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.
Three generations. Films reviewed: My Dead Friend Zoe, Exhibiting Forgiveness
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
It may be the closing of Black History Month, but there are still good movies opening this weekend. So this week, I’m looking at two new American movies, about three-generation families. There’s an Army vet with PTSD whose grandpa has dementia; and an artist with a young son whose dad is addicted to crack.
My Dead Friend Zoe
Co-Wri/Dir: Kyle Hausmann-Stokes
Merit (Sonequa Martin-Green) is a US Army Vet who lives in Portland, Oregon. She was a lightweight vehicle mechanic in Afghanistan, but hasn’t done much since she was discharged. The fact is, like many vets she is depressed and suffers from PTSD. That’s why she goes to a military support group especially for people like her. And she always brings her best friend and fellow vet Zoe (Natalie Morales) with her. Zoe’s the only one who could understand what she’s been going through. But to the group leader, Dr Cole (Morgan Freeman) that’s not enough. He wants her to tell them all what’s the matter. You see, Zoe is dead, and Merit’s the only one who can see her. And unless she shares with the group, Dr Cole won’t sign the form keeping her out of jail.
Then she gets a long distance phone call from her mom 
(Gloria Reuben). Merit’s Grandpa (Ed Harris) has lived alone in a beautiful lakeside home outside of Portland since Merit’s Grandma died. He was spotted wandering on a country road near his house. For Merit’s mom, that means he has dementia and so, for his own good, he has to be locked up in a nursing home.
But Grandpa is as stubborn as Merit. They’re both war vets — he’s the one who inspired her to sign up — and they carry similar mental scars. Will Grandpa agree to leave his home? Can Merit ever admit her terrible secret? And why is Zoe still around?
My Dead Friend Zoe is a gentle comedy-drama about the very serious effects war has on American soldiers, and the multigenerational trauma it brings to a mixed-race family. (Like most war movies, it never mentions the people they killed on the other side.) The movie is divided among flashbacks to Merit and Zoe in Afghanistan; Merit and (dead) Zoe in the present day; and the time spent with her Grandfather. Part weeper, part comedy (plus a tiny bit of romance) it has big name stars — like Ed Harris and Morgan Freeman — but not all that much happens. It’s not bad — I like Sonequa Martin-Green and Natalie Morales as Merit and Zoe, and their relationship is the most interesting part of the story — but as a whole, the film is missing its drive.
Exhibiting Forgiveness
Wri/Dir: Titus Kaphar
Tarrell (André Holland) is an artist who lives with his nuclear family in a pretty American suburb. His wife Aisha (Andra Day), also an artist, is a singer-songwriter, and they both adore their three-year-old son. Tarrell paints realistic aspects of his personal history inspired by his own memories and snapshots. They’re painted on enormous, larger-than-life canvases, mounted on the towering walls of their studio. His last show was a smashing success and his agent is pressing him for another (lucrative) show, ASAP. But the images in his paintings are not bucolic… they recall past traumas that Tarrell lived through but has yet to deal with. He frequently wakes up in bed, screaming from night terrors.
Meanwhile, in a bad part of town, La’Ron (John Earl Jelks) a homeless addict with a long, grey beard, struggles to make it through each day. He ekes out his meagre existence collecting spare change for shining hubcaps and washing cars outside a 
skid-row liquor store. But when he ends up in hospital, near-dead after a severe beating by a stickup crook, he decides it’s time to go clean. His brother offers him temporary shelter, and sends him to rehab. His estranged wife Joyce (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) forgives him once again in hopes of future familial reconciliation. But what does homeless La’Ron have to do with artist Tarrell? He’s his father, and bad blood flows between them. He taught his son that as a black man, no one will care about him, no one will help him, and unless he gets tough and works extra hard, he’ll never survive and no one will care. But to Tarrell, the abuse visited upon him by his father was mean, self-serving and 
sadistic, exploiting his son’s labour to pay for his crack habit. And now La’ron shows up at his door again — what is it he wants now? Can father and son talk honestly? Has La’ron’s nature change? Can Tarrell ever forgive him? And can this extended family be saved?
