Daniel Garber talks with Alan Zweig about Love, Harold (+Tubby)
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Some people’s biggest fear is of a late-night call from a hospital that someone close to them —a child, a parent, a lover or a friend — has suddenly died in an unexpected accident, something you can’t predict. It’s devastating. But what if that death was by suicide? How do you deal with news like that? Why did they choose to do it? Was it somehow your own fault or something you could have prevented? Well, a new film looks at survivors of suicide loss and the effect it has on their lives.
The film’s called Love, Harold, and it’s a sympathetic and very moving look at how the aftermath of a suicide by talking with the friends, partner or family member of the ones who died. This NFB film is written, and directed by renowned Toronto-based filmmaker Alan Zweig, whose deeply- personal and 
intimate documentaries look at people — including himself — facing crises, both major and mundane, in everyday life. His films have won numerous awards including the prestigious Platform prize at TIFF, a Genie and a Canadian Screen Award.
I’ve covered many of his docs and interviewed him at this station, including Fifteen Reasons to Live (2013). And I know Alan off mic, through work, mutual friends… and he used to be my next-door neighbour! Alan is also currently hosting a self-help podcast called TUBBY about weight issues.
I spoke with Alan in Toronto via ZOOM.
Love Harold is the centrepiece film at Rendezvous with Madness on October 24.
This film contains discussions of suicide, and the effects on survivors of suicide loss. If you need support services, please call your local Distress Centre. If you need immediate help, please call or text 9-8-8.
You can listen to Tubby on Left of Dial Media.
Big and small. Films Reviewed: Bad Shabbos, Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning PLUS Inside-Out
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Movies tend to fall into two categories: big-budget blockbusters there to provide spectacles on enormous screens, and small, low budget indie films that tell an intimate story. This week, I’m looking at one of each: An action thriller about a secret agent protecting the planet from evil AI; and a dark comedy about an extended family trying to have dinner. But before that, I’m talking a bit about some new movies opening at Toronto’s Inside Out Film Festival.
Inside Out
This year marks the 35th Anniversary of Inside Out, Toronto’s 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival showing features and shorts from Canada and around the world. The Festival runs from May 23-June 1st. Here are a few of the films there that caught my attention.
Move Ya Body: The Birth of House
…is a new doc by Elegance Bratton (The Inspection: 2022) that uses historic footage and music tracks along with interviews with the pioneers of house music to trace the development of dance music in the 1990s from a single club in Chicago called The Warehouse to nightclubs in London, Tokyo and around the world. The doc concentrates on the lives of musicians DJs, producers and entrepreneurs who were mainly black and gay who treated House as an expression of race and sexuality in a segregated Chicago.
Starwalker
Co-Wri/Dir: Corey Payette
Star, a 2-spirited, Oji-Cree falls for Levi, a guy he meets in a Vancouver park who introduces him to a drag sanctuary called House of Borealis, ruled by Mother. It’s there that Star, who grew up in foster homes, comes out of his shell as an Anishnaabe princess. A musical dramatic romance Starwalker tells its story with all-original songs belted out by powerful voices in solos, duets and choruses, both onstage and off.
Lucky, Apartment
Co-Wri/Dir Garam Kangyu
A young lesbian couple in Seoul buy a condo together but are troubled by the bad smells rising from the apartment beneath them. While one is more concerned about her career, her lover wants to preserve something from the old woman who died there. A true tearjerker, about women in the workplace, queer invisibility, families and lost lives, Lucky Apartment is a deeply moving film.
These are just three of the films now playing at Inside Out.
Bad Shabbos
Co-Wri/Dir: Daniel Robbins
It’s Friday night on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, and, like every Friday night a family is getting together for dinner. David (Jon Bass) is there with his fiancé, Meg (Meghan Leathers); Abby (Milana Vayntrub) with her boyfriend Benjamin (Ashley Zukerman), and Adam (Theo Taplitz) the youngest who still lives at home. They’re there to see their parents Ellen and Richard (Kyra Sedgwick, David Paymer). The candles are set, the brisket’s in the oven. But this is a special night, a look-who’s-coming-to-dinner night, because the meal is for the Jewish sabbath, but the guests, Meg’s devout Catholics parents, are driving in from Milwaukee. The future in-laws are going to meet for the first time, and David and Meg are worried about everything that could go wrong. You see, her parents don’t like arguments at the dinner table… but Abby and Ben are fighting, Adam (who’s on meds) sometimes explodes, Dad likes forcing his pop-psychology theories on everyone and there’s more than a bit of friction between Mom and Meg. Luckily, they all love their building’s doorman Jordan (Cliff Smith, Method Man in the Wu-tang Clan), who assures them he’ll drop by at an appropriate time to smooth the waters.
Meg’s parents are running late, but could arrive any moment, when… something terrible happens, leaving one of the dinner party guests dead… possibly even killed. And as each of the guests discovers what has happened, and who might be held responsible they decide to get the body out of the building before Meg’s parents arrive. But the longer it takes, the less possible it becomes.
Bad Shabbos is dark, drawing room comedy with personality 
conflicts, mistaken identities, and lotos secrets. It’s cute and funny, with excellent comic timing, good acting and enough quirky original characters that play against stereotypes to keep it interesting. I’s very much an ensemble, with each character getting their moment in the sun and no one hogging the camera, but a few stand out: Kyra Sedgwick and David Paymer as the parents, Catherine Curtin as Meg’s mom, Theo Taplitz as the coddled and neurotic youngest son, Adam, and of course Method Man as Jordan. Bad Shabbos is a good social comedy.
Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning
Co-Wri/Dir: Christopher McQuarrie
The world is on the brink: an aggressive AI program (known as the Entity) is taking over everything. And that everything includes the controls behind all atomic bombs. The entity doesn’t care if every human disintegrates. So it’s up to Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his Impossible Mission team — on direct orders from the US President — to stop it. His mission involves entering a defunct Soviet submarine where the AI programs was once kept, to locate a small but crucial piece of machinery that can stop it. His team includes Grace (Hayley Atwell) a notorious pickpocket and Paris, a cold-blooded assassin; plus most of his usual buddies, like Luther and Benji. But a mysterious supervillain villain named Gabriel (Esai Morales) is doing everything he can to stop him, so he can take control of the Entity for his own nefarious ways. And the entity itself has brainwashed millions to form an invisible army, ready to pop out of nowhere to stop Ethan’s mission. Can Ethan and his Scooby gang save the planet from nuclear destruction?
Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning is an action/thriller about big things like saving the world. It has atrocious dialogue and a ridiculous plot that makes absolutely no sense. The scenes with American politicians and generals are unintentionally hilarious. It’s about 3 hours long — they could easily have made it in 2. And like many contemporary movies, it doesn’t know how to deal with abstract, digital or AI 
weapons, so they replace it with something physical, a McGuffin the hero can hold in his hand. Which, again, makes no sense — you can’t stop a rogue computer program with just a special device, but, hey— it’s a movie.
So, putting all that aside, is it a good movie? Yes, it is. Not in the normal sense, but as entertainment. It’s spectacular, exciting and engrossing. I mentioned the corny dialogue, but the movie also has two very long sequences with no dialogue whatsoever. One has Ethan Hunt inside an abandoned Soviet nuclear submarine on the ocean’s floor in the arctic, that’s filled with seawater and is gradually rolling to greater depths. This scene is as eerie as it is spectacular, feeling as if you’re trapped inside a 1970s Tarkovsky movie. There’s also a scene straight out of a WWI movie, with two pilots aboard propeller planes have fistfights… in midair! Again, no dialogue but lots of exciting action. And I gotta admit, seeing it on a ginormous IMAX screen doesn’t hurt either.
So if you’re in the mood to travel from the north pole to South Africa, in every sort of strange transportation, check out Mission Imposisble.
Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning and Bad Shabbos both open in Toronto this weekend; check your local listings. And go to insideout.ca for information and tickets.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website culturalmining.com.
More drive-in movies. Films reviewed: Shadow Force, Rust, Clown in a Cornfield
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
It’s finally getting warm outside and you’re probably unpacking your shorts and slides. Don’t you want to watch a movie outdoors? Well, this week, I’m looking at three drive-in type movies: a western, a slasher and an action movie. There’s a pair of super-spy-assassins… and their cute little son; a notorious outlaw… and his little grandson; and a small-town doctor whose rebellious daughter is being chased by a killer clown!
Shadow Force
Co-Wri/Dir: Joe Carnahan
It’s present day in the USA. Isaac (Omar Sy) is a defacto single Dad (his wife has disappeared) taking care of his young son, Ky (Jahleel Kamara). He likes driving around in his car with his son and singing along to middle-of-the-road R&B classics He keeps a low profile and avoids all cameras. He’s also hearing impaired, his eardrums shattered in an explosion. But when a random gang of robbers attacks a bank he’s in and threaten his son’s life, his years of training kick into action. He manages to disarm or kill all his attackers in just a few seconds. The footage goes viral and his identity is blown. You see, Isaac was once a member of an elite international paramilitary troupe known as Shadow Force. Their job? To keep G7 nations safe by assassinating anybody their boss wants them to. And who is this boss?Jack Cinder (Mark Strong) a ruthless killer. But when Isaac and another Shadow Force agent Kyrah (Kerry Washington) started dating and fell in love they both went AWOL. Fraternization is strictly verboten (except between Cinder and female members). And no one ever leaves the shadow force. The remaining members have orders to eliminate them both, and the one who kills them first gets a huge reward. But now Kyra and Isaac are back together and their son is in danger. With the help of their longtime CIA agents Auntie and Unc (Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Method Man) maybe they can rescue him, But with the Shadow Force closing in, what are their chances of survival?
Shadow Force is an extremely light and vapid action/thriller
with a bit of humour. The premise — a secret kill team run by the G7 — is totally ridiculous. What’s different about this one? It’s a husband-and-wife kill-team taking care of an innocent kid as they try to live a normal life. Also, they’re both Black, quite unusual in action movies. So there are lots of parenting jokes, and mundane husband/wife patter. The flight scenes are blurry or too close up, not great. The shooting scenes are only a bit better while some of the chases — like in a motorboat — are not that bad. I wanted to see this one because I like French star Omar Sy, and he was not disappointing. Nor was the rest of the cast; Washington, Strong, Randolph, and Method Man are all good (though much better actors than the crap material they’re forced to work with.)
Shadow Force is a passable action film and instantly forgettable.
