All Canadian. Films reviewed: Seven Veils, Night of the Zoopocalypse, Shepherds
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Most of the movies we see come out of Hollywood, but now that the US government has declared (economic) war, I figure why not look at more Canadian movies, instead.
So for this week, I’m talking about three new Canadian movies all opening this weekend. There’s a Montreal PR exec who wants to become a shepherd, a wolf in a theme park who doesn’t want to become a zombie, and an opera director in Toronto who says the show must go on.
Seven Veils
Wri/Dir: Atom Egoyan
It’s winter in Toronto. Jeanine (Amanda Seyfried) has flown in for a new project: she has been selected (by the late director) to remount his production of the opera Salome. She knows this version inside and out, as she was his assistant on it while still a student. But by taking on this role, she has opened a pandora’s box of hidden secrets: The male lead, Johann (Michael Kupfer-Radecky), is notorious for his roving hands. Ambur (Ambur Braid) sings the part of Salome but her past misgivings with Johann threaten to erupt. Then there are the understudies. Johann’s second knew Jeanine from their student days, and follows her with puppy dog eyes and long-held hurt. Rachel, Ambur’s understudy, is dating the same woman Ambur used to be with, before she was a superstar.
Jeanine is requested to add personal changes to the remount, but whenever she tries something outrageous, the management swoops in to stop her. And then there’s her home life: She left their young daughter with her husband, but her mother whispers her pretty and young caregiver is sleeping with Jeanine’s husband.All of these pressure-points seem ready to burst at any time. Can Jeanine survive this trouble-filled production? Or is it headed for disaster?
Seven Veils is a dramatic, behind-the scenes look of the remounting of an opera. It has some good acting and lovely cinematography, but it’s laden down by a messy, overly-complicated plot. It feels like a full season of a reality show condensed into 1 hour and 50 minutes. Atom Egoyan filmed this movie even as he was directing a live performance off the same opera with the same singers on the same set. Is this 
creative brilliance, or just double-dipping? Egoyan has long been known as a pioneer in incorporating video footage within his films and stage productions. But he went whole hog with this one, including more mixed media than you can shake a stick at: Zoom calls, a snarky podcast recording, a making-of doc filmed on the prop director’s cel phone, and even creepy childhood home videos by Jeanine’s dad. Some of these fall flat — Jeanine’s voiceover narration is embarrassingly clunky. Others examples are brilliant: like a giant projection of Johann’s mouth on a scrim on stage objecting haughtily with any directions Jeanine tries to give him. The film also covers myriad diverse topics, including intersectionality, sexual harassment, women fighting the patriarchy, a severed head, backstabbing, entrapment and revenge.
Way too much stuff to fit in one film, but with enough good parts to keep it going.
Night of the Zoopocalypse
Co-Dir: Ricardo Curtis, Rodrigo Perez-Castro
Gracie is a young wolf who likes hunting on his own. He ignores his Alpha grandma’s warnings to always stay with the pack. After all, what does it matter; they live in a theme park (the Colepepper Zoo) with no predators! But Gracie has spoken too soon. That night, a radioactive meteor crashes through the sky and lands smack-dab into their collective home. Anyone who touches the glowing rock is instantly transformed into a hideous version of their former self with glowing eyes and zombie-like behaviour. The infection spreads across the zoo, with ever more animals being zombified. Luckily Gracie finds safety in the zoo hospital, along with Ash the ostrich, Xavier the lemur, Felix, a self-centred proboscis monkey, Frida a capybara, and a dangerous-looking mountain lion called Dan. If they work together maybe they can fend off this otherworldly ailment; or they could split up and see who can make it out of the park. 
Can these creatures find a common aim? Or will they all be zombified before dawn? And what will happen to the outside world once the park’s gates reopen?
Night of the Zoopocalypse is a cute, animated kids movie about animals infected by an alien disease, featuring the voices of David Harbour, Scott Thompson, and Paul Sun-
Hyung Lee. The unoriginal dialogue seems aimed at very young children, not adults, but perhaps zombies are too scary for the youngest ones. But I do like a lot of things in Zoopocalypse, from the obnoxious theme songs, to the eerie Kenny Scharf-like cut-out designs of grotesquely smiling figures. And who couldn’t like Poot, the baby pygmy hippo! If your kids don’t scare easily, I think they’ll like Night of the Zoopocalypse.
