Time. Films reviewed: Anthem of a Teenage Prophet, Jordan River Anderson: The Messenger, Pain and Glory
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Time is malleable. This week I’m looking at three examinations of time. There’s a Spanish drama about a director reclaiming his past, a YA drama about a teen who can see the future, and a documentary about the present-day problems of indigenous, special-needs kids.
Anthem of a Teenage Prophet
Dir: Robin Hays
It’s 1997 in small-town Stokum, Michigan. Luke (Cameron Monaghan) is a highschooler in small town. He’s into skating, music and art. He lives with his straightlaced dad and flaky mom (Juliette Lewis). He used to climb towers with the tall and wiry Fang (Grayson Gabriel) his best friend since kindergarten, but they had a falling out. Now he’s hanging with Stan, a popular B-ball jock, and Stan’s girlfriend Faith (Peyton List). But everything changes when he follows Stan to a party at Fang’s place. After lots of drinking and 
smoking, Luke has a vision: Someone will be killed in the morning in a hit-and-run just outside their school. They dismiss this as a stoner daydream, but record it on video, just for fun. And sure enough, best friend Stan winds up dead, exactly as predicted.
Eyewitness news picks up the story and soon there are media trucks parked out on his front lawn. He’s stared at at school, and somehow blamed for Stan’s death. Only Faith stands up for him. Will his prophetic dreams continue and can he use it to save people from dying? 
Are Faith and Luke just mourning Stan or is their something more between them? And what happened between Luke and Fang that soured their friendship, and will they ever make up?
Anthem of a Teenage Prophet is based on a popular YA novel, and holds many of its standard features: rudderless youth looking for meaning, potential love story, friendship, bullying, and prejudice; and a hint of the supernatural. And it’s set in the late 90s, a world of Thrasher, Mortal Combat, white rap and ironic T-shirts. Beautiful scenery (it was actually shot in BC) nice soundtrack and credible acting, Anthem is a good, though not great, teen movie.
Jordan River Anderson, The Messenger
Dir: Alanis Obomsawin
Norway House is a beautiful Cree community in northern Manitoba. But, due to pregnancy complications, little Jordan River Anderson was born in a Winnipeg Children’s Hospital. There he received constant attention from doctors, therapists and experts helping the boy communicate and understand what was going on around him. He was partially paralyzed, could not speak and breathed using a respirator. But he could only spend limited time with his parents and family since he needed constant care. Most special-needs kids are eventually sent from hospital to their parents home or a halfway house with caregivers 
near to their family. But Jordan never left the hospital – he died there. Neither the province nor the federal government would put up the funds it required for the move, care and refurbishing.
Why? Because he’s indigenous.
Enter Cindy Blackstock, a lawyer and social worker specializing in indigenous cases. She crafts a bill, The Jordan Principle, to ensure no child would be left unfunded to to intergovernmental disputes. It is passed unanimously in the House of Commons. Jordan’s Principle says that a child of need will be cared for by the first level of governmental contacted. All is well. Sadly no. Not a single kid is helped since it’s passage. The government budgets the funds to fight Jordans 
Principle in court, but not a penny more in its budget to pay for care needed for indigenous special needs kids.
Jordan River Anderson The Messenger is the sixth in a series of documentaries by Alanis Obomsawin, outlining the struggles between First Nations and the Canadian government since the founding of this country. It follows Blackstocks legal battles and the very personal stories, captured in photos and home videos, by Jordan and other indigenous families with special needs kids. This is a one-hour documentary that deals with a heartbreaking story, but one that ends on a hopeful note.
Photo of Alanis Obomsawin by Jeff Harris.
