Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.

TIFF, North America’s most important film festival, is starting less than two weeks from now, bringing us some of the best upcoming movies in the world. But if the SAG-Aftra and WGA strikes aren’t settled by then, it will be unusually lacking in big star energy (obviously because Hollywood actors can’t promote studio premieres during the strike.) That means no crowds on King street trying for a glimpse of someone famous. So the people at TIFF are scrambling for other big names to replace them.  Of course actors from Asia and Europe will be there, and  the directors aren’t on strike so I think if a movie star directs they can show up — like Bradley Cooper, Michael Keaton to name just two. There are also people having “conversations”; the four members of Talking Heads — David Byrne, Tina Weymouth, Chris Frantz, and Jerry Harrison  — will all be there together again as actual “talking heads” with Spike Lee leading a Q&A after a screening of Jonathan Demme’s Stop Making Sense (1984). Then there are subjects of documentaries — like Lil Nas X. So if you’re into big names and big crowds, looks like there will be quite a few at TIFF this year. 

I’ll be talking more about TIFF films next week, but in the mean time I’m looking at two new movies about second chances. There’s an unknown record album from the late 70s that becomes famous 30 years later, and a 12-year-old girl who meets her dad for the very first time.

Dreamin’ Wild

Co-Wri/Dir: Bill Pohlad (Love & Mercy)

It’s 2011 in Washington State. Joe and Donnie Emmerson are brothers who live on a remote farm. As teenagers in the late 1970s, Joe (Jack Dylan Grazer) and Donnie (Noah Jupe) cut a record album together. While Joe just played the drums, Donnie wrote the music and lyrics, did the vocals, played all the instruments and did the recording, editing and producing. The album was called Dreamin’ Wild because the ideas came to Donnie in his dreams. He was often up all night trying out his latest, writing new ones every night. It was a labour of love… but the album failed miserably, and sold virtually no copies. 

Thirty-some years later, Donnie (Casey Affleck) is still a musician, and still working and living with his partner Nancy (Zooey Deschanel). He’s depressed and moody. Joe (Walton Goggins) gave up drumming years ago and is happy hauling logs on the farm. And then something remarkable happened: someone found an old copy of the album, put it online and it went viral. Everyone is looking for Donnie and Joe, but they live on a farm without wifi.  But a record producer finds them and says he wants to remaster the album… and sell them. Is this for real? Or will it be yet another colossal let-down in Donnie’s miserable existence?

Dreamin’ Wild is a tender but slow-moving drama based on real events. The acting is A-list, with Casey Affleck, Zooey Deschanek, and Walter Goggins (the rangy cowboy from  the TV series Justified) plus Beau Bridges as their Dad. But Noah Jupe as young Donny really stands out. Unfortunately the story is way too slow and too depressing, with lots of long silences that lead to nowhere and a plot without any big conclusions. Luckily the constant images of vast forests and fields, hills and skies are magnificently photographed. And about half of the movie is just the actors — and the original musicians — playing their music, which I quite liked.

So I think it balances out in the end. 

Scrapper

Wri/Dir: Charlotte Regan

Georgie (Lola Campbell) is a young girl who lives alone in a small town in Essex outside London. She does all her chores — laundry, vacuuming, cooking, and cleaning — without anyone asking. She also steals bikes to make enough money for food. She even gets the clerk at a convenience store to record random phrases she uses to deal with social workers on the phone. (They think she’s living with her uncle, Winston Churchill). And she hangs out with her best friend Ali (Alin Uzun). Her single mom died a while back but she’s been happily taking care of herself — who needs school?  (She’s on extended leave for grieving.) It’s a dream life… until there’s an unexpected visitor. 

A young guy in trainers and a trashy haircut jumps over her garden fence and makes himself at home. Who are you? Jason, he says. I’m your Dad (Harris Dickinson). He’s here to help her out — but she doesn’t trust him. Can he win over her affections? What are his real intentions? And can the two of them survive on the margins?

Scrapper is very good comedy drama about a feisty working class girl making her way in the world with her equally scrappy father. It starts out like a whimsical comedy —  with shades of Home Alone — but once you get into it, you’ll see it’s actually quite a touching story. If this is Lola Campbell’s first role, she’s a natural — because she creates this unforgettable character and carries it through. Harris Dickinson has also invented an entirely new persona, after playing a gay thug in Coney Island in Beach Rats and a clueless male model in Triangle of Sadness. 

I like this one.

Both of these movies open this weekend in Toronto — Scrapper at the TIFF Bell Lightbox and Dreamin’ Wild at the Carlton and across Canada; check your local listings.

This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website, culturalmining.com.