Shepherds (Bergers)
Co-Wri/Dir: Sophie Deraspe (Interview: Antigone)
Mathyas (Félix-Antoine Duval) is a young man who works as a copywriter at a Montreal PR firm. He’s creative, sensitive and ambitious. So what is he doing sipping yellow Pastis in a small town cafe in Provence? To change his life from pointless and unfulfilling to a simpler one, entirely off the grid. He’s in Provence because he wants to become a shepherd. You heard me: someone who herds sheep. And he wants to write a book about his experiences afterwards. He has already bought a requisite black hat and leather satchel, and he’s been boning up on all the books on how to herd sheep. But he’s having trouble finding a sheep breeder willing to take him on. His try is a total wash-out: he’s never stood in a flock of sheep in his life.
So he pays a visit to the local government office, in hopes of getting a work visa. No such luck, but he does meet the cute bureaucrat behind the counter. Elise (Solène Rigot) is smart, pretty and bored with her job, too. She’s impressed by Mathyas’ convictions, but is sorry to tell him you can’t apply from within the country. But he keeps up his correspondence 
with her via handwritten snail mail, and her simple responses keep him sane.
He eventually finds under-the-counter work as an apprentice shepherd for a retired, childless couple looking for someone to take over. But he finds the environment hostile and violent, full of cruelty and insanity… nothing like what he was looking for. So when Elise shows up suddenly, he decides to quit. Surprisingly, the two of them are hired almost immediately as a team, to work through the summer tending sheep in a stone cottage way up in the Alps. Can two non-shepherds learn the lay of the land and how to take care of hundreds of pregnant sheep? And will their friendship develop into something more?
Shepherds is a wonderful movie about going back to the land. The story is based on the novel D’où viens tu, berger? by the real Mathyas Lefebure who actually did leave Quebec to seek his fortune as a shepherd in Provence. I’ve always liked Sophie Deraspe’s brilliant films. And while Shepherds is very different from her past work, it’s just as good. Félix-Antoine Duval is amazing as Mathyas with just the right blend of vulnerability and sincerity, like a gawky teenager trapped in an adult’s body. French actress Solène Rigot conveys such warmth she’s totally loveable.
Shepherds is a gorgeous movie with unforgettable images, like rivers of sheep pouring across a valley and through alpine city streets. Absolutely breathtaking. One warning: After watching Bergers, you might consider becoming a shepherd, too.
Night of the Zoopocalypse, Shepherds, and Seven Veils all open 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.
Journeys to redemption. Films reviewed: Ainbo: Spirit of the Amazon, Bullet Train, We Are Living Things
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
TIFF is back on track again, after two makeshift years, bringing you the world’s best movies, showing only in theatres. King street will be open for celebrity spotting once again, along with free concerts and other spectacles. And the discount ticket packages are on sale only till Sunday, that’s tomorrow, with individual tickets starting as low as eleven dollars each if you’re 25 or younger.
This week I’m looking at three new movies about desperate journeys toward redemption. There’s one girl on a quest to save her Amazon village; two alienated migrants in America on a search for the truth behind alien abductions; and a half-dozen killers on a bullet train trying to kill all the other killers… before they get killed themselves.
Ainbo: Spirit of the Amazon
Dir: Richard Claus, Jose Zelada
It’s present-day in the Kundamo nation of the Amazon. Ainbo is a 12 year old girl who calls herself a legendary hunter but hasn’t quite mastered the bow and arrow. She’s an orphan who lives with her best friend, Zumi, who is next in line for chief. But a dark shadow has fallen on her community, with fish dying and people turning ill. So she sets out on a quest: to talk to the giant mama turtle for direction, discover a powerful weapon, find the source of the poison, and defeat the evil demon Yakaruna.
Fortunately, two odd-looking animals appear beside her to help her on her way. Strangely enough, she can understand 
everything they say. Dillo and Vaca are her spirit guides but also tricksters, who can only be believed some of the time. Meanwhile, Attak, a mighty hunter, blames the disease on Ainbo, and chases her through the jungle to keep her away. Can Ainbo summon enough inner strength to realize her spiritual goals? Or will her people all die from this mysterious ailment?
