It’s all lies! Films reviewed: Jay Kelly, Zodiac Killer Project, Wicked: For Good
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
This week, I’m looking at three new movies, about people who lie. There’s a movie star who smiles for the cameras, onscreen and off; two witches and a wizard who hides behind his curtain, and a filmmaker who looks at what lies behind True Crime documentaries.
Jay Kelly
Co-Wri/Dir: Noah Baumbach
Jay Kelly (George Clooney) a major Hollywood star known for his action movies, is wrapping up the last scene of his latest film. He gets a few days off before starting his next feature after attending a tribute to him in Tuscany, as his friend and manager, Ron (Adam Sandler) keeps reminding him. But then a series of unfortunate events begins to occur. Ron tells him that Peter (Jim Broadbent) a noted director who launched Jay’s career when he was just an acting student — has died. And his younger daughter says she’s heading off to backpack and ride the rails in Europe before starting University in the fall… meaning his nest will be empty from now on. So when he runs into Tim (Billy Crudup) at Peter’s funeral — a blast from the past who he hasn’t seen in decades — he decides to join him for a drink at one of their old LA haunts. Tim was a method actor, someone so good he could read a menu aloud in a way that will make you cry. But their drinks turn to fisticuffs when Tim blames Jay for stealing his first role, sleeping with his girlfriend and generally ruining his life. Jay leaves the reunion with a black eye and Tim with a broken nose and a smouldering grudge.
So Jay decides on a change of plans: he’ll fly to Europe and surprise his daughter in Paris for some spontaneous fun. But nothing can be spontaneous for an A-list movie star. Jay flies there in his private jet, with a huge entourage, including his manager, hair stylist, PA, bodyguard and publicist (Laura Dern). But aside from his adoring fans, he can’t seem to make friends, spend time with his family, or do anything of lasting value. What’s a lonely, rich-and-famous guy to do?
Jay Kelly is a sardonic look at the hollowness of a Hollywood movie star’s life. Jay Kelly seems to be modelled on George
Clooney’s own career; they even show clips from Clooney’s past films at Jay Kelly’s tribute, thus blurring the line between reality and fiction. Jay Kelly is always flashing his pearly whites, but seems to have no actual feelings, just poses — that his director, or his publicist tells him to do. The movie’s not bad, but it’s hard to have deep feelings about someone so fake, a character that only finds his true self on the silver screen. It’s like he’s always acting. The biggest surprise is Adam Sandler in a serious role, without any bombastic elements. He’s actually good!
Jay Kelly is a cute light story, with a dark undertone. While not fantastic, it’s still worth watching.
Zodiac Killer Project
Dir: Charlie Shackleton
Charlie Shackleton is a documentary filmmaker from the UK who is obsessed with the case of the Zodiac Killer. He was a notorious serial killer who murdered any number of victims in the 1960s around the SF Bay Area, but was never caught. Part of his mystique was the many killings later attributed to him, and the series of cryptic letters sent to his victims and fans. Charlie wants to make a documentary based on a book by a policeman who actually encountered the killer… but negotiations with the authors of the book falls through, thus killing any chance of making the Zodiac Killer doc. Instead he decides to make a doc about how he would have made the doc he can’t make.
So the movie ends up being a spoken word-essay — Charlie’s words throughout — as he walks us through what he would have shot, scene by scene: a road stop outside of San Francisco; an urban street corner in Vallejo; a modernistic suburban church. Mundane images all, but always accompanied by clanky music and his eerie descriptions of what eyewitnesses saw in their search for the Zodiac Killer. Added to this are short clips and commentary of other True Crime docs, including films like Joe Berlinger and Bruce 
Sinofsky’s Paradise Lost trilogy, about the three teenagers falsely accused of ritual child murder in West Memphis, Arkansas.
(Which is a great series, btw). But what Charlie points out is, many True Crime directors manipulate viewers using music, camera work and edited interviews to put the suspicion on someone the filmmakers want to blame, but who may or may not be responsible for the crime. And he calls into question the myth of the documentary director as an impartial observer rather than a biased manipulator of the truth.
Zodiac Killer Project is not a normal movie, by any stretch of the imagination (though it is pretty funny) It’s a filmmaker’s monologue on (what I think is) a very interesting topic, that is the deception and self-righteousness behind an entire genre — True Crime; accompanied by extended film images of, frankly, mundane locations. If you’re a cineaste, a movie buff, or a true crime fan, I think you’ll like this one; I do. But if you go expecting the bread-and-butter of True Crime media, the titillating images, the exploitational gross-outs, or self righteous harrumphing about the killer’s innate barbarism, you ain’t gonna find it here.
Wicked: for Good
Dir: Jon M. Chu
It’s another day in the Land of Oz, but things have changed over the past few years. Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) has been in hiding ever since a massive government propaganda campaign has labeled her the “Wicked Witch of the West”. Her former best friend Glinda (Ariana Grande) is a figurehead who appears before the public in a mechanical bubble. She has no real magic but her job is to keep the peasants calm. She publicly professes her love for handsome Prince Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey) a captain in the army, but he pines only for the green-faced Elphaba. And Elphaba’s little sister Nessarose (Marissa Bode) is now an autocratic Governor, passing vindictive laws. But Nessa, too, suffers from setbacks: her long-time companion, the Munchkin Buck (Ethan Slater) has had enough of her (he’s secretly in love with Glinda.) And under the under the direction of the two scheming bullies with the only real power in this world — the Wizard of Oz (Jeff Goldblum) and Madame (Michelle Yeoh) — Oz is passing ever more draconian laws, including the stripping of all rights from animals, who once lived and worked side by side with 
humans. Will Elphaba and Glinda ever be friends again? Can they stop the Wizard’s nefarious plans? And who will Prince Fiyero choose to marry?
Wicked: for Good is part two of the film adaptation of the hit Broadway musical. It’s an intriguingly revisionist version of the original Wizard of Oz story. Dorothy and the cowardly Lion appear but only as insipid background characters, The Wizard of Oz is a bad guy, and the Wicked Witch of the West a potential heroine. It’s 2 1/2 hours long but never boring, including three new songs by Stephen Schwartz that weren’t in the original play. Now, personally, I’m not a fan of that genre of music, but Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande’s voices are a pleasure to listen to. It’s visually dead-on, from the artificial, candy-coloured palate of the Emerald City, to cute and rustic Munchkinland. And I love the Art Deco, steam-punk machinery everywhere. It’s exquisite. Great production values all around: sets, costumes, elaborate dance numbers, and, of course, the flying monkeys.
