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RATING
SCALE
2.5 or more for a noteworthy film
3.5 for an exceptional film
4 for a classic.
3.2
-- THE OTHER
SIDE, Roberto Minervini
[reviewed
by Nancy Snipper]
Mark and Lisa are methane addicts, but function autonomously
and with loving care towards each other. Mark is highly intelligent
and able; he's a good soul who cares for his sister and niece,
and most of the old timers he visits in the run-down backwoods
of Louisiana. Mark and his kind are pretty darn isolated. We
meet a band of self-appointed men who form a militia against
the American government. They are armed and are learning training
tacits to protect their families. All the men and women we meet
are like red-neck, yet caring people from another part of the
universe. Social and economic deprivation has shaped the impoverished
minds of these folk who have been left to fend for themselves
-- abandoned by society and shunned by Americans who live comfortably.
Despite their problems, the family unit and family values remain
intact. This film was screened at the 2015
Montreal International Documentary Festival (RIDM).
2.6
-- TRUTH,
James Vanderbilt
[reviewed
by Andrew Hlavacek]
In his first director’s credit, producer and writer James Vanderbilt
takes an Oliver Stonesian look at an event that some view as
the definitive death-knell for independent, investigative journalism.
Truth is based on a 2006 book by Mary Mapes, which recounts
the events and politics surrounding CBS’s ill-fated 60 Minutes
report that revealed George W. Bush may have been AWOL for over
a year while in the Texas Air National Guard. Produced by Mapes
-- then coming off a groundbreaking report about the torture
of prisoners at Abu Ghraib -- the film follow’s the story’s
development as well as the ensuing scandal that led to the destruction
of Mapes’ and legendary CBS anchor Dan Rather’s careers. A powerhouse
cast featuring Cate Blanchett as Mapes and Robert Redford as
the Rather, drives a tense and crisply written drama. Vanderbilt
shows an even hand, eschewing the ubiquitous SteadyCam shakiness,
to deliver a well paced suspense that nicely blends newsroom
drama with biography. The film aspires -- in both style and
content -- to the likes of All the President’s Men
(1976). The journalistic process is carefully detailed, as are
some of the corners the production team may have cut in their
rush to air the story. ThoughTruth sagely leaves enough
room for interpretation, the film does present the ugly corporate
reality of being caught on the wrong side of a politically sensitive
issue. Vanderbilt seasons his film with just the right amount
of conspiracy. Unlike the threatening calls to the editor and
shadowy underground parking meetings with codenamed operatives
though, the conspiracy in 'Truth' is maddeningly mundane. What
is certain is that Vanderbilt demonstrates flexibility and good
judgment -- and perhaps a promise of more hard-hitting and mature
themes to come from a Hollywood figure thus far renowned for
blockbuster fare.
2.1
-- TOUCHED
WITH FIRE, Paul Dalio
[reviewed
by Nancy Snipper]
Mario ( Luke Kirby) is manic depressive. In the hospital, he
meets Carla (Katie Holmes), kindred spirit and poet, As soul
mates they fuel each other's manic side, and run afoul of parents'
authority and hospital doctors. The outcome proves that manic
depression can't be controlled without drugs, but Marco feels
his manic side is a girl; he refuses medications, and in so
doing, loses Carla. She ends up with another man and a new book
under her belt. There is much to this film, but it is long and
in parts, lacks credibility. However, the director -- also the
scriptwriter -- ably captures how bi-polar people see the world,
and how others view them. The music by Vangelis was superb,
as was the acting. This was the opening film for Montreal's
2015 Au Contraire
Festival.
2.4
-- THE WOODS
DREAMS ARE MADE OF MEASURE OF A MAN, Claire
Simon
[reviewed
by Nancy Snipper]
The Bois de Vincennes comprises 2459 acres, and serves as a
living hideout for those wishing to escape from society's pressures.
In this documentary, we meet all kinds of sordid characters
(prostitutes, voyeurs), some of whom use the park for clandestine
homosexual encounters, or as a background for painting, or simply
to stretch one’s legs. We meet tree specialists who take
care of the trees, and biologists who study salamanders. This
park is a universe unto itself right in the heart of Paris.
