWS:

 

EVIL DOES NOT EXIST (Japan 2023) ***½

Directed by Hamaguchi Ryusuke

 

Single father Takumi and his daughter Hana live in Mizubiki Village, close to Tokyo. Like generations before them, they live a modest life according to the cycles and order of nature. One day, the village inhabitants become aware of a plan to build a ‘glamping’ site near Takumi’s house; offering city residents a comfortable ‘escape’ to nature.  Blaming is glamorous camping,  When two company representatives from Tokyo arrive in the village to hold a meeting, it becomes clear that the project will have a negative impact on the local water supply, causing unrest.  The agency’s mismatched intentions endanger both the ecological balance of the nature plateau and their way of life, with an aftermath that affects Takumi’s life deeply.

The origin of the film EVIL DOES NOT EXIST is a strange and rather remarkable one.  Composer Ishibashi Eiko had asked film director Hamaguchi Ryusuke, both of whom had worked together in the 2021 film  DRIVE MY CAR to create a film that would accompany her live performances of a new music piece called ‘Gift’.  The result is the film EVIL DOES NOT EXIST which places the musical score forefront to many of the film’s important segments.  Observable from the very first scene when the score shifts from one mood to another, so does he film’s atmosphere.  The first segment is an idyllic setting where the camera shows the sky through the tops of the trees in the woods (similar to what Akira Kurosawa did for his films like YOJIMBO) before setting in for a more settling tone where the audience sees a single father Takumi (Omika Hitoshi) chopping wood, working as an odd-job man for a village that needs fresh stream water in order to survive.  The first segment is a slow burn before humans are introduced into the story, but the scene also of Takumi collecting fresh water has an important impact in the story.

The story involves a deeper building of a camping facility which poses a threat to the villagers.  The developer has be two employees down to have a Q&A with the villagers for settling public outrage.  But the two get more than they bargained for as the villagers bring out strong points like the threat of the location of the glam camp’s epic tank and the threat of wildfires, not to mention the destruction of the deer trail.  The meeting is tense and recalls one of the key scenes in Fred Zinnemann’s classic town hall meeting in HIGH NOON where the townsfolk gather to decide whether to stay or abandon the town when their sheriff meets the men he has sent to jail arrive to take revenge.

As the title EVIL DOES NOT EXIST, there is no inherent evil in any of the deeds of the story's characters though the results might be questionable.  The story contains a mystery element with lots of solitude enabling Eiko’s music to make a greater impact.

The film’s ending is abrupt and left mysteriously open ended leaving one wondering what caused the action that was taken.

EVIL DOES NOT EXIST opens at the TIFF Lightbox on Friday, May 10th.

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THE FINAL:  ATTACK ON WEMBLEY (UK 2024) ***½

Directed by Rob Miller and Kwabena Oppong

 

In 2021, a dramatic England penalty defeat to Italy and chaos as thousands of un-ticketed fans attempted to storm Wembley Stadium.  The doc tells the story of the events that occurred.    The doc stars Darren Lewis and Emma Saunders (both are broadcasters of the day) Liam Boylan who is the director of Wembley Stadium.

England won the World Cup way back when in the year 1966.  The year is now 2021, right after the Pandemic.  People were depressed from staying locked down and needed to go out and have an outlet.  The World Cup finals held in Wembley Stadium, London would provide the outlet. The rest is history. The 1966 FIFA World Cup was the eighth FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in England from 11 to 30 July 1966. England defeated West Germany 4–2 in the final to win their first-ever World Cup title. 

And so says an England fan. “You don’t need running shoes to run.  But it helps.”  “You don’t need beer to have a good time.  But it helps.”  In England and much of Europe, unlike North America, one can carry a beer and drink in public as in a bus or in the tube.  The big match was on at 8 pm but all the fans were drinking and making merry already.  The doc spends a bit of screen time, and likely deservingly so, on the absolute bonkers spirit of the fans.  Another movie that captured the spirit of football fans was Ladj Ly’s LES MISERABLES”, the film set on the day of the World Cup played in Paris when France won the World Cup.

