FILM RATINGS & REVIEWS 2015 @Arts & Opinion

2.8 -- WOMAN IN GOLD, Simon Curtis
[reviewed by Nancy Snipper] The true story of Maria Altmann trying to retrieve family possessions stolen by the Nazis -- the most famous item being Klimt's iconic painting, "Portrait of Adele Block-Bauer." Sixty years after fleeing Vienna, Maria teams up with the inexperienced but totally committed young lawyer, Randy Schoenberg, to go to Vienna to try to convince the Belevedere Museum to give her back the painting which in fact is a portrait of her aunt. It hung in the family house before the Nazi's took it and banished the family to the camps (Maria escaped with her husband to Los Angeles in a clandestine plot). The case ends up going to the Supreme Court in Vienna, but not without going through the American court first. The film admirably details the tumultuous relationship between Maria and the lawyer who refuses to allow Maria to give up, even though it was she who started the ball rolling. The film has some poorly raced over scenes in flashbacks, but the ending is happy, cathartic and pleasing. Helen Mirren and Ryan Reynolds do a great job. Interesting that Randy's grandfather was the great composer and, Maria's herself came from a family associated with Austria incarnate. The restitution law of Austria has proven to be somewhat of a sham, as most Jews can't reclaim their possessions without paying over a million dollars to follow procedures if they conduct their case from Austria.

3.4 -- DANBÉ, LA TÊTE HAUTE, Bourlem Guerdjou
[reviewed by Nancy Snipper] This compelling film is based on the true story of Aya Cisoko, a Franco-Mailian, young girl blamed by her mother for the loss of her father and brother in a fire in France. As well, her little sister loses her life to meningitis. Aya is angry and a victim of systemic racism and her mother's anger. Aya becomes a boxer. Despite her mother's interference, Aya starts boxing at the age of eight, and becomes the World Champion. She wins, but breaks her neck, and comes back to claim the title. Despite much hardship, Danabé's life is a lesson in determination -- she holds her head proud and triumphs over all adversity. (This film was screened at Montreal's 2015 Vues d’Afrique Festival).

3.7 -- WHATEVER HAPPENED TO SPITTING IMAGE?, Anthony Wall
[reviewed by Nancy Snipper] In February, 1984, Birmingham's Central TV's hilarious "Spitting Image" was launched to the joy of everyone who despised the Conservative government of England, including the coterie of politicians surrounding Margaret Thatcher. It lampooned everyone who was famous or wanted to be. This wonderful documentary takes us into the genesis of the show and all the challenges incumbent with making over 1000 puppets, working with puppeteers, creating a scripts, the thorny relationship of different co-producers having to get along with whole shebang of eccentrics who were as funny as the puppets they made. The geniuses behind the show demonstrate that biting edge satirical comedy can endure as long as the Brits are there to laugh at themselves. Despite the backlash of some politicians, the show thrived. It met its demise in 1996, but we need it more than ever these days. If only they would bring it back. Wish they would bring it back. (This film was screened at 2015 FIFA - Montreal's Inernational Festival of Films on Art).

0.0 -- KARIM + HADJER, Elijas Djemil
[reviewed by Nancy Snipper] This 9-minute silent black and white film is a bore. The only interesting part was the singer at the beginning of the film who sings in French about love. It would seem that the two love-birds -- Karin and Hadjer -- aren't destined for one another because of differing traditions. Who knows? A total cop-out. (This film was part of Montreal's 2015 Vues d’Afrique Festival).

2.4 -- AU RYTHME DU TEMPS, Elijas Djemil
[reviewed by Nancy Snipper] This 20-minute documentary shows musicians in the city of Oran in Algeria and how they are adapting Western musical styles and making them their own: reggae, pop, rap, and more figure into the new equation of music, though there are no radio stations who play their music. Still, these musicians love music modern-times music regardless of whether their own people hear it or not. (This film was part of Montreal's 2015 Vues d’Afrique Festival).

3.0 -- GOOD KILL, Andrew Niccol
[reviewed by Andrew Hlavacek] “War is a first person shooter” states Lt. Col. Johns (Bruce Greenwood) in one of his many diatribes in Andrew Niccol’s atypical war film Good Kill. Niccol casts Ethan Hawke, star of the director’s eerie 1997 film Gattaca, as Major Tommy Egan, a veteran pilot with thousands of hours flight time and eight combat tours in the Middle East. Political reality and changing strategic paradigms have grounded Egan and relegated him to flying UAVs -- Unmanned Aerial Drones -- from Nellis Air Force base outside of Las Vegas.
In what seems like a forgotten corner of the base, drone crews work inside a row of high tech steel boxes in apparent isolation. The 24 hour cycle operation blurs the distinction between day and night. Inside the control boxes, America ceases to exist as the crews virtually experience various parts of the world. Then, strangely, like any other workers, they open the armoured doors, and go home to wives, children, marital problems and barbecues.
It is darkly portentous that one of the nerve centres of the American drone program should be located in a city that is singularly emblematic of western decadence. Even more surreal is the fact that this virtual conflict is largely controlled from a city at whose core lies the idea of virtual space and virtual experience.
While the narrative does not stray too far from the predictable arc of this type of film, it is nevertheless compelling in its portrayal of the psychological damage caused by virtual warfare. Niccol argues that the compression of space and time between battlefield and home goes beyond ordinary PTSD-type psychological trauma, into uncharted territory that the military is not equipped to handle. Among the many diatribes that show the profound unease with the war on terror, Johns uses various buzzwords as shields against mental breakdown. At one point Lt. Col. Johns, urges Egan to “keep compartmentalizing” when the latter shows misgivings about their new CIA-controlled missions. While many of the dialogues seem anachronistic, Niccol’s handling of the subject matter belies a deeper awareness of the philosophical debate about virtual warfare, suggesting that what is said operates on a deeper, symbolic level, much as does the sign on the control box door that reads “You are now leaving the United States of America.”
The film’s aesthetic -- one of its main strengths -- is designed to be isolating. A bulk of its cinematography is transmitted through high resolution bird’s eye images of drone cameras that look down upon the various spaces that are bombed. Niccol continues to use high angle camera shots when following Egan through the surreal landscape of iconic Vegas architecture and cookie cutter subdivisions of urban sprawl. Good Kill is essentially about distance: it puts its characters into close quarters while consistently thwarting opportunities for real intimacy. All comes to a head in the character of Egan, for whom the terrible distance and horrible intimacy of drone killing becomes untenable.