Rust
Co-Wri/Dir: Joel Souza
It’s the 1880s in the old west. Lucas Hollister (Patrick Scott McDermott) is an orphan who lives with his little brother Jacob in the family homestead. Their Ma died of the fever and their Pa shot himself afterwards. Now it’s Lucas who provides for and protect Jacob — cook his food, buy the supplies and protect him from any dangers. But when an errant shot aimed at a wolf, accidentally killed a townsman, Lucas is arrested, tried and, though still a young boy, os sentenced to death by hanging. A local matriarch, Evelyn Basset (Frances Fisher) a great aunt, pleads for his release, but to no avail. But that night, an outlaw breaks into the prison, and after a shootout escapes on horseback with Jacob. The man is a gruff, grizzled and mean old cuss. But Harland Rust (Alec Baldwin) is also Lucas’s grandpa. He promises to find his brother, and take Lucas somewhere the law can’t reach him. The boy doesn’t like him but doesn’t want to die. So they start on a long journey southbound from Montana. But what they don’t realize is they’re being pursued by a large number of people. Wood Helm (Josh Hopkins) is a rare, honest lawman, who wants to bring them both back alive so he can hang ‘em. He’s got a posse to back him up. Then there’s ‘Preacher’ Lang a notorious, black-hat bounty hunter (Travis Fimmel), who had his start murdering escaped slaves for cash. Rust and Lucas are way ahead, but their pursuers are catching up. Will Rust fulfil his promise? Will Lucas ever get to know 
his newfound grandpa? Or will they both be caught and killed by the bounty hunters?
Rust is a classic, bittersweet western about an outlaw and his grandson being tracked by bounty hunters. It has everything you expect — an outlaw and a sheriff, shootouts, showdowns… the usual. The acting is OK and there’s a credible narrative, but much of the movie is a muddled mess, with lots of people shouting and shooting but you’re never really sure why and at whom. In case you haven’t heard, Rust is that notorious western where the cinematographer was accidentally shot and killed on set by Alec Baldwin due to a firearms mixup… The director was wounded, too. Three years later, they managed to reshoot missing scenes, recast some roles and cobble it all together. This is the result, released as a tribute to Halyna Hutchins, the woman who Baldwin killed, including some of the many incredible scenes she shot — all on film — against magnificent western skies. The lighting alone is exceptional.
Rust is not a great movie, but if you are curious like I was, now might be your only chance to see it on the big screen.
Clown in a Cornfield
Dir: Eli Craig
It’s Kettle Falls, a small town in corn country, middle-America. Quinn (Katie Douglas) is a city girl from Philly, who has just arrived with her dad (Aaron Abrams), the town’s new MD. He had a nervous breakdown when Quinn’s mom (his wife) died, so they’re relocating to somewhere less stressful. It may be more relaxing for him, but it sure isn’t for Quinn. Their house smells like dead bodies, and, most frightening of all, they’re in a no-signal zone! Luckily, their gigantic neighbour Rust (Vincent Muller) who likes huntin’ and fishin’ offers to walk her to school.
But things just get worse. She falls in a with the bad kids — who happen to throw the best parties — and is immediately given detention. Her new friends are Janet the snob, Ronnie the regular girl, Tucker the class clown, and Matt the dumb jock. And their undeclared leader, Cole (Carson MacCormac). He’s a self-described son of an oligarch; his family founded this one-horse town and own the only business — a corn syrup factory represented by the logo of a clown. But, Cole, like his friends, just want it tear it all down, and get out of this place. So Tucker and Matt have been creating short videos portraying Frendo as a evil serial killer, acting out gory scenes that go viral on the socials. But things take a drastic turn for the worse when the actual Frendo embarks on a murderous 
rampage… and the bad kids — including Quinn — are on his hit list. Is Frendo a ghost or is he a person? Why is he killing the teens? And who — if anyone — will survive?
Clown in a Cornfield is a classic slasher/horror pic about a killer in a small town. It’s bloody, scary and funny. The killer-clown — who appears after anyone uses a Frendo jack-in-the-box — uses a butcher’s hook, a bow an arrows and a chainsaw to decapitate and disembowel his various victims. It follows many of the typical slasher plot turns but with enough new twists to make it very enjoyable. I especially liked the generation-gap gags, like where the teens are trapped in a house but don’t know how to use a dial phone. The entire movie was filmed in Winnipeg with an all-Canadian cast… which makes me wonder: is Frendo an evil-twin version of the Nutty Club’s Can-D-Man clown?
I pre-judged this movie by its title as something derivative and stupid, but you know what? Clown in a Cornfield is a whole bunch of fun.
Shadow Force, Rust, and Clown in a Cornfield all open this weekend; check your local listings.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website culturalmining.com.
Daniel Garber talks with Jason Buxton about Sharp Corner
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Josh McCall is a mild-mannered, middle-aged man who works at a middle management job in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He loves golf, fine wine and his family. He lives with his wife Rachel, a marriage counsellor, and their young son Max. They’re excited about moving into their new home on a peaceful country road far from the bright city lights. But from their first night, they discover their dream home is actually a nightmare. It’s parked between two hairpin turns on a badly lit road, where cars are constantly crashing. Their front lawn is a danger zone and the death toll of drivers keeps rising. Max is terrified, Rachel says they must move out, but Josh discovers his new mission — to save as many of the inevitable crash victims he can. And his new obsession 
overrides his career, his marriage and even his young son. The question is, how far will he go to rescue dying motorists on that sharp corner?
