Cultural Mining

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

When it rains it pours, with tons of movies all starting at once. ImagineNative opened on Tuesday with the lovely Aki, a dialogue-free doc about a year in the life of an Anishnabe community; and Toronto Jewish Film Festival kicked off with the equally delightful Dust Bowls and Jewish Souls: Another Side of Woody Guthrie, about the legendary folk singer and activist. Also opening this weekend is the very cute Power Ballad, and the brilliant indie film Our Hero, Balthazar. But I’ll be talking about two bittersweet romances and a campy adventure. There’s a pair of gay lovers from Manchester who meet on the down low; a straight couple in the deep south who turn to a life of crime; and man in Oklahoma who thinks he came from another planet.

Departures

Co-Dir: Neil Ely, Lloyd Eyre-Morgan

Benji (Lloyd Eyre-Morgan) is an average-looking guy with ginger hair in his 30s in Manchester. He’s getting over a breakup, the latest in a series of unfortunate relationships with rotten men. But he still holds the hope of someday falling in live. So to get over it, he’s taking a cheap flight to Amsterdam for the weekend. In the departure round bar, he meets  Jake (David Tag), who is everything Benji is not: tall dark, and handsome, and rich, as well. He’s also completely straight, he says, but always looking for a bit of fun. Jake invites Benji to stay in his Amsterdam pied a terre, free of charge and hires a prostitute to join them for a three-way. Not to Benji’s preferences but he likes out anyway.  And Jake arranges for another tryst in a month. Soon all pretences disappear and the two have passionate sex in their secret flat. For Benji, Jake is his ideal man — they go skinny dipping together and for quiet long walks in a field. It almost feels like true love… but something is missing. Jake refuses to get together in Manchester, won’t meet Benji’s mom, and won’t go with him to clubs back home. He won’t even communicate except during their pre-planned visits. There is definite affection from both sides,  but Jake is prone to occasional angry outbursts — he inherited his bad temper from his dad, he says. What is Jake hiding? Will he finally agree to a real relationship? Or is it doomed to fail?

Departures is a bittersweet, gay comedy about relationships and the power dynamics they hold. It’s short, sweet and quite funny, with a fair amount of sex and nudity, including some gritty and disturbing encounters he has with other people. It’s told in a stylized way, with words and tiny drawings of hearts appearing on the screen to reflect his inner feelings. No spoilers, but the first scene in the movie is their break-up — with the rest told in the form of flashbacks of their relationship, Benji’s other boyfriends, and his earlier life as a teen. I get the impression that co-director, writer and star Lloyd Eyre-Morgan based the whole thing on his own life. (Jake is played by a British soap star). While not exactly up-beat, it’s told in a heartfelt and funny way.

I liked this one.

Carolina Caroline

Dir:  Adam Rehmeier

It’s a few decades ago at a road stop in western Texas. Caroline (Samara Weaving) is a pretty young woman who works at a gas station owned by her single dad (her mom left when she was a baby, but is said to still live in South Carolina). She has long blonde hair, likes red cotton dresses and speaks in a playful twang. One day, she catches a passing motorist bilking her dad out of money at the cash register, using an old bill counting trick. She confronts him, and he not only refunds the money, but says he’ll teach her how to do the con right. Oliver (Kyle Gallner) is fast-talker and brimming with charisma, and the two hit it off like gangbusters. He invites her to go for a ride in his slick muscle-car out on the lonesome highway. But, she wonders, will he take her on 500 dates? He will, and more. The ride turns into an adventure in crime, with only a vague destination: to meet her Mom in South Carolina. Soon they’re pulling off complex cons at train stations, and spending nights having wild sex in cheap motels. They take on new identities, and move up a notch or two, to robbing banks. She does the robbing part (her face concealed with dark glasses and a black wig) while he drives the escape car. They’re swimming in cash… but how long can their crime spree — and the love that holds them together — last? 

Carolina Caroline is a romantic road movie and a crime thriller. This is a tried-and-true genre (a la Bonnie & Clyde), but unlike some classics it emphasizes the love and sex more than the blood and violence. It’s not deep, but you can really get into it. The production values are superb, filled with bright primary colours against a constant Country & Western soundtrack that pulls you along. And the acting is notable. It took me 20 minutes before I recognized Aussie Samara Weaving as the southern belle — she has the accent and mannerisms down pat. I’ve seen Kyle Garner in tons of TV shows but this is his breakthrough part; he’s really good. And no spoilers, but Kyra Sedgewick has a devastating cameo that will stay with you.

Carolina Caroline is definitely worth seeing.

Masters of the Universe

Dir: Travis Knight

Adam (Nicholas Galitzine)

is a young guy in his 20s who works at an unfulfilling cubicle job at a nameless corporation in Arkansas. Though hardworking and conscientious he doesn’t get promoted. He’s caring, and handsome but always strikes out with the ladies on the first date. Even his apartment-mate thinks he’s totally bonkers. Why? Because he insists he’s actually a prince from a distant planet sent to earth as a child, and as soon as he finds the magic sword he lost, he can return to Eternia and live happily ever after. He even keeps a folio of the childish drawings he made of all the people in his imaginary universe.

Until… he finally locates that sword in a geeky comic book store, immediately summoning two people: a hideous creature that attacks him;  and Teela (Camila Mendes) an adult version of the girl he knew as a child, come to rescue him and take him home. But when they get there, it’s not the Eternia he remembered. His parents, the King and Queen, are nowhere to be seen, Teela’s father (Idris Elba), once the proud Man at Arms of Castle Greyskull, is now a drunken mess, and the beautiful planet is in a sad and sorry state. This is all the fault of Skeletor (Jared Leto), a villain with a blue-skinned body and a skull for a head. He insults his lackeys (You hirsute half-wit!) and punctuates all his pronouncements with a sinister laugh. (Mwaaahahahahaha!) All he needs to ensure absolute power is the sword that Adam now holds. Who will triumph: the evil Skeletor or the kind and strong he-man Prince Adam?

Masters of the Universe is a live-action rendering of the ultra-cheesy, Saturday morning cartoon from the 1980s, as well as subsequent versions made over the next 40 years. They could have gone the superhero way, making everything serious and grave, but luckily they chose humour and high camp, instead. Like I said, super-cheesy. When Adam becomes He Man he is transformed into a musclebound hero in a leather harness and loin cloth riding a green, talking tiger. Some of the bad guys look like stuffed animals, not especially threatening. The movie itself wavers between serious and silly, self-parody. And while made by a toy company this film doesn’t go full meta, like Barbie. I think they’re aiming for a franchise — it’s set up to allow for endless sequels, but I doubt they will be making any more.  Yes, Masters of the Universe is kinda bad, but not dreadful. Think of it as a low-end B movie, with enough groans and laughs to keep fans of the original cartoon satisfied.

Departures, Carolina Carolina and Masters of the Universe are all opening this weekend in Toronto; 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.