Four lakes, biking paths, a bridal path and meadows everywhere,
the park is a sanctuary for those who yearn for nature and the
simple life. What enchantment! This film was screened at the
2015 Montreal International
Documentary Festival (RIDM).
1.8
-- BURNT,
John Wells
[reviewed
by Andrew Hlavacek]
Given the popularity of programs about gastronomy over the last
decade -- from Iron Chef to Top Chef -- it was only a matter
of time before Hollywood tackled the rock-star world of ultra-fine
dining. John Wells’ Burnt
tells the story of a two Michelin-starred chef, Adam
Jones (Bradley Cooper), who has tanked his Paris career through
the toxic combination of drugs, alcohol and many poor decisions.
Now, older, sober and having completed a self-imposed penance,
Jones comes to London to start anew. His objective: the elusive
third Michelin star. The character’s trajectory is emblematic
of a world in which dictatorial management techniques (à la
Gordon Ramsey -- who ironically tutored Cooper for the role)
are still quite common as are seriously obsessive and addictive
behaviours. The film is nice: nicely scored, nicely filmed with
great attention paid to the cookery. It is at the same time
unbelievably reductive. Its characters are synthesized from
all of the various backstories of great chefs and great failures
and thrown into the mixing bowl of Hollywood’s formulaic ‘boy
makes good’ narrative. One of the film’s greatest follies includes
the ludicrous relegation of Omar Sy’s ‘Michel’ to that of a
catalyst for Adam Jones’ rebirth as the man he was always meant
to be.
3.0
-- MEET THE
PATELS, Geeta Patel, Ravi Patel
[reviewed
by Andrew Hlavacek]
“So when are you going to find yourself a nice -- and settle
down?” is a question everyone loves to hear at a family gathering.
Now imagine coming from a culture, where marriage has evolved
into an international matchmaking network. Geeta Patel pushes
her brother, comedian and writer Ravi Patel, to document his
capitulation to the Patel dynasty machine and begin the search
for an Indian mate. Meet the Patels is a very frank look into
the heart of a close-knit Indian-American family whose family
ties are, at once, cultural ties. People from the state of Gujarat
are famous in that most share a common family name -- Patel.
The Patels form an incredible diaspora known for their propensity
-- unique even among Indians -- to marry within their regional
borders through an ever-evolving system of arranged marriages.
The film will speak volumes to anyone who comes from a close-knit
family regardless of culture, race or religion. At the same
time, Geeta Ravi’s direction speaks very seriously to issues
of racism, cultural elitism and resistance to change that so
often accompany (or haunt) groups whose goals are wrapped up
in the propagation of traditional family values and specific
culture. Yet, at the same time, the harmony, joy and security
of membership in a group so far flung and familiar poses --
for both Patel children -- a powerful attraction that binds
Ravi to try, at the very least, to satisfy his parents’ expectations.
There is no trace of malevolence or coercion in the endeavour;
only the absolute certainty voiced by many a happy Patel couple
-- including parents Champa and Vasant -- that the system works
if you let it. The only problem with the second generation Patels
in this tale is that their desire for familial bliss may have
outgrown the boundaries of race, class and culture their own
parents take for granted. Be forewarned that Meet
the Patels assumes certain traditional family values as
ironclad. Otherwise, the film is a heartwarming, hilarious look
at a unique culture whose success transcends borders and, ultimately,
even racial and cultural barriers.
3.4
-- MANOS SUCIAS,
Josepf Wladyka
[reviewed
by Nancy Snipper]
Rugged Jacobo and naive Delio, from the infamous drug port of
Buenaventure, embark on a small boat to deliver a metal capsule
-- the size of a gigantic bullet carrying inside it oodles of
packages of cocaine as it floats under the water; it is tied
to a rope on the boat. The two brothers who have not been together
for years, endure harrowing events over a period of three days;
they cannot turn back; they must deliver it at a certain meeting
point or suffer potentially lethal brutal consequences. Devastating
events occur along their way, including having the drugs stolen,
witnessing a killing and having to kill, as well. Brilliantly
acted and shot on location along the Pacific coast of Columbia's
drug-infested shores. Spike Lee was the executive producer.
An unforgettable film. This
film was screened during the 2015
Montreal International Black Film Festival).
