Bad Hombres. Films reviewed: Silent Night, Deadly Night, Dust Bunny, One Battle After Another
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
It’s easy to root for heroes with clean-scrubbed cheeks and virtuous demeanours, but they make for boring movies. Much more challenging are films where the main characters are anti-heroes, fatally flawed and yet still compelling.
So this week I’m looking at three movies featuring sympathetic portrayals of bad hombres. There’s a murderous Santa Claus, a retired revolutionary, and a monster who lives under your bed.
Silent Night, Deadly Night
Wri/Dir: Mike P. Nelson
It’s Christmastime and like every year Billy Chapman (Rohan Campbell: Halloween Ends) is on the road again. He’s a drifter in his early 20s, picking up work wherever he can find it. He ends up in a small town, and finds work in a store specializing in Christmas ornaments and memorabilia. He forms a crush on Pamela (Ruby Modine), the young woman who runs the store with her dad. But this place is doubly significant because Christmas is crucial to Billy’s self-identity. You see, when he was just a child, he witnessed his parents brutally murdered by a man dressed as Santa Claus. And now he has taken on that role for himself. Dressed in a Santa suit and wielding an axe, Billy kills one person per day, following his advent calendar, until Christmas.
So is Billy a psychopathic serial killer? Well, yes… but, like Santa, he punishes naughty people but lets good ones have a merry Christmas. Everyone he murders is bad… real bad. And how does he know this? A voice in his head tells him who to
kill. But things change when he finds himself falling in love with Pamela. And the feelings seem mutual; they somehow click. (She has Explosive Personality Disorder, sort of like his murder sprees only much less violent). Billy thinks it’s time to settle down, maybe give up all the killing. Can Billy ignore the nagging voice in his head? What will happen if he stops killing bad people? And how will Pamela react if she ever finds out the truth about Billy?
Silent Night, Deadly Night is a classic, slasher-horror Christmas movie about a young killer Santa. It’s ostensibly a remake of an 80s film of the same name (and its sequels) but updated to fit our times. It’s bloody, violent and sometimes disgusting but always in a funny, retro-camp style. I’m talking red & black freeze frames, and old-school soundtrack. And it’s shot in Manitoba, complete with hockey games and lumber yards. Ruby Modine is hilarious as Pamela, and Rohan Campbell manages to make his serial-killer Santa almost sympathetic.
Not your typical Christmas flick but if you’re looking for a funny, gross-out slasher, you can’t go wrong with Silent Night, Deadly Night.
Dust Bunny
Wri/Dir: Bryan Fuller
Aurora (Sophie Sloan) is a little girl who lives in a beautiful, antiquated apartment in an unnamed city. She is brave and resourceful with a wild imagination. Aurora has all the clothes, toys and games any girl could ever want. So why is she always so frightened? Because there’s something scary under her bed that won’t go away. It’s a dangerous monster that lives beneath her parquet floorboards, and she’s convinced he’ll eat you up if you ever step on the floor at night. So she gets around on a wooden hippo with wheels, using her mop as a paddle. Her parents tell her repeatedly that there’s nothing under her bed, just dust bunnies, but Aurora refuses to listen. She ends up sleeping on her outdoor fire escape to keep ahead of the monsters. One night she follows a stranger down a dark ally, where she witnesses him slaughtering a dragon. Here’s someone who can keep her safe from the monster — and he lives in her building! When her parents disappear one night she knows she needs help to stay alive. So she attempts to hire her downstairs neighbour (Mads Mikkelsen: The Promised Land, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Riders of Justice, Another Round, The Hunt) as a hitman, to kill the monster hiding beneath her bed.
Problem is he doesn’t believe in monsters; he thinks someone was sent to get him, and killed her parents by mistake. But in
the end, he agrees to help her. This news gets her boss very angry. Uptight and evil Laverne (Sigourney Weaver) wants Aurora dead, since she witnessed one of his assignments (he’s a professional hired killer). Soon others start appearing at her door including a suspicious guy with a moustache (David Dastmalchian) and a dressed-to-kill social worker (Sheila Atim). Who are all these people really? And will no-one listen to Aurora about the monster under her bed?
Dust Bunny is a whimsical horror movie seen through the eyes of a young girl, balancing crime and the supernatural. The hitman making friends with a little girl harkens back to Luc Besson’s classic The Professional (1992), starring Jean Reno and a very young Natalie Portman). But the look and style of this movie is totally different. This is not noir, it’s horror fantasy. It’s exquisitely detailed with flowers painted on walls, brightly coloured outfits and creaky, steampunk gears in an ancient elevator. Sophie Sloan is great as the spunky Aurora and a good foil for a gruff Mads Mickelson. The other adults are all comical caricatures but still fun to watch. And the special effects are amazing using animation and puppetry to convey what Aurora can see.
Though scary in parts, I think Dust Bunny is suitable both for kids and grown ups.
I like this one.
One Battle After Another
Wri/Dir: Paul Thomas Anderson (Licorice Pizza)
It’s a couple decades ago, somewhere in the American Southwest. An underground revolutionary faction, known as “The French 75”, is carrying out their latest plan: to liberate hundreds of undocumented workers from an ICE-type detention centre. Members of the group have memorized codes and passwords, and only use their nicknames.
Like JunglePussy and Mae West. Perfidia Beverley Hills (Teyana Taylor) is one of the organizers, and her lover Bob aka Rocket Man (Leonardo DiCaprio) is their fireworks expert. Over the course of the action that night, Perfidia, in a power move, forces their chief enemy, a hardboiled military officer named Col Lockjaw (Sean Penn) to have coercive sex with her. This leaves Lockjaw infatuated, and Perfidia pregnant. After the baby is born, Perfidia is captured by Lockjaw, and rats on her allies, in exchange for witness protection. But she manages to escape to Mexico, while Bob and their newborn-baby Willa hide out in a sanctuary city in California.
17 years later, Bob has become a useless pothead whose only responsibility is keeping his daughter Willa (Chase Infiniti) safe. She can never leave their house without carrying a tracking device, just in case the feds discover who Bob really
is: an underground leftist revolutionary. Willa studies martial arts with her sensei (Benecio Del Toro) and has a close-knit group of friends, named Bluto, Bobo, Riri and Autumn. They’re all getting ready for their high school dance. But little does she realize: her Mom, Perfidia — who she always thought was dead — is back in town; Col Lockjaw is planning a massive attack in order to capture his potential biological daughter; and Bob — following the capture of a key member of the French 75 — is called back to duty by the revolutionary group of his youth. What will become of this estranged family, their allies and their enemies?
One Battle after Another is an amazingly complex and satirical action thriller about a tiny cadre of underground revolutionaries and their rivals the CIA, Ice and the military. Add to this an underground railroad that helps threatened migrants; The Christmas Adventurers — a white supremacist elite fraternity courting Lockjaw as a member — and a monastery full of bad-ass nuns with secret connections… and that’s only part of the complex plot of this movie.
It’s inspired by Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland, but is set in the present, not the 1970s. Its dialogue is detailed and rich but always tongue in cheek, especially the outlandish names of characters and organizations. It’s also an out-and-out action thriller, with chases and close escapes, gun fights and explosions. Sean Penn acts like someone who has been chopped up and sewn back together, Teyana Taylor is perfection as the double/triple or quadruple agent; this is the first time I’ve ever seen Chase Infiniti, but she’s a powerhouse, and Leo Dicaprio — I’m no fan, but he’s so good in this movie, constantly beaten down but always surviving, like a Die Hard character but on the left. One of his best roles ever.