It does feel like the second part of a two-act play — following a year-long intermission — and it is a much darker ride than last year’s Wicked — but I still enjoyed it.
Jay Kelly, Wicked for good and Zodiac Killer Project are all playing now 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.
Dysfunctional Dystopia? Films reviewed: Sentimental Value, The Running Man, Left-Handed Girl
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Still more Fall film festivals coming at you in Toronto, with the EU film fest — free films from each country of the European Union, plus Ukraine — and Ekran, the Polish Film Festival. So much to see, but look out for Agnieszaka Holland’s biopic of Franz Kafka (called Franz) at Ekran.
But this week, I’m looking at three great new movies, one action and two dramas. There’s an estranged family in Oslo; a fugitive on the run in a dystopian America, and a dysfunctional family in Taipei, Taiwan.
Sentimental Value
Co-Wri/Dir: Joachim Trier
Nora Borg (Renate Reinsve) is a successful stage actress who lives in a grand old house in Oslo. It’s been in her family for generations: it’s where her grandmother killed herself, and where she grew up with her sister Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) and their mom. Their dad, Gustav, (Stellan Skarsgård) disappeared after their divorce when she was still young, and they haven’t heard much from him in decades. Until now. Their mom just died and she and her sister have to deal with the house and go through all their family’s possessions (that’s the “sentimental value” of the title). And dad owns part of the house, too. But he has a second reason for showing up.
He wants to make a movie there, to use the house as his set. He’s a famous film director, but not in his prime anymore; he hasn’t shot a movie in decades. And he wants Nora in the main role of what is likely his swan song. You’re the only one who can do it, he says, just read the script! Nora refuses; bad blood runs deep. So, partly to get the funding he needs to make the picture, Gustav casts a Hollywood actress to play the role that Nora turned down. Rachel Kemp (Elle Fanning) is a big name, and she’s also a fan of Gustav’s work. What will happen to the house? Will Gustav make his film? And will they ever be on speaking terms again?
Sentimental Value is dramatic comedy about a Norwegian family. It’s full of clever asides and wide-ranging topics, but with a solid core at its centre. What makes Trier such a good director (The Worst Person in the World, Thelma, Oslo August 31st) is he creates believable characters in tough situations but without losing his sense of humour. He constantly plays around with his audience as to what is real and what is 
artifice: we see Nora having a deep, emotional breakdown and then discover she’s acting a role on a stage set. He also uses biting satire to get his points across, skewering the superficiality of both Hollywood and bourgeois Norwegian society. He also repeatedly casts from a company of actors in his films. Elle Fanning and Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgård are new, but Renate Reinsve and Anders Danielsen Lie are familiar faces if you’ve ever seen Trier’s movies (and if you haven’t, you should).
Sentimental Value is moving, funny and full of good stuff to think about. I really liked this one.
The Running Man
Co-Wri/Dir: Edgar Wright
Based on a story by Steven King
It’s some point in the not-so-distant future in a dystopian America. A few rich people live luxurious lives, but the majority eke out a precarious existence within the endless sprawl of urban slums. They’re constantly surveilled by cameras, drones and DNA detectors while a brutal paramilitary police force patrols the streets. What keeps the people satisfied? Watching the reality shows and game shows broadcast from a single, big-brother-like monopoly network which controls the government, big business and media.
Ben Richards (Glen Powell) is a skilled labourer and union rep. He also has a volatile temper. He points out dangerous problems on the shop floor, which in this world gets you fired. So he’s out of work, his wife depends on tips in a hostess bar, and their 5 year old daughter is dying of an ordinary flu because they can’t afford basic medicine. What to do? There’s only one choice left: compete on THE RUNNING MAN, a reality show where all contestants try to survive for 30 days being hunted by a gang of professional killers. The winner gets a huge cash prize. And the losers pay with their lives. Luckily, the show’s producer, Dan Killian (Josh Brolin) takes a liking to Ben Richards — he’s smart, strong and most of all, angry! And the audience starts to like him… and his messages of rebellion. Can Ben outsmart the powers that be and survive? Or will the Network crush him, like they did with every Runner before him?
The Running Man is a non-stop action movie, with good 
acting and an interesting plot. It’s set in the future, but done in a 1980s style, with zines, nerds and gadgets over spacemen and phasers. There are chase scenes using planes, trains and automobiles, and fiery explosions that level a city block. Glen Powell is wonderful in the lead role, appealing and heroic, painted like a Luigi Mangione fighting the corporate super-villain played by a slimy Josh Brolin. Director Edgar Wright — who brought us Toronto’s greatest Scott Pilgrim vs the Universe — keeps it funny and nerdy; he even casts Michael Cera as a nerdy revolutionary.
The Running Man is a lot of fun to watch.
Left-Handed Girl
Co-Wri/Dir: Shih-Ching Tsou
It’s Taipei’s night market, and a small family is moving into a tiny apartment nearby: I-Jing (Nina Ye) a little girl with a wild imagination, I-Ann (Shih-Yuan Ma) a diffident teenager with a chip on her shoulder, and their hardworking mom (Janel Tsai). She’s opening up a noodle stall to pay their basic rent cheque. Dad is nowhere to be seen; he ran off years ago, leaving the family high and dry. I-Jing quickly adjusts to her new kindergarten class and life in the constantly-moving marketplace. She even helps Johnny (Brando Huang) — a huckster with a heart of gold who sells carnival junk to unsuspecting shoppers — by making announcements on his loudspeaker. Mom is constantly busy, cooking and cleaning her stall, but can’t seem to earn a living. She also takes time to visit her ex-husband, now dying of cancer in hospital. Sadly he leaves his 
abandoned family nothing but funeral debts and a pet meerkat. And I-Ann — who was once top of her class until she suddenly dropped out — works as a scantily-clad “betel nut beauty” selling smokes and the addictive chewing treat from her boyfriend’s shop.