3.9
-- SELMA,
Ava DuVernay
[reviewed
by Nancy Snipper]
A riveting reenactment of the historic struggle of Dr. Martin
Luther King Junior to secure voting rights for black Americans
('Negro' was the word used at that time). This biopic fastidiously
focuses on every angle of strategy and team work used by the
great leader and his team -- a small group that rarely wavered
from their goal: to get that vote. The strife and cruelty inflicted
on blacks particularly in the South was unbearable and robbed
all the people of dignity. When four little girls are killed
by a bomb that explodes in a church in Selma, the suppressed
force of black Americans rises up to begin a dangerous march
from Selma to Montgomery. In crossing the Pettus Bridge, they
are attacked by the horrid white police force. Later they attempt
to cross it again, and when the police retreat -- orders from
Lyndon B. Johnson -- Dr. King turns back, after kneeling with
his people and praying -- asking God to tell him what to do.
He can't bear the thought that more people will be killed in
a trap of some sort, or so he thinks, and that is why he had
a change of plan. Several useless conversations with President
Lyndon B. Johnson are to no avail for King who tries to get
the vote for his people. Only when the brutality is shown on
TV during one of the marches does the president grant the vote,
ordering Governor George Wallace to tear down the obstacles
preventing them from voting. Ironically, he used the words King
used to him, saying to Wallace he would go down in history as
the man responsible for allowing Negroes to die at his own hands.
What a powerful time in history. Dr King's faith and perseverance
was compelling and brave. After the film there was a panel discussion
between four leaders of different religions. Most importantly,
Dr King's son was the guest speaker whose humour and love for
his father made the evening more than just a film event. It
was thrilling to meet him. This film was screened during the
2015 Montreal
International Black Film Festival).
3.4
-- SICARIO,
Denis Villneuve
[reviewed
by Nancy Snipper]
The Spanish word, 'sicario' means hit man. It would seem everyone
in this gritty, highly compelling thriller is involved in
either pulling the trigger or receiving the bullet. When Arizona
FBI agent Kate Macer (Emily Blunt) uncovers a Mexican cartel's
house of death, she is recruited -- more like coerced -- into
a secret black-ops mission which is headed by Alejandro,-
a Columbian hit man who was once on the cartel side. Benicio
Del Toro stole the entire film in his role as Alejandro, mixing
tenderness with cold killing. He serves as a somber foil for
his US casually laid-back partner, Matt Graver. Alejandro
is on a personal mission that is compatible with cartel hunters
-- like Matt. A butcher who headed one of the cartels slaughtered
Alejandro's family, and so the widower is on a mission of
revenge. The only problem is nothing is done by the books.
Kate is walking in the dark about why she has been told to
come along for the ride. But in the end, she and the audience
find out just why her presence was so invaluable. Nothing
like a signature to make the operation look lawful, and in
this case, it's Kate's signing -- with a gun held to her throat
that makes the lawless look lawful. The film is violent and
totally realistic. The scene in Juarez is brutally poignant.
This film shows how the bad and good guys seem to be one and
the same. Does the end justify the means? The film thrusts
Kate into the horrid heart of a secret and brutal battleground
of ruthless cartel players, manic assassins, clandestine American
spies and special swat teams for whom all means justify the
ends. Vile or virtuous, the audience is left to decide between
right and wrong. Saintly Kate comes out losing the battle;
the legal ground for her is where she stands, but the facts
on the ground reveal just how ineffective and naïve she is.
Emily Blunt as Kate was far too pretty, vulnerable and weak
for us to believe she was really in charge of the Arizona
kidnap-response-team before she ends up taking the nightmarish
journey on her new assignment. She has no idea what is really
going on behind her back, and when she finds out -- it's game
over.
2.4 --
AMERICAN ULTRA, Nima
Nourizadeh
[reviewed
by Nancy Snipper]
Mike Howell (Jessie Eisenberg) is a supposedly sweet sensitive
stoner whose girlfriend Phoebe Larson (Kristen Bell) is a
devoted supporter of his graphic novel characters that never
go beyond his desk at home. Mike suffers from anxiety attacks.