Exhibiting Forgiveness is a multigenerational look at the hidden fissures and cruelty of masculinity unintentionally visited by fathers upon their sons. It’s rich and moving in its portrayals. The story is told both as a drama and as an artist’s representation of current and past events. We see Tarrell paint three youths; one of them his younger self (Ian Foreman). He later erases two of them by obliterating their images with whitewash on the canvas. In another he cuts his teenaged self out of a painting with an x-acto knife, later draping the missing image on a chair,
So I’m watching this movie with the striking canvases in the paintings — this is not just anonymous crap-art made-up for the movie, it’s the real stuff — but when Tarrell violates the art by splashes white paint or cutting it up… I was a bit disturbed, thinking, OK, the director is making a point, but he’s also destroying another artist’s work. So I looked him up afterwards: The director is an artist, the paintings are his, and cutting up and altering his own canvases is an integral part of his work. He’s primarily an artist, and this is his first film. Watching the movie, I liked the passion of the acting and the emotional (and physical) violence in the characters they portrayed. But once I connected it with Titus Kaphar’s physical art, it suddenly became something much bigger than the sum of its parts.
Exhibiting Forgiveness is an impressive first feature.
My Dead Friend Zoe opens this weekend in Toronto; check your local listings; and Exhibiting Forgiveness 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.
Broken. Films reviewed: Parthenope, The Unbreakable Boy, The Monkey
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
This week, I’m looking at three new movies: there’s a boy with breakable bones, a toy monkey who could break your bones, and a woman whose beauty breaks every man’s heart.
Parthenope
Wri/Dir: Paolo Sorrentino (Reviews: Youth, Hand of God, The Great Beauty)
It’s Naples, 1950 and a woman gives birth in the waters of the Tyrrhenian Sea. The baby is called Parthenope, named for both the city and the Greek myth. She grows up to be a young woman of epic beauty and legendary intellect (Celeste Dalla Porta). Men who try to seduce her, find their own words silenced by her pithy comebacks. Her days are filed with a search for beauty, happiness and meaning. She absorbs everything she reads, from John Cheever to Claude Levi-Strauss. Her closest friends are her brother Sandrino (Dario Aita) and Raimondo (Daniele Rienzo) the son of a maid. Together they form sort of a quasi menage a trois.
Parthenope aces her orals and is accepted into the prestigious anthropology department at the local university. From there she follows three very different paths: Academia — a professor takes her under his wing; Love, deciding which of her countless suitors should she consent to sleep with; and the 
city of Naples, itself. Along the way she encounters a corrupt and carnal bishop, a depressed superstar diva, a millionaire with a private helicopter, and many others. But will any of these people provide her with the answers she seeks?
Parthenope is a gorgeous and sumptuous look at post-war Naples as seen through the eyes of a beautiful woman as she lives her life. Celeste Dalla Porta is appealing to watch, but she is opaque and impenetrable: she merely observes without ever doing anything. Paolo Sorrentino is known for his his beautiful images, especially women as objects of desire. But he doesn’t seem to know what to do with a woman as his subject. Instead we get a hollow simulacrum of a main character, who drifts aimlessly but happily through her life as she encounters quirky strangers. I love the photography, the scenery, the people and the music — a collection of bright and shiny colours — but watching Parthenope leaves you feeling like you just flipped the glossy pages of a fashion magazine: superficially attractive but pointless.
The Unbreakable Boy
Co-Wri/Dir: Jon Gunn (Reviews: Ordinary Angels, I Still Believe, American Underdog, Jesus Revolution)
Scott (Zachary Levi) is a young salesman with big ambitions: he plans to move to Manhattan someday and make it big. But in the meantime, he likes golf, fine wine and travelling. He spends most of his time with his best friend Joe, a burley bearded man who is always giving him advice (Drew Powell). One day he meets a pretty and charming woman named Teresa (Meghann Fahy). Sparks fly, and nine months later, she gives birth to Austin (Jacob Laval). They’re not married but decide to bring him up together. But there’s a catch: he requires special care. Like his mom, Austin has Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI), a genetic condition that makes your bones very brittle. He suffers his first fracture in the birth canal, with many more breakages to follow. Eventually he is joined by a younger brother, Logan, who doesn’t share his breakability.