The film is beautifully shot in valleys and deserts, in a cinematographic style I’ve never seen before, like a camera mounted to the front of cars as they go up and down a hilly highway. Amazing! Soundtrack, costumes, art direction and the huge cast — many unforgettable roles I haven’t even mentioned yet — all so good.
One Battle After Another is an unforgettable movie. I recommend this one.
Dust Bunny and Silent Night Deadly Night both open in Toronto this weekend; And One Battle after another is still playing in some repertory cinemas; 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.
Numerical titles. Films reviewed: Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, One More Shot
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
When you watch hundreds of movies a year, you start to notice certain trends, like avoid movies with numbers in their titles, especially sequels. But it doesn’t always work. Some people say The Godfather 2, Toy Story 3 or Rocky IV, are the best of their series.
So this week I’m looking at a couple more movies with numerical titles. There’s an Aussie who can travel in time using a swig of magic tequila, and an American who can bring automatons to life in a defunct pizzeria.
Five Nights at Freddy’s 2
Dir: Emma Tammi
(Based on the game by Scott Cawthon)
It’s some time in the not-so-distant past, somewhere in Middle America. Mike (Josh Hutcherson) is a guy in his twenties who takes care of his 11-year-old sister Abby (Piper Rubio). Abby is lonely because no one at school believes the stories she tells. Mike is a lonely former security guard. He used to work in the ruins of former family restaurant Frank Fazbear’s Pizza. In its heyday, the place was wildly popular with children because of its giant, grinning animal-puppets who performed mechanically on a small stage. But the chain was shuttered for good 20 years ago when the animatronics went rogue and killed some kids. Then, one year ago, Mike and Abby barely escaped with their lives when the animals came back to life. Now, if Mike never sees another animatronic monster in his life, it will be too soon. But Abby holds a special affection for them; she considers them her only real friends. They talk to her, understand her problems and look out for her. And it’s hard to get away from them in this town, since everybody knows about them: there’s a festival devoted to Freddy Fazbear and a robotics contest both just around the corner. Meanwhile, Mike is flirting with Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail), a former cop who helped save Mike and Abby in last year’s bloodbath. She also happens to be the daughter of a deranged megalomaniacal 
serial killer who built the original automatons, and who was personally responsible for the hideous crimes they committed. And it goes without saying that Vanessa hates her psychotic father.
But despite all their precautions, Abby is hellbent on returning to the the crumbling restaurant, and in the mayhem that follows , the creatures are set loose to seek vengeance on their perceived enemies in the town. Can Mike, Abby and Vanessa fight them off and save the city? Or will the robots win out in the end?
Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is the sequel to last years hit movie based on a video game by the same name, about an evil Chucky Cheese-style restaurant. It has some cool special effects, a few scary moments, especially involving a spooky villain known as the marionette. And I love the old 90s computers and the restaurant-gone-to-ruins motif. The main actors reprising their roles are all good. The problem with this movie is its meandering pointlessness, just a series of random episodes that have virtually no affect on what follows or precedes it. So an important character might be brutally murdered by animatronic creatures in one scene, and then 
they drop out of the movie and are never referred to again.
This happens over and over, which makes you wonder is their any coherence or point to this movie, other than chase scenes, brutal killings and jump scares? I went to a screening packed with fans dressed in cos-play cheering and shouting whenever a familiar character from the game appeared on the screen. They seemed to like it. But for the average viewer, like you or me, who’s never played the game, Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is just another schlocky knock-off.
One More Shot
Dir: Nicholas Clifford
It’s New Year’s Eve, 1999, in Melbourne, Australia. Minnie (Emily Browning) is invited to a costume party to usher in the new millennium. She’s a doctor in her thirties, single and attractive. Many of her friends — and ex-lovers — will be at that party. She even has the words “party time” tattooed on her skin. But for some reason, she’s not in a partying mood. Her past relationships all went sour, and she’s been alone, and celibate, for far too long. At least her go-to sex buddy Joe (Sean Keenan) is back in town, so at the very least she’ll get some (Joe sports a matching tattoo which bonds them as sex partners forever.)
But when she arrives at the party, everything seems to go wrong. Joe has a new lover — an American bartender or “mixologist” as she calls herself (Aisha Dee) — and it looks serious. The hosts, Rodney and Pia (Ashley Zukerman, Pallavi Sharda) have a beautiful house and young kid, but they seem somehow at odds all the time; Flick and Max (Anna McGahan, Contessa Treffone), whose apartment she’s sharing want to 
kick her out; and the only stranger at the party is a douchey OB-GYN (Hamish Michael) who is also a coke-head. And at midnight, everyone anticipates a computer crash due to the Y2K. Can things possibly get worse?
Oh yes they can. Minnie keeps messing everything up, and alienating all her friends just for a chance to get laid. But then she discovers she has the solution: the ancient bottle of Tequila she’s brought to the gathering. For some reason, each gulp brings her back again to the first time she tried it, right at the door to the party. Can she right all her wrongs and erase all her mistakes before the bottle is empty? Or will she just end up as a drooling hot mess on someone else’s couch?
One More Shot is a very light social comedy about Australian millennials at play. It’s a cute, somewhat funny riff on the Groundhog Day theme. Which makes it more than a little 
repetitive. The cast is attractive and mildly clever, though I couldn’t really sympathize with any of them. But I do like time- travel comedies however they happen, and this version is pretty original. Kept me interested till the end.
While clearly no masterpiece, I enjoyed watching this one.
5 Nights at Freddy’s 2 opens this weekend in Toronto; check your local listings. One More Shot is now available on VOD.
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.
Hocus-pocus. Films reviewed: Good Fortune, Black Phone 2, Frankenstein
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Fall film festival season continues in Toronto with all sorts of movies to catch your fancy. Rendezvous with Madness shows movies about addiction and mental health, accompanied by discussions with the audience. They also have a knack for finding unknown amazing films whose directors or stars end up famous just a few years later (I saw my first Joaquin Trier flick at Rendezvous with Madness!) Also opening soon are Planet in Focus, with docs about environmentalism and climate change, and Toronto after Dark, on through the weekend, a pioneer in horror and fantasy.
But this week, in honour of Hallowe’en, I’m looking at three movies with a bit of hocus-pocus. There’s a man with a guardian angel, a brother and sister who can speak to the dead, and a mad scientist who wants to builds a new human… out of dead body parts.
Good Fortune
Co-Wri/Dir: Aziz Ansari
Arj (Aziz Ansari) is at a low point in his life. He has a degree in archaeology and lives in LA, but the only work he can find is gig work, deliveries or standing in long lines so rich people don’t have to. He’s so poor he has to sleep in his car. There were a few bright spot in his life; he meets Elena (Keke Palmer) a union organizer at a big box hardware store, and they even went on a date; and he got a short term job as a personal assistant to a billionaire venture capitalist named Jeff (Seth Rogan) whose main activity seems to be sitting in saunas and ice baths. But as luck would have it, he gets fired from the job, things go bad with Elena and even his car — his only possession — gets towed. He’s penniless, in debt, and all alone. What does he have left to live for?