Unbeknownst to him, he's a trained killer -- the subject of
a CIA experiment, but he suffers from blocked memories about
his childhood and the origin of his killing skills. Now he
is wanted by an ambitious CIA head who wants to bring him
down. Most of the film is about Mike trying to a find perfect
moments to propose to his girlfriend, but bullets and knives
derail him. As well, his identity crisis causes obsessive
confusion that leads him to question his past and present.
When Mike finds out his girlfriend was initially hired as
his handler, his romance falls flat -- for a moment, but then
all the bad guys get killed -- thanks to Mike, and he goes
off with his new wide Phoebe to kill more bad guys, but this
time knowing what happened to him under his CIA training some
years ago. His immediate and loyal traine, a woman of courage
and substance, refused to let him be killed. The plot has
some pretty nifty twists with violence that gives you more
than a bang for your buck. Much was amusing and campy with
Jesse Eisenberg leading the way in his soft-spoken manner.
1.9
-- THE MAN
FROM U.N.C.L.E. , Guy Ritchie
[reviewed
by Nancy Snipper]
A rather flat remake of a fabulous TV series. Neither Henry
Cavill (Napoleon Solo) or Armie Hammer as Ilya Kuryakin can
come close to the pair of spies we all fell in love with in
1964. The film starts with them trying to kill one another
as enemies, but a nuclear weapon has both Russian and American
chiefs uniting the two in order to infiltrate the fortress
of a couple who hold the key to set it off. Set during the
Cold war, this film has tons of great car scenes, stunning
Italian scenery and an over played soundtrack that might well
be suited to a show by the director's ex-wife (Madonna). The
music seemed to compensate for the one vital element missing
from any good film -- no matter the genre: credible acting.
The dated glam turned it all into a sham
2.9 --
IRRATIONAL MAN, Woody Allen
[reviewed
by Nancy Snipper]
This movie is a stand-out example of: It worked as a book,
but not as a movie. Widely recognized as the finest definition
of existentialist philosophy, the book introduced existentialism
to America in 1958. In this radical book, the author, William
Barrett, discusses the views of 19th and 20th century existentialists
Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger and Sartre and interprets
the impact of their thinking on literature, art and philosophy.
Evidently, it lit up a huge neuron in Woody Allen’s brain
path. Told by the two central characters as voice over comments
to reveal their inner thoughts, and also acted in real time,
Jill -- the young philosophy student and Abe, her professor
-- have an affair. Abe, a marginalized intellectual, is on
his last bottle and is depressed and apathetic. He’s lost
all vigour for life and seems to enjoy hanging out dirty laundry
to those who will listen as he reveals his angst and failures,
including his sexual dysfunction. And then along comes Jill,
and she thinks she’s found her Jack -- in Abe. He begins to
smile. But his newly found happiness and energy does not come
from her so much as it does from the murderous plan he hatches
and carries out in the name of taking control of life – especially
his own and giving it meaning. There is far too much verbal
diarrhea in the film; it is static; for a depressed guy, he
sure talks a lot. Still, Abe draws everyone in, including
us as he naturally expounds on the haplessness of life and
the chaotic thoughts that spin in people’s minds. Nothing
makes much sense for him, but he changes that around. Joaquin
Phoenix as Abe just didn’t quite hit the mark; in fact, he
was dull -- even boring, but it’s hard to play such an unattractive
selfish weirdo and win friends, attract film fans and influence
them enough to want to pick up the book that inspired the
film and read it. Emma Stone was excellent as Jill. It was
one of the few films where the director himself did not make
a cameo appearance. One wonders if the deadpan ideas espoused
by Abe may indeed be a mirror reflection of Mr. Allen’s own
as he nears the sunset of his life. An unusual intriguing
story featuring one of the most understated but diabolical
characters to walk into a Newport, Rhode Island university.
2.2 --
IRRATIONAL MAN,
Woody Allen
[reviewed
by Andrew Hlavacek]
Woody Allen is back with yet another tale of American upper-crust’s
existential malaise. Philosophy professor Abe (Joaquin Phoenix)
arrives at a Rhode Island liberal arts college to teach a
summer semester. Being the tortured bad boy of the academic
world, his reputation precedes him and his appointment is
already a hot topic of gossip. One of his philosophy students
is standout Jill (Emma Stone), who seems wiser beyond her
years and unabashedly drawn to Abe, who is also pursued by
unhappily married Rita (Parker Posey). Abe is, indeed tortured.