3.2 -- RESPIRE (BREATHE), Mélanie Laurent
[reviewed by Andrew Hlavacek] In her latest directorial project, Respire (Breathe) Mélanie Laurent explains very little of the relationship between main protagonists Charlie (Joséphine Japy) and Sarah (Lou de Laâge), except to show they are both vulnerable. While this relative silence is maddening to our adult minds, Laurent’s film teeters on the edge of ambiguity as the only means of insight into the overly emotional, difficult years of late adolescence during which pressure to race towards adulthood often smashes against the barrier of emotional immaturity, creating the potential for very toxic results. In doing so Laurent creates a film that favours interpretation. Themes of obsession, desire, rage and even good versus evil are all fair game as perspectives from which to view the film.
Charlie seems a well-integrated teen, in her last year of high school, with a tight-knit, happy-go-lucky entourage. One day, her class welcomes transfer student Sarah -- a girl who is obviously more worldly and experienced than her middle-class peers. Immediately drawn to each other, Charlie and Sarah strike up a fast friendship, which develops into a heavy, frightening, sexually charged intimacy. Things become exponentially more muddled as Sarah’s sophistication steamrolls over Charlie’s relative innocence continually creating situations that become increasingly darker, isolating and more ambiguous.
Laurent’s film relishes ambiguity. As if in direct contrast to the simplistic plots and shallow characterizations in many coming of age films, the world of Breathe teems with everything we could associate with adult melodrama, except that each conflict has the potential to spiral into an all-consuming vortex of singleminded emotion. It therefore does not matter who is right or who is wrong. Things evolve, as they so often do, out of the thousand and two fleeting nuances that lead to questions asked, answers withheld, silences prolonged and lives suspended over the precipice of ill-communication.
Such is the terrible beauty of Breathe. All of the above may well be valid; on the other hand, the film may simply be a psychological thriller in the grand tradition of Gaslight. Laurent does not give much indication as to which way the wind blows and some may find this frustrating and even a little sadistic. No matter, the film is compellingly shot -- despite some Steadicam excesses -- and very well acted. Boasting an excellent sound design with nods to films such as Coppola’s Rumble Fish, Breathe ultimately guarantees one thing: not to leave its audience unmoved.

1.6 -- PATCH TOWN, Craig Goodwill
[reviewed by Nancy Snipper] A factory controlled by an evil leader, Yuri cuts open tons of cabbages that give birth to babies that become toys. Yuri’s father found a way to freeze abandoned babies in cabbages in fields. These are the babies that are frozen to become workers in Yuri’s factory. It’s utter nonsense with a surreal feel. The film has a ridiculous story, but it’s a total spoof on family and perhaps a reference to the provenance of cabbage patch dolls. John and Mary have actually kidnapped one of the babies and are hunted down by Yuri. John wants to find his mother though and he does. To make a story short, suffice it to say, that the toys adults are are freed and Yuri ends up in his own solitary patch of loneliness inside his own factory.The film transports you to an insane world that may or may not turn you off eating cabbage ever again. Directed by Craig Goodwill, the film is a bit Sweeney Todd, Tim Burton and Broadway buffoonery rolled into one. This film was screened during Montreal's 2015 Fantasia Festival.

2.9 -- FALLING WATER: THE APPRENCES, Kenneth Love
[reviewed by Nancy Snipper] A documentary that shows how Frank Lloyd Wright founded two schools of architecture from which he chose three 20-year-old brilliant students to design the amazing house that blends in with the surrounding nature. The contemporary masterpiece was a feat of engineering and creative genius. The house was commissioned by Edgar J .Kaufmann, but it is his son who speaks on camera as well as the wife of Edgar in old black and white clips. Mr. Wright tells a lot about nature which for him is integral in the design of any structure. Money, commitment and the adoration of nature make the stunning finished product legendary for all to behold who visit the house. (This film was screened at 2015 FIFA - Montreal's Inernational Festival of Films on Art.)

3.1 -- LA FAMILLE BÉLIER (THE BÉLIER FAMILY, Éric Lartigau
[reviewed by Andrew Hlavacek] In the Bélier family, everyone is deaf except teenage daughter Paula (Louan Emera), who has grown up to become a conduit between the silent world of her family and the wider agricultural community in small-town France. Since her early years, her voice has represented her family’s business in the market place, in negotiation with suppliers, veterinarians and farming colleagues, not to mention interpreting the information streaming into the household from the hearing world. At the beginning of a new school year, she ends up in the school choir, where a passionate ‘has-been’ musician Thomasson (Eric Elmosnino) forces her to confront her singing talent.
Director Éric Lartigau thus inverts realities and focuses on the struggles of the hearing-impaired in a world of verbal communication and sound. By doing so, he shows both, the strength and resilience of the deaf community in the face of inadequate understanding and resources -- at least in France, it seems -- as well as its fragility. Caught up in strong family bonds made all the more complex by her ability to hear, Paula must make a choice she knows may estrange her from her family.
The film is not forceful in the points it raises preferring humour rather than a soapbox. Lartigau represents society’s intolerance and bigotry in the figure of the mayor (Stephan Woltowicz) whom the Bélier patriarch Rodolphe (François Damiens) vows to beat in the upcoming mayoral election. The main conflicts, however, are internal as we follow Paula’s struggle to accept that which sets her most apart from her loved ones. Louane Emera is very convincing in her role, and expresses well the feelings of anger, resentment, guilt -- and pressure -- her character feels.
Aside from the conflict that the mayor creates, the community backs Rodolphe’s goal to become mayor and while his deafness is seen as a logistical problem, we also sense that the community is split along more important socio-political and economic lines. After all, a French film would not be complete without a little dollop of class politics.
Ultimately, the film reveals potentially deeper motives behind the Bélier family’s rejection of Paula’s new-found talent. Although the Béliers may be somewhat isolated by their disability, their over-reliance on Paula’s hearing has perhaps become a comfortable habit rather than a necessity. Thus, family ties, budding adulthood and its inevitable rebellion against family are all important themes in this well played and directed drama that will pull at heartstrings and elicit more than a few giggles. La Famille Bélier runs (in French and subtitled for the hearing-impaired) at Cinéma Beaubien from May 8th to 14th. www.cinemabeaubien.com