Pain and Glory
Wri/Dir: Pedro Almodovar
It’s present day Madrid. Salvador (Antonio Banderas) is a celebrated Spanish director at the peak of his career. He is looking back at his old notebooks, and letters, taking stock of his life. And he finds it miserable. His body is failing him, his creative well has gone dry. No sex, no love, no pleasure aside from swimming. But as he looks at his life two periods come back to him. As a child he lives with his mother (Penelope Cruz), who takes in laundry, and his father. They are forced to make their home in whitewashed caves, underground. But young Salvador (Asier Flores) is a precocious lad, singled out for his talent by a priest at his school. He teaches a 
handsome teenaged bricklayer Eduardo (César Vicente) how to read and write. In return poses for a painting by Eduardo. Little Salvador idolizes Eduardo but doesn’t understand his feelings. With his parents now gone, what remains from his childhood?
The other period he reflects on is making his first movie in the early 1980s. It is being shown at the Cinematheque in Madrid, and they want him to appear alongside that films lead actor Alberto (Asier Etxeandia). The problem is Alberto is a heroin addict, hates Salvadors guts and they haven’t seen each other for more than thirty years, What was the scandal that led to such a long lasting grudge? Can it be mended? And who is the missing piece in that puzzle?
Pain and Glory is a fantastic and fascinating autobiographical film by Pedro Almodover. It is 
ostensibly fictional, the names have been changed, but is clearly based largely on Almodovars life. It plays with time, character and genre, flashing back to early times, and repeating short scenes with subtle differences. It starts with Salvador writing a book, but somewhere, secretly turns into him crafting a film, leaving the viewer to piece it together. Lush and colorful, moving and funny, Pain and Glory is an intricate recreation of Almodovars own life andwork.
Pain and Glory starts today, and Anthem of a Teenage Prophet starts next Friday in Toronto; check your local listings; and Jordan River Anderson, The Messenger is one of many movies at ImagineNATIVE through Sunday.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Friday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website, culturalmining.com.
Daniel Garber talks with filmmaker Robert Eggers about The Lighthouse
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Photo of Robert Eggers by Jeff Harris
It’s the 19th century on a rocky Atlantic island. An old salt and a young jack tar share threadbare lodgings. Their job? Keep a lighthouse burning to warn all passing boats of potential danger. The old man is 
there for the long haul, while the younger one seems to be a temporary replacement. But as the isolation grows they become increasingly unhinged as they try to keep their senses… in the lighthouse.
The Lighthouse is a new film about life in a lighthouse as seen through the fantastical minds of the two men living there. It’s written and directed by Robert Eggers, his second feature after The VVitch.
This interview was recorded onsite during TIFF 19.
The Lighthouse opens next Friday (Oct 25, 2019) in Toronto.
Flashbacks, Comebacks and Backlash. Films reviewed: Dolce Fine Giornata, Gemini Man, Dolemite is My Name
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
This week I’m looking at three movies: a period comedy, a Euro dramedy and a sci-fi action movie. There’s a hitman facing a real-life flashback, a poet facing a public backlash, and a comedian looking for a comeback.
Dolce Fine Giornata
Dir: Jacek Borcuch
It’s the near future in Volterra, a picturesque town in Tuscany.
Maria Linde (Krystyna Janda), a Polish poet, is celebrating her 65th birthday after recently winning the Nobel Prize. All her loves and accomplishments are gathered around the town’s most illustrious member. Her docile husband, her beautiful daughter Anna (Kasia Smutniak), and her playful grandchildren are all there, along with a conceptual artist who installed a replica of poet Ezra Pound’s cage in the town square; a French journalist, and various other dignitaries. She’s especially
enamoured of Nazeer (Lorenzo de Moor) a handsome young Egyptian Copt who runs a nearby taverna. And Chief of Police Lodovici (Vincent Riotta) drops by with a warning: refugees have escaped from a detention camp, so be on the lookout. Maria is on top of the world, and feels free to mention anything that crosses her mind no matter how controversial.
But xenophobia is increasing as locals blame migrants and refugees for their problems. And when fear and loathing reach a fever pitch following a bombing in Rome, Maria feels it’s time to speak up. As a child of Holocaust survivors, Maria understands the plight of refugees, so she gives an impassioned speech in the Town Hall. The speech goes viral. But poetic language reduced to sound bites means big trouble – for her family, her friends and the whole town. Can she stop the angry digital mobs before they reach her doorstep? Or has she crossed the line?