Ainbo: Spirit of the Amazon is a delightful, high-quality animated kids movie about a 12 year old girl’s attempt to save her people from destruction. Its told in the manner of a classic folktale, but with modern twists: perhaps their problems come from European developers trying to usurp their land. This is clearly aimed for little kids but I found it totally watchable, including a scene with day-glo psychedelia. I like this one.
Bullet Train
Dir: David Leitch
Ladybug (Brad Pitt) is a freelance criminal who carries out complex thefts around the world. But somehow bad things happen to people around him. Dying of poison, falling off rooves — there seems to be no end to the misery all around him. Luckily, his current job, is a piece of cake: board a bullet train in Tokyo, steal a briefcase full of cash, and get off at the next stop before anyone notices. Simple, right? Not quite.
He doesn’t realize he’s not the only criminal on board. A well-dressed pair of twins, code-named Tangerine and Lemon (Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Brian Tyree Henry), are professional hitmen and the holders of said briefcase. Prince (Joey King) is a ruthless and mysterious young woman dressed in a pink, snug-fitting school uniform, with her own agenda. Then there’s Kimura and his dad, both of a yakuza clan, a mysterious killer named The Hornet, and a man named Wolf (Bad Bunny) with 
vengeance on his mind. And of course the ruler of the underworld himself, White Death. Who will survive this fatal journey?
Bullet Train is a fast-paced, violent action comedy set aboard a Japanese high-speed train. It has a punchy soundtrack and an A-list cast, including Brad Pitt, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, with cameos by Michael Shannon and Sandra Bullock. And it’s 
based on a book by critically-acclaimed Japanese novelist Kôtarô Isaka. Unfortunately, this big budget movie feels like a third-rate Tarantino knock-off. The screenplay is crap, filled with unfunny jokes and two-dimensional caricatures. It feels like the director has never been to Japan or set foot on a bullet train — he doesn’t even know they’re on raised platforms not normal tracks, or that Japanese vending machines never malfunction. Even the sound recording is poor — I couldn’t make out some of the dialogue in the first scene. While not bad enough to put you to sleep, Bullet Train never rises above the mediocre.
We Are Living Things
Co-Wri/Dir: Antonio Tibaldi
It’s present-day New York, where two immigrants live very different lives. Solomon (Jorge Antonio Guerrero) lives completely off the grid. Born in Mexico, he crossed the Arizona border as a young man in search of his mother. She completely disappeared and Solomon believes she was abducted by aliens. Now he works as a jack-of-all- trades, good at plumbing, wiring and carpentry. He likes non-digital devices, like metal detectors and industrial dryers and stays away from computers and cel phones. He rents a hidden space inside a recycling plant, where no one can find him; he’s undocumented and knows how to make himself invisible. His main objective is to listen to aliens — the ones in outer space — through their radio waves, using a complex device made of a satellite dish and a piece of a magnetic meteorite.
Chuyao (Lü Xingchen) works in a mani-pedi salon. She holds a legal ID, its just not hers. She has cut her hair short and changed her name in an attempt to match the ID, but she looks nothing like the photo. It doesn’t matter, says Tiger (Wang Zao), the man who got it for her; white people think we all look the same. Tiger is a sleazy criminal and her de facto boyfriend, but behaves more like her pimp. He makes her attend private 
parties for rich clients, sometimes just singing karaoke, but often leading to sketchy or even dangerous after-hour meetings. Worse than that, Tiger has implanted a chip in her neck so he always knows exactly where she is. After a chance meeting, where Solomon discovers Chuyao shares his obsession (she was abducted by aliens back in China), he begins to follow her around, a guardian angel to protect her when she’s in trouble. Eventually they end up fleeing the city together in an attempt to uncover aliens in Arizona… and perhaps discover each other.
We Are Living Things is a bitter-sweet, art-house drama about the lives of two alienated migrants in America, trying to regain their sense of self-worth. It’s filled with dreams and 
surveillance footage woven into the narrative. And while there is an undercurrent of sci-fi themes, the real dangers they face are the omnipresent police and ICE agents who permeate their lives. The cinematography is strikingly beautiful, capturing Chuyao’s louche glamour, Solomon’s low-tech machinery, and the glory of the American west. And Guerrero and Lü both have cinematic faces that look great on the screen. Strange and impressionistic, this film will stay in your mind long after it’s over.