But things get tense when the kids’ Mom is forced to visit their grandparents to ask for some money to tide them over. Mom’s brother is the golden boy who can do no wrong, and her two sisters both live in nice houses and are unsympathetic about her economic condition. And worst of all is grandpa, who scolds i-Jing for being left handed. He tells her left hand belongs to the devil (which she interprets as having an evil hand over which she has no control.) Now grandma is smuggling migrants through airports, mom faves eviction from the market, I-Ann missed her last period, and tiny I-Jing is turning into an avid shoplifter, using her “devil’s hand” to do the dirty work. Can this dysfunctional family ever pull itself back together?
Left-Handed Girl is a social drama about a family of women living on the brink. It’s tender, shocking and hilarious. It’s full of fast, clang-y music, flashy lights and hyper-saturated colour. It’s specifically Taiwanese in details (from bubble tea to class snobbery) but universal in its emotional appeal. And it’s co-written and edited by Sean Baker (Tangerine, The Florida Project, Red Rocket, Anora), who swept the Oscars last year with Anora. The characters speak Chinese but it’s clearly a Sean Baker movie, full of imperfect women in precarious times. And its Taiwanese-American director Shih-Ching Tsou worked on all of Baker’s films, so this is part of a long term partnership, with her taking the helm. And it’s Taiwan’s selection for best international Oscar.
I loved Left-Handed Girl, too.
Sentimental Value — opening this weekend — and Left-Handed Girl — next weekend — both played at TIFF. And The Running Man is now playing 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.
Canadian Film Fest! Movies reviewed: The Players, To the Moon, Skeet
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
With the warmer weather, spring film festival season comes to Toronto, starting with the Canadian Film Fest. It features world-, national- and local premieres of great Canadian movies that will be opening later this year. It has a wide variety of genres and topics — sci-fi, comedies, dramas and documentaries — from across the land. They’re very accessible and a lot of fun, and they bring to light current topics unique to this country. And each screening includes a feature and a short film along with the filmmakers themselves in person.
So this week, I’m writing some shorter-than-normal reviews to give you an idea of what’s playing at the CFF this year. There’s a teenaged girl in Toronto trying to broaden her horizons, an ex-con in Saint Johns, trying to follow the straight and narrow, and a middle-aged single dad in Halifax who does ritual dances to the moon.
The Players
Wri/Dir: Sarah Galea-Davis
It’s summer in the early 1990s in Toronto. Emily (Stefani Kimber) is a naive but listless 15 year old girl who wishes her parents would get back together. Her dad moved when her mom returned to University and started sleeping with her prof. But Emily thinks she’s found her calling when she runs into an experimental theatre group in a park, and successfully auditions for a show. But this is no ordinary theatrical troupe. It’s run by a Svengali-like director named Reinhardt (Eric Johnson) and his girlfriend actress Marley (Jess Salgueiro). Rehearsals last for hours, full of primal screams and heavy body contact. Emily is in heaven, viewing herself and the world in brand new ways. Reinhardt pays special attention to Emily, giving her readings in French literature so she can really “understand” the art their creating (an eight-hour version of Hamlet). Even when she spends days at the studio without going home, and strange bruises start appearing on her body, she accepts that it’s part of becoming an actor. But the cultish nature of the group, and Reinhardt’s increasingly dangerous, abusive and sexualized behaviour starts to gnaw at Emily’s psyche. Should she see it through, or get the hell out of that place while she still can?
The Players is a gripping, coming-of-age drama about life as a
young actress in the 1990s, long before the #MeToo movement. It’s first exhilarating and then horrifying. Stefani Kimber is excellent and well-rounded as Emily, through whose eyes the entire story is told. And though it’s director Sarah Galea-Davis first feature, it’s powerful and prescient.
To the Moon
Wri/Dir: Kevin Hartford
Sam (Jacob Sampson) is a corporate executive in Halfax, Nova Scotia. He has recently moved to a picturesque suburb with his rudderless teenaged daughter Ella (Phoebe Rex); his wife died soon after Ella was born. Since then he has given up all sex and dating. Instead, each morning, Sam and Ella do an elaborate dance ritual, ostensibly to stop the moon from crashing into earth! But everything changes when Sam’s sexuality begins to reveal itself when he meets an attractive man at a lunch spot. Is Sam gay? Ella, meanwhile, auditions for a play at her new school, in the hopes of meeting a guy she has a crush on… but is thwarted at every step by a cruel, bully-girl named Isobel. And all of Sam and Ella’s lives are observed by Claire (Amy Groening) a neurotic and nosy next-door neighbour novelist, facing writers block. Can Ella find 
satisfaction at her new school? Can Sam come out as gay, even to himself? And what will happen to their lives if they stop doing the sacred moon dance?
To the Moon is a funny, oddball comedy set in Nova Scotia. It’s the kind of comedy where every character is quirky and armed with a quick witty comeback. It’s cute though hard to believe, but what’s truly hard to believe is the totally unexpected wack ending (no spoilers here.) This may be the first film of Kevin Hartford I’ve ever seen, but it has the blessing of Thom Fitzgerald, the film’s producer, who is an icon in the world of LGBT movies and directed two classics: The Hanging Garden and Cloudburst. If you’re looking for a zany gay comedy from down east, check out To The Moon.
Skeet
Co-Wri/Dir: Nik Sexton
St John’s, Newfoundland. Billy Skinner (Sean Dalton) is a skeet, a tough-guy enforcer who did three years hard time for violent crime. Now he’s out again, back in his sketchy neighbourhood, still ruled by a gangster-poet named Leo (Garth Sexton). But things look worse than what he left. His brother can barely walk, his former crime buddy collects empty beer cans, his mom’s a fentanyl head, and she snorted all the money he was sending her to take care of his teenaged son Brandon (Jackson Petten). But Billy is determined to turn his life around — no more crime or fighting. He’s gets a job mopping floors at the chicken plant, spends time with his son, stays off drugs and attends an obligatory support group. And strangest of all, makes friends with his neighbour Mo (Jay Abdo), a taxi driver, one of many Syrian refugees recently 
housed in his neighbourhood. Can Billy shake off the cursed Skinner family name? Or will he revert to life as a skeet?
Skeet is a moving and hard-hitting drama about a ne’erdowell trying to make it in the tough parts of St Johns. Well acted and shot in glorious black and white, it gives us a sympathetic portrayal of the bleak parts of Newfoundland we rarely if ever see. Luckily, director Nik Sexton — who has honed his craft for years at the Rick Mercer Report and This Hour has 22 Minutes — doesn’t know how not to be funny, so there’s enough humour to keep it from being a drag. I guess you could call Skeet Donnie Dumphy’s evil twin.