What Arj doesn’t know is he has a guardian angel named Gabriel (Keanu Reeves) looking out for him. In order to save his his life Gabriel — breaking all the angel rules — appears to him. He tells him that he has lots to live for, that money can’t buy happiness, and that Jeff is just as down as he is. And to prove it, he switches their lives. Now Arj has the swank mansion while Jeff is at the gig jobs, barely making enough money to pay for his next meal. The problem is Jeff hates his new life, while Arj has zero complaints about being rich. Gabriel did a boo boo by directly interfering with human lives, and his angel boss Martha (Sandra Oh) tells him, if he doesn’t fix it up, he’s going to lose his wings. Can Arj get Elena to see him again? Will he voluntarily give up all his newfound 
wealth? Can Jeff survive in his new environment? Will Gabriel manage to make everything right again?
Good Fortune is a light comedy co-written, directed and starring Aziz Ansari. It’s cute and funny, if not terribly original. It combines A Christmas Carol, Eddie Murphy’s Trading Places, and It’s a Wonderful Life, with a bit of updating with current details. I like its portrayal of poverty, in all its miserableness, and the mundane life of Angels is fun, too. Seth Rogan does his same old schtick, but he does it well, Keke Palmer has a low-key role, Aziz is personable, and Keanu Reeves actually smiles — haven’t seen that in a few decades.
Good Fortune is nothing spectacular but it is cute and totally watchable.
Black Phone 2
Co-Wri/Dir: Scott Derrickson
It’s wintertime in the early 1980s in the Colorado Rockies. Finney, Gwen and Ernie are three teenaged counsellors in training at a Christian winter camp. There’s a forest, a lake and some spectacular mountains in the background. And they sleep in heated log cabins. But where are all the campers? They stayed home, due to a record- breaking blizzard that closed all the roads. Then why are the three of them there? Gwen (Madeleine McGraw) — who has prophetic dreams — keeps getting messages from her dead mother that tell her to go to this camp. Ernie (Miguel Mora) has a major crush on Gwen and will follow her anywhere. And Finney (Mason Thames) wants to keep on eye on his little sister to make sure nothing bad happens. And the two of them know a lot about bad things happening. A couple years ago, Finn was kidnapped by a sadistic masked serial killer called the Grabber (Ethan Hawke) who murdered countless kids. But a black phone in the basement cell where Finney was locked up allowed him to speak with ghosts of the kids who had died there, and — with the help of Gwen who located him through her dreams — managed to survive, escape and kill the Grabber. But now, years later, the dead seem to be communicating with Finney again, with broken down payphone constantly ringing when he walks past (he dulls his terrifying memories with lots of cannabis). Gwen is even more affected, caught in a fugue state in her half- awake dreams, 
where she she sleepwalks through the snow in her pyjamas, looking for something.
Now at this deserted camp they are haunted by three scary murdered children sending scratchy messages through Gwen’s dreams and through a broken payphone. And worst of all, the Grabber has somehow reappeared. Can the three of them manage to find the dead boys, solve the mystery of the camp, and survive the return of the terrifying serial killer? Or are they all doomed to die?
Black Phone 2 is a follow-up to the very scary original from a few years back. It keeps all the same characters and actors, plus a few new ones: the camp’s owner Mando (Demián Bichir) and his cowboy daughter Mustang (Arianna Rivas). The story is dominated this time by Gwen not Finney. I love the grainy dream sequences that bridge between sleep and reality. And the pace is steady throughout the film. There are some frightening parts, but it just doesn’t seem as scary as the first one. I think we’re supposed to be terrified to see an invisible Grabber iskating on the ice with a mask on but it just looks kinda silly. The plot of the first movie was straightforward and direct. This one is convoluted and confusing. And it includes a fair amount of spiritual messages and scriptural quotes that don’t really add to the story or to its scariness.
Again totally watchable, good horror, just not as scary as the original one.
Frankenstein
Co-Wri/Dir: Guillermo Del Toro
Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac) is a medical student in Victorian England. The son of a minor aristocrat, the world is his for the taking. But when he shows his research in a dramatic performance before his professors — by bringing the head and torso of a dead man back to life using electric shocks — he is immediately expelled. Luckily he finds a benefactor (Christoph Waltz) from the continent to sponsor his research. Frankenstein sets up his laboratory in an isolated castle. Like a modern prometheus, he goes through piles of dead bodies, cutting out the choicest bits to create his new, superior man. He is joined by his milquetoast younger brother William (Felix Kammerer) and William’s beautiful and intelligent bride Elizabeth (Mia Goth – she has perfect name for this movie). But when the creature (Jacob Elordi) is brought to life using a bolt of lightning, he doesn’t turn out as expected: he is a monster, a brainless slug who can only say one word. His experiment a failure, Frankenstein flees his castle burns down his laboratory, leaving career in ruins, and allowing the monster to die…or did he?
The rest of the movie follows the creature as he grows, learns to speak and read, discovers his own strength and power, and to differentiate between good and bad. But how will he turn 
out? And will humans ever accept him?
Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein is an entirely new look at Mary Shelley’s novel, unlike any version before it. The green-faced, flat-headed Frankenstein is nowhere to be seen. Elordi is amazing as this tabula rasa with unexpected powers and emotions. He’s a completely sympathetic character for the first time. It’s the scientist who is the real monster in this movie, but one with motives and who can feel remorse. It takes place in locations you’d never associate with Frankenstein, starting aboard a ship in the Arctic.
There’s also an extended chapter set in a cabin in the woods with a blind hermit. Yes, this Frankenstein is a gothic horror 
movie — which he’s been making all his life, like Crimson Peak (2015) — but this one takes it to a higher level. It’s visually stunning, wonderfully acted, it’s long but never boring, and besides the violence, gore and horror, there’s also romance and pathos, friendship, beauty and self-discovery.
What can I say — this is one great Frankenstein.
Frankenstein and Good Fortune which both premiered at TIFF, and Black Phone 2 all open in Toronto 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.
Not always pretty. Films reviewed: I Really Love my Husband, Orwell: 2+2=5, Roofman
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
TIFF is over but Fall Film Festival Season continues in Toronto. FeFF or Female Eye Film Festival is entering its 23rd year, showcasing features, shorts and docs directed by women. This year’s theme is Always Honest, Not Always Pretty, so you can expect some challenging and surprising work from women around the world. Expect innovative screenings, many with the directors present, as well as pitches, workshops and tributes.The festival runs from October 14-19, at the TIFF Lightbox, the Women’s Art Associations of Canada and the City Playhouse Theatre in Vaughan.
So this week, I’m looking at three movies, one from FeFF and two from TIFF. There’s honeymooners in the Caribbean, a famous writer on a tiny Scottish isle, and an ingenious thief, who lives, undetected, in a big box store.
I Really Love my Husband
Co-Wri/Dir: G.G. Hawkins
Teresa (Madison Lanesey) lives in LA with her husband Drew (Travis Quentin Young). They’ve been married for a year but have yet to go on a real honeymoon. They both work at unfulfilling professions with little time for amorous interludes. But that’s about to change: Theresa and Drew are heading south for a week, to relax and spend time with each other on the sandy beaches of Bocas del Toro, Panama. It’s a chain of Caribbean islands known for their blue skies and warm waves. And even when the airline lose their baggage and the promised welcome meal is nowhere to be seen, they are still happy with the place. The manager, a boyish, non-binary beach bum named Paz (Arta Gee), is ready to help make their stay more comfortable, however they can. For Theresa, that means thinking outside the marital envelope. She urges Drew to join with her in seducing Paz. Though hesitant at first, Drew dives into the three-way, head first, and their marriage feels stronger than ever. And Paz promises to take them to 
their secret island for one final fling.