Dolce Fine Giornata is a sardonic look at contemporary Europe, both the good and the bad, as seen through the eyes of an older woman, and how dark prejudices fester 
even in gorgeous locations. The dialogue is in equal parts Polish and Italian, with polyglot family members switching back and forth. It looks at older people dealing with social networks and the pile-on criticism it brings. This is a lower-budget, character- and dialogue-centric story, so don’t expect thousands of angry villagers weilding pitchforks. Most of the action – arson, explosions, bullying – happens off camera. Although the film’s political standpoint left me scratching my head, the interplay between characters was subtle and pleasing.
Gemini Man
Dir: Ang Lee
Henry Brogan is a 50 year-old Georgian fond of fishing, scotch and puzzles. He’s also a legendary hitman, with over 72 kills under his belt. He works for the Defence Intelligence Agency, or DIA, killing terrorists the world over. But when he almost kills a little girl he decides it’s time to retire. Easier said than done. Almost immediately, a kill squad is sent to take Henry out.
Who is trying to kill him, andwhy? Certain corrupt members of the DIA, and the head of Gemini, a private military contractor similar to Blackwater. Clay Verris (Clive Owen) has been working for years on Gemini’s new weapon and thinks it’s ready to try out. That weapon is the Gemini Man, a killer who anticipates every move Henry makes.
His life in imminent danger, Henry enters fight-or-flight mode. He contacts his oldest friend Baron (Benedict Wong) an aviation specialist, and a newfriend Danny (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). She was sent by the DIA to 
spy on Henry, but is now a trusted ally. But the Gemini Man, who goes by the name Junior, is identical to Henry, only younger, faster and stronger. Who is he, and how does he work. The answer is simple – and this is not a spoiler. Junior is Henry’s clone, trained from birth by Clay himself. Can Henry outwit himself without killing him? Or is this the end?
Gemini Man is an action movie directed by the legenday Ang Lee. It’s got amazing locations, from a scenic Belgian train station, to sun-drenched Caragena, to the catacombs of Budapest, which make it gorgeous to watch. And there are some good motorcycle chases and unusual fight scenes. But it doesn’t save the movie from a fatal flaw. Junior, Henry’s clone, is not played by a younger Will Smith; he’s a CGI. And it just looks fake. There’s no soul, no brain, no emotions here… just some pixels. Our brains are still sophisticated enough to tell humans from algorthyms. Action movies can succeed without stellar actors or blockbuster scripts, but if the central special effect doesn’t work, then neither does the film.
Dolemite is my Name
Dir: Craig Brewer
It’s the 1970s in LA. Rudy Ray Moore (Eddie Murphy) is a former pop musician whose career has fizzled. He used to have hit singles on the radio, but now he loads singles onto record store shelves. And his night job is as emcee telling tired jokes at a rundown nightclub. Until he comes up with an idea. In prisons and on street corners, hoboes, panhandlers and ex-cons have for years shared stories about a mythical figure called Dolemite. He’s a man with legendary wit, guile and powers of seduction.
With a tape recorder in hand, Rudy Ray collects the jokes from local homeless men and puts together a new routine. The difference is, instead of telling Dolemite jokes, he becomes Dolemite. He’s an instant hit. With a flashy suit, pimp hat and a wooden staff, Dolemite dominates the stage with his rhythmic rap. He cuts a 
record but the language is too filthy for any of the big labels to handle. So he sells them wrapped in brown paper out of his trunk as he tours black nightclubs on the chitlin circuit. There he meets the voluminous Lady Reed (Da’vine Joy Randolph). He sees her deck a man who hits her, and says this is the second act I’ve been looking for. He signs her on the spot.
Dolemite is a hit, but it’s still small time. He wants something bigger. So he manages to convince a noted playwright Jerry Jones (Keegan Michael Key) and a director D’urville Martin (a googly-eyed Wesley Snipes) to come on board. Together they plan to make a blaxploitation movie. They turn a boarded up flophouse into their studio and get film students to handle the 
lights and cameras. But can this crew make an actual movie? And would anyone watch it?