Sharp Corner is a new psychological drama about a man’s altruistic obsession taken to a horrifying level. It’s funny, shocking and more than a bit creepy. The film premiered at TIFF last year and stars Ben Foster and Cobie Smulders as the McCalls. Sharp Corner is co-written and directed by Halifax-based, award-winning filmmaker Jason Buxton. His first film, Blackbird (Review), opened at TIFF in 2012, and was on my “best of” list that year. Blackbird went on to win the Canadian Screen Award for Best First Feature, and Sharp Corner is also gathering awards and high ratings.
I spoke with Jason Buxton in Toronto via Zoom.
Sharp Corner opens across Canada on May 9, 2025.
Hate and Love. Films reviewed: Another Simple Favour, On Swift Horses PLUS more Hotdocs!
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
This week I’m looking at two new movies, a dark comedy and a romantic drama. There’s a true-crime writer in search of a killer on the Isle of Capri, and a dishonourably discharged sailor looking for forbidden love in the casinos of Las Vegas.
But first… with Hotdocs continuing through the weekend, here are some more documentaries playing there that caught my fancy.
Endless Cookie (Peter and Seth Scriver) is a highly original animated film that uses bright colours and stylized characters — in the form of elastic bands, or peaches — to retell the stories of two half brothers, one from the Shamattawa First Nation in Northern Manitoba, the other from Toronto’s Kensington Market.
Coexistence, My Ass by Canadian filmmaker Amber Fares (Speed Sisters: Interview, 2015) looks at an Israeli stand-up comic who uses her tragic hilarity — in Hebrew, Arabic and English — as a scathing critique of her own country’s policies.
My Boyfriend the Fascist (Matthias Lintner) is an intimate, personal film about a leftist Italian filmmaker in South Tyrol and his virulently anti-communist Cuban-Italian lover who is drifting further and further to the extreme right.
Supernatural (Ventura Durall) is about an MD forced to deal with the legacy of his own dad, who was famous as a shaman, and a telepathic healer who still has a grateful followers including one woman who swears he saved her life.
And finally…
Ragnhild Ekner’s Ultras is a stunning, impressionistic look at the shared subculture of superfans at soccer clubs on four continents, including chants and Tifos, both elaborate synchronized formations in the stands and the creation of massive cloth banners that span a stadium and then disappear in just a few minutes.
All of these played at Hotdocs, including some with additional screenings this weekend.
Another Small Favour
Dir: Paul Feig
It’s summer in Connecticut, and Stephanie, a writer and single mom (Anna Kendrick), is sending her son off to camp. Which gives her time to promote her latest book, “The Faceless Blonde” a true-crime saga of adultery, deceit and murder. She knows the story better than anyone since she’s the one who lived through it all (barely) and helped the police catch the murderess and lock her up.
So imagine her surprise when she receives a fancy invitation to a wedding on the Isle of Capri. It includes a private jet, a luxury hotel suite and a seat at the head table as Maid of Honour. What’s the catch? The bride is Emily (Blake Lively) the very same convicted killer who tried to murder her! Somehow, Emily’s out of prison and betrothed to a fabulously wealthy and powerful man.
Naturally, Stephanie is suspicious. How could she trust the woman who tried to kill her? But in the end, she decides to go — and film it all for her popular vlog. The location is lavish… but also dangerous, with a notorious cliff where many had met their maker. Guests include Sean (Henry Golding) Emily’s bitter ex-husband; Linda (Allison Janney), Emily’s conniving aunt and Margaret (Elizabeth Perkins), her batty mother; 
Dante (Michele Morrone), her handsome brooding fiancé; and Portia (Elena Sofia Ricci) Dante’s acid-tongued matriarch. The danger comes from the fact that Dante’s family are connected to the mob, and almost everyone at the party holds a deadly grudge toward at least someone else. Poor Stephanie is left fending off the eye-daggers that everyone is sending her way, but even so, some of the main characters are being killed, one by one. Who is behind these murders? What is their motive? And can Stephanie make it out of there alive?
Another Simple Favour is a dark comedy/thriller about killers killing other killers at a wedding. Apparently it’s a sequel to a similar movie that came out in 2018, but I can’t compare it to that since I never saw it. I can compare it to other high-budget movies made especially for streaming sites (This one is premiering on Prime). It shares their characteristics: famous directors, top stars, exotic locales, racy dialogue and designer costumes. Thing is, Another Simple Favour is a comedy but 2/3 of the jokes fall flat, and a mystery but highly contrived. The writing and directing are both mediocre at best. The characters are simplistic and just so-so, including a whole bunch I didn’t bother mentioning because they have no obvious role other than that they were in the original film. Blake Lively’s Emily tosses the C-word like party favours at a wedding. Her character just doesn’t seem believable. Henry Golding is irritating, and Elizabeth Perkins is embarrassingly bad. Happily, Allison Janney is fun and Anna Kendrick is truly delightful. And, yes, it’s crap but it’s fun crap, and it kept me interested even though I knew it was bad. If I had bought a ticket to Another Simple Favour in a theatre, I’d feel ripped-off, but since it’s a TV movie on a streaming site, it left me feeling mildly entertained.
On Swift Horses
Dir: Daniel Minahan
It’s the 1950s in San Diego after the Korean War. Muriel (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and Lee (Will Poulter) are a newly-married couple who moved west from Kansas to seek their fortune. While Lee is infatuated with his new wife, Muriel is more reserved. He wants to move into a new house in a suburban development, but she is reticent to leave the city… until she meets Sandra (Sasha Calle) a woman whose house borders the new development. She’s single, independent and mysterious, someone Muriel can spend time with. But they’re both waiting for Lee’s younger brother Julius (Jacob Elordi) to show up, and kick in his share of the mortgage. The problem is while Lee is an ordinary grunt, his brother is tall, dark and handsome with huge ambitions. He’s not like us, Lee says.