But the mood starts to shift when jealousy rears its ugly head. A fourth wheel joins the group to make things even more confusing. Kiki (Lisa Jacqueline Starrett) a ginger-haired influencer with a venomous tongue, is a reality-show reject voted off the island. But she stays on, planting bad ideas in the couples’ heads, Can Teresa and Drew’s marriage endure all these complications? Can the insecure Teresa keep her anger in check?
I Really Love my Husband is a funny, bittersweet rom-com about the doubts plaguing a couple of millennials on a belated honeymoon. It pokes fun at a whole generation — from breakfast fasting to mushroom edibles to friendship stones — exposing some of the worst and silliest trends and fads. The characters are as worried about ratings and social networks as they are about actual love and affection. For a first-time feature by a new director with a largely unknown cast, this is a fun slice of life. Madison Lanesey is nicely sardonic, Arta Gee appropriately chill, and Travis Quentin Young always sweet strumming his guitar. Though not totally original, I Really Love my Husband does seem to capture the zeitgeist of LA’s millennials.
Orwell: 2+2=5
Dir: Raoul Peck
It’s the late 1940s in Scotland’s Inner Hebrides on a tiny, inaccessible island called Jura. George Orwell is there to write a novel in an isolated home, inaccessible by cars. His young son, his sister and their housekeeper keep him company as he sits by his typewriter. He’s dying of tuberculosis but wants to make sure his last book is completed and published. The novel is called 1984 and becomes a crucial part of contemporary culture, even today. You’ve probably heard of Big Brother; or at least the surveillance based reality show it inspired. It has been made into many films and TV shows and is referenced everywhere, Words like sexcrime and concepts like doublethink are firmly imbedded in our culture. The book is about the perpetual war between competing totalitarian nations. But more than that, it’s about the propaganda, mass surveillance and thought- control ordinary people are subject to. The hero, Winston Smith, works for the Ministry of Truth propagandizing Newspeak to the nation. But eventually he too falls victim to the machinations of the government of Oceania, ruled by Big Brother. He is tortured because, although he accepts their ludicrous proposition that 2+2=5, and espouses their slogans (War is Peace!, Ignorance is Strength! Freedom 
is Slavery!), he doesn’t really believe them. This story shows that the contents and concepts of 1984 are as relevant today as when Orwell wrote them.
Orwell 2+2=5 is a combination documentary, docudrama and diatribe about Orwell, his writing and its influence on popular culture. It covers not just 1984 but Orwell’s earlier books, including Burmese Days, Homage to Catalonia (he volunteered to fight fascism in the Spanish Civil War), and Animal Farm, his allegorical look at Stalinist Russia. It’s based on both his books and his private correspondence. The movie also uses clips from the many film adaptations of 1984 to tell that story. And finally, it includes a barrage of brand-new news footage of leaders like Trump, Putin, Orban and Xi Jinping. These are altered with Orwellian slogans superimposed in bright colours over the media images.
Raoul Peck is a well-known Haitian documentary filmmaker, and maybe it’s because I already know so much about Orwell and his writings, this movie — with the exception of his last days on Jura — wasn’t as mind blowing as it might have been if it were all new. And it can’t compare to other docs like Peck’s I Am Not Your Negro, his biography of James Baldwin. Even so, Orwell 2+2=5 does stand as a historical document with a good dose of agit-prop.
Roofman
Co-Wri/Dir: Derek Cianfrance
It’s the early 2000s in Charlotte, North Carolina. Jeffrey Manchester (Channing Tatum) is the happy father of a young daughter and twin infants. He’s smart, nimble and observant. But he is underpaid and overworked as his job, and can’t seem to keep the family afloat. When he has to resort to regifting his own childhood toys for his daughter’s birthday party, he realizes something must change. He resorts to a life of crime, involving no violence. He robs McDonalds restaurants by an ingenious method: cutting a hole in the roof after dark, and stealing the cash. After dozens of such robberies the press subs him “Roofman”. His family moves up the social ladder, living the american dream of life with a swank car and and a nicely decorated home. Alas, he is finally caught, and sent to prison. His wife cuts him off, and he can’t even talk to his own kids anymore.
Later, following an ingenious plan, he escapes from prison undetected and looks for a place to hide. Most surprisingly he discovers an unsurveilled corner of a Toys R Us big box store with enough hidden space to make set up a tiny apartment. He initially survives on peanut M&Ms pilfered from the shelves, but eventually moves on to pawning video games and DVDs. And he learns the layout of the cameras and computers, making him virtually invisible… though in plain site. He 
surveils the store management instead of vice versa. He has a crush on one employee Leigh (Kirsten Dunst) a single mom with two teenaged daughters. They eventually meet, unexpectedly, at an evangelical church toy drive (he “donates” toys stolen from his Toys R Us). Sparks fly and they become very close, but with Jeff still concealing his life of crime and his current home. Can he start a new life in his own home town without getting caught? Or should he just get the hell out of there?
Roofman is an exciting adventure / romance / comedy based entirely on a true storytelling. It’s funny, clever and constantly surprising. Channing Tatum is brilliant as Jeff, displaying an acrobatic sense of movement and timing, climbing walls, crawling through ceiling tiles or swooshing around cars on foot to avoid detection. The rest of the cast is also great: former teen actor Kirsten Dunst has eased comfortably into middle age and her character is very empathetic; Lakeith Stanfield is Steve, his sketchy war buddy; Aussie Ben Mendelsohn as guileless Pastor Ron, and Peter Dinklage appropriately dislikable as toy store manager Mitch. Filmmaker Derek Cianfrance (he directed the passionate Blue Valentine and the dark The Place Beyond the Pines) hasn’t made a movie in ages, but if he’s looking for a comeback, this is it.
I like Roofman a lot.
Roofman and premiered at TIFF and open in Toronto, this weekend; check your local listings; and I really love my husband is coming soon to FIFF.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website culturalmining.com.
TIFF gems. Films reviewed: Girl, I Swear, Cover-Up
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
TIFF, Toronto’s International Film Festival is winding down after a busy week, but there is still a lot to see, including the People’s Choice awards offering free screenings of the winning films tomorrow. So this week I’m looking at three terrific movies that premiered at TIFF but aren’t getting the degree of coverage I think they deserve. There’s a coming-of-age story about a girl in Taiwan, a biopic about a man in Scotland, and a documentary about a legendary American journalist.
Girl
Wri/Dir: Shu Qi
Lin Xiaoli (Bai Xiao-Ying) is a working class tween in middle school in Taiwan. She lives with her mom, and her domineering stepdad who terrorizes her mother and her. Xiaoli hides inside a zip-up wardrobe in her bedroom as protection from his violent outbursts. He works as a mechanic in his Uncle’s garage, and usually comes home drunk to the gills. Her Mom works in a hair salon and makes artificial flowers at home to earn extra money, but takes out her anger on her much smaller daughter. Xiaoli takes care of her younger sister, who is favoured by both her parents. At school she tries to stay unnoticed to avoid more of the violence and anxiety he gets at home.
Until she meets a vivacious girl named Li Lily (Lin Pin-Tung). Lily lived in the States for a few years but now she’s back and living with her grandparents who let her do whatever she 
wants. Though the too are complete opposites, Lily is helping Xiaoli climb out of her shell. And one day they cut class, wear makeup, smoke a cigarette, go to a video cafe, sing songs, and eventually meet a bunch teenaged boys riding motor scooters. But will this day change her life in a good way… or in a bad way?