Great movie.
Skeet won People’s Pick for Best Flick (Nik Sexton) at CFF.
The Players won Best Director award (Sarah Galea-Davis) and Best Acting award (Stefani Kimber) at CFF.
Skeet, To the Moon, and The Players are three of the movies premiering at the Canadian Film Festival, running Monday March 24th through Saturday, March 29 at the Scotiabank cinema in Toronto. Go to canfilmfest.ca for tickets and showtimes.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website culturalmining.com.
Remote houses. Films reviewed: Anacoreta, Eat the Night + TBFF!
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
February is Black History Month, the perfect time to check out Toronto’s Black Film Festival. It features movies, docs and shorts from Canada and around the world. Like Karen Chapman’s Village Keeper a drama set in Toronto’s Laurence Heights neighbourhood, about an overprotective mom with her two teenage kids who are forced to move into their grandmother’s crowded apartment. And in the documentary feature category, Tara Moore tells the history of apartheid South Africa and how it affects that country now, in Legacy: The De-colonized History of South Africa. Toronto Black Film Festival is running now through February 17th at the Carlton Cinema.
But this week, I’m looking at two new movies, from Canada and France, about remote houses. There’s a group of friends at a haunted cabin in the woods, and a teenage girl and her brother living in a world that only exists online.
Anacoreta
Co-Wri/Dir: Jeremy Schuetze
It’s a beautiful cabin in a remote part of Vancouver Island. Jeremy (Jeremy Schuetze) is there with three friends Antonia (Antonia Thomas), Matt (Matt Visser) and Jess (Jess Stanley) for one last look at his late grandfather’s cabin before it’s sold. It’s a beautiful old building overlooking pristine blue waters and mountains rising dramatically right behind them. It’s like paradise: they grill sausages and play beer pong, pick low-hanging fruit while watching a black bear cub sun itself on the grass. But despite all the natural beauty, something is creepy here. Antonia sees a truck following them whenever they’re driving. They find a dead black cat in their freezer. And things get really spooky when Jess starts sleepwalking. Is this place haunted? The thing is, they’re also there to shoot a film. And some of those scary parts might have been planned and executed by Jeremy, their director, to get some good reactions out of the cast. He’s a bit of dick, and the rest of them are not happy about it.
But that’s not all. Jeremy’s grandfather made his fortune 
writing Hardy Boys -type mysteries in this very cabin. And when they find an unpublished script things get even weirder. It mentions a place called Afterglow, a mausoleum about seven hours away. That’s where ghosts are said to live just underground. So of course they have to go there and see for themselves. Is it all a hoax? Or is it real? And who will survive this perilous journey?
Anacoreta is a horror movie about four friends in a cabin in the woods and a documentary (or mockumentary) about making a movie. All the actors and crew use their real names, Jeremy and Matt wrote the script, and Anotonia and Jess produced it. Same with the cameraman and the boom, who also appear as characters in the film. But it also takes pains to 
remind us they’re shooting a movie, often repeating scenes two or three times, till Jeremy is satisfied. Which partly interrupts the scariness, but also makes the scary parts seem more real, in a found-footage / Blair Witch Project kind of way. Does it work? It kinda does. It makes you believe the movie you’re watching is a disaster project, while at the same time, reminding you it’s all just a scripted story.
Budget? Low.
Indie? Yes.
Acting? Good.
Canadian? Very.
Meta? You bet!
Scary? Not too shabby, especially near the end.
Eat the Night
Wri/Dir: Caroline Poggi, Jonathan Vinel
Apolline (Lila Gueneau) is a high school student with curly reddish hair. She lives with her big brother Pablo (Théo Cholbi). They spend most of their time online, on a role-playing game called Darknoon. It’s an apocalyptic fantasy land, where their avatars live exciting lives, killing thousands of competitors in exotic sword fights. Apo much prefers Darknoon to real life. At school she’s an ordinary girl somewhere in France. Online she’s an anime figure with enormous breasts and sharp, pink leather spikes coming out of her shoulder. Pablo’s avatar has pierced nipples and carries a sabre. Apo rides on the back of a giant blue cat she tamed. In real life, Pablo drops her off at school each day on his acid-green Kawasaki. Their mom’s gone and their dad is never around, so they take turns cooking for each other. But the tide turns when Darknoon announces 
it’s shutting down, permanently, on the Winter Solstice, just a few weeks away. Apo is devastated.
Pablo also has a side hustle selling colourful little pills at clubs and parties. It’s a one-man operation using a metal crank-press to turn out tiny batches of uppers, molly and acid, one by one. But when a big-time dealer sees him encroaching on his turf, his henchmen beat Pablo up. That’s when a stranger appeared to tend his wounds and wipe up the blood. His name is Night (Erwan Kepoa Falé). Pablo needs a bodyguard and a business partner. Night quits his job, and moves in, and soon they’re having passionate, violent sex in Pablo’s hideaway. But Darknoon’s last day is coming soon and the gangster are gathering forces to find and kill Pablo. Can Apo and Pablo leave Darknoon in a blaze of glory? And in the real world, can Pablo and Night permanently leave this crappy town and go somewhere safe and new?
Eat the Night is a glorious French thriller about online role-playing games and real-life crime. It’s passionate and tragic. About 25% takes place inside the otherworldly game, the rest in a cinematically cool, louche real world. Two very different places but visually harmonious. And as the movie progresses characters increasingly appear in the game as like their actual selves. Lila Gueneau plays Apo as a young artist who lives in an animated, comic book world complete with an elaborate pink cos-play outfit. As Pablo, Théo Cholbi is a nihilistic fighter/criminal with a pet green snake. As his lover and defender Night, Erwan Kepoa Falé is kinder and gentler but just as dangerous. Eat the Night (under the even more carnal title Devore la nuit) played in the Directors Fortnight at Cannes. a very violent and highly sexual film.
I think it’s great.
Eat the Night is playing at the Revue Cinema in Toronto on Feb 19, and opens at the Carlton and Yonge/Dundas on the 21st; check your local listings. Anacoreta will be available on demand starting the 21st.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website culturalmining.com.