On July 11, 2021, Wembley Stadium was on the brink of a historic win for Gareth Southgate's England team. The squad had inspired the country on their journey to England's first major final since 1966, and the European Championship was within their reach. But as England supporters arrived at Wembley from all corners of the country, celebration quickly turned to chaos.  Mayhem took over with scenes of drunkenness and drug-taking, and ticketless fans saw an opportunity to storm the stadium.  With compelling security footage and first-hand testimony from both fans and those in the industry (like the event manager at the stadium and the reporters) and visceral user-generated content, this is the dramatic story of a day that began with euphoria and ended in a nation left reeling from shame.  The term hooligan has been rightly reserved for football fans gone amok.

The doc also gets close and personal with innocent people caught in the mobs.  One is an Italian father taking his daughter for the first time to a game.  As the match was between Italy and England, the two were bombarded with insults with bottles thrown at them.  Another man brought his 70-year-old father-in-law who though fit enough to walk, is shocked by the rowdy crowd.

The doc includes highlights of the game including the penalty overtime.  Most important, the doc takes a look at racism after England lost with fans blaming the blacks for the loss.

THE FINAL: ATTACK ON WEMBLEY opens for streaming on Netflix this week.   Wish you were here at Wembley Stadium.  Likely not!

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FOR SALE (USA 2023) ***
Directed by Christoper Schrack

 

Horror comedies are not particularly popular as a film genre  Disney’s recently HAUNTED MASION flopped terribly at the box office as did other horror comedies like HAUNTED HONEYMOON and THE SPIRIT IS WILLING,  The latest entry opening this week on digital platforms is FOR SALE about a hunt house being on the real estate market.  One thing good is that this is a low-budget indie production so that it does not have high aims at recouping huge production costs.

Mason McGinness (Andrew Roth) has always been good at two things: selling himself and finding ways to cheat people into buying when they shouldn’t. One day, his brazen swindling catches up with him and he finds himself fired from his job and kicked to the curb by his ex-girlfriend, Alison.  Mason finds a small realty company that needs someone to sell a piece of property that is considered “unsellable.” 

“What do you fear most?  asks his interviewer to Mason.  “Failure.  Fear of failure.” comes the answer.  The realty company manager smiles under his breath with a few cautionary words.

“Sometimes I cannot believe my own luck!”  exclaims Mason at one point,  Is this bad or good luck that is being mentioned?   The catch of selling the property? It is the infamous Scarlett Clay house -- a haunted house where anyone who inhabits it ends up dead. Now, with the help of a quirky psychic named Claire, Mason must find his humanity to get his life back... or die trying.

The ghosts start appearing only after the first half of the film has passed.  The first half of the film deals with Mason’s sorry life.  The film proves to be both scary and funny with a few jump scares provided as well.  For a very small indie film, FOR SALE achieves its humble goals.

Mason is the sweet-talking swindler salesman that everyone hates - even in films as they can be so annoying.  Fortunately, actor Andrew Roth who plays Mason achieves the difficult task of making his character sympathetic so that though one might disagree with his tactics, one feels sorry for him, and hopes he makes it in the end.  But so far things are not looking too good for him.  He has to sleep in his car,  So when he comes across the house to sell, Mason is none too pleased as he can sleep in the bedroom of the house, that is if he can be brave enough to live in a haunted house. 

  FOR SALE is a handmade film in the truest sense – a crew of three, a cast of ten, and produced by director Christopher Schrack and lead actor Roth.  Despite its humble budget, the film went on to receive multiple awards on the festival circuit, including BEST FILM (Magic of Horror 2023), BEST COMEDY FEATURE (International Comedy Film Festival 2024), BEST ACTOR and BEST DROP DEAD FUNNY (Haunted House FearFest 2023), as well as receiving numerous other nominations.