Girl is a realistic coming-of- age drama set in the previous millennium (with no computers or cel phones) and full of poignant details. It’s a very moving story about parental abuse passed down through generations, but it’s also full of hope. It follows the points of view of all the main characters, not just 
Xiaoli. Now, I have a rule, I avoid first films at TIFF directed by actors. Why? They’re usually crap. Vanity pics, Oscar bate, self-serving vehicles or relentless navel gazing. Shu Qi is a very famous Taiwanese actress, and Girl is her first try at directing. Luckily, it’s really good. She has acted in three movies by Hou Hsiao Hsien and Girl resembles his films in both style and content, though a totally original take. It’s rough and violent in parts, which is hard to handle in a realistic movie, but there’s lots of sweet stuff, too.
Girl is an excellent first feature.
I Swear
Wri/Dir: Kirk Jones
It’s the late 1990s. John Davidson (Scott Ellis Watson) is a popular teenager in Galashiels, Scotland He’s starting at a new school, getting friendly with a girl he fancies, and is the prized goalie on the local boys’ football team. His Dad has even arranged for a scout to the next match. But then something unexpected happens. He starts twitching in class, just a little at first, like a nervous tic. But it soon turns to rapid movements, facial contortions, and barking sounds. Followed by spitting, random punching and the uttering of the most offensive words. He gets caned by the headmaster for acting the ckown, his mother makes him eat his meals on the floor facing the fireplace. HIs father abandons his family. His onetime girlfriend slaps his face and other kids bully him at school, But none of it is intentional; he has Tourette’s syndrome.
Decades later, John (Robert Aramayo) still lives with his mother, heavily sedated, not allowed to speak with anyone for fear of an incident. A miserable existence indeed. Until he runs into an old school friend who invites him for dinner at home. He repeatedly declines — for good reason — until his friend’s mom Dottie (Maxine Peake), a psychiatric nurse 
diagnosed with cancer, insist he come in for spaghetti dinner. The first thing he says to her is You’re dying of cancer, haha! before skulking away, mortified. But Dottie brushes it off as the most honest thing she’s heard in years. She invites him back, and tells him to stop apologizing for things that aren’t his fault. Eventually he moves in to try to live a normal life. But is that possible with Tourettes?
I Swear is a comedy/drama, based on a true story, about one man’s life with Tourette’s. The title refers to the profane and deeply offensive words that spew forth from his moth at the worst possible times. It’s mortifying but also excruciatingly funny, and the two actors who play him, Watson and Aramayo, exude sympathy and humour in every scene, despite their seemingly insurmountable problems. I laughed my ass off for most of this film (whenever I wasn’t crying out of sympathy). I Swear tells a heart-warming story, even as it educates — without lecturing — about Tourette’s.
I strongly recommend this feel-good movie.
Cover-Up
Wri/Dir: Laura Poitras (All The Beauty and the Bloodshed)
and Mark Obenhaus
It’s the 1960s and America is at war. Sy Hersh, a freelance reporter, hears a rumour of mass murder in Vietnam by American troops. He speaks with GIs on base and the soldiers accused of these crimes. He also got a hold of a secret military investigation the massacre. And the facts he finds are horrifying. There include synchronized sexual assaults and murders of hundreds of women, men and children, and even babies, by American soldiers. Hersh blames My Lai on General Westmoreland and others who ordered the mass killings — which happened in a number of places on the same day — solely for the purpose of raising the body count. They needed more dead bodies to prove they were winning the war. The story has major repercussions all the way to the top — Nixon and Kissinger were recorded calling Hersh a son of a bitch — and played a role in turning public sentiment away from the war. For Hersh, My Lai is the first of many crucial stories he breaks in the decades to come. He becomes the NY Times daily reporter on the Watergate scandal. He uncovers US involvement in Pinochet’s bloody coup in Chile and the assassination of 
Allende; illegal CIA infiltration of anti-war groups, the secret bombing of Cambodia, the invasion of Gaza (ongoing), and the abuse and torture of Iraqis by American soldiers during the Gulf War at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison.
Cover-Up is a journalistic documentary about journalism itself. It features historical documents and period photos and film — many very disturbing — new interviews with people involved in the stories, and extended talks with Sy Hersh, who at the age of 88 is still a full-time journalist. You get to see 
him see at work talking to anonymous sources and vetting incoming photos and leaks. He’s a bit prickly about protecting his sources even from the documentary makers (who take care never to reveal anyone still alive), because it’s that core of consciences bureaucrats, soldiers, and spies who still uphold the constitution and flout illegal coverups. They’re the sources who keep freedom of the press alive.
After the TIFF screening, Hersh said that American journalism is in a bad state with reporters running scared. How many important stories are being gagged or stifled now — or in the past — under White House pressure? It shows how badly we need more adversarial journalists who question the powers that be and uncover what they’re hiding.
And that’s what Cover-Up is all about.
I Swear, Girl and Cover-Up all played at TIFF and should be released over the next few months. This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website culturalmining.com.
Precarious relationships. Films reviewed: Lurker, The Roses, Splitsville
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Some couples are made in heaven. Others seem like accidents waiting to happen. This week, I’m looking at three new movies about strained relationships. There’s a power couple whose marriage has lost its strength; a pair of couples whose open marriages are closing up fast; and a Stan who wants to be closer to his idol.
Lurker
Wri/Dir: Alex Russell
Matthew (Théodore Pellerin: Genesis, Solo) is a young man who lives with his mom. He likes music, fashion and art, and loves shooting videos using an obsolete camera. He works in an LA clothing store — along with an even younger guy named Jamie (Sunny Suljic: mid90s) — and devotes a lot of his spare time to updating his socials. But his life is changed forever when Oliver (Archie Madekwe) wanders — seemingly at random — into his store.
Matthew seizes the day, and subtly change the music tracks being played to ones he knew would appeal to Oliver. Why? Because Matthew has been stanning him for years — he’s a superfan. And it seems to work: he is invited to hang with Oliver’s entourage in his swank home. He’s insulted and belittled but is gradually accepted into that crowd (and he never tells them he’s a Stan for Oliver). He shoots videos and starts doing crucial work for the band. They become — almost — good friends. He’s in hog heaven. And as he rises up the ladder in his precipitous climb to peripheral stardom, he discretely stabs his rivals — that is, anyone who threatens his newfound status — in the back. He ends up accompanying the band on their trip to London… but he takes one step too far, and once again he is just a normal person. But he has one 
more trick up his sleeve. Can he work his way back into the sphere of that celebrity? And at what cost?
Lurker is a fascinatingly eerie psychological drama about the rise, fall and rise of an ordinary person within the life of a celebrity. (It’s in the style of classic movies like All About Eve or A Star is Born. But it’s not about someone trying to replace a star, but rather to be closer to the star, a part of his life.) And there’s a non-sexual homoerotic subtext to the whole film as Matthew and Oliver’s power dynamic keeps shifting. Madekwe is an English actor in movies like Midsommer and Saltburn, and Pellerin is a fantastic young Quebecois, in movies by Sophie Dupuis and Xavier Dolan, and they work well together. This is writer-director Alex Russell’s first feature ( he’s best known for TV shows like The Bear) but he clearly has something going here that works.
Lurker is a good (and kinda creepy) movie.
The Roses
Dir: Jay Roach
Ivy and Theo (Olivia Coleman, Benedict Cumberbatch) are a happily married professional couple in northern California. Theo is a prize winning architect, while Ivy is a chef. They met at a business meeting in London where they had impromptu, furtive sex in a walk-in fridge — instant kismet. They left England forever and set up camp in America, to raise their twin kids whom they both love dearly. That was ten years ago.