The philosophy which has seen him through a lifetime of attempted
self-realization fails him miserably, until one chance day
at lunch with Jill, they overhear a conversation that gives
him a twisted existential purpose. This is not Woody Allen
at his best. Needless to say, the cast deliver their prerequisite
off-beat performances but the drama is all-too lighthearted
for the darkness underlying its central premise. All told,
Irrational
Man is simply too cute for its own good and so obvious
in its endearing chastisement of bourgeois values that it
cannot sustain the straight-faced hilarity of some of Allen’s
truly memorable fare.
3.0 --
MISSION IMPLAUSIBE, Christopher
McQuarrie
[reviewed
by Nancy Snipper]
When IMF is disposed of because of CIA’s complaints about
their unorthodox tactics, Ethan and his pals are without a
job, but Ethan is intent on catching the bad guys. He’s being
hunted down now by everyone now. His labyrinthine journey
into hiding while at the same time tracking down the evil
guy who heads an international unauthorized syndicate takes
him into Morocco, London and Vienna. This syndicate leader,
named Lane, has set up an expansive operation to take over
the world. The movie is so complicated but entirely entertaining
-- it doesn’t matter if the good guys are really the bad and
vice versa. It’s high action -- better than James Bond, but
there’s a price to pay: the twists becomes so confusing that
in the end one is still left trying to figure it all out.
And stretching credibility to the breaking point, I wonder
how Ethan, after so much battering, still manages to get up.
He’s truly super human. The opening scene is one of the best
in the series of Mission
Impossible flicks. Simon Peg added wonderful comic relief
and warmth to the film, playing Ethan’s best bud and brilliant
computer man. Another touch that shows Ethan is fallible occurs
in a very watery tank scene; he gets bonked on the head by
a rotating propeller. The Turandot opera music used
both from a scene in the film as later used in the background
was a daring if not a dramatic ploy to heighten our senses.
3.1 --
TRISTESSE CLUB, Vincent
Mariette
[reviewed
by Andrew Hlavacek]
Léon (Laurent Lafitte) and Bruno (Vincent Macaigne) Camus’
philandering, deadbeat father is dead. Léon learns first and
informs younger brother Bruno and the two set off on an inopportune
journey to a Savoie backwater for the funeral. On their way
they meet alluring Chloé (Ludivine Sagnier) who stuns them
with a double whammy of news that gives the brothers a new
purpose. Tristesse Club is precisely the type of human-scale
comedy the French so often get right. The cast’s solid performances
flesh out believable characters who negotiate a series of
hilarious obstacles. Even if the film’s endearing resolution
appears a little too neat and contrived, Mariette’s debut
feature film makes for lighthearted, entertaining viewing,
presents an especially timely break for those suffering burnout
from Fantasia’s relentless intensity. Tristesse Club opens
July 31st at Cinéma Beaubien.
2.9 --
MR. HOLMES, Bill
Condon
[reviewed
by Andrew Hlavacek]
It is 1947 and an elderly Sherlock Holmes (Ian McKellen) resides
in a cottage in south England. He tends to his beloved bees,
with only housekeeper Mrs. Munro (Laura Linney) and her young
son Roger (Milo Parker) for company. Holmes faces his old
age with trepidation and regret. Having recently returned
from Japan with a prized plant known for its restorative properties,
the legendary detective desperately attempts to keep senility
at bay. Haunted by a case that forced him into retirement,
he struggles to solve the the mystery whose facts are confounded
by his fading memory.
Bill Condon’s Holmesean swan-song is dignified and graceful
even if a bit too tidy in its conflict and final plot resolution.
Ageing himself, Ian McKellen brings his trademark wryness
to the role and bears the Holmes mask well. Altogether, it
feels like the character of Holmes represents the actor’s
own anxiety about losing the best parts of himself to age.
Offbeat and humble, Condon’s
Mr. Holmes offers touches of wisdom, showing the redemptive
power of self-forgiveness -- even in the twilight years.