  Gravitas Ventures will release the film on digital platforms on May 7, 2024

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H2: THE OCCUPATION LAB (Israel/Canada 2022) ***½

Directed by Idit Avrahami & Noam Sheizaf

 

Hebron is the only Palestinian city with a Jewish settlement. There is conflict in the past and the conflict grows.

The Palestinians in H2: Hebron live like prisoners under Israeli lockdown.  Across the neighbourhoods of the H2 area of Hebron – the 20 percent of the Palestinian city where some 700 Israelis live in illegal settlements and the Israeli military has full control – the streets are mostly empty of H2’s approximately 35,000 Palestinian residents.  Patrolling the streets and manning the rooftops, instead, are Israeli soldiers and armed settlers in military uniform on the lookout for any movement from Palestinian homes. Besieged, Palestinian families describe conditions in which they are attacked, deprived of vital supplies and services, and have had their livelihoods cut off.

This is occupied Hebron.  History has shown that there can never be peaceful living in an occupied territory.  France, occupied by the Nazis,  Singapore occupied by the Japanese during WWII and Vietnam occupied by the Americans, the most unsuccessful of all occupied in history and mentioned in the doc all enforce the point,

This doc is more timely after the Hamas attack on the West Bank.  Peace has never been easy between the Palestinians and Israel and continues to be the case.  The doc serves as both an account of the history of Hebron and a lesson in current affairs.

Along a one-kilometer road in the heart of the Palestinian city of Hebron lies H2 — a neighbourhood with a Jewish settlement closely guarded and highly surveilled by the Israeli military.  At the end of this stretch of road lies the Cave of the Patriarchs, a holy place for both Jewish and Muslim faiths. This is where both the Hebron Massacre of 1929 took place— effectively birthing the Jewish settlement movement — and where the policy of ethnic separation was first implemented by the Israeli military.  Rich with a history of Jews and Muslims and the only city in the State of Palestine with a Jewish settlement, H2: THE OCCUPATION LAB has acted as both a microcosm for the entire conflict and as a laboratory for the methods of control implemented by the Israeli occupation of the West Bank for over 50 years.

The film is shot in Arabic Hebrew and English with English subtitles and comprises many residents of both sides talking about their experiences living in a difficult and dangerous place.  One complaints of the modern and numerous checkpoints within a small radius of the city and this is not for borders but for travel from home to a grocery store or to schooler to work. One wonders the reason the people will just not move out of Hebron,

H2: THE OCCUPATION LAB, nominated for Best Israeli Film at the 2022 DocAviv Film Festival, is a clear-eyed case study using archival footage and interviews to tell the city's history and how it has fuelled the entire Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

H2: THE OCCUPATION LAB is an immensely watchable and informative documentary, taken right out of current headlines that proves once again the impossibilities of different cultures living in harmony together.

The doc premieres via VOD and  Digital Platforms on May 10, 2024.

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KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES (USA 2024) ***
Directed by Wes Ball

 

The original PLANET OF THE APES ended up with to many sequels that made the entire series quite silly.  The second one had the apes attacked by some ugly creatures that ended up with the entire Earth being destroyed in BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES and the third has astronaut apes escaping the end of the Earth in ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET OF THE APES.  The franchise got too absurd and uninteresting after that.  The reboot fared much better and KINGDOM comes as a nice surprise.  KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES runs a hefty 2 hours and 25 minutes, but director Wes Ball keeps the audience intrigued from start to finish.  The production sets are nothing short of magnificent, the jungle, the sea and beaches and interiors.  Story aside, director Ball manages to achieve the feat of having a solid film despite a flimsy storyline.