Theo’s careers has blossomed: he has built his magna opus; a modern nautical museum with a sailboat planted on the roof. Ivy mainly cooks at home but recently opened a sleepy crab shack on the beach. But one evening unexpected gale-force winds drastically alter both their lives. The winds blow down his masterpiece, leaving the glass and wooden building, and his reputation as an architect, in ruins. But that same night a leading food critic braved the storm and ate a meal at her restaurant… and the rave review launches her career.
Soon Theo is taking care of the twins (training them for some athletic prize) while Ivy’s food empire continues to grow. The busier Ivy gets, the more depressed and resentful Theo becomes. Their marriage in tatters, they try counselling and other measures, but nothing seems to work. Can the Roses get back together? Or is their marriage doomed to fail?
The Roses is a remake of the hit 1989 film The War of the Roses, a dark comedy about the tooth-and-nail fight over a house by a divorcing couple. This version leaves out the war, and concentrates more on the laughs. Unfortunately it’s not very funny. There’s a bunch of Saturday Night Live veterans (Kate McKinnon, Andy Samberg), and famous comic actors (like Jamie Demetrioum, Zoe Chao, and Sunita Mani) who read their lines before the camera, but they’re extremely unfunny. I love Olivia Coleman (The Favourite, The Lost Daughter, Mothering Sunday, Empire of Light) and usually like Benedict 
Cumberbatch ((Doctor Strange, Spiderman, The Power of the Dog) but their usual dry, caustic wit is not evident here. And any War of these Roses is left until the final 15 minutes.
The Roses isn’t terrible, but it’s not very good, either.
Splitsville
Dir: Michael Angelo Covino
Carey and Paul (Kyle Marvin, Michael Angelo Covino) have been best friends since they were kids. Carey’s scruffy, messy but always sympathetic; he works as a teacher in a private school. Paul is a hotshot real estate dealer, putting together huge ventures in Manhattan. They both “married up”, ordinary guys with beautiful women. Carey’s partner Ashley (Adria Arjona) is a counsellor, and a firecracker in bed. They’ve only been together a short time. Julie (Dakota Johnson) is a professional potter who looks like a model. She and Paul have been married for awhile, and have a rambunctious son to show for it. Carey and Ashley are on their way to visit Paul and Julie in their lakeside villa for a summer vacation, when a chain of events changes their lives. Ashley performs a sexual act on Carey as he’s driving the car, but it’s witnessed by another car driving past, leading to a major accident, death, and Ashley wanting a divorce. (Hence the title Splitsville.) Carey arrives at Paul and Julie’s a complete mess. They comfort Carey and tel him they have an open marriage. And when Paul drives back to the city, Carey sleeps with Julie since it doesn’t matter anyway. But it does matter, which leads to a major dustup between the best friends. And puts Paul and Julie’s marriage into question. Can either couple get back together? Can Carey and Paul’s friendship be repaired? And who will end up with whom?
Splitsville is a cute sex-comedy about relationships. Apparently Covino and Marvin, the actors and co-writers, are friends in real life, which comes through both in their patter and their physical interactions; you get the feeling they’ve been having no-holds-barred punch-outs and wrestling matches since they were toddlers. Some of the scenes are totally original — like when Carey is trying to hold onto a 
bunch of goldfish in plastic bags while on a roller coaster ride. And there are novel situations, too: Carey decides to continue to live with Ashley after they split up, and he takes pains to make friends with each guy she sleeps with, so all the guys end up sticking around in their tiny apartment. There are lots of amusing scenes that make you chuckle, but it rarely makes you laugh. And way too many dick jokes (including a lot of visual ones).
Splitsville may not be the best date movie, but it’s not bad, ether.
Splitsville, Lurker and The Roses 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.
Hot and cool. Films reviewed: Ne Zha 2, Honey Don’t! PLUS Canadian films at #TIFF50
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
This week, I’m talking about two more hot summer movies, one from China and one from the US. There’s a red-hot demon who wants to live forever, and a cool, hard-boiled detective who faces death on a daily basis.
But first a look at Canadian movies premiering at TIFF’s 50th anniversary.
TIFF Canada
This year, TIFF has programmed dozens of Canadian movies — far two many to mention, but here’s a brief survey of some films worth notice.
First some documentaries:
In Modern Whore director Nicole Bazuin and subject Andrea Werhun (she was featured in Paying for It: Interview last year) challenge misconceptions about sex work and sex workers. Ni-naadamaadiz: Red Power Rising by Shane Belcourt (Red Rover: review) with Tanya Talaga is about an indigenous youth-led, 90 day armed occupation in Kenora, Ontario, back in 1974. And Min-Sook Lee’s (Migrant Dreams: interview) deeply personal film There Are No Words looks at her own mother’s suicide when she was still a child.
How about some dramas? First, two Canadian films set nowhere in particular:
There’s Honey Bunch, by Madeleine Sims-Fewer, Dusty Mancinelli, a psychological thriller about a couple in an isolated rehab centre; and Clement Virgo’s (Brother: Review; The Book of Negroes: Interview) Steal Away, the story of two princesses… of a sort.
From Atlantic Canada comes Sk+te’kmujue’katik (At the Place of Ghosts) Bretten Hannam’s (Wildwood: Interview) eerie thriller about two Mi’kmaw brothers confronting their past; And Andy Hines’ Little Lorraine, a crime thriller about drug-smugglers in a Cape Breton mining town.
Two Quebec movies look really promising. Philippe Felardeau’s (Monsieur Lazhar: Review) Lovely Day is a comedy drama about the events leading up to a wedding; and Mathieu Denis’ (Corbo: review) The Cost of Heaven, a shocking true-crime family drama that took actually place in Montreal in 2012.
I’m really looking forward to seeing what two young Toronto directors are up to next. Chandler Levack’s (I like Movies: Interview) Mile End Kicks is a romantic comedy about a music critic who moves to Montreal to get her life in order. While Matt Johnson’s (Blackberry: Review) Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie is a comedy apparently about a failed cover band in Toronto want to play at the Rivoli.
Blood Lines is Gail Maurice’s (Rosie: Interview) singular, same-sex Metis love story from the Prairies. And Tasha Hubbard’s (Nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up: Interview) Meadowlarks is a real-life drama about four indigenous siblings separated by the Sixties Scoop getting back together again in Banff, Alberta for the first time in 50 years.
And, finally, from the North comes Oscar-winner Zacharias Kunuk’s (Maliglutit: review) The Wrong Husband, an Inuit historical drama / folktale set 4,000 year in the past.
That’s just a sample of some of the Canadian films premiering at TIFF.
Ne Zha 2
Wri/Dir: Jiaozi
It’s hundreds of years ago in China, when demons and gods still roam the earth. Two supernatural beings, the fiery and impetuous Ne Zha and the calm and focused Ao Bing, once rivals, now find themselves in the same situation.They are both bodyless, floating around like ghosts. If they don’t get their bodies back soon, they will cease to exist. Once they’re reborn, if they pass three tests, they can drink the potion of immortality. Fortunately, a magical cure involving a giant lotus blossom drenched with semen-like fluid, can bring them back to life. Unfortunately, it works for Ne Zha but not for Ao Bing. And Ne Zha needs Ao Bing’s steady hand to pass the trials. So they come to a compromise: Ao Bing’s spirit will share Ne Zha’s body and they’ll try to work together. But can they pass the tests, resist the four dragons, cooperate with the old man of the south in his floating jade castle, stay out of the cauldron of fire, and fight off the thousands of evil demons who may try to eat them?