13 years later, Austin — aka the Aus-man — is now a happy school kid with a vivid imagination. He’s also on the autistic spectrum, but contrary to stereotypes, he’s outgoing, talkative and attends normal classes. He talks constantly, just like his dad. (I forgot to mention: Scott’s best friend Joe is imaginary) But all is not well. The family is deeply in debt. Austin is bullied at school. And Scott is drinking way too much, especially since he lost his job. Can the family pull itself back together? Or are they headed for ruin?
The Unbreakable Boy is a very cute, true story about an ordinary family working together to overcome their problems. As narrated by Jacob Laval as the Aus Man, it’s simple, touching and funny. I like the way it demystifies kids with
medical conditions and autism. And unlike most medical dramas, it’s not a weeper, though perhaps overly earnest. One warning: it is a faith-based movie, generally a red flag for cringe. Not my thing. Thankfully this one avoids most of the problems of that genre; preachiness and finger wagging and in-your-face prayers. If you’re in the mood for a light, informative, feel-good Christian movie that won’t make you squirm, check this one out.
The Monkey
Wri/Dir: Osgood Perkins (Reviews: Longlegs, Gretel and Hansel)
Hal and Bill (Christian Convery) are identical twins, but they couldn’t be more different. Bill, who was born a few minutes earlier, is self confident, athletic and aggressive. Hal is withdrawn and wears glasses as he tries to keep out of Bill’s way. But his brother is a bully, humiliating and hurting Hal on a daily basis, using a posse of popular girls as his private army. The two live with their single Mom (Tatiana Maslany) ever since their Dad, an airline pilot, walked away one day and never came back. When the boys go through the many souvenirs he brought home from around the world, they uncover something very unusual. It’s a mechanical automaton that’s an organ-grinder monkey. You wind him up and he plays a drum to the sound of carnival music. A harmless toy, right? Not exactly. When the drumstick comes down something terrible happens. Like when their babysitter is accidentally decapitated at a Benihana restaurant. But when it kills their beloved mother, the boys decided to hide the monkey somewhere that it can do no more harm. They are adopted by their aunt and uncle, a pair of swingers in small-town Maine. But they too are eventually killed in gruesome accidents. Was the money to blame?
Flash-forward 25 years. Hal (Theo James) still lives in Maine close to his teenaged son Petey (Colin O’Brien). He visits him only once a year, to lesson the chances of the cursed monkey in harming him. But then two cataclysmic events threaten Hal’s normal 
life. First, Petey’s stepfather Ted (Elijah Wood) announces his plans to adopt him, making this the last time Hal will see him. Second, a series of terrible events are killing countless people in and around the town he grew up in. Can Hal find that damned Monkey and stop it from killing someone else? And can he simultaneously spend his last days with his son while keeping him out of danger?
The Monkey is a shocking and disgustingly hilarious movie about an evil toy and the people it affects. It’s done in a retro style, like Mad Magazine meets the Twilight Zone. It’s directed by Oz Perkins, known for his stylized movies that feel like fairytales (Gretel and Hansel) or nightmares (Longlegs). With this one, based on a short story by Stephen King, he seems to have found a happy medium. Simultaneously comical and grotesque, you watch the movie waiting with baited breath for the next disaster to happen. Theo James is perfect as the hapless Hal, but so is every other character in this weird movie, each given their own minute of ghastly glory: a pawn shop owner, a girl gang, a real estate agent, a pot dealer, a televangelist… it’s a limitless, mind-blowing romp. The Monkey is grotesque comedy/horror at its peak.
I love this movie.
Parthenope, The Unbreakable Boy, and The Monkey 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.
Remote houses. Films reviewed: Anacoreta, Eat the Night + TBFF!