3.2 -- L’HOMME QUI RÉPARE LES FEMMES, LA COLÈRE D’HIPPOCRATE, Colette Braeckman & Thierry Michel
[reviewed by Nancy Snipper] A devastating look at the epidemic that has swept Eastern Congo for the past 20 years. It isn’t AIDS; it isn’t malaria, and it isn’t Ebola. It is the systematic rape of children and babies as young as two months. Rape is used as a war weapon by the Hutus of Rwanda and men of Congo -- all have been complicit in this. The hero in all this monstrous atrocities is Dr. Mukwege, winner of the 2014 Sakharov Prize. He has endured attacks to his person physically and emotionally; he has endured insurmountable dangers -- walking 30 kilometres each day to tend to the 30,000 women who he treated in Panza Hospital – which was eventually burned down. The army is terribly guilty of atrocities, and the fathers and brothers of Eastern Congo have blood on their hands, for it is they who commit these horrific acts. Dr Mukwege, has spoken at the UN, has been an invited guest of Hilary Clinton, and most importantly returned from exile in France to work in his native country. He has seen just how irreparable the physical and emotional damage these incredibly violent rapes have caused. Without going into details, this riveting documentary, makes one wonder if men are born disturbed, violent and sadistic – at least in that part of the world. This exceptional man not only operates on the girls, but treats them at his center for recuperation. Beside him are the women who are determined to eradicate the barbarism of the men, Sadly, some women even give their children to men for money. This film is part of Montreal's 2015 Vues d’Afrique Festival.

3.4 -- EX MACHINA, Alex Garland
[reviewed by Andrew Hlavacek] Nestled deep in a mountainous wilderness lies a sprawling, high tech complex blended into the landscape. This is where Nathan (Oscar Isaac), founder of Bluebook, the world’s most popular search engine, lives and works in secrecy and isolation. One day, he flies in one of Bluebook’s star programmers, Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) -- recent winner of a contest to spend one week with the founder -- to assist in an experiment whose outcome may forever change the world.
Upon his arrival, Caleb learns that his task is to perform the Turing test on a stunning female android named Ava (Alicia Vikander), in order to establish whether she is truly an artificial intelligence. We are thus drawn into the meticulously crafted world of writer Alex Garland’s Ex Machina. In this, his directorial debut, Garland, who has previously brought us 28 Days Later (2002) and Sunshine (2007) re-imagines the modern Frankenstein story in the context of the technology world’s current holy grail.
In so doing, Garland delivers a damning portrait of the boy-kings who are today amassing spectacular wealth developing cyber-tools whose development and application have already posed serious ethical dilemmas. It therefore does not take long for Ex Machina to surgically expose the temptation as well as the lack of judgement that seem to haunt every technological progress. Garland further suggests that at the core of this arrogance lies the fiction of control -- one our species assumes and one that history disproves all too frequently.
While a great deal of science fiction has already tackled artificial intelligence, Ex Machina posits, fairly realistically, how such a breakthrough might be achieved and, more disturbingly, who may be the people that succeed. Caleb weakly resists Nathan’s confidence, quoting Oppenheimer’s famous lament following the first successful atomic detonation though the latter brushes off his misgivings. Drinking heavily, Nathan does not seem to contemplate Being or sentience in any particular way, seeing Ava as a product. He is thus also blind to the possibilities of how such an A.I. might view the level of control he imposes.
Engagingly paced, with clever cinematography that often uses the machine perspective of looking out on the world from within technology, Ex Machina delivers a haunting tension. Magnificent landscapes contrast with oppressive interiors to cast doubt not only on Nathan’s project but on humanity’s incessant meddling in nature without forethought or humility -- a pattern of progress that ultimately calls into question our ability to survive our own nature.
2.4 -- THE FORGOTTEN KINGDOM, Andrew Mudge
[reviewed by Nancy Snipper] Atang's father has died, and the only thing he cares about is exchanging his expensive coffin for a cheaper one so he can keep the money. He leaves Johannesburg for Lesotho to bury him and exchange that coffin. Here he meets a lovely woman whom he falls for whose sister is shut up in the house by the father because she has AIDS. He also meets a young boy who takes him on a journey which becomes a mystical learning lesson for Atang. He seems to change and ends up returning to the woman he loves. This film is about lost identity, corruption and the shame of AIDS. It is a s well-crafted statement on human nature. The scenery added to the magical element in this film - screened at Montreal's 2015 Vues d’Afrique Festival.

2.4 -- L'OEIL DE CYCLONE, Sékou Traoré
[reviewed by Nancy Snipper] Once a child soldier fighting as a rebel against the army -- always a child soldier -- even if when you become an adult. In this powerful film, a rebel had been accused of atrocities, and is now in jail. No lawyer wants to defend him, for fear of reprisals. However, one female lawyer whose father is connected to the president of the country (no one specific country is named in this film) does try to get him to speak about his childhood capture. She eventually trusts him, and whole heartedly defends his actions. It turns out, her father was a diamond king working with the president. it also turns out that the rebel kills her in his cell at the end. In Africa, there are hundreds of thousands of adults who were child soldiers, who have never been deprogrammed. This was the message of the film that despite its most serious subject had humorous scenes. This film is part of Montreal's 2015 Vues d’Afrique Festival.

2.1-- MÖRBAYASSA (LE SERMONT DE KOUBA), Cheik F. Camara
[reviewed by Nancy Snipper] Bella is a cabaret singer who is owned by Keba, a horrid drug dealer who beats her and the other women. She meets a wonderful man who works for the United Nations. Her quest in life is to escape and find the daughter she was forced to abandon at birth. She finds her daughter in Paris, but it is a reunion that takes the throwing of her cowrie beads and persistence to express how sorry she was to have given her up. It is a happy ending, and the acting was excellent on the part of the lead actors. The setting was somewhere in Burkina Faso or Guinea; it was too ambiguously presented. This two-hour film, screened at the 2015 Vues d’Afrique Festival, would have had potential if a great editor had come on board before it hit the big screen.