Ne Zha 2 is an animated kids’ movie straight out of China, about a rambunctious little red devil with pointy teeth, a wide mouth and fierce eyes. It’s a sequel, and is immensely popular in East Asia, even more so than the original. Ne Zha 2 has only played in IMAX in China but has already cleared 2 billion 
dollars. There’s tons of Chinese cultural and folklore and historical stuff you probably won’t understand, but I think kids will get it. Lots of jokes little kids will laugh at, about farts, piss, and vomit. There are dozens of characters voiced in English by stars like Michelle Yeoh. The animation is usually great, but there are scenes where the background doesn’t match the characters, which is off-putting. And it’s 2 1/2 hours long, which is a big chunk of your time. So if you curious about what the most popular animated film ever looks like, now’s your chance.
Honey Don’t!
Dir: Ethan Coen
It’s a hot summer’s day in Bakersfield, California; so hot you could fry an egg on the trunk of a car. But you wouldn’t want to do it on this one: it’s upside down in the desert, the wheels still spinning, a woman dead inside. An accident? Or murder? Honey O’Donohue, PI (Margaret Qualley) is there to investigate. And so is a police detective named Marty (Charlie Day) who practically drools whenever Honey is around. To his eyes, she’s a tall glass of water — and he wants a sip! — but he’s barking up the wrong tree: Honey only sleeps with women… and usually one night stands. And she’s not just a pretty face, she’s sharp, with a dry wit, a hard drinker who can deck any gunman without breaking a nail. She’s at the crime scene because the dead woman is her client — she hired Honey because she felt she was in danger. Turns out she was right, and dead bodies are piling up for unknown reasons. And all roads lead to a deeply corrupt and lascivious preacher named Drew Devlin (Chris Evans) who clearly has the devil in him. He has wanton sex with parishioners and a 
side hustle selling drugs for the French Mob. So Honey enlists a rough-looking gumshoe named MG (Aubrey Plaza) to help her catch the bad guys, and find her missing niece. They end up in bed together, repeatedly. Is this love? Or just lust? And will Honey ever find out who’s behind the crime wave?
Honey Don’t! is a very light and fun detective story, loaded with sex and violence, that spoofs old fashioned film noir movies. It quotes generously from Russ Myers’ films like Faster Pussycat, Kill! Kill!, and other cult classics. It’s the work of Ethan Coen — one of the two Coen Brothers — and his partner Tricia Cooke. This is number two of a planned trilogy of Lesbian B-Movies (Cooke is bisexual). Admittedly, I walked out of this movie scratching my head — it’s highly entertaining, but very superficial and doesn’t neatly tie up all the loose ends. But you know what? After a day thinking about it, I kinda like the way it doesn’t completely finish… it feels like the pilot episode of a TV detective series. Margaret Qualley is terrific, and Aubrey Plaza looks and acts totally different from any of her recent roles. So if you’re yearning for 90 minutes of forgettable sex, violence and over-the-top characters, I think you’ll like Honey, Don’t.
I did.
Honey Don’t and Ne Zha 2 both 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.
Secrets. Films reviewed: Sweet Angel Baby, Nobody 2, PLUS TIFF50!
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
As summer starts to wind down, I’m looking at two new movies that take you to places you’ve never been. There’s a drama about a young woman’s sexual secrets in a tiny Newfoundland outport and an action/comedy about a middle-aged man trying to keep his profession a secret while on vacation at a run-down amusement park.
But first I’m looking at more movies coming to TIFF in September.
TIFF Directors
TIFF is less than a month away, and I haven’t seen anything yet, but here are a few more movies — by international directors — that caught my eye.
Laura Poitras, has made two crucial docs so far: Citizen 5 about whistleblower Edward Snowden and All the Beauty and the Bloodshed about artist Nan Goldin’s fight with the Sackler family. Her newest doc, Cover Up, looks at the legendary investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, who broke the My Lai massacre and Abu Ghraib stories.
Guillermo del Toro — who splits his time between Toronto and Mexico City — is a specialist in gothic horror, (Devils Backbone, Cronos, Pinocchio, Nightmare Alley, The Shape of Water, Crimson Peak ) so it’s no surprise he’s doing his own version of Frankenstein. This should be great.
You may not have heard of Christian Petzold, but he’s one of the most creative and distinctive German directors around. (Barbara,, Phoenix, Transit, Undine,, Afire) He makes mannered, artificial-looking movies, that still deeply affect the viewer. His newest pic, Miroirs No. 3 is about a woman who moves in with a witness to the accident that killed her boyfriend. I’m really looking forward to this one.
Hungarian filmmaker László Nemes who won an Oscar for his harrowing Son of Saul, and whom I interviewed on this show in 2018, is back with a new film called Orphan. It’s about a young man in 1950s Budapest who is raised idolizing his late heroic father, until he meets a brutish, horrible man who claims to be his real dad.
Raoul Peck is the Haitian filmmaker known for his powerful, political documentaries, like I Am Not your Negro about James Baldwin. His latest is Orwell: 2+2=5 a biography of that writer and how his book 1984 is still relevant.
I first encountered Annemarie Jacir’s film When I Saw You back in 2012, but it stuck with me. Palestine 36 — having its world premiere at TIFF — is about fighting the British in 1936, and it stars Hiam Abbas and Jeremy Irons.
Steven Soderbergh churns out several new movies each year — some great, some terrible. But I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt on his newest one about art fraud, The Christophers — starring Ian McKellen and James Corden — cause it looks kinda good.
Director Claire Denis who grew as a white French woman in colonial West Africa has made so many great movies (White Material, Beau Travaille) that I’ll watch anything she produces. Her latest The Fence is in English, and stars Matt Dillon, Mia McKenna-Bruce (who I interviewed on this show last year) and Ivorian actor Isaach De Bankolé.
These are just a few of the movies premiering at TIFF50.
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Sweet Angel Baby
Wri/Dir: Melanie Oates
It’s a cold Sunday morning in a tiny outport in Newfoundland. It’s a picturesque town, with brightly coloured wooden houses scattered on hills overlooking crashing waves at the foot of cliffs down below. But this day the town’s priest has some bad news. The Vatican is selling the church and the land it stands on to pay court-ordered restitution for the child abuse crimes of a previous generation. But the chapel has been there for centuries, built by the villagers’ own great, great grandparents. And though it’s the centre of their lives, they can’t think of any way to stop it from being sold. Until one voice asks: Why don’t we raise money ourselves to buy it on behalf of the town. That suggestion comes from the much-loved Eliza (Michaela Kurimsky). She has pale skin and long auburn hair, is savvy, kind and pretty. And still single. The men all hit on her — even Shawn (Peter Mooney) her high school crush who is married with children. What they don’t know is she has a secret lover named Toni (Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers) an out-lesbian who 
works as a waitress at the local diner and raises chickens for eggs on the side. They keep their relationship casual and hush-hush.
But Eliza has another secret even Toni doesn’t know about. She has an anonymous website — with many followers, worldwide — where she posts her artistic photos. They are all of herself — posed on the cliffs, in the woods, lying on lichen covered rocks. But these aren’t your usual selfies. In all these carefully composed pictures, she’s naked or scantily clad (with her face obscured, naturally.) But when someone in the village, somehow figures out she’s the woman in the photos, everything changes. Once one person knows, everyone knows, and her bucolic world collapses all around her.
Sweet Angel Baby is a moving drama about secrets, sex, frustration and cruelty in a small town in Newfoundland. It’s a lovely and touching story, filled with highly erotic — and occasionally absurd — images. Michaela Kurimsky is fantastic as Eliza a woman yearning to burst out of a culture that’s repressing her but still holds so many good parts of her life. I love the cinematography and art direction from the little red houses to a dead moose.