Indeed, he has moved to Nevada to make big bucks in Vegas as a card shark. But he soon realizes since you can’t beat a casino, so you may as well join them. They place him in the unfinished rafters immediately above the game tables where he looks down through holes to spot card counters and cheaters. There he meets Henry (Diego Calva) a Mexican who shares his duties. It’s hot up there so they strip down to white singlets. Soon they’re sharing an apartment and then a bed; secretly, of course. Is this love?
Meanwhile, back in San Diego, Muriel overhears regulars at 
the diner she works at, discussing sure-fire horses to bet on. She makes to he tracks to try her luck. And with some newfound earnings she feels confident enough to pay a visit to Sandra down the road. Is this just a fling? Or the real thing? Will Julius ever join them in San Diego? And what would Lee do if he ever discovered both his brother and his wife are flirting with same-sex partners?
On Swift Horses is a romantic drama about love in repressive 1950s America. It recreates the era with detailed period sets and music set against paintbrush desert sunsets. It’s passionate and erotic with a novelistic scope (based on the book by Shannon Pufahl). The main characters both find themselves doing illicit and mildly illegal things — gambling — to support their highly illegal actions — same sex relationships. Though never explicit, somehow Edgar-Jones as Muriel spitting an olive pit into Sandra’s open hand, or 
dancing to music in Sandra’s living room in her underwear seems much more sexualized than her having obligatory coitus with her husband. Likewise Elordi as Julius exudes sexual desire in every scene. While the film does verges on the sentimental with its gushing music and tragic near misses, by the end, you’ll be siding with the characters and hoping their love will be eternal.
On Swift Horses is now playing; check your local listings. and Another Simple Favour is streaming on Prime
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 Ingrid Veninger about Crocodile Eyes
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
It’s present day Toronto. Independent filmmaker Ruby White (Ingrid Veninger) is working on a documentary about her family. She has stuck a hundred, hot-pink post-it notes on a wall, and is gradually filling in the blanks, using vintage footage she has dug up, and brand new snippets as they happen. Her daughter Sara, an artist, is very pregnant with a four- year-old daughter already there. Little Freya is exploring the world, one blade of grass at a time. Her son Jake is a manager at a movie theatre and a member of a 
band. Ruby’s Slovakian parents, Dedo and Baba, still play an active role in their family; her Mom still vivacious, her Dad on his last legs. But with life, death and birth happening all around her, Ruby must decide what to include in her film and what to leave out. What is real and what is fictitious? And what will her family think of the final film?
Crocodile Eyes is a semi-fictional, semi-documentary slice-of-life drama, told through a raw and visceral lens. It’s both heartwarming and shocking. It’s the work of prize-winning, independent filmmaker Ingrid Veninger, whose films have 
been shown at TIFF and festivals worldwide. She has also taught and mentored countless other filmmakers, many of whom who have risen to their own fame. I’ve been following her work for the past decade and a half, reviewing movies like the wonderful Modra and the hilarious I Am a Good Person/I Am a Bad Person, and have interviewed her twice on this show about Porcupine Lake (2017), and The Animal Project (2014).
I spoke wth Ingrid Veninger in person, at CIUT 89,5 FM.
Crocodile Eyes is having its world premiere on March 28th at the Canadian Film Fest.
Daniel Garber talks with Ann Marie Fleming about Can I Get a Witness?
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
It’s rural Canada, at some point in the near future. Kiah is young woman about to start a new phase of her life. She lives with her mother in a homey but threadbare shack, a testament to the joys of back-to-nature living. They ride bikes and grow their own vegetables. But what will her new job be? She’s going to be a witness, someone who officially records a major event.
You see, in this post-carbon future, there are no digital 
cameras or cell phones to record events, just people like Kiah and their hand-made drawings. But what will she be witnessing? The dignified but obligatory end-of-life ceremonies that everyone must go through before their 50th birthday. Can Kiah adjust to her bittersweet new job? And what will it mean for her relationship with her mother?
Can I Get a Witness is a gentle and heartfelt cautionary tale about where our world may be heading. It’s a Canadian coming-of-age drama with equal parts comedy and empathy, with just a bit of light horror thrown in. It stars Sandra Oh, Joel Oulette and Keira Jang as Kiah.
Can I Get a Witness was written, directed and produced by award-winning Vancouver-based filmmaker Ann Marie Fleming, who brought us the wonderful animated feature Window Horses, back in 2016. She has worked with the National Film Board and independently, producing animated films and shorts, of a sort you’ve probably never seen before.
I spoke with Ann Marie in Vancouver via ZOOM.
Can I Get a Witness opens in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver this weekend.
Freedom or death? Films reviewed: The Seed of the Sacred Fig, The Room Next Door PLUS Canada’s Top Ten!