Daniel Garber talks with Toshiaki Aoyagi about Cinema Kabuki
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
When you hear the word “kabuki”, you’re probably familiar with what it looks like, perhaps the costumes and makeup, or its movement. You might think it’s complex, performative or inscrutable. But it’s actually a living and breathing performance art form, a medium still practiced and popular. But, unless you’ve been to Japan, you’ve probably never seen a performance of a kabuki play. Well, now’s your chance.
Cinema Kabuki is a series of three kabuki plays filmed for the big screen, starring some of its biggest stars. They are full of love, romance, tragedy and glory. The first is the salacious-sounding Love Letters from the Pleasure Quarters; the second show is Princess 
Sakurahime, Part I, full of death, tragedy, lust and a fair bit of supernatural LGBT content; and the third performance is Lion Dance, Kagami-jishi, a one-man, or one-animal performance.
The series is co-presented by the Japan Foundation and the Consulate General of Japan in Toronto and programmed
by their program officer Toshi Aoyagi, known for his love of the arts, from origami to performing art. This is a rare opportunity to see kabuki in a Toronto theatre.
I spoke with Toshiaki Aoyagi in person at CIUT 89.5 FM.
The films are playing at the TIFF Lightbox in Toronto on Sunday, February 23rd, from 1 pm until the evening.
TIFF24! Films reviewed: The Substance, Anora PLUS curtain-raisers
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
TIFF, the Toronto International Film Festival is now in full swing, showing films from around the world — basically what you’ll be seeing in local theatres over the next year or so. Though tickets have gotten a bit pricey and are hard to get, there are still some free screenings, and you can also stand in line for rush tickets even if they’re sold out. Meanwhile King Street West between University and Spadina is closed to traffic this weekend, and worth checking out — lots of games, free samples, drinks, food, and endless fans looking for a glance at celebrities.
So this week I’ll talk briefly about some TIFF movies to look out for, as well as two TIFF reviews. There’s an exotic dancer who meets a young Russian in Coney Island, and a TV dancercise star who meets her better self in Hollywood.
Curtain raisers
Here are a few movies coming to TIFF that look good.
Triumph, set in post communist Bulgaria, is about some high-ranking military brass on a top-secret mission to find a powerful, secret chamber, with the help of a psychic.
The Brutalist starring Adrian Brody, Felicity Jones and Guy Pearce, is a drama about a post-WWII Hungarian architect brought to America by a powerful industrialist who will change his and his wife’s lives forever.
Diciannove, is a first feature about a 19 year old man leaving Sicily to satisfy his obsession with 19th century (and older) literature.
And We Live In Time, starring Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield as two people who meet at random and form a couple.
These are just a few of many movies premiering at TIFF.
Anora
Wri/Dir: Sean Baker (reviews: Tangerine, The Florida Project, Red Rocket)
Ani (Mikey Madison) is an exotic dancer in her early twenties. She lives with her sister in a small house in Brooklyn. When she’s not performing on stage or doing lap dances in private rooms, she’s probably talking to her friends in the green room. Her best friend works there, and so does rival frenemy. Her whole life is centred on this nightclub, until one night when she is requested to handle a client who specifically wants a Russian-speaking dancer. Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn)
is just a kid, barely legal. After they have fun in the back, he invites her to spend a weekend at his house. It’s a mammoth gated mansion with huge windows and designer furniture. His king sized bed has red silk sheets, and they make love all night long. She meets his coney island entourage and his moustached body guard. Ivan is infatuated with Anora and she likes him a lot, too. On a whim, he flies them all to Vegas on a private jet where he claims his own special suite at a casino. Ivan throws $1000 chips on the table like petty cash. Then this kid buys Ani a huge diamond ring and a sable coat before he proposes. They are married the same day. What she doesn’t realize is he’s the son of an immemsely rich and powerful Russian oligarch. All this money and possessions belong to his parents and they want him back in Russia. They’re flying back to NY to annul the wedding and three tough guys arrive to keep them 
company. Is this legal? And can Ivan and Ani escape from their clutches?
Anora is a fantastic, high-speed adventure, full of emotion, humour, thrills, a bit of violence and lots and lots of sex. Mikey Madison is amazing as the tough but tender Anora, and newcomer Mark Eydelshteyn bounces around like a bag of springs waiting to uncoil. All of Sean Baker’s movies — Tangerine, The Florida Project, Red Rocket — are about sex work, and are always told from the point of view of the sex workers themselves. But Anora goes far beyond his previous work in both depth and feelings.
Rarely do I walk out of a movie thinking I want to watch this one again. Anora is that good.
The Substance
Wri/Dir: Coralie Fargeat
Elisabeth Sparkle (Deni Moore) is a TV star. She’s the queen of primetime dancercise, and has millions of fans. She’s been pumping away at it for decades in her trademark lycra leotards. She wears brightly coloured designer fashion, drives a snazzy convertible, and lives in a luxurious penthouse suite facing an enormous rooftop billboard with her smiling face and fit body staring back at her. But one day she overhears her oleaginous producer Harvey (Dennis Quaid) talking about her behind her back. To hell with ratings, he says, she’s jumped the shark. We need someone younger and prettier. Is her time running out?
She gets so flustered that she crashes her beautiful sports car and 
ends up in hospital. Miraculously, she escaped without a scratch, but an unnaturally handsome young medic, slips her a note. It’s a secret clinic where scientists have concocted a substance that can develop a “better” version of yourself — prettier, younger, and with more sex appeal — to keep you on top of your game. And after some misgivings, she follows the instructions to a secret place where she picks up the stuff. What she doesn’t realize is, it doesn’t actually make you any younger looking or prettier. No, it creates a fully formed body double to take your place. Sue (Margaret Qualley) takes over in public and lands a TV show to replace Elisabeth Sparkle. But like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, they alternate, one sleeps while the other one plays. And if either of them disobey any of the rules around the substance… bad things happen to them both.