300 years after the events of War for the Planet of the Apes, ape civilizations have emerged from the oasis to which Caesar led his fellow apes, while humans have regressed into a feral, primitive state. When the ape king Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand), armed with weapons forged from lost human technologies, perverts Caesar's teachings to enslave other clans, the chimpanzee hunter Noa (Owen Teague) embarks on a harrowing journey alongside a human woman named Mae (Freya Allen) to determine the future for apes and humans alike.  Noa is a young chimpanzee hunter living nearly 300 years after Caesar's time and likely his descendant, while Mae is  a feral young woman who joins Noa on his journey while having an agenda of her own

Canadian actor Kevin Durand makes a solid impact in his performance as the villain of the piece, Caesar.  Too bad that one is unable to see the face of Durand under all the ape makeup.  Durand is one of the best Canadian actors working today, his performance also stealing the show in the recent ABIGAIL.

There are many loose ends in the script.  One is the existence of the human character played by William H. Macy.  Where did he come from and why is he the sole survivor and what makes him so pro-ape that he would turn away his heritage just to live without notice in the Kingdom,  His character finally gets its comeuppance.

One of the best surprise ending in motion picture ending is the climax of Franklin J. Schaffner’s PLANET OF THE APES, where Charlton Heston rides off on the beach only to see a buried Statue of Liberty revealing that the Planet of the Apes is in fact Earth.  KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES attempts a shock ending as well, the ending of which of course, will not be revealed in this review as it would be an unforgivable spoiler.  The shock and surprise is there nevertheless, but the ending does not really make much sense when related to the whole story.    There are too many loose ends that come with the surpass twist.

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LAZARETH (USA 2024) ***
Directed by Alec Tibaldi

 

The Covid-10 Pandemic rocked the world from March 2020.  As of 21 April 2024, the pandemic has caused 7,044,637 confirmed deaths, making it the fifth-deadliest pandemic or epidemic in history.  LAZARETH poses the question of what would happen if a similar more dangerous disease outbreak occurred that cannot be contained.

LAZARETH is the name of the man raised from the dead by Jesus in the Bible.  In the film, LAZARETH is the place that serves as the rebirth of a family made up of an aunt and her two nieces after the almost complete death of a contaminated world. 

As the film’s premise of a crippling Pandemic disease similar to the recent Covid-19 pandemic, the story comes too close to home for comfort.  Writer and director Alec Tibaldi is aware of this fact and uses it to milk the most from his script.

The film opens like a fairy tale where a young girl is told a story.  It turns out that the tale is the story of what will happen in the rest of the film, with the fairy tale turning into a sort of dystopian nightmare.

Following the death of their parents, Lee (Ashley Judd) adopts her nieces, Imogen (Katie Douglas) and Maeve (Sarah Pidgeon), and raises them in a remote cabin as a deadly pandemic rages on around them. For over 10 years, the girls are raised to never leave the woods, avoid any and all interaction with outsiders, and ultimately rely on Lee as their only connection to the outside world.  Lee has convinced the girls this is the key to survival in what is now an infectious and violent world. But when Imogen and Maeve discover an injured man in the nearby woods, Lee’s absolute control begins to disintegrate as their faith in her, and everything they’ve ever known begins to unravel.

`The film has a female slant with three females as the main characters living in Nazareth.  The first intruder is a male who is under instruction by the females.  When the group of intruders finds Lazareth, there is an abused female, by the male of the group.

Director Tibaldi ups the ante in the film’s last half.  Intruders have compromised Lazareth and they will return.  Lee tells the two girls:  “We have been preparing for this.”  Lee hides her truck so that the intruders will believe that they have left.  “No one will do anything until Imogen’s signal,” instructs Lee.  The audience is primed with anticipation as the film shifts gear into suspense mode.

LAZARETH is intriguing for the fact that its story could happen to the world if the Pandemic went out of hand into a full-blown scale, which most people will remember as a time that shook the world.

Trailer: 

LAZARETH opens in Select Theatres and On Demand on May the 10th.

LET IT BE (UK 1970) ****
Directed by Michale Lindsay-Hogg

 

The definitive Beatles movie and a must for all Beatle fans!