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
February is Black History Month, the perfect time to check out Toronto’s Black Film Festival. It features movies, docs and shorts from Canada and around the world. Like Karen Chapman’s Village Keeper a drama set in Toronto’s Laurence Heights neighbourhood, about an overprotective mom with her two teenage kids who are forced to move into their grandmother’s crowded apartment. And in the documentary feature category, Tara Moore tells the history of apartheid South Africa and how it affects that country now, in Legacy: The De-colonized History of South Africa. Toronto Black Film Festival is running now through February 17th at the Carlton Cinema.
But this week, I’m looking at two new movies, from Canada and France, about remote houses. There’s a group of friends at a haunted cabin in the woods, and a teenage girl and her brother living in a world that only exists online.
Anacoreta
Co-Wri/Dir: Jeremy Schuetze
It’s a beautiful cabin in a remote part of Vancouver Island. Jeremy (Jeremy Schuetze) is there with three friends Antonia (Antonia Thomas), Matt (Matt Visser) and Jess (Jess Stanley) for one last look at his late grandfather’s cabin before it’s sold. It’s a beautiful old building overlooking pristine blue waters and mountains rising dramatically right behind them. It’s like paradise: they grill sausages and play beer pong, pick low-hanging fruit while watching a black bear cub sun itself on the grass. But despite all the natural beauty, something is creepy here. Antonia sees a truck following them whenever they’re driving. They find a dead black cat in their freezer. And things get really spooky when Jess starts sleepwalking. Is this place haunted? The thing is, they’re also there to shoot a film. And some of those scary parts might have been planned and executed by Jeremy, their director, to get some good reactions out of the cast. He’s a bit of dick, and the rest of them are not happy about it.
But that’s not all. Jeremy’s grandfather made his fortune 
writing Hardy Boys -type mysteries in this very cabin. And when they find an unpublished script things get even weirder. It mentions a place called Afterglow, a mausoleum about seven hours away. That’s where ghosts are said to live just underground. So of course they have to go there and see for themselves. Is it all a hoax? Or is it real? And who will survive this perilous journey?
Anacoreta is a horror movie about four friends in a cabin in the woods and a documentary (or mockumentary) about making a movie. All the actors and crew use their real names, Jeremy and Matt wrote the script, and Anotonia and Jess produced it. Same with the cameraman and the boom, who also appear as characters in the film. But it also takes pains to 
remind us they’re shooting a movie, often repeating scenes two or three times, till Jeremy is satisfied. Which partly interrupts the scariness, but also makes the scary parts seem more real, in a found-footage / Blair Witch Project kind of way. Does it work? It kinda does. It makes you believe the movie you’re watching is a disaster project, while at the same time, reminding you it’s all just a scripted story.
Budget? Low.
Indie? Yes.
Acting? Good.
Canadian? Very.
Meta? You bet!
Scary? Not too shabby, especially near the end.
Eat the Night
Wri/Dir: Caroline Poggi, Jonathan Vinel
Apolline (Lila Gueneau) is a high school student with curly reddish hair. She lives with her big brother Pablo (Théo Cholbi). They spend most of their time online, on a role-playing game called Darknoon. It’s an apocalyptic fantasy land, where their avatars live exciting lives, killing thousands of competitors in exotic sword fights. Apo much prefers Darknoon to real life. At school she’s an ordinary girl somewhere in France. Online she’s an anime figure with enormous breasts and sharp, pink leather spikes coming out of her shoulder. Pablo’s avatar has pierced nipples and carries a sabre. Apo rides on the back of a giant blue cat she tamed. In real life, Pablo drops her off at school each day on his acid-green Kawasaki. Their mom’s gone and their dad is never around, so they take turns cooking for each other. But the tide turns when Darknoon announces 
it’s shutting down, permanently, on the Winter Solstice, just a few weeks away. Apo is devastated.
Pablo also has a side hustle selling colourful little pills at clubs and parties. It’s a one-man operation using a metal crank-press to turn out tiny batches of uppers, molly and acid, one by one. But when a big-time dealer sees him encroaching on his turf, his henchmen beat Pablo up. That’s when a stranger appeared to tend his wounds and wipe up the blood. His name is Night (Erwan Kepoa Falé). Pablo needs a bodyguard and a business partner. Night quits his job, and moves in, and soon they’re having passionate, violent sex in Pablo’s hideaway. But Darknoon