3.6- -
AMY, Asif
Kapadia
[reviewed
by Andrew Hlavacek]
British documentary film maker Asif Kapadia explores the tragedy
of the life of Amy Winehouse in the recently-released AMY.
Born in the 1990s, Amy Winehouse’s life has been documented
through numerous media from early on. Kapadia uses a lot of
home-made footage taken by various members of the Winehouse
family and entourage, giving an intimate view of her early
development, her talent and her shy, humble character.
The film thus casts light upon the central conflict in Amy
Winehouse’s brief life: the untenable tension between superstardom
and her desire and need for privacy. The consequent sensationalistic
and highly public media intrusion into Winehouse’s troubled
personal life created the perfect storm that caused the artist
to seek shelter in drugs and alcohol.
Kapadia, however, does not offer lamentations about the nefarious
nature of British media, nor does he moralize about the pitfalls
of stardom, or hunt for someone to blame. Rather, he allows
those closest to her to to deal sincerely with their own failings,
while recognizing Winehouse’s own. Without passing judgment,
the film goes on to show how the actions of those closest
to her -- her husband Blake, her agent/tour manager and her
father -- added to the pressure and eventually pushed Winehouse
into an irreversible downward spiral.
Above all else, however, the film keenly captures Winehouse’s
talent, passion for jazz and uncanny lyrical ability that
taps directly into her personal experience. Recognized as
one of the singular female jazz singers of all time, Kapadia’s
film celebrates the genius of Amy Winehouse, while steering
clear of simple characterizations and easy judgments. A must-see,
AMY plays at Excentris and Beaubien until July 15, and at
Cineplex Forum until July 16.
3.8 --
THE LITTLE DEATH, Josh
Lawson
[reviewed
by Nancy Snipper]
A hilarious sex fetish film from Magnolia Pictures that takes
place in Australia. The comedy brings together hilarious scenarios
of couples trying to 'fix up' their stagnant sex life and
fulfill their fantasies. Their strategies include arousal
from staging a rape, role playing different professionals,
watching your mate cry and also sleep. Of course the good
old foot fetish one is there. What makes the punch happy plot
so clever is the credible yet outrageous lengths one of the
partners will go to for her or his own sake. In fact, there
is a lot of covert plotting on the part of one partner to
get her/his jollies off; it is done without the other suspecting
the manipulation behind the devious behaviour. The scene at
the end is hilarious when paid video sex takes place in a
skype line. A deaf young man uses a signing interpreter on
skype; she signs what the sex worker is saying to get him
aroused. He never actually sees the lady, just the signer.
The sex worker is busy feeding her paralytic mother in a chair
who has had a stroke,. The scene is so incongruous; conversations
merge and the sex talk becomes more like an elder abuse situation
than a raunchy verbal ramble. There are several entertaining
scenes with ironic twists. Even though the couples aren't
laughing, we are.
3.8 --
BIG GAME, Jamari
Helanderr
[reviewed
by Nancy Snipper]
Two parallel hunts that collide bring together Oskari, a Lapland
boy, and the US President. The day he is about to turn 13,
and prove his manhood, he must go deep into the forest and
hunt down a deer. But his quest turns into more than just
a hunt. Up in the sky, the President of The United States
is being attacked by planes and a missile, so his bodyguard
sends him out into a capsule to escape. The bodyguard who
is really a bad guy kills everyone on board. He's in cahoots
with a terrorist on the ground. Their big catch is the President.
The boy and the President meet up by lucky chance, and while
trying to escape, they are being hunted as big game by the
terrorist and end up experiencing a series of harrowing adventures.
Rising to the challenge of impossible feats prove Oskari is
a true brave hero and more man than the thugs who try to kill
him. The film is hilarious, suspenseful, hammy and heartwarming.
Irony and coincidences are so exaggerated, the film requires
more than a modicum of suspension of disbelief, but we buy
into it whole heartedly. Samuel Jackson as the President,
purposely plays a weak one, and his distinct voice contributes
to the humour of his holding a position that doesn't suit
him. His facial expressions and lines bring strong laughs.
Onni Tommila as the teen is great in his acting. What a little
hero he is. I'd like to see this Remstar film -- presented
by Fantasia but not shown during the actual festival -- become
a box office comedy hit.