The Substance is a cautionary tale about Hollywood’s extreme infatuation toward youth and beauty. It is shocking, disgusting and amazing. Quaid and Qualley are both great but if anyone understands Hollywood’s obsession with youth and beauty it’s Demi Moore. In 1991, she appeared naked while pregnant on the cover of Vanity Fair under the headline More Demi Moore. In 2005, she married Ashton Kutcher, 15 years younger than her. In this movie she’s allowed to take it to extreme proportions — no spoilers — toward a totally over-the-top ending. Director Coralie Fargeat is French, and though the cast and topic are American, it uses a quintessentially French female gaze. There’s a grotesque obsession with food, and who but a French would imagine an American network TV show on New Year’s Eve featuring topless Folies Bergeres dancers?!
Don’t get me wrong, this is an extreme movie, but it is also like nothing you’ve ever seen.
Anora and The Substance are both featured at TIFF this year — go to tiff.net for details.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website culturalmining.com.
Reduplicatives. Films reviewed: Didi, Sing Sing, Kneecap
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Any given movie can be placed somewhere between truth and fiction — just depends on how close a fictionalization sticks to the true story. But when actors play themselves it tends to shift toward the truth side. This week, I’m looking at three great new movies that deal in dramatizations, semi-autobiographies, and fictionalizations. There’s a group of actors in a maximum security prison, some Irish rappers in Belfast, and a Taiwanese-American adolescent in the Bay Area.
Didi (弟弟)
Wri/Dir: Sean Wang
Chris (Izaac Wang) is a preteen schoolboy in Fremont, California in the Bay Area. He lives with his Mom (Joan Chen) his big sister Vivian (Shirley Chen) and his elderly grandmother Nai-nai (Zhang Li Hua). Missing from this picture is his dad who supports the family from his job in their native Taiwan but whom they rarely see in person. Home life is fractious at best — Chris is waging a long war with Vivian, and their practical jokes are getting increasingly extreme. Nai-nai feels isolated and takes out her anger on his mom, while she just tries to keep the family from falling apart. At school and in the streets, Chris’ best bro is Fahad (Raul Dial), who hangs with the rest of their crew. They’re all Asian-Americans — Filipino, Korean, Indian — but no one else is Taiwanese. He goes to his first house parties, and decides to meet a girl. He has crush on Madi (Mahaela Park) but doesn’t know what to do once they meet. And this is a seminal year. Vivian is heading off to college, and Nai-nai is rapidly aging. His mom pressures him to take tutoring with her friends’ kids, but he can’t stand that group.
When his first try at dating ends ends up in a fiasco, he feels betrayed by his usual crew. So he tries to make new, cooler friends. He approaches three skaters at a skate park and proposes shooting their videos. He doesn’t know the first thing about it, but at least he has new friends to hang with. He reinvents himself and hides his 
ethnicity (I’m half, he says). But as his anger, frustrations, insecurities and self-doubt build up, and his whole life feels uncertain, he doesn’t know which way to turn. Can Chris survive the unbearable pressures of adolescence?
Didi (the title means younger brother in Chinese) is a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story about Sean Wang’s own life growing up in Fremont in 2008. It feels honest and real, full of the angst and heartbreak of youth. It’s full of myspace and early texting, his computer screens filled with nihilistic accidents and explosions. Something about this movie really hit me; yes it’s a coming-of-age story with many of the expected scenes, but without any of the usual cliches. The acting is all-around great and for a first feature this one’s a real accomplishment.
I quite liked this one.
Sing Sing
Dir: Greg Kwedar
It’s Sing Sing, the infamous, maximum security prison, 30 miles up the river from New York City. Divine G (Coleman Domingo) is a long-time prisoner there, known for his acting and oratory skills, as well as his kind and giving nature. He’s also a star of the plays they put on at the prison. And they’re looking for new participants. Like Clarence “Divine Eye” Macklin (played by himself). Macklin shakes down people in the yard and always displays a tough, gangsta image. But Divine G recognizes his talent and encourages him to join up. And at the same time he’s working on the play, he also helps other prisoners appeal for parole or pardons. He himself was wrongfully convicted, but has less luck than the people he helps.
Now prisoners don’t just act there, they also direct, come up with the story, and do the production work as well. But despite his efforts to help him, Macklin brushes him off and puts down the acting exercises. This year’s play is made up of a fantastical amalgam of concepts: pirates, aliens, ancient Egyptians, and Shakespeare’s Hamlet, to name just a few. But obstacles threaten the whole production. Will Divine Eye learn to get along with Divine G? And can this experimental play work?
Sing Sing is a wonderfully revealing and well-acted drama about people putting on a show while incarcerated. It tells, sequentially, all the stages of putting on a play: auditions, 
exercises, read- throughs, dress-rehearsals and the show itself. Some of the main characters are played by accomplished actors, like the wonderful Coleman Domingo, and Paul Raci as the director. But co-star Clarence “Divine Eye” Macklin plays himself; the film is based on his own story. Other formerly incarcerated performers play themselves or other prisoners. More than that, it fleshes out the true stories of the characters they play. Some of the actors — huge bruisers with facial tattoos — if you ran into them in a dark alley, you’d probably scream and run away. But they’re actually nice, creative, and intelligent guys who needed something like this. Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA) is a highly successful program that gives meaning and purpose to the lives of prisoners. Within three years of being released from prison in New York State, 43% are back behind bars. But for participants in RTA the 3-year recidivism rate is less than 3%. That shows you how important it is.
Despite the desolate, horrific and overcrowded conditions in prisons, this drama will make you feel good about the world again.
Kneecap
Co-Wri/Dir: Rich Peppiatt
(Co-written by Móglaí Bap, Mo Chara)
JJ teaches music and the Irish language to bored students at a public school in West Belfast. He also speaks Irish at home with his girlfriend. They’re interrupted in bed one night by a phone call asking her to translate at the police station. She doesn’t want to, so JJ goes in her stead. The suspect is Liam, a lad in trackies arrested at a rave in the woods, who claims to speak only Irish no English. The detective wants JJ to help with the interrogation. She’s also curious about Liam’s notebook, filled with scrawled poems. Thing is, speaking Irish has a political dimension, too — it’s been an act of rebellion since long before independence from the British. So JJ stealthily sides with Liam, pocketing the book while Liam distracts the detective. JJ loves the rhymes, and wants Liam to rap them, in Irish, to hip hop beats (something never done before). Liam says, never without Naoise, his best pal and business partner.