2.3 -- JIMMY GOES TO NOLLYWOOD, Rachid Dhibou & Jimmy Jean-Louis
[reviewed by Nancy Snipper] A documentary that takes an honest look into the few successes and infinite failures of the Nigerian film 'industry.' Films are made without any financing, but friends all get into the action -- lending their time to become instant actors. The film shows clip of movies made on embarrassingly low budgets, directed by those who have no access to proper training and or film specialists to help them. We do see some star moments when actors receive an award at the African Movies Association Awards ceremony. Because 70% of the Nigerian population is living in poverty, films rarely make it to the international screen, but are pirated by many companies which sell their DVDs for $1.50 on the streets of Lagos. There are over 20,000 films made a year -- most find their audience appeal in church basements in some neighbouring countries. What I liked about this film was this fact alone: people who are involved in the business are brutally honest about all the problems and issues they have trying to make a film in Nigeria. Jimmy Jean-Louis who is known for his Hollywood appearances in TV series, such as “Arrow” talks to various actors and directors about it all. Isaiah Washington also appears, as strident crusader of the country’s films. He makes a case that Nigerian films must be seen in Hollywood, and that he is the one who can make that happen – an arrogant promise considering he was kicked off the set for good of “Grey’s Anatomy” for making homophobic comments. That wasn’t mentioned in this documentary. This film -- part of 2015 Vues d’Afrique Festival -- illuminates the corruption that has affected the country’s wish to have their films move beyond the dirt and noise of Lagos.
2.3 -- THE CONNECTION (LA FRENCH), Cédric Jimenez
[reviewed by Andrew Hlavacek] The Connection returns to one of France’s most legendary crime sagas that stretches back at least to the 1930s when Corsican gangs began importing legally grown surplus Turkish opium -- bought on the black market -- to Marseille. Once there, they distilled it into heroin of storied quality and smuggled it into the United States through Canada, supplying much of the American market for decades before finally diminishing in the early 80s. In its time the'“French connection' made Marseille one of the most notorious cities in Europe.
Director Cédric Jimenez focuses on mid-seventies Marseille, in the waning days of the smuggling operation, when internecine gang wars and increasing international cooperation combined to disrupt the well-organized and entrenched crime syndicates. The film recounts the demise of famed godfather, Gaëtan “Tany” Zampa (Gilles Lellouche) as he is pursued by the obsessive young magistrate Pierre Michel (Jean Dujardin). The drama plunges the viewer into the complex Marseillais world of organized crime, corrupt politics and cultural norms steeped in tradition, forged in history and galvanized by war.
The Connection is a curious film. While the French have a grand tradition of action and crime films, Jimenez’s work is full of stylistic and textual references to the American gangster film tradition. While most will undoubtedly look for links with Friedkin’s famous 1971 The French Connection, Jimenez disappoints with a much more languid and sentimental account reminiscent of Goodfellas and The Untouchables -- especially in its focus on the brotherhood and camaraderie of gangsters and cops.
Jimenez thus has the doubly difficult task of going back in time with a story set in the sweaty 70s, while creating an original rendition of a well-worn subject. He invariably splits the difference, which is the heart of the problem. While the film’s production quality lives up to its budget, the film itself flounders along, mired in sentimentality and peripheral narratives. Much of the narrative is taken up with scenes of marital tension and familial bliss that exist purely because -- as John DeFore points out in Hollywood Reporter review -- modern crime dramas require their heroes and anti-heroes to be somehow justified so that audiences can better understand and identify with the good and bad guys. We are thus far, far from Friedkin’s ‘Popeye’, about whom little is divulged and whose obsessive, violent character is nearly opaque. With Michel, we are given a pure motive in his war on the drug lords and Zampa is portrayed as a dedicated family man who does all to secure luxury for his family.
As such, The Connection is a cinematically compelling, beautifully detailed, terribly well acted story of a notorious time in France’s criminal history. Jimenez furthermore pays homage to Tarantino with an excellent soundtrack, which adds a music video dimension to The Connection in the tradition of Reservoir Dogs and Kill Bill. Sadly, due to these various borrowings and references, the film becomes a pastiche of clichés that ultimately betrays its failure to travel back in time, to find its own voice, its own point of view and to craft its own aesthetic. With so much possibility The Connection only achieves a comfortable -- if somewhat entertaining -- mediocrity.
3. 7-- THE SALT OF THE EARTH (LE SEL DE LA TERRE), Wim Wenders & Juliano Ribeiro Salgado
[reviewed by Andrew Hlavacek] Wim Wenders and Juliano Salgado look back at famed documentary photographer Sebastião Salgado’s 40 year-career, which gives witness to some of the modern era’s most notorious humanitarian disasters. A true adventurer, Brazilian-born Salgado’s photography pierces to the heart of his subjects’ situations due to his deep immersion -- often for periods of many months -- in their milieus. Whether traveling with refugees fleeing war and famine in Africa, following the daily routine of gold-miners in India, or spending weeks with remote aboriginal peoples in the depths of the Amazon, Salgado focuses, above all else, on the documentary portrait. Through his portraits of death, desperation, perseverance and, ultimately, human dignity, Salgado keenly encapsulates the perpetual distress in which many human communities continue to live.
The film itself pays homage to Salgado’s modus operandi -- the deep immersion he practices during his projects. The photographs from his trips have been published in seminal books of photography, each of which compiles images from the multi-year projects. The film follows the evolution of Salgado’s style by chronicling the experiences that contributed to the publication of his major works. To honour his process, Wenders and Salgado’s son, Juliano, spend long periods shadowing the photographer during several of his voyages into the remote regions the world.
The film’s structure successfully circumvents didacticism. Wenders and Julian Salgado’s cameras capture the intense connection Salgado forms with his subjects -- a connection that almost destroys him after documenting the genocide in Rwanda and Yugoslavia. The narrative is remarkably sparse and direct, giving ample space for Salgado to qualify his experiences and elaborate his vision. Though the film does use off-camera narrative, it is restrained and factual, and allows the audience to interact more directly with the film’s subject and subject matter. The profoundly moving stills are beautifully integrated into the film’s breathtaking cinematography, which flirts with inter-subjectivity in scenes where the subject turns his camera on those who shoot him. These various techniques create a sincerity that makes the narrative all the more poignant.
It would be easy to shrink in horror from the images presented in The Salt of the Earth were it not for the incredible respect with which they are treated. Though these images often allude to humanity’s heart of darkness, the film allows them to reveal their own power, thus enabling us to see both, the fragility and power of existence. Le sel de la terre is an excellent film about a fascinating subject and should be seen -- if only to be confronted by aspects of human (and non-human) Being from which our own realities give us the ignoble luxury to isolate ourselves. The Salt of the Earth opens at Cinéma Excentris on April 24th. http://cinemaexcentris.com/?lang=fr
1.4 -- THE GUNMAN, Pierre Morel
[reviewed by Andrew Hlavacek] Pierre Morel is back loosely re-working the themes and style of his breakout directorial hit Taken, though this time, without the writing and production assistance from the legendary Luc Besson. Trade in Liam Neeson for a buffed up Sean Penn; tweak the cover identities from CIA to Army Special Forces; add a pinch of geopolitics as well as corporate villainy and out comes The Gunman.