3.4
-- JURASSIC
WORLD, Colin Trevorrow
[reviewed
by Nancy Snipper]
What a wonderful idea, as long as Indominus, the creature
created by the mad scientist who heads In Gen for Jurassic
World theme park does not escape from its walls. After all
it is more terrifying than T-Rex. Velocioraptors in this bio-genetically
engineered Disneyland-like dinosaur world have been trained
to obey Owen’s (Chris Pratt) orders, but when an evil entrepreneur
envisions using them as potential weapons for US enemies,
he puts them to the test; they are sent to kill Indominus.
But all hell breaks loose and everyone almost gets eaten up
– except the good guys. Imagine being able to actually make
dinosaurs, and that is what this sci-fi action flick is about.
There are many suspenseful moments in the film, especially
when the two children, Zack and Gray are stuck in the park
and come face to face with the thundering monster who can
outsmart even the cleverest of scientists. There is a moral
in this flick about greed, family connection and human insanity.
It all happens 22 years after the incident at Jurassic Park
inside the same now completely new park. This is the fourth
film of the series, and although nothing can 'outeat' the
first, it does manage to serve up a pretty spectacular presentation
on the big screen.
1.4
-- TERMINATOR
GENISYS, Alan Taylor
[reviewed
by Nancy Snipper]
We are in the future. Kyle Reese is sent back to1984 by his
mentor John Connor to protect a young Sarah Connor whose protector
(Arnold Schwarzenneger) faces off in the dastardly Skynet
invention run by machine terminators and killer robots posing
as men in order to keep control of their takeover. The film
is a confounding mess of time travel scenes that have everyone
confused including the protagonists. This sci-fi flick is
part of the trilogy which explains or at least tries to the
story behind the entire terminator takeover. I give it a thumbs
down, despite the fact that Schwarznegger as the good machine
can still pack a mean punch and perform better than any 'human'
in the film.
2.3--
INFINITELY POLAR BEAR, Maya
Forbes
[reviewed
by Andrew Hlavacek]
Mark Ruffalo stars as Cameron Stuart, a father of two who
struggles to stay on an even keel after being diagnosed bi-polar.
Separated from wife Maggie (Zoe Saldana) and girls Amelia
(Imogene Wollodarsky) and Faith (Ashley Aufderheide), Cameron
struggles to re-integrate himself into the family dynamic.
Cam comes from a traditional Boston Brahmin family, and although
he and Maggie are both well educated, they nevertheless find
themselves on the fringes of poverty. Scarcely subsidized
by the Stuart matriarch Pauline (Beth Dixon) who controls
the family’s vast fortune, Maggie is accepted to an MBA program
at Columbia University and must leave Amelia and Faith in
Cam’s tenuous care.
In her directorial debut, Maya Forbes presents a fictionalized
account of her childhood growing up with a bi-polar dad. Her
background in comedy -- she worked on The Larry Sanders Show
-- is apparent in the film’s portrayal of precocious children’s
reactions to unstructured adult behaviour. This makes Infinitely
Polar Bear more an homage to an enigmatic father figure
rather than a serious examination of the effects of mental
illness.
It is perhaps the passage of time, which allows Forbes such
a sentimental view of her childhood. She downplays the trauma
in favour of a positive regard that celebrates her father’s
successes in dealing with his illness. Thus, the film’s central
message seems to be that even broken adults can -- under the
right conditions -- create nurturing, loving environments
for children. After all, it is due to his illness that Cam
takes a radical step, for the time, to stay at home so that
Maggie can pursue a career path.
It is disappointing that Forbes choses to stay on the surface
as her family history is genuinely fascinating and more than
a little impressive. After over a decade on Wall Street, her
mother became the first African-American woman to establish
an investment advisory firm. Both, she and her sister China
went on to Harvard educations and success in their chosen
fields. Though humorous and endearing with flashes of interpretive
brilliance, Infinitely Polar Bear’s sentimentality
and low-fat treatment of the central issues ultimately leaves
one yearning for the path less traveled.
3.1 --
MY LOVE, DON’T GO DOWN THAT RIVER,
Jin Mo-young
[reviewed
by Nancy Snipper]
Part
of the 2015 New York Asian Film Festival, this moving documentary
spans almost two years of filming from September 2012 -2015.