Dolemite is a hilariously clever and brilliant look at 1970s Blaxploitation. I am not a fan of Eddie Murphy, especially after decades of abysmal comedies. He was permanently crossed off my list. But he is so good in this movie I have to rethink my preconceptions and leave them at the door. Based on a true story, Dolemite is a perfect blend of 70s music, dialogue and situations. It’s a lot like The Disaster Artist only much, much funnier.
If you like the 70s, you’ve gotta see Dolemite.
Dolemite is my Name, Dolce Fine Giornata, both open today at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. And Gemini Man also open today in Toronto; check your local listings
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Friday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website, culturalmining.com
Solving problems. Films reviewed: Sometimes Always Never, The Laundromat, Chiko
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Toronto’s Fall Festival Season is in full swing this October. Look out for Toronto After Dark – scary and fantastic films; Rendezvous with Madness – films on addiction and mental health; Planet in Focus focussing on environmental films for its 20th anniversary; ImagineNative with movies by and about indigenous peoples around the world… and many more.
But this week I’m looking at three movies, from Germany, the U.K. and the US. There’s a gangster who turns to drugs to find success, a grandpa who turns to word games to find his missing son, and an older woman who turns to amateur sluething to find the bad guys.
Sometimes Always Never
Dir: Carl Hunter
Alan (Bill Nighy) is a dapper businessman in small town England. He likes Marmite, tea and scrabble. He’s meeting his estranged, adult son Peter (Sam Riley) to view a body at a remote village morgue. Alan’s other son ran away decades ago, disappearing without a trace. Could this be him? When the body turns out be the son of another couple, Margaret and Arthur (Jenny Agutter, Tim McInnerney), Alan follows Peter home. It’s an excuse to finally meet his daughter-in-law Sue (Alice Lowe) and grandson Jack (Louis Healy). Won’t you stay for dinner? The evening turns into an extended visit as 
Alan insinuates himself into their homelife, sharing a bunk bed in Jack’s room. The teenager is a shy introvert who spends all his time gaming online. To change his life, his grandfather gets him a haircut and a custom-made suit. He’s a tailor, you see. The movie’s title refers to which buttons to button on a three-button suit. Top to bottom: sometimes, always, never.
Alan’s obsession with Scrabble has a lot to do with his missing son, who ran away in the middle of a game. It’s what separates 
him from his son – but will it bring them back together? – and influences his relations with Margaret and Arthur, the couple he met at the bed & breakfast. But can a board game bring his missing son home again?
Sometimes Always Never is a clever, funny and touching look at family life in small-town, northern England. Lots of twists in the plot, and enough wordplay to make the whole script feel like an ongoing Scrabble game. It does walk the fine line between charming and twee. The movie, though set in the present day, is drenched in sets, props, costumes, and style from an earlier era. But Bill Nighy, Alice Lowe and the rest are so good you can excuse a bit of excess quirky cuteness.
I like this movie.
The Laundromat
Dir: Steven Soderbergh
Mossack and Fonseca (Gary Oldman, Antonio Banderas) are a pair of rich lawyers who operate out of Panama. They like flashy tuxedos, palm trees and vodka martinis. Why are they so rich? Their firm holds the secrets of dictators, billionaires, drug dealers, corporations, celebrities and politicians the world over. Through the use of off-shore banking, shell corporations and absolute secrecy, they launder untold billions.
Enter Ellen (Meryl Streep), an everywoman who loses her husband in a freak accident on their wedding anniversary. Turns out the accident insurance on the boat tour they took (it sank) was bogus. Later the condo she 
buys in Las Vegas with her husband’s life insurance is snatched away by some Russian oligarchs. So she begins to investigate. All these companies – real estate, insurance, banking – seem to operate out of offices in the Caribbean. But when she goes to confront the CEO of the company giving her the runaround, she discovers it’s just a series of post office boxes. Can she follow their trail to Panama? And will the villains ever pay?