It is not that the film’s plot is necessarily bad. Based on highly acclaimed French crime writer, Jean-Patrick Manchette’s novel The Prone Gunman, it features an unresolved love interest, a truly unlikeable corporate warrior villain and a psychopathic mining corporation willing to destroy anything that stands in the way of its interests. Thus while the plot itself should set a reasonably good ground for the action, it is the writing that dooms the film to failure.

The writing subverts and ultimately neutralizes talent, cinematography, production design and direction. Actors’ talents are wasted on pointless dialogue in scenes where nothing is resolved and nothing even really expressed. A particularly egregious case is Javier Bardem’s incoherently angry and self-destructive character. Bardem starts out as Sean Penn’s friend who creepily lusts after the former’s love interest, Jasmine Trinca. Later, having married her he becomes a drunk, sadistic bastard. Meanwhile, Sean Penn’s tortured, reluctant hero moves through the narrative with robotic determination. Seemingly trying to out-perform Matt Damon’s Jason Bourne, his metered blandness is punctuated only by the inopportune attacks of his tragic flaw, wherein he explodes in melodramatic expression.

Moreover, as if this was not enough, it seems that writers Don Macpherson (guilty of the 1998 film adaption of The Avengers), and Pete Travis (responsible for the 2012 remake of Judge Dredd) feel truly uncomfortable with female roles. Trinca’s character is introduced as a surgeon working for a NGO in Africa. After Penn disappears from her life, she seemingly throws in the towel to become Bardem’s kept woman and target of his sadistic jealousy. It is only once her and Penn’s love is rekindled that she feels secure enough to return to Africa and practice medicine.

The Gunman suffers from the same malady that plagues the action genre: using greater and greater sums of money to create a spectacle that crumbles under the weight of an atrocious script and misdirected performances of powerhouse actors. To be gracious, one must respect the efforts made to elevate The Gunman above the fray of its competitors, however, the film is too bound by the tired clichés of the genre and a few bright plot ideas are not nearly enough to rescue it from itself.
2.4 -- THE SEARCH, Michel Hazanavicius
[reviewed by Andrew Hlavacek] The Search is Oscar-winning director Michel Hazanavicius’s sprawling mega-production that aims to give a sense of the humanitarian nightmare created by the Russian Army during the second Chechen war of 1999-2000. Inspired by a 1948 film that tells the story of an American soldier’s efforts to reunite a young Czech boy with his family in post-war Berlin, The Search intertwines the fates of Hadji (Abdul Khalim Mamutsiev), a young Chechen boy and Carole (Bérénice Bejo), a French representative of the European Commission on Human Rights, working to document human rights violations in Chechnya. To complete the narrative triangle, Hazanavicius includes the story of unfortunate conscript Kolia. Dubiously busted for drug possession, he is given a choice between military service and prison. Once in uniform, he is subjected to brutal violence at the hands of his superiors, and is indoctrinated into a prevailing culture of apathy, violence and racism, not to mention alcoholism and drug abuse.

The film thus has plenty of material to work with in order to deliver a gritty, sobering view of the ravages of a dirty war in which civilians pay a heavy toll. Through careful cinematography and impressive production design, the film creates the kind of harsh realism reminiscent of pioneering films like Platoon and Saving Private Ryan. Against this war zone backdrop stand monolithic issues synonymous with all large-scale human conflicts: the marginalized roles of NGOs, international apathy to the plight of a displaced people and the cynical politics of an international community that does not want to get its hands too dirty. Hazanavicius thus takes aim not only at Putin’s Russia -- which is generally depicted as a corrupt, reactionary regime -- but also at a European bureaucracy content to play realpolitik while turning a blind eye to humanitarian disaster.