Koreans, Jo Beyong-man, a 98-year-old who is very ill man
has been married to Kang Kye-yeo for 76 years. She married
him at the age of 14, and had 12 children – six of which passed
away when they were young. The couple is 'air-tight-sealed'
devoted to one another. They play like children, throwing
leaves, snow balls and water in their faces. They still do
physical labour to keep their farm going in Hoengseong County
in Gangwong Province where they try to survive. Their conversation
is funny and hearwarming. Their eldest daughter and son visit
occasionally, but fight in front of Kang and Jo. In the end,
death comes to the husband. Should anyone wish to see a sterling
example of love in marriage, this inspirational film is not
to be missed.
3.2 --
WOLFPACK, Crystal
Moselle
[reviewed
by Nancy Snipper]
This sad documentary lets us into the claustrophobic lives
of the Argula family who lives in a slum in New York City.
The father, Oscar, who comes from an unspecified country in
Latin America, doesn't allow the members of his large family
to leave the house to interact with the outside world. They
are only allowed to watch the thousands of movies their father
owns. He refuses to work but insists that his seven children
(all boys and one girl) obey him. His wife, who homeschools
the children, is a prisoner, too. Oscar is obsessed with bucking
the system and has named all his children after Indian gods.
They all have long hair and they all look alike. Finally,
when the oldest sneaks out of the apartment one day, he ends
up being arrested and sent to a mental hospital. He actually
learns how to make friends there. The ending of this film
sees all the children leaving and Oscar has lost his power
over them. The oldest son makes a short film starring all
his family members; they are all disguised as creatures. One
hopes that the kids who we see as young ones and watch as
they grow up find a way for themselves in the world beyond
their apartment walls.
3.1
-- SAN ANDREAS,
Brad Peyton
[reviewed
by Nancy Snipper]
Raymond 'Ray' Gaines (Dwayne Johnson) is an L.A helicopter-rescue
pilot. In the midst of a divorce from his estranged wife,
Emma (Carla Gugino), he learns that his wife is about to move
in with her new Donald Trump-type boyfriend who later on,
reveals himself to be a supreme coward during the earthquake.
Their daughter Blake (Alexandra Daddario) is going with them
to San Francisco. We learn that Ray and Emma had another daughter
that drowned during a river rafting excursion; her dad was
with her, but he couldn't' save her. Meanwhile, seismologist
professor, Lawrence Hayes (Paul Giamatti) and his assistant
have invented a way to predict earthquakes, and as they are
testing their machine in the Nevada dam, an earthquake occurs,
killing his colleague. The film is terrifically frightening,
and as the San Andreas tectonic plates shift, everything horrid
continues without ending. The film has Ray rescuing his daughter
and traveling by truck, airplane and boat to do it. The one
on-going fault of this movie is the consistency. Why does
his wife have a bloody ear in one the scene, and the next
it is perfect? Why is her hair perfectly coiffed after she
almost got killed in an earthquake? Why does Blake whose legs
were trapped in the front car seat, move like an athlete,
immediately after she is rescued by a stranger? Why does the
American flag draped over a pole suddenly unfurl as Ray states
that America will build once more? Hollywood corniness for
sure is the answer to that one. The acting was lame except
for the Ms. Daddario's portrayal of the daughter; she ended
up being braver than all of them put together. The 3D film
is excellent in terms of showing the non-stop devastation
the earthquake wreaks as it rips through California. I enjoyed
the film, save for those "faults" referred to in this review.
2.3 --
INSIDIOUS: CHAPTER 3, Leigh Whannell
[reviewed by Nancy Snipper] Oh no! Another demo- n is not only trying
to kill psychic Elise Rainier well played by Lin Shaye
-the only shining actor in this horror film), and she faces
it in order to help 17-year-old Quinn Brenner (Stefanie Scott)
who, aside from doing a lot of crying, wishes to contact her
deceased mother, but the demon is taking hold of her. Elise
comes to the rescue, and is able to banish the demon, retrieve
Quinn from the demon grip and restore all to normalcy, but
a price that is sure to be revealed in a sequel. Good acting,
but the horror moments were more kiddish than scary.
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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