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Mark your calendars, boys and girls, because the annual Canada’s Top Ten film series starts in just a few weeks. If you’re into highly original movies, you really gotta check this out. I’ve already reviewed many of them, or interviewed them already, but there’s lots left to discover. Things like David 
Cronenberg’s The Shrouds, a truly bizarre mystery about an entrepreneur who invents burial shrouds that allow you to see in real time the decaying buried body of your loved one. It stars Vincent Cassell, Diane Kruger and Guy Pearce. Or Kazik Radwanski (Interview: 2013) & Samantha Chater’s 
brilliant Matt & Mara, with an almost totally improvised script follows old friends (Matt Johnson, Deragh Campbell) who suddenly meet each other again, opening a real can of worms. There are also short films at this festival — I can’t wait to see NFB animator Torill Kove’s latest short Maybe Elephants; her films are just enchanting. And I’m 
curious what Canadian actor Connor Jessup is up to now with his short film Julian and the Wind. He starred in the movies Blackbird (2013) Closet Monster (2016) and the Netflix series Locke and Key (2021) but I have never seen his own work. These are just a few of the great movies in Canada’s Top Ten and they’re all showing at the TIFF Lightbox in Toronto.
But this week, I’m looking at two new movies, one from Iran (via Germany), and another one from Spain (via the US). There are three female activists looking for freedom in Tehran; and two female writers looking for peace in New York.
The Seed of the Sacred Fig
Co-Wri/Dir: Mohammad Rasoulof
Najmeh (Soheila Golestani) and Iman (Missagh Zareh) are a happily married couple in Tehran. They live out their two daughters, Rezvahn (Mahsa Rostami) and Sana (Setareh Maleki). The kids fight a lot, but the family is still close and trusting; no secrets here. But everything changes once their Dad — a government bureaucrat — gets a promotion. He is issued a gun for protection, due to the nature of his new position. You see, he is now sort of a judge within the Islamic Revolutionary Court. This means convicting and sentencing anyone accused of disobeying religious or political laws, ranging from women who expose their uncovered hair, to anyone caught insulting the Supreme Leader or the government itself. And especially anyone caught at a pro-democracy demonstration.
But when Rezvahn’s best friend Sadaf gets beaten up at a demo, and they hide her in the apartment they have to keep it from her Dad. Is he responsible for this crackdown? And when his gun disappears, Iman suspects everyone. Has his family turned on him? A wall of distrust divides the family, threatening its very existence. Can they reconcile or is it too late?
The Seed of the Sacred Fig is a powerful and harrowing drama about distrust and betrayal, within a family torn apart by the 
influence of an authoritarian government on all of their lives. It was shot entirely in Iran, on the sly, by noted director Mohammad Rasoulof who smuggled it out of the country. (It was edited in Germany.) He fled for obvious reasons: he was sentenced to 8 years in prison, and corporal punishment — that’s whipping — for his film work.
Two thirds of it was shot within a claustrophobic apartment in Tehran, two years ago, right when a women-led, pro-democracy movement was in full swing. The final third was shot outdoors in a spectacularly eerie lunar landscape, shifting in tone from tense psychological drama to a genuine action/thriller. This movie is neither short nor easy to watch, but it is amazing.
I recommend this one.
The Room Next Door
Co-Wri/Dir: Pedro Almodovar
Ingrid (Julianne Moore) is a successful novelist who lives in New York. At a book signing — her latest one is about her fear of dying — an old acquaintance approaches her. She tells Ingrid that Martha (Tilda Swinton), her old friend from University days, is dying of cancer. Can’t she visit her in hospital? Ingrid hasn’t seen her in decades, though they had been quite close. They even once had a boyfriend in common, Damian (John Turturro). And while Ingrid stayed close to home, Martha (Tilda Swinton) became a renowned war reporter for the NY Times. Her travels took her around the world covering frontline battles in West Africa and the Middle East. They are both happy to see each other again, and Ingrid loves keeping Martha company as she recounts some of her past adventures.
That is until Martha makes a big request. Her death is inevitable, but she hopes Ingrid will stay with her in the room next door (hence the title) so someone will be around when the inevitable happens. (Ingrid is estranged from her only 
daughter). And though deathly afraid of death, Ingrid agrees. They move to a gorgeous isolated wood-and-glass country home. But what will happen next?
The Room Next Door is a touhing, gentle story about two old friends reunited under bittersweet circumstances. Though clearly an Almodovar movie it differs in two ways. This is his first English language feature, and the dialogue seems stilted and clumsy, at least at the very beginning, but interestingly, I stopped noticing it after the first few minutes. Second, the passionate melodrama, the sex, the outrageous humour I expect to see in any Almodovar movie aren’t there. Any conflicts, secrets, betrayals or revelations are few and far 
between. Instead it is subtle, soft, and gentle. And yet it still clearly is Almodovar’s work. The set design, colour palette, camerawork, the structure and the music are instantly recognizable. I love the gorgeous, two-coloured wooden lounge chairs by the swimming pool, the clothes they wear, the soundtrack. Almodovar loves long, intricately told flashbacks, and stories within stories like The Arabian Nights. It satisfies your brain and your heart. And Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore are just right in their roles.
So in the end, though The Room Next Door was not the Almodovar film I expected to see, it was still satisfying to watch.
The Room Next Door and The Seed of the Sacred Fig are both opening this weekend in Toronto; check your local listings.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website culturalmining.com.
Parents and their children. Films reviewed: Tuesday, Kidnapped
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Sunday is Fathers Day, so this week I’m looking at two movies about parents and children. There’s a mother whose daughter is threatened by a big ugly bird, and parents whose son is kidnapped by the Pope.