While the film delivers the expected grit and realism of a political war film, the relevant issues that it presents are left to hover on the periphery of the narrative. Bejo’s hard-boiled human rights researcher is subverted by the character’s awakening of her maternal instincts. She displays none of the professionalism and experience one would expect of someone in her position and Hazanavicius seems content to undercut her character in order to criticize European apathy towards the Chechen conflict. Enduring nearly two and a half hours, the film ends on a blandly sentimental note of family reunion against all odds while returning to the field of battle to reiterate Russian barbarism. Despite its potential to offer a nuanced, meaningful perspective on international human rights work, The Search ultimately undercuts itself by retreating into easy sentimentality and overly simplistic political criticism.
3.0-- THE DUFF, Ari Sandel
[reviewed by Andrew Hlavacek] The nerdy awkward teen makeover is a tried and tested cinematic trope. Ari Sandel’s high school comedy, The DUFF, is a refreshing take on this aging theme. Bianca (Mae Whitman) is the quirky third in a trio friends alongisde beautiful Jessica (Skyler Samuels) and sporty Casey (Bianca A. Santos). All is well until Bianca’s long-time neighbour, and school superjock Wesley (Robbie Amell), wises her up to her actual role in her friendship: she is the DUFF -- Designated Ugly Fat Friend -- and foil to the others’ beauty and popularity. Horrified, Bianca cuts herself off from Jess and Casey and enlists Wesley’s help to make her over to be more desirable.
The narrative seems straightforward enough in the makeover comedy tradition: superjock Wesley teaches Bianca in the ways of ‘cool’ so that she can shed her DUFF image and attract crush, Toby (Nick Everman), the school’s number one soulful musician artist. The film steers into interesting territory in its portrayal of Bianca as a basically together kid with a reasonably high self-esteem. Essentially, she wants to appear more attractive, not to fit in, but to explode the school’s social norms that force labels on students.
While films of the same genre tend to depict much more clearly delienated stereotypes, Sandel’s high school world is more complex. Pretty girls are brainy, jocks act normal when not in the spotlight of their social jockness, and everyone goes to the same parties. Ari Sandel thus comes to the heart of the high school reality: it is a microcosm of conformity because no one likes being an outsider. While most negotiate this social landscape in an itinerant manner with tacit participation, Bianca actually recognizes its irrelevance and vows to dismantle it.
This may put THE DUFF entirely in a class of its own. Yet, there is a squeaky clean aspect to film that begs the question: does it do justice to the complex themes it presents? Most notably, Sandel’s lighthearted -- albeit humorous -- treatment of cyberbullying could be accused of undermining its extremely destructive reality in favour of entertainment. While there is no question that Sandel makes a fun, entertaining and relatable high school comdey, the above issues are sure to fuel debate among fans of the genre, which is inherently a good sign, for there is enough substance in The DUFF to warrant discussion.
3.1-- LES LOUPS, Sophie Deraspe
[reviewed by Andrew Hlavacek] With a documentarist’s eye Sophie Deraspe follows troubled university student Élie (Evelyne Brochu) on a quest in search of her biological father. Taking up residence in an off-season motel -- much to the surprise of its proprietor -- Nadine (Cindy Mae Arsenault), Élie attempts to penetrate an insular Îles-de-la-Madeleine community whose existence is ruled by the annual seal hunt. She is an outsider and stirs suspicions among the community’s elders -- chief among them, local matriarch Maria (Louise Portal) -- who have bitter memories of conflict with animal rights activists of years gone by. Holding on to a painful secret, Élie has no ulterior motive other than to find out where she comes from: she is desperate to belong.
Deraspe’s experience in documentary film is evident and also wonderfully appropriate for the subject matter. The camera follows Élie on her quest without adding too much narrative subtext, thereby highlighting her otherness and isolation. Likewise, the brutal reality of the seal hunt is presented without moralising or justification. As such, Deraspe allows the audience to come to its own terms with the community’s existence and the rhythms that animate it, all the while making clear that outsider prejudices fall far short of the complex relationship to the natural world that lies at the heart islander life.
It would be easy to say that the cinematography is spectacular simply because of the rugged natural beauty of the islands. In fact, natural elements are used to great advantage to contain characters as part of the landscape and to isolate them in relief against it. Nature in turn binds and frees its human subjects and the camera becomes a participant in the dialectic of exclusion that defines the community’s rhythms as well as Élie’s situation. Les Loups is a hauntingly beautiful film animated by a powerful realism that will stay with the viewer long after the screen goes dark.
2.4 -- ELEPHANT SONG, Charles Binamé
[reviewed by Andrew Hlavacek] Xavier Dolan has had quite a year. Bounding headlong into an acting project on the heels of his spectacular success with Mommy, Dolan acts alongside Bruce Greenwood, Catherine Keener and Carrie-Anne Moss in Charles Binamé’s film adaptation of Nicolas Billon’s play of the same name. If Elephant Song has anything to teach us, it is this: Xavier Dolan is, simply put, brilliant. It is almost frightening to think of what the man has accomplished. Seeing him act in a production not his own makes one realize the sheer breadth of his talent. There are Oscars and Palmes d’Or in his future indeed.
This said, Elephant Song does not fully harness Dolan’s or anyone else’s talents. Set in 1960s Montreal, the film pits crafty mental patient Michael Aleen (Dolan) against an unsuspecting psychiatrist, Dr. Toby Green (Greenwood), in what should be an epic battle of the wills in the tradition of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Unfortunately Binamé does not succeed. The razor sharp tension he establishes at the film’s outset swells into a tide of inevitability that undercuts the denouement of the film’s climax. Likewise, the complex, intertwined relationships in Elephant Song are left largely unexplored. Green’s troubled marriage to Olivia (Moss), and his complicated professional and personal relationship with head nurse Susan Peterson (Keener) provides rich ground for interpretation, but Binamé leaves too much in the background, perhaps in an attempt to comment on the social mores of WASP society in the 1960s.
Likewise, the heavy themes of homosexuality, difficult maternal relationships, jealousy and childhood trauma are all introduced, paraded and flaunted for the audience but only to sensational effect. It is like witnessing the psychiatric equivalent of a Santa Claus parade: one stands and watches the various floats without any sense of suspended disbelief, for the wheels of ordinary cars and trucks are clearly visible.
It is unfortunate to think of the missed opportunities of this Canadian production. Harnessing powerhouse talents the likes of Moss, Keener, Greenwood and Colm Feore (in cameo), it unabashedly portrays a 1960s social reality of Anglophone dominance in Québec, and tackles difficult themes that would be taboo for the period even in a psychiatric context. In short, Binamé’s effort is at once audacious for its reach and timid in its treatment. Fortunately Dolan shines bright enough to be enjoyed. Sadly, it feels like we’re watching a forsaken child playing alone.