The Laundromat is a series of fables to explain the money laundering and tax evasion brought to light by the Panama Papers, a mammoth data haul leaked to the press by an anonymous whistleblower. Mossack and Fonseca themselves tell the story in episodic form, regularly turning toward the camera to look right at you. At the beginning of the movie I was giggling at its audacity and unexpected form – I couldn’t wait to see Soderbergh’s next trick. The trouble is, that were no other gimmicks. He flogs the same dead horse – this is just a movie, they’re all actors, that’s a green screen behind them – for the whole 90 minutes! Just when you start caring a bit, Soderbergh makes sure to remind you it’s not real, it’s just a game. I admit there’s one surprising twist near the end.… but it’s immediately followed by a slice of earnest Americana so cringe-worthy it would make a nine-year-old squirm in embarrassment.
The Laudromat just doesn’t work.
Chiko
Wri/Dir: Özgür Yildirim
Chiko (Denis Moschitto) is a young Berliner trying to get ahead. His parents came to Germany from Turkey as Gastarbeiters in the 60s, and he still hangs with other Turkish Germans. Especially his two best friend, Tibet (Volkan Özcan) and Curly. Together they beat up and rob a local cannabis dealer. But instead of running away, Chiko asks to meet his boss.
Brownie (Moritz Bleibtreu — he’s in Bye Bye Germany, The Fifth Estate, My Best Enemy) is a crime boss living a comfortable middle-class life. He ends up hiring the scrappy Chiko on a trial run, moving ten keys of cannabis. Chiko exalts in his new wealth and woos the Turkish-German prostitite Meryam (Reyhan 
Sahin) in the apartment next door. Is it true love or just a financial transaction?
Meanwhile, Tibet, trying to save money for his mom’s kidney operation, short-changes customers. Brownie’s thugs arrive to punish him… by hammering a nail through his foot! This leads to a series of escalating events. Chiko graduates to coke dealing, and buys a white Mercedes with gold hubcaps to match his new image. As Chiko rises to the top 
like Scarface, Tibet’s falls into a downward spiral, his seething anger getting worse and worse. Finally Chiko has to choose: kingpin Brownie or his former best friend Tibet? Which commands his loyalty – friendship or business?
Chiko is a cool and violent crime drama set in urban Germany. It’s a melodrama in the best sense. Moschitto is terrific as Chiko: the criminal, the lover, the anti-hero. I liked this film and found it very moving, both the acting and the realistic, almost documentary-like peek inside the mosques, corner-stores and restaurants of Berlin. Of course it also has what you expect from a good crime drama: chase scenes, shootouts, and fights. And it’s playing as part of the Goethe Film’s Stronger than Blood, a series of crime dramas.
Sometimes Always Never opens today in Toronto; check your local listings. The Laundromat starts today, with Chiko playing one night only, October 8th, also at the TIFF Bell Lightbox.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Friday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website, culturalmining.com.
Daniel Garber talks with Matt Tyrnauer about Where’s My Roy Cohn?
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Roy Cohn is a historical phenomenon, despised by many and feared by more. In his lifetime, he sent Ethel and Julius Rosenberg to the electric chair, worked beside Joe McCarthy in the massive government purge of the left; persecuted homosexuals, defended right-wing causes, mentored Donald Trump, and defended the mob.
Behind the scenes he lived a decadent gay life. He was a devious, ruthless and powerful lawyer who ruled NY City… prompting more than one to ask: Where’s my Roy Cohn?
Where’s my Roy Cohn? is also the name of a new documentary that chronicles the notorious man’s life. It shares photos, recordings, period news footage and new interviews with some of his closest friends, family and past lovers. The film was directed by Matt Tyrnauer, known for his documentaries on the folk heroes and villains of our age, from Scotty Bowers to Jane Jacobs to Robert Moses.
I spoke to Matt Tyrnauer via telephone from CIUT 89.5 FM.
Where’s my Roy Cohn? opens on November 4 in Toronto at the TIFF Bell Lightbox.
Photo of Matt Tyrnauer by Jeff Harris.
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