You can catch We Are Living Things at the Carlton cinema in Toronto; check your local listings. Ainbo opens in theatres this weekend; and Bullet Train is now playing across North America.
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 Nyla Innuksuk about Slash/Back
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
It’s summer solstice in Pangnirtung, on Baffin Island Nunavut where the sun is up all night. But a group of teenaged girls — Maika, Jesse, Leena, Uki and Maika’s little sister Aju — notice something weird is going on. They see a polar bear acting very un-bearlike; and a fisherman who seems less than human. Their blood is black, their skin seems detached from their bodies, they walk in jerky steps, with creepy tentacles that squirm out to suck your blood. Are they monsters? Aliens? Zombies? Whatever they are they’re killing people, and the grown-ups aren’t around to help — they’re all at an annual dance. But nobody messes 
with the girls of Pang. So it’s up to them to fight back.
Slash/Back is the name of a new alien horror movie set in the arctic. It interweaves traditional Inuit culture with contemporary genre filmmaking. It features a cast of first-time Inuit actors, set against the stunning ice, sky and ocean landscape of Nunavut. Slash/Back is the work of acclaimed producer, writer and director Nyla Innuksuk, who is well-versed in both the technical and creative sides of film-making. And she’s the only film maker I’ve ever heard of who has also co-created a superhero for Marvel Comics!
I spoke with Nyla in Toronto via Zoom.
Slash/Back opens across Canada on Friday, June 26th.
Daniel Garber talks with Peter Kuplowsky about Psycho Goreman
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Mimi and Luke are young siblings in a nondescript town. They’re both typical and atypical. Mimi’s the younger one, but she’s more aggressive, They spend their time playing games they invent like “crazy ball”. But after a game one day they uncover a strange glowing stone buried deep in the ground. And when Mimi removes it she unknowingly activates a hideous monster, the epitome of evil, a creature responsible for the deaths of 
millions. He can casually tear his victims apart in an orgy of blood and gore. But since Mimi holds the gem, she soon discovers he’s in her power. What will a little girl do with her newfound strength — will she use it for good or for evil? Will they save the planet or destroy it? And can she and her brother control the powerful demon they call Psycho Goreman.
Psycho Goreman is also the name of a new comedy/horror movie about kids and alien beings. Science fiction, family comedy and first love are set against a potential universe-shattering apocalypse. The film is written and directed by Steven Kostanski who brought us twisted, over-the-top genre classics like The Void and Manborg. Peter Kuplowsky, who worked on Steven’s other films and is also notable as the curator of TIFF’s Midnight Madness series, co-produced it.
I spoke to Peter Kuplowsky from home via ZOOM.
Psycho Goreman opens digitally on January 22, 2021 across North America.
End times? Films reviewed: Arrival, The First, the Last
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
With the reality of the recent US election sinking in, people are using words like Brexit 2, Armageddon, Apocalypse and even Thermonuclear War. So this week I have a couple end-of-days movies to capture the prevailing mood. There’s a Belgian western about lost souls who think the world is about to end, and a US science fiction drama about scientists trying to stop the world from ending.
Arrival
Dir: Denis Villeneuve
Dr Louise Banks (Amy Adams) is a linguistics professor who speaks Chinese, Portuguese and Sanskrit. She occasionally translates top-secret documents for the US government. She has red hair, blue eyes and porcelain-like skin. She once had a daughter she adored but Hannah died of an incurable disease. Now Louse lives alone in a brick and glass lakeside home comforted only by her memories. Then something cataclysmic happens.
Twelve enormous, lozenge-shaped spaceships arrive on earth. They hover, silently and menacingly, over twelve random places, including Montana in the North America. there’s rioting in the streets, mayhem, mayhem, mayhem. Right away, she gets a knock on the door; it’s Colonel Weber (Forest Whitaker) a high-ranked officer. He needs her help translating strange clicking sounds into English. Translate? says Louise. I can’t translate a language I don’t understand.I need to speak directly to the aliens. So they whisk her off to an army base in rural Montana along with an arrogant physicist named Ian (Jeremy Renner). Together they’re expected to figure out why the aliens are there and whether the army should 
attack them. Easier said than done.