Tuesday
Wri/Dir: Daina Oniunas-Pusic
Tuesday (Lola Petticrew) is a teenaged girl in London who is dying of an incurable disease. She likes comics and drawing. She spends most of her time in her bedroom with her Nurse Billie (Leah Harvey) or else in the walled garden outside her home, because she is too weak to get around anymore. She only sees her mother at night when she comes home from work. Until a stranger shows up in her life. It’s a huge bird, like a giant parrot, covered in filthy, black feathers. He is death incarnate, and he’s come to take her away by placing his wing over her body. But instead, she asks to talk to him. She helps him clean up, revealing colourful plumage, and she tells him a joke — the first time he’s laughed in centuries. So he lets her live, for now, but she can’t tell anyone about him. Meanwhile Tuesday’s mom Zora (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), has a secret of her own. She quit work a long time ago, to take care of her dying daughter. But she can’t face it; instead she spends all day sitting alone in a nearby park, doing nothing. And she’s been selling off all their possessions to help pay for the nurse. But everything changes when Tuesday tells her about her imaginary friend… and Zora is shocked to find she’s telling the truth. But she refuses to accept her daughter’s death, and takes an extraordinarily drastic step to stop the inevitable from happening. But what will these new changes bring to the family and the world and can Zora ever accept the inevitable loss waiting to happen.
Tuesday is an unusual but strangely moving fantasy about a 
mother and daughter confronting death. It starts out a bit odd, and gradually turns into a very strange movie indeed. But while it deals with some horrific ideas, it’s not a horror movie. It has supernatural elements, but it’s not meant to be scary. And despite its religious concepts of life and death, it’s not a faith-based movie. What it is is a very moving, mother/daughter drama about death. Julie Louis Dreyfuss, best known for her deadpan comedy in Seinfeld and Veep, plays it straight in this one, and really bares her soul in a deeply moving performance. And Lola Petticrew is equally sympathetic as Tuesday. This is nothing like most movies you see, but very effective nonetheless; come prepared both to laugh and cry.
I really liked this movie.
Kidnapped
Co-Wri/Dir: Marco Bellocchio
It’s the 1850s in a middle-class neighbourhood in Bologna. Salomone Mortara (Fausto Russo Alesi) lives with his wife Marianna Padovani Mortara (Barbara Ronchi) and their children. One night there is a banging on their front door: it’s the police demanding an inspection. They want to see Edgardo Mortara, an angelic little boy, number six of eight kids. Local officials are apologetic, but they must hand him over, under the orders of Father Feletti (Fabrizio Gifuni), the local inquisitor. But surely there’s some mistake, they say, what could this little boy have done? He was secretly baptized as a baby by his maid, they say, and no Christian child can be brought up in a Jewish family. Bologna — and much of Italy — was then part of the Papal States, where the government, the police, and the judiciary were all under the direct rule of the Vatican’s representatives and ultimately Pope Pius IX. And despite their vehement objections and petitions, they whisk the crying child off to Rome.
He is brought to the House of Catachumens, a special school for converts to be taught the Latin Mass. Little Edgardo (Enea Sala) misses his family terribly but a friend he meets says if you want to go home soon, just cooperate and learn the prayers, you don’t have to believe them. His flabbergasted father and devastated mother are desperately trying to get him out of there, but to no avail. But the story has caught the eye of the international press, making 
banner headlines in Paris, London and New York. And this makes Pope Pius IX even more steadfast in his beliefs. Will the family all convert to Catholicism to get back their son? Will Pope Pius relent and let him go home again? And who will the little boy choose as his guardians: his Mama and Papa or Il Papa, the Pope himself?
Kidnapped: The Abduction of Edgardo Mortara is an overwhelming drama based on true historic events. Though little-known today, it had a huge affect on world politics, history and, ultimately, the unification of Italy. It takes place in their homes of Bologna, The Roman Ghetto, in courtrooms, on canals, and within the Vatican itself. Its powerful music, lush photography and opulent sets and costumes support the passionate almost melodramatic acting. Barbara Ronchi is fantastic as Mrs Mortara, while Paolo Pierobon as Pope Pius comes across as a creepily salacious Mafia don, cuddling up to his favourite little boy and letting him hide beneath his robes (as he had huddled in his mother’s skirts when first abducted.) It also veers into fantasy within the dreams of various characters, from little Edgardo who dreams of de-crucifying Jesus so he can go home, and the Pope who has nightmares of being forcibly circumcised by a gang of rabbis. Kidnapped is an amazingly powerful historical drama set within the changing tides of 19th century Europe.
On a personal note, my childhood next door neighbour, Mrs Sharon Stahl, ended up writing her doctoral theological dissertation on this case, so I had head about it many years ago and it’s amazing to finally see it dramatized on the big screen.
Fantastic movie.
Tuesday is now playing at the TIFF Lightbox, and Kidnapped also opened 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.
Separated. Films reviewed: I Used to be Funny, Longing, Robot Dreams
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Not all love is sexual, and not all relationships lead to marriage. This week, I’m looking at three bittersweet dramas about people separated, against their will, from those they love. There’s a teenaged girl separated from her nanny (who is also a standup comic); a man separated from his biological son (who is also dead); and a dog separated from his best friend (who is also a robot).