They’re childhood friends, since Naoise’s IRA dad taught them to speak Irish before he went underground. Now they’re not just besties, they’re the main local dealers in drugs and hallucinogens. They agree to make a go of it, and come up with a name, Kneecap. (Kneecapping was a form of torture and punishment during The 
Troubles). Naoise calls himself Móglaí Bap, Liam’s handle is Mo Chara, and JJ is DJ Próvai. But he has to hide his face behind an Irish-flag-striped balaclava, or risk losing his job. Their first gig is at a local pub before a handful of old geezers. But word spreads, and soon enough, kids everywhere are copying their rhymes to JJ’s backbeats.
But not everyone loves them. The police detective is watching them closely, with veiled threats. A vigilante group — Radical Republicans Against Drugs — threaten physical punishment for snorting coke on stage. Naoise’s dad says their performance jeopardizes the cause. And even Liam’s clandestine girlfriend, Georgia — a Protestant no less! — hurls abuse at him as they have passionate sex in her bedroom. Will this Irish rap trio become famous? Or will they die trying?
Kneecap is a fast-moving musical, and a sex-and-drug-filled romp, with a large dose of Irish republican politics. This hilariously fictionalized biopic of the hiphop trio shows the nitty gritty of their sketchy lives. Surprisingly, the three chose to play themselves… and more surprising, they can actually act! They’re good. The rest of the cast are pro actors, including Josie Walker as the cop and Jessica Reynolds as Georgia, Liam’s sex friend. Gerry Adams plays himself, and Michael Fassbender — who was Bobby Sands in Steve McQueen’s gruelling Hunger — plays a similar role as Naoise’s underground Dad.
The film is stylized in presentation, with lots of cute animated details worked into the live action, plus occasional drug-filled fantasies using claymation. Even the violence — be it from guns or police clubs — is fantasy-like not gruesome. Most of the dialogue, and the rap, is in Irish/Gaelige, a once nearly dead language having a modern renaissance. Now, I don’t speak the language, but still, many of the Irish speakers in the movie sounded like absolute beginners, sounding out the words; but at least the three mains were speaking like it’s their native tongue, which is quite remarkable.
I found Kneecap a lot of fun.
Didi, Sing Sing and Kneecap all open in Toronto at the TIFF Lightbox this weekend; 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.
Daniel Garber talks with Amnon Carmi and Ben Ducoff about Yaniv
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
It’s an average day at an inner city high school in New York City… and the kids are excited about the auditions for the annual school musical. But everything comes to screeching halt when the tight-ass principal cuts their budget down to zero. Bernstein, the director, is mortified, and his students are crushed. Until his grandpa comes up with a possible solution: gambling… but of a particular type. Apparently, there’s an underground card game at a secret location in Rego Park, where Chassids run a gambling den devoted to a game called yaniv… the 
same game Bernstein has played with his grandpa for years. And with the help of fellow teacher, card counter (and compulsive gambler) Jonah, maybe, just maybe, they can earn enough money to put on the play. But to make it work, Jonah will have to dress up like an actual Chassid, complete with fringes and prayer curls. Can they pull off the deception, and win enough money? Or is their downfall spelled Y-A-N-I-V?
Yaniv is also the name of a new film directed by Amnon Carmi and co-written by and starring Ben Ducoff. It’s a fish-out-of-water, 
madcap, high school comedy thriller — with a hint of romance — all set on the fringes of New York’s insular Chassidic community. Amnon Carmi is a filmmaker, animator and artist. Ben Ducoff is a dramatist, producer and performer. And they both teach at H.E.R.O. High School in the South Bronx.
I spoke to Amnon and Ben in New York City via ZOOM.
The film is having its Canadian Premiere at the Toronto Jewish Film Festival, on June 6, at 7:30 pm at the Ted Rogers Hot Docs Cinema.
Actors. Films reviewed: Look at Me, Hey Victor PLUS CFF
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Spring has not yet sprung, but it should kick in soon with the Canadian Film Fest on March 18-23rd, at the Scotiabank Theatre in Toronto. With features and shorts, including world premieres, there’s something for almost everybody. It opens with a film about a Trinidadian who comes to Toronto to sell doubles from a street stall to try to help his estranged, dying dad. It’s called Doubles. There’s a drama about Syrian refugees called Valley of Exile by Anna Fahr; a science fiction comedy called With Love and a Major Organ… that organ being a removable heart. (Directed by Kim Albright.) And the festival is closing with The Burning Season by Winnipegger Sean Garrity, starring his longtime collaborator Jonas Chernick. So if you’ve never been to the Canadian Film Fest, maybe you should give it a try this year — the movies are surprisingly good.
But this week I’m looking at two more Canadian movies, both about actors playing fictional versions of themselves. There’s an indigenous former child actor trying to rescue his career, and a needy actor who craves attention but hates his own looks.
Look at Me
Wri/Dir: Taylor Olson
Taylor (Taylor Olson) is a handsome, young actor in Halifax with a square jaw and strawberry blond hair. He loves attention (Look at me! Look at me! Look at me! is every actor’s driving force). He’s also an insecure, body-conscious guy, with an eating disorder. He binges, he purges, he vomits into the toilet. Sometimes he lifts weights to build up muscle, or fasts so his body will look more desirable — whether at an audition or on an online dating site. But when he gains weight he hates himself — he’s fat-phobic — and the cycle starts up again. He has casual sex with girls and guys he meets. He even forges a long-term relationship with a single mom he loves (Stephanie 
MacDonald)… but how long can it last?
Look at Me is a B&W, fictional autobiography on film, a scathing — and humorous — self-examination that exposes Taylor’s innermost thoughts and fears. His face and body morphs almost on camera, as his insecurities rise to the surface. Based on his play, this is Taylor’s funny and tragic cri de coeur, about vanity, fat phobia, and self-loathing.
An excellent performance.
Hey, Viktor
Wri/Dir: Cody Lightning
Cody (Cody Lightning) is an actor who has fallen on hard times. His most famous role was as a child actor in the film Smoke Signals, 25 years earlier. He played young Victor, Adam Beach’s character, as a child. But it’s been a downward spiral since then. Now he’s a sloppy, washed-out drunk, swigging from his mickey as he stumbles through his day.
Only Kate (Hannah Cheesman) a beanpole blond and his best 
friend and manager, still cares about him. She helps him him eke out work in his profession, if not exactly what he’s looking for. Like roles in gay-for-pay porn movies (ouch!) and teaching kids acting lessons. He and Kate have written dozens of scripts but none have taken off.