Let It Be is the twelfth and final studio album by the English rock band the Beatles. It was released on 8 May 1970, almost a month after the group's public break-up, in tandem with the documentary of the same name.

Let It Be is a 1970 British documentary film starring the Beatles and directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg. The film documents the group's rehearsing and recording songs in January 1969 for what was to become their twelfth and final studio album Let It Be. The film includes an unannounced rooftop concert by the group, the last public performance of the four together.

The film was originally planned as a television documentary that would accompany a concert broadcast. When plans for the concert broadcast were dropped, the project became a feature film production. Although the film does not dwell on the dissension within the group at the time, it provides some glimpses into the dynamics that would lead to their breakup. After the film's release, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr won an Academy Award for Best Original Song Score. Footage filmed for Let It Be was later used in Peter Jackson's 2021 documentary The Beatles: Get Back.

A restored version of the film will be made available on stream on Disney+ for the first time on 8 May 2024.  This review is of the restored version.  The version begins with a 5-minute footage of two world-class directors Lindsay-Hogg and Peter Jackson who made the Beatles documentary called GET  BACK with used footage from Lindsay-Hogg’s LET IT BE.   They put perspective into the do, the original 1970 LET IT BE, which we are told was supposed to be a Beatles concert movie.

The film observes the Beatles (John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr) from a "fly on the wall" perspective, without narration, scene titles, or interviews with the main subjects. The first portion of the film shows the band rehearsing on a sound stage at Twickenham Film Studios. The songs are works in progress, with discussions among the band members about ways to improve them. McCartney dominates the proceedings while his bandmates show comparatively little interest. Also appearing are Mal Evans, providing the hammer blows on "Maxwell's Silver Hammer", and Yoko Ono at Lennon's side at all times.

The album’s most famous songs LET IT BE, GET BACK, THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD and DON'T LET ME DOWN are all performed and heard on the film’s soundtrack.

There was trouble in Paradise during the making of the movie especially with what to include in the final cut,  John Lennon described Let It Be as a film "set up by Paul for Paul" that was typical of the projects that, in alienating himself and Harrison, had brought about the Beatles' break-up.

Still, the film is a nostalgic look down memory lane especially with George Harrison and John Lennon no longer with us, the re-issue of LET IT BE is totally magic, myself having seen the film when it was first released and now once gain with opening commentary by directors Peter Jackson and Michael Lindsay-Hogg.

Trailer: 

LIVING WITH LEOPARDS (UK 2024) ***½

Directed by Brad Bestelink and Alex Parkinson

 

At the film’s start, the voiceover touts the leopard as the most supreme predator, followed by the reasons for its ability to dive, hunt, and climb.  The voice is then revealed to belong to a man who has lived with leopards for years (the leopard man?) who claims that each has a unique personality.  The introduction to LIVING WITH LEOPARDS promises to be an intriguing and revealing documentary about the leopard.

Tigers, lions and other predators have been fond of fodder for nature documentaries.  One of the best and my personal favourite is Disney’s THE JUNGLE CAT (1960) directed by James Algar, a film I grew up with and have seen 7 times, every time it opens at a cinema close to me when my parents would keep bring me to watch the film about jaguars, the supreme ruler of the Amazon.

LIVING WITH LEOPARDS is a nature documentary that follows two leopard cubs as they make the journey from infancy into adulthood.  One is male and the other female is given the names ‘the shy one’ and ‘power’ (Dakunga) for the male pone.  From the first three months in the den, till they begin to venture out, the adventure is tremendously exciting.

The camera follows the mother catching an elk for her cubs to the time she teaches her cubs to hunt.  According to the doc, fewer than half the leopard cubs make it to maturity.

The doc is not without suspense and action. The main threat to the leopard cub is another male leopard.  One would kill the cubs with the hope of mating with the mother.  A tense scene show the father of the cubs fighting off a male intruder.  Unfortunately, they fight in an enclosed unseen area that cannot be seen.