The aliens let them board the spaceship, kept separate by a glass wall. Louise is shocked by what appears in the mist. No little green men here; these aliens are septipods – hideous sea creatures with seven legs — and hands that look like starfish. These mollusks have pulpy-grey bodies and can shoot out ink, like octopuses. Louise also discovers they are highly intelligent, with a sophisticated written language with multi-dimensional ring-shaped characters that look like Japanese brush painting. They float, suspended, underwater.
And their cryptic message? Something involving weapons! This pricks up the ears of a sinister CIA agent, her nemesis. With the world on the brink of thermonuclear war, it’s up to Louise to communicate with the aliens and decipher their message before armageddon.
Arrival is a fascinating and thoughtful science fiction drama, told through the eyes of an academic. It’s part of the new trend of science-y fantasies that favour intellect over explosions. It’s similar to films like The Martian and Gravity, but I like this one the best. While Jeremy Renner is dull and Forest Whitaker unremarkable, Amy Adams is great as the pensive Louise. Arrival takes place in a barren military camp and it’s overloaded with khaki, camo and annoying Cold War jargon like domino effects and zero-sum games. But it’s also a feel-good movie with a truly surprising twist. It can satisfy your craving for excitement without resorting to superheroes.
The First, the Last (Les Premiers, les Derniers)
Wri/Dir: Bouli Lanners
It’s present-day Wallonia, a place of barren fields, billiard halls and abandoned warehouses. Cochise and Gilou, two rough-and- tough middle aged guys, are hired by an anonymous client to retrieve a valuable lost telephone in exchange for lots of cash. Gilou (played by the director) is a white-bearded man in a midlife crisis, who thinks he’s dying, while Cochise (Albert Dupontel) is a moustached heavy in a leather jacket, always ready to fight but looking 
for love. Gilou sets up camp in a lonely motel run by an ancient innkeeper, who looks like an old-age version of himself. Cochise moves in with a woman he meets on the road.
The phone they seek is in the hands of a mysterious young couple named Esther and Willy (Aurore Broutin, David Murgia) who are making their way down a highway, dressed in high-viz orange 
jumpsuits they found on their journey. They are society’s outcasts, mentally disabled and homeless, but at least they have each other. They need that comfort now, especially since Willy learned that the world is about to end (he saw it on TV). Esther declares they must find a proper gift for a final visit she has to make before it’s all over. And they meet a Jesus-like figure on the way, who tries to take them under his wing.
But neither pair realizes they have wandered into the badlands, an area filled with crooked sheriffs, black marketeers, and all- around villains who don’t take kindly to strangers. So while the phone hunters are tracking down the outcasts, they’re all being sought — violently so — by the bad guys. There is also a mysterious 
gangster, an antlered stag, a mummy and a lost child to make things interesting. Can any of them find what they’re looking for?
The First, the Last is a satisfying — if baffling — western, set among the highways and desolate fields of French-speaking Belgium. It has the “European” feel of a movie like the Lobster, only not so straightforward. There’s also twangy music, nice cinematography, and all-around good acting, including a cameo by Max von Sydow as an undertaker.
Arrival arrives today in Toronto, check your local listings; is playing at the EU festival, now until the 24th. Tickets are free, but be sure to line up early to get a seat. Go to eutorontofilmfest.ca for showtimes. 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 James Carman about his documentary The Hidden Hand: Alien Contact and the Government Cover-Up
UFOs and ETs: unidentified flying objects and extra-terrestrials. What are they? Are they real? Or is this all just crazy talk?
What happened at area 51? Is it all just a relic of 
the Cold War? A depository of secret weapons? Or have people really made contact with aliens from outer (or inner-) space?
A new documentary, The Hidden Hand: Alien Contact and the Government Cover-Up, looks at all of these 
controversial issues in depth. It won the Best Documentary Film at the Philip K. Dick Film Festival and is now on iTunes and Vimeo. I spoke to filmmaker James Carman by telephone at the United Nations building in New York to find out more…
culturalmining.com 
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