Thing is, Cody is dead-set on doing a sequel to Smoke Signals, possibly Hollywood’s first movie with an all-indigenous director, writer and cast, including Adam Beach, Gary Farmer, Irene Bedard, Simon Baker, and Cody himself. (Kate claims to have Cherokee blood, but no one takes it seriously.) But you can’t make a movie without money. As luck would have it, they meet a crazy, gun-toting German pawn broker (Phil Burke) who happens to be a huge fan of that film. He says he’ll put up all the money as long as the original cast are in the sequel. Can 
Cody pull himself together enough to make a movie? Can he find a full crew willing to work on it? And what about all those actors? And will he actually spend the money on the film or just dive headfirst into a bucket of cocaine?
Hey Viktor is a bawdy and raunchy comedy about an indigenous actor trying to rescue his career. It’s full of outrageous stunts, like attempting to throw a live baby out of a window. Aside from a few (very funny) side characters, almost everyone plays a fictionalized version of themselves, all using their real names. I thought it was pretty funny, varying wildly between tongue in cheek satire and in your face humour. But most of all this is a show piece of Cody Lightning himself, the writer, director and star. He strips down and exposes… well, everything, with the hope of baring his soul.
And it works.
Hey, Viktor opens next week in Toronto; check your local listings. Look at Me premieres at the Canadian Film Festival on March 19th.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website culturalmining.com.
Based on true stories? Films reviewed: Next Goal Wins! May/December
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Do you have hankering for some good European movies? Well, you can see two movies a night — from Cyprus to Finland, from Bulgaria to Ireland — at the European Union Film Festival, on right now through Nov 30th. The films are showing at the Alliance Francaise where you can buy delicious treats and drinks in the lounge. Best of all, all the movies are free, first come, first served. It’s a small theatre, but line up an hour in advance and you should be good. Go to euffto.com for details.
This week, I’m looking at two new movies. There’s a Hollywood film inspired by an intergenerational love affair, and an uninspired soccer team near the international dateline.
Next Goal Wins!
Dir: Taika Waititi
Thomas (Michael Fassbender) is a professional soccer coach, but one with a bad temper. He’s in the doghouse with his ex-wife Gail and hasn’t seen their daughter in a long time. When he acts out and loses his job, he ends up far, far away — American Samoa, to be precise. He’s there to coach their FIFA World Cup team who played a record-breaking game against Australia. Record breaking in that they lost 31 to zero, making them possibly the worst national soccer team ever. It’s his job to pull the team back together well enough, not that they can become world champions, rather so that they can score a single goal. First problem is he, he’s arrogant and frustrated — he doesn’t want to be there in the first place. He also knows nothing about 
Samoan culture, so it’s hard to get the team back together again. Third, all the players are quirky in their own way. Can Thomas build back team spirit? Or is that one goal just a pipe dream?
Next Goal Wins is an extremely light, not-terribly-original sports comedy. The characters themselves are interesting and well-played, embodying Polynesian culture. The team does a sa’asa’a dance (similar to a Maori kata). And the roles are cast with local players, plus indigenous actors from New Zealand, Australia and Polynesia. Jaiyah (Kaimana) the star player on 
the team is a fa’afafine — someone of a third gender. There’s also a reluctant goalie, a local multi-talented newscaster, and a host of others. Very cute. Problem is this film is so light you could blow it out of the room if you sneeze. There are a lot of chuckles, but the plot is strictly paint-by-numbers — I’ve seen it so many times already. This is Taika Waititi who brought us Jojo Rabbit and Boy, and Hunt for the Wilderpeople. This one just doesn’t live up to that. Yeah, Next Goal Wins is entertaining, but in a very shallow way.
May / December
Wri/Dir: Todd Haynes (Wonderstruck, The Velvet Underground)
Savannah, Georgia, 2011. Elizabeth (Natalie Portman) is a famous movie star preparing for her next role. Its a biopic based on a true story. She’s a method actor so wants to get to know, intimately, all the real-life players in her story. At the top of the list? Gracie (Julianne Moore) and her husband Joe (Charles Melton). They’ve been married for decades, are still deeply in love. Joe is a radiologist and Gracie arranges flowers. And for the first time in a generation, they will soon be empty-nesters with the twins, Charlie and Marie, about to graduate from high school and head off to college.
So why are they making a biopic about this ordinary, even mundane, family? Gracie is 20+ years older than Joe. When they met she was in her 30s married with children… and he was still a very young teenager. They worked together in a local pet shop, had a sexual relationship, were caught in flagrante delicto in the storage room, and in came the tabloids. Gracie goes to prison, pregnant with his child. They later marry and raise a family… but their story is still a hot 
button topic, with strangers, even now, sending obscene or abusive packages in the mail. The question remains: Were they a naive couple madly in love? Or was Joe a victim, exploited by a much older woman? And will Elizabeth (the actress) tell their story the way they want it told, or the way she wants to tell it?
May / December is an amazing melodrama told in the style of the so-called “women’s films” of old Hollywood, from the 1920s-60s. The fantastic performances in this movie harken back to Joan Crawford and Bette Davis in their prime. Julianne Moore plays Gracie as an incredibly naive — and insecure — believer in true love… but the character is so multifaceted that by the end you question the whole concept as either a self-delusion or possibly a diabolical plot. And Natalie Portman’s Elizabeth who at first seems to be a genuinely caring person, is gradually revealed as (possibly) the 
stereotypical Hollywood actor: mercenary and self-centred unafraid to rundown any innocent bystanders blocking her way. The men, like Joe, are mainly inarticulate lunks.
Todd Haynes deftly incorporates a gay camp sensibility into the film giving it a slightly surreal and often funny air. The soundtrack is adapted from Joseph Losey’s The Go-Between (1971), a story of forbidden love. But in May/ December, to the sound of dark, gushing melodramatic music, we get Gracie opening the fridge door saying: “I don’t think we have enough hotdogs!” (for a BBQ). A movie like this can easily fall into ridiculousness, but May/December gets it exactly right. This a powerful — and uncomfortable — movie.
I recommend it.
May/December is now playing at the TIFF Bell Lightbox, and Next Goal Wins opens 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.
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