3.3 -- MR. TURNER, Mike Leigh
[reviewed by Nick Catalano] Sony Pictures Classics stirring film Mr. Turner so graphically places the audience inside J.M.W. Turner's art and vision that it may well result in fresh appraisals of the already acknowledged English romantic master of landscape painting. Time and again we view Turner's masterpieces dramatically situated by cinematographer Dick Pope whose adroitness captures the artist's revolutionary impressionistic renderings, daring formlessness and the powerful mystical utterances which cry out with a force only great film technique can render. Screen writer/director Leigh has skillfully referenced the aesthetic context of the 1820's by including scenes featuring Benjamin Haydon (a journeyman painter and friend of John Keats), John Ruskin (an ardent Turner devotee and leading Victorian art spokesman),John Constable a leading Royal Academy painter and a young Queen Victoria. The performances led by Timothy Spall as the virtuoso painter,Paul Jeeson as his beloved father, Marion Bailey as Sophia Booth, and Martin Savage as Haydon are flawless as is the work by the supernumeraries in this epic cast. Spall's triumph was celebrated when he won the best actor award at Cannes last spring and the failure of the Hollywood crowd to even nominate him is jolting. It suggests that this remarkable film, which has received rave kudos from a host of American critics, has not been understood by Academy judges and its importance sadly disregarded. Turner lived from 1775 to 1851- the height of the Romantic period in English literature - and his contemporaries included Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats, Byron, Shelley and Blake arguably the greatest voices of Romanticism in European culture. Turner's romantic achievement places him on the podium beside these immortals. Mike Leigh's film underscores his titanic triumph.

3.8 -- TIMBUKTU, Abderrahmane Sissako
[reviewed by Andrew Hlavacek] You don’t argue with those holding weapons. Timbuktu is Abderrahmane Sissako’s cinematic masterpiece, depicting the chaos created by jihadists in North Africa. The film speaks only peripherally to Western considerations, concentrating more on representing, as dispassionately as possible, the paradoxes at core of radical Islam. Timbuktu also portrays a region virtually unknown to most Western spectators, one with richly complex socio-cultural and ethno-religious interactions made all the more difficult by the transcultural and multi-ethnic jihadist movement. Sissako frames the Islamist infiltration as colonial invasion by a new language (Arabic), new laws (Sharia) and a wilful ignorance of local customs, culture and ethnicities. The leaders are predominantly Arabic speakers from outside and unfamiliar with (and apathetic to) local ethnic and linguistic complexities. Such is the stratification that, even among each other, the jihadists often revert to common second language to communicate.
Much seems to be lost in translation. Kidane (Ibrahim Ahmed dit Pino) is a Tamasheq cattle farmer who lives in the dunes outside the city with his wife Satima (Toulou Kiki) and adolescent daughter Toya (Layla Walet Mohamed). Their lives are difficult, from a material standpoint, yet relatively undisturbed by the jihadist presence compared with those in the city, although a jihadist newcomer (Hichem Yacoubi), who has his eye on Satima comes around to pester her whenever Kidane is away. Tragedy strikes the family when an argument with a neighbour over one of Kidane’s murdered cattle leads an accidental discharge of a gun and the man’s death. Kidane is accused of murder and forced to stand trial in a Sharia court. Sissako presents all of the above as a clash of cultures casting the jihadists as foreign invaders who ignore not only local culture but also Muslim custom. The local imam (Abdel Mahmoud Cherif) attempts to mediate with the jihadists through a translator with little success. It becomes chillingly clear that the two sides’ views cannot even find common ground in the Quran. This is perhaps the most profound and important point made in Timbuktu and one that is aimed directly at Western audiences: there is no one Islam, nor is one religion inherently more susceptible to fanaticism than another. The imam plays the very delicate role of teacher; not only for the audience but also for the jihadists whose understanding of Islam seems to be so narrow that the two parties can mutually comprehend only the honorific phrases used with particular holy words. A further critical point is the film’s elaboration of the meaning of “jihad.” Though this concept has two iterations -- internal and external -- the imam places all importance on internal jihad as it represents the perpetual struggle toward self-perfection and moral atonement in the eyes of God, who is necessarily the only perfect being in the universe! The invaders, on the other hand, take their own moral state as already perfect in the eyes of God and therefore feel justified in waging jihad upon others. One feels that this self-righteousness is, in the eyes of the imam utter blasphemy. The difference is, once again, that the invaders have guns to back up their zeal and he does not. Power subsumes all other considerations. Power also justifies any other behaviour including visits to a local shaman, forcing marriages that thwart both law and custom, and passionately discussing soccer while outlawing its practice. The film explodes our limited perception and experience of the jihadist threat in a frighteningly intimate way. The threat itself is not of one religion or other, one interpretation or other. It is, as Sissako argues in Timbuktu, the rule of ignorance in the absence of reason and fanatical application of violence in the absence of self-reflection. It is about power and its projection -- a concept that should be familiar enough to Western audiences.
3.6 -- LEVIATHAN, Andrey Zvyagintsev
[reviewed by Andrew Hlavacek] Corruption in Russia is nothing new, and Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Leviathan -- fourth in a series critiquing the new Russia -- says as much to darkly hilarious effect. It comes as no surprise to anyone then that, when car mechanic Kolya (Aleksey Serebryakov) goes on a crusade to save his property from expropriation, bad things happen to everyone involved. Kolya’s lot overlooks a spectacular inlet opening out on the Barents Sea and is coveted by local mayor Vadim Chevelyat (Roman Madyanev). Kolya is proud of his achievements and passionate about his freedom. He enlists the help of his former army comrade turned Moscow lawyer Dmitry (Vladimir Vdovichenkov) to argue his case and win, at the very least, a more just compensation. The hopelessness of the struggle is a foregone conclusion. The film evokes a feeling of stasis that is underscored by glaring contrasts. Crumbling infrastructure is contrasted with the shiny new vehicles of the elite; the slick modern nightclub jars with the shabby interior of the hotel restaurant. Freed from their shackles of ideology, the elite -- represented by Vadim -- can publicly articulate their contempt and hatred the masses. Though subtle the film quietly points to an important shift in power politics of modern Russia: the elite no longer feel any responsibility towards the rest of the population. Naturally, contempt fuelled by impunity begets violence. According to Zvyagintsev, Leviathan is loosely based on the Book of Job in which man’s faith is tested through misfortune. Kolya is commonly understood to be the Job figure in Leviathan. While Job is steadfast in his faith despite being put through misery by god, proud Kolya believes only in his own independence. He has no real faith in or understanding of the forces that control his destiny. While all of the film’s characters profess, at the very least, implicit 'faith' in the impunity of the “God-State,” Kolya misguidedly dismisses both political and divine authority. Zvyagintsev thus ironically and masterfully perverts the story of Job in order to make this most important point: nothing has really changed and nothing really will. The film challenges us to harness our Slavic souls and laugh at the insane predictability of its own conclusions -- and then down a quarter of a bottle of vodka in one shot. For, Vodka is the salve everyone employs to either forget or live with the hypocrisy, and criticism is indulged only when made irrelevant by “respect for the appropriate distance of history.” Zvyagintsev diffuses his vision into every aspect of the film from its humour to the brilliant cinematography, which bookends the film with a series of static shots of the wild landscape as if to express metaphorically, the unalterable facts of being: the continued survival of the elite that has always existed in Russia, and the ancient landscape which motivates their myth-making. And yet, the little change there is seems, definitely, to be a change for the worse.