Sweet Angel Baby shows us a a new and different Newfoundland.
Nobody 2
Dir: Timo Tjahjanto
Hutch (Bob Odenkirk) is an average middle-aged, middle-class suburban guy, with a wife and two kids. He’s nobody, really. He goes to work each day, and comes home after everyone’s asleep. So what does he do all day? Fights and kills bad guys, sometimes 5 at a time. He’s good at it and likes his job. He works for a secretive syndicate that sends him out on death-defying assignments each day — he’s a professional killer, a hitman extraordinaire. But lately he feels like he’s missing out on life. He wasn’t there for his son Brady’s big game, or his daughter Sammy’s fleeting innocent years. And he barely sees his wife Becca at all (Connie Nielsen). So he decides to take his family to Plummerville, the same cheesy rundown amusement park his dad (Christopher Lloyd) took him and his brother to (RZA) when they were both kids. So they pile into the car and head out on the road for some good clean fun.
Problem is, trouble has a way of finding Hutch, wherever he goes. It starts with just a minor fight in a pinball ally involving the local highschool’s bully and his son. Hutch tries to stay calm, and not get involved, but it turns out the bully’s dad owns Plummerville, and the town itself is ridden with 
corruption and organized crime; they use the theme park to launder money and smuggle guns and drugs. The local Sheriff (Colin Hanks) is a bad hombre, and on top of the heap is a sadistic gangster kingpin (or queenpin?) named Lendina (played by the much-missed Sharon Stone). She’s as bloodthirsty as she is cruel, and takes notice when an unknown tourist starts interfering with her profit-making. Can Hutch fight off all the villains and protect his family while keeping them all totally clueless as to the nature of his work?
Nobody 2 is an action comedy about an ineffectual dad who is secretly a killing machine. It’s a sequel to the original movie a few years back. Think: National Lampoon’s Vacation starring John Wick. The violence is great, running from choreographed fight scenes (using fists, knives, guns, and improvised weapons) to bigger stuff like booby traps, gattling 
guns and hand grenades… all set against an aging, seedy amusement park (filmed near Winnipeg!). I know, we shouldn’t laugh at people being killed, but the humour — and the violence — seldom stops.
Nobody 2 is 90 minutes of violent fun.
Sweet Angel Baby and Nobody 2 both 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.
Not tourists. Films reviewed: Souleymane’s Story, The Legacy of Cloudy Falls
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
August is when people scour the earth for vacation spots, where they can soak up the glamour and romance of famous locales without ever actually living there. This week I’m looking at two new movies about the people who live in popular tourist destinations. There are asylum-seekers in Paris, and psychic-debunkers in Niagara Falls.
Souleymane’s Story
Co-Wri/Dir: Boris Lojkine
Souleymane Sangaré (Abou Sangaré) is a young man on a bike. His friends call him Souleye de Paris. He earns his keep delivering meals to paid customers across the city using his smartphone to record the deliveries and pass on his next assignment. Other young men from West Africa look up to him as a role model, and beg him to help them become couriers too. But Souleymane’s life is more complicated than it seems.
Originally from Guinee, he arrived in France as a refugee seeking asylum. His beloved girlfriend back home (they speak by phone) is talking about marrying someone else, and his mother seems particularly out of touch when he speaks with her. He is homeless, and sleeps in a dormitory far from the Gare du Nord. But he never gets a full night’s sleep because he is forced to wake up in the middle of the night to electronically reserve his next night’s bed. He catches a bus ride to and from the shelter, and if he’s late he’s forced to sleep in the rough. 
Even his delivery job is done on the sly, using someone else’s name who takes a large cut of each transaction (he’s undocumented and can’t work legally.) And everything he does is done for one goal: his asylum interview scheduled in just a few days. He’s studying hard to pass that ordeal. And to do that correctly, he needs to hire a coach to fill in the forms and train him on exactly what to say.
So when an accident messed up a single delivery, his carefully constructed life suddenly becomes precarious. Can Souleymane keep his job, pay his asylum coach, and pass the government interview? Or will he be sent back to the country he fled?
Souleymane’s Story is a powerful, fast-moving, slice-of-life drama about a refugee in Paris. Souleymane is in constant motion, on a bike, climbing staircases, on trying to catch the 
metro or a bus. Most of the movie is in the form of a flashback as he waits for his immigration interview. And as it slowly builds to that event, everything leading p to it is exposed, climaxing in a heart wrenching, tear jerking finish. The dialogue shifts between French and a number of other West African languages, showing the polyglot nature of life in the big city.
I don’t recognize the director or any of the actors, but it has a realistic feel.
Good movie.
The Legacy of Cloudy Falls
Wri/Dir: Nick Butler
It’s summertime in the city of Niagara Falls. A group of long-term tenants at a seedy apartment building live in close proximity. Terry (Andrew Moodie) is a single, middle-aged gay, Black man who runs an unsuccessful souvenir shop. He spends his lonely days surrounded by fridge magnets and snow globes that nobody seems to want. But he has one goal: to locate the son of a man he once knew. Terry fantasizes about his next door neighbour, Edwin, a compulsive, body-conscious young man who lifts weights and decorates himself with home-made tattoos. Edwin (Josh Dohy) just appeared there one day, 
claiming he is the nephew of the hotel’s owner but Terry has never seen them together.
Brigit (Grace Glowicki) sees herself as a debunker of the lies and scams perpetrated by fortune tellers and mind-readers. (She’s also having an affair with a croupier at the casino, but that’s another story.) She has a website devoted to her whistle-blowing, which no one seems to read. Still, she’s ready to catch her Moby Dick, a man named Walter Pryce, due to arrive in town soon. Pryce is a tele-psychic whose YouTube videos are watched by millions, and who Brigit vows to take down.
Finally there’s Riley (Amanda Martínez) a cynical, compulsive liar, who pretends she’s the director of a talent agency. She keeps her boss semi-conscious through the use of sleeping powders generously sprinkled into her drinks. But she feels strangely drawn to Calvin (Richard Zeppieri) a shy man who appears at the office one day, with dreams of becoming a professional actor. These are just a few of the plot streams happening simultaneously in and around the apartments as recounted in a nasal voice by Rita (Susan Berger) a senior with bottle-red hair who sees everything going on at the Cloudy Falls.
The Legacy of Cloudy Falls is a comedy/drama about a group of quirky and tragically lonely characters as they interact with one another. (I kept hearing the lyrics to Eleanor Rigby in the back of my mind.) Vendettas, scams and conspiracy theories ebb and flow like the misty waterfall nearby. Amid walls 
painted with UFOs, no one seems to do what they’re supposed to be doing but somehow, still continue to get along. This film is retro kitsch mixed with Wes Anderson-style odd-balls. There’s something about Niagara Falls that brings all these strange people to one place — especially in movies. (I’m thinking Albert Shin’s Disappearance at Clifton Hill from 2019, for example).
This is director Nick Butler’s first feature after a series of shorts and many years oworking in casting for various TV series — which may explain the episodic nature of this film — stories that are linked and coexist but have their own separate narratives.
So if you’re in the mood for something whack but oddly compelling, check out this one.
The Legacy of Cloudy Falls opens on August 25 in Toronto, with Souleymane’s Story playing this weekend at the TIFF Lightbox; check your local listings.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies each Saturday Morning on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website www.culturalmining.com.
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