I Used To Be Funny
Wri/Dir: Ally Pankiw
Sam (Rachel Sennott: Shiva Baby) is a standup comic in downtown Toronto. She shares an apartment with friends and fellow comics Paige and Philip (Sabrina Jalee, Caleb Hearon). But Sam can’t do her act anymore. She rarely showers, changes her clothes, or eats. She dumped her longtime boyfriend Noah (Ennis Esmer), and she quit the day job that used to pay her rent. Now she just sits around all day, staring at the wall. Why? Well, obviously she’s severely depressed. She’s also recovering from a traumatic violent event.
Things used to be better. She had a job in the suburbs as a nanny for a troubled 12-year-old named Brooke (Olga Petsa). Brooke’s mother was dying in hospital, her aunt had little free time and her dad was always busy — he’s a cop. But now Brooke has disappeared and her aunt doesn’t even know where to look for her. And when Brooke throws a rock through her window, Sam decides maybe she should join the effort to find the runaway and bring her home. But where is she hiding, why is she angry at Sam, and what will happen if she finds her?
I Used to Be Funny is a bittersweet comedy about a wise-
But it’s also Sam dealing with a not-at-all funny event — no spoilers here. It costars many Canadian comic actors, including Hoodo Hersi, Dan Beirne (The Twentieth Century, Great, Great, Great) and Jason Jones in a rare serious role. Rachel Sennott is excellent as Sam.
I Used to be Funny is a humorous look at depression and assault.
Longing
Wri/Dir: Savi Gabizon
Daniel Bloch (Richard Gere) is a successful businessman, and committed bachelor. He enjoys sex, not commitment or kids. He owns a factory and lives in a luxurious penthouse suite looking down on Manhattan. But when a when a surprise visitor arrives at his door, he is floored by her message. Rachel (Suzanne Clément) is a Canadian woman he had a fling with 20 years earlier. She reveals she was pregnant when she returned to Canada, later married and raised Allen — his biological son — with another man she married. But Allen died in an accident two weeks earlier. Daniel is floored. She hasn’t come for money or legal action, just to tell him the news. So he travels north to Hamilton, to attend a memorial and find out more about the son he never knew. And what he found was both frightening and endearing.
He talks to the people who played a key role in his son’s life, and discovers some surprising facts. He was a piano virtuoso. His best friend (Wayne Burns) says Allen was involved in a drug deal. A much younger girl (Jessica Clement) was in love with him, but says the feelings were not reciprocal. And his school teacher Alice (Diane Kruger) says he was obsessed with her and painted romantic poems about her on the school walls. What was Daniel’s son really like? And what can he do to remember someone he never knew?
Longing is a quirky, disjointed drama about kinship and death as a father desperately tries to become a belated part of his late son’s life. Richard Gere underplays his role, almost to the point of absurdity, but it somehow makes sense within the nature of his character. It’s also about the boy’s parents, not just Daniel and Rachel, but his other de facto parents And it all takes place in a very posh and elegant version of Hamilton, unlike any Hamilton I’ve ever seen. This is a strange movie that sets up lots of tension-filled revelations, but then attempts to resolve them all using an absurd ceremony.
Longing never blew me away, but it stayed interesting enough to watch.
Robot Dreams
Co-Wri/Dir: Pablo Berger
It’s the early 1980s in the East Village of NY City. There are tons of people, but they’re not people, they’re animals. Literally. Bulls and ducks, racoons and gorillas. Dog — a dog with floppy ears and a pot belly — lives there, alone in an apartment, gazing longingly out the window at happy couples cavorting in the summer sun. Dog plays pong by himself, or eats TV dinners while watching TV. He’s bored and lonely, with no one to play Pong with or just hang out. Until he orders a robot — as advertised on TV, some assembly required — and waits eagerly for it to arrive. He’s a delight with tubular arms, a mailbox shaped trunk, an elongated German helmet as a head, with round eyes and a happy smile. They are instant friends, maybe soulmates. They go rollerskating in central park, take pictures in a photo booth. Feelings grow. Another day they head out for the beach. They sunbathe and swim together — a perfect day. Until the robot finds himself rusted solid just as the beach is closing for the night. And despite Dog’s efforts, he is too heavy to drag home, so he comes back one next day to get him. But the beach is closed for the season, locked up behind a metal fence. And despite repeated tries, Dog can’t 
seem to rescue Robot from his sandy prison. Can Robot survive for a year, unmoving, in the great outdoors? And will that spark between Robot and Dog still remain in the spring?
Robot Dreams is an amazing animated film about friendship and loss. It’s called Robot Dreams because much of the film takes place inside the robot’s imagination as he lay on the beach, It’s set in the grittiness of 1980s New York, with graffiti-filled subways, punks in East Village, break dancing teens and Jean-Michel Basquiat. Remember Zootopia, that animated movie where everyone is an animal? Robot Dreams is the flip side of 
that, darker, cooler, adult, more Fritz the Cat than Disney or Pixar. There’s also no dialogue, but it’s anything but silent, with constant music and grunts and quick-changing gags and cultural references. But it’s also very moving — you can feel the pathos between Dog and Robot. I saw this movie cold (without reading any descriptions) and it wasn’t till afterwards that I realized it’s by Pablo Berger, the Spanish director who, more than a decade ago, made the equally amazing Blancanieves, a silent, B&W version of Snow White as a toreador. The man’s a genius.
I totally love Robot Dreams.
I Used To Be Funny, Longing and Robot Dreams all open theatrically this weekend in Toronto; check your local listings.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies each Saturday morning on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website culturalmining.com.
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