3.9 -- AMERICAN SNIPER, Clint Eastwood
[reviewed by Nancy Snipper] Based on the true story of American Navy Seal Chris Kyle (Bradley Cooper) who performed four tours of duty, killing over 200 terrorists in Iraq -- 116 confirmed, including Islamic terrorist torturer the 'butcher,' this brave gifted sniper known as the Legend led his men into convoys, rooftop shootings, door busting ops, and on the ground reconnaissance maneuvers that the movie puts before us -- with more dramatic impact than a bomb dropping on the silver screen. Kyle's total commitment to God and country -- those are his words -- is scrupulously conveyed in a gripping film that creates its effects through meticulous attention to tactical details. My heart was racing in so many scenes. The film shows the grueling training Kyle underwent, the technique of a sure-shot sniper and the hideous snap-second decisions soldiers must make. This film powerfully convinced me that the soldiers who give their lives in the name of freedom were totally justified in their allegiance to the flag. The film also shows Kyle's suffering through PTS depression after the war and his recovery. He ended up assisting veterans, and sadly met his own demise right on American soil; he was killed by a veteran he was trying to help recover from depression. Bradley Cooper is indescribably brilliant in the role; the man is already a veteran actor. Clint Eastwood is a directing genius -- as this unforgettable movie attest to.

2.4 -- INTO THE WOODS, Rob Marshall
[reviewed by Nancy Snipper] Though the singing is great, the accents are inconsistent -- half the cast is English; the other half American. The lyric is superb; Stephen Sondheim is a genius, but the film fails to convince that having four Brothers Grimm fairytales converge into a forest weaves a winning tale -- despite the exuberance of its musical genre and the cast's performances. I did not come out whistling one melody, so no song is particularly catchy. The stories include: Cinderella, Rapunzel, Jack and the Bean Stock and Little Red Riding Hood. Best singers/actors by far are Meryl Streep as the witch, Emily Blunt s as the childless wife of Mr. Baker, Anna Kendrick as Cinderella, Daniel Huttlestone as Jack (memorable in Les Misérables), Tracey Ullman as Jack's mother and Johnny Depp as the wolf. Chris Pine as the prince is hilarious in his campy posturing. The cast looks like they had fun doing this film, and the energy levels were terrific. A dark film with a bit of racy and scary plot turns that seems to get lost; you can't see the forest for the trees in this convoluted Disney musical that decidedly is not a fantasy for young kids.

2.4 -- FELIX AND MEIRA, Maxime Giroux
[reviewed by Nancy Snipper] Felix (Martin Dubreuil) meets Meira (Hadas Yaron), and pursues her with great passion. The only issue is she a Hassidic Jew with a husband -- well-played by Luzer Twersky who is a miserably boring, highly possessive man. The film slowly develops how Meira slowly falls for Felix, sheds her wig and leaves her husband, grabbing her child to run away with Félix to Venice. But will she really be able to live as a secular? It is a well-crafted film that shows the stifling life of a young, shy Hassidic woman who can't accept the life of her claustrophobic community. Some are meant to spread their wings; others to have them clipped every day.

3.6 -- WINTER SLEEP, Nuri Bilge Ceylan
[reviewed by Andrew Hlavacek] Winner of the Palme d’Or at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, Winter Sleep is Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s latest film set in the windswept ‘steppes’ and sandstone formations of Cappadocia in central Anatolia, where inhabitants had carved out entire cities in in rock. Former actor Aydin (Haluk Bilginer) is proprietor of a picturesque, somewhat isolated, hotel carved into a hillside. Though one of the local elite, and owner of various properties, he prefers to leave business matters to his hotel manager, Hidayet (Aybert Pekcan), and occupy himself with more intellectual matters such as writing weekly columns in the local paper. His only other companions during the slow winter months are a few hardy tourists, his recently divorced sister Necla (Demet Akbag) and young wife Nihal (Melisa Sözen). A confrontation he witnesses between a tenant and Hidayet leaves him grasping for his moral compass and retreating to the sanctum of his study to write an article about the necessity for propriety, cleanliness and conscience. As wealthy patriarch, Aydin is seemingly respected while also nearly absent in the community. He styles himself as beacon of morality and conscience and yet shows disdain for, and disgust with, humanity. Wealth has granted him the freedom to escape into his own system of banal morality, which he uses to judge others. This same privilege allows his immediate family to create their illusions and, in turn, judge him. Winter Sleep is masterful but difficult; it lumbers -- perhaps matching well the pace of its main protagonist who shuffles about with a false sense of purpose -- and often stalls in scenes of tense discussion, dripping with resentment and deliciously cloaked in ulterior motive. Long shots and a static camera reveal an extraordinarily detailed mise-en-scène that is a joy to experience and fully justifies the film’s pacing. Exterior scenes of the region’s beautiful vastness hauntingly mirror the bleakness that we glimpse within. Be forewarned that Winter Sleep is a heavily psychological film, whose central characters, albeit brilliantly portrayed, may not be very likeable. Ceylan is, however, non-judgmental in his treatment, allowing the audience to fully engage with the film on a fundamental level, which makes for an extremely touching, completely relatable experience despite the gulf of culture, time and space.

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