In many nature documentaries, there are predator and prey killings, bloody and violent that will not be suitable for kids.  But this doc shows that this is life and what nature is.  The mother leopard has to make her kill or she and her cubs will starve.

LIVING WITH LEOPARDS is an exciting and educational doc that also shows the care and difficulty of filming a true nature documentary.  It pays off with this remarkable doc that opens for streaming on Netflix on May 10th.

Trailer: 

WE GROWN NOW (USA 2023) ****
Directed by Minhal Baig

 

The title of the film WE GROWN NOW implies a coming-of-age-themed film.  Truly WE GROWN NOW is.  My two personal best coming-of-age films are Ken Loach’s KES (1969) about a boy’s unflinching spirit set in Northern England and Francois Truffaut’s 1959 LES QUARTRE CENTS COUPS (100 BLOWS) about a boy turning to crime in a small French seaside town.  The setting more often than not, is as important a factor in the coming-of-age process.  The setting of Cabrini-Green in WE GROWN NOW is as interesting as the film’s subject and director Baig gives importance to both subject and setting in his moving story.

WE GROWN NOW is set in the fall of 1992.  Cabrini-Green has seen better days.  Cabrini-Green was a public housing development in Chicago, Illinois, once a model of successful public housing, but poor planning, physical deterioration, and managerial neglect, coupled with gang violence, drugs, and chronic unemployment turned it into a national symbol of urban blight and failed housing policy.  The audience is informed at the start of the film that Cabrini-Green was the Frances Cabrini Homes, at its most successful, completed by the CHA in 1942 to house an influx of war-industry workers as well as veterans returning to Chicago during World War II.

Set in Chicago’s Cabrini-Green housing project, Minhal Baig’s WE GROWN NOW is a coming-of-age story about two elementary school boys whose friendship takes a turn after a tragic incident.  For residents like Malik (Blake Cameron James) and Eric (Gian Knight Ramirez), the community is still a community of family and friends.  Malik lives with his hardworking mom (Jurnee Smollett), his sister, and his grandmother (S. Epatha Merkerson) who came years ago from Mississippi.  Friends since birth, Malik and school chum Eric are inseparable, “flying” onto old mattresses, goofing off, or telling corny jokes.  In the community, nothing is more important than ‘jumping’ (onto a mattress).  The jumping is obviously a metaphor for life.  Corny jokes include: “What do you call three trees?”  “A trio.”  But things change after a fatal shooting (based on the real-life death of seven-year-old Dantrell Davis, a tragedy that shook the community and made the projects a symbol of urban blight).

Conversations can lead everywhere.  From a conversation starting point of staying at a friend’s and a leaky faucet, a family conversation leads to the building of an ark like boat if there is a flood.

The catalyst that pushes the story is the shooting and killing of an innocent little boy Dan, a tragedy that affects the entire community.  One related scene involves Malik’s mother freaking out on him when he skips school with Eric with her having no idea where Malik is.  The scene is both moving and revealing, showing how much a mother cares for a son.

Besides the family unit, outward events like the escalating crime of neighbouring Chicago affect everyone’s lives.

The film’s best segment is the one where Eric talks to his dad after the fight with Malik.  Eric pours out his feelings, scared to make up with his long-life friend as he thinks Malick might be mad at him.  His conversation reveals his genuine thoughts and emotions that though childlike, hold many adult truths.  The father’s final advice is: “You know what to do now.  You are no longer a baby. You are all grown now.”

The film won the Shawn Mendes Foundation Changemaker Award at TIFF 2023, and two awards (Chicago Award, Best U.S. Feature Audience Award) at Chicago 2023.  WE GROWN NOW opens May 10 in Toronto (TIFF Lightbox) and Vancouver!  The film also opens May 17 in Ottawa, June 8 in Saskatoon and throughout the spring/summer in other cities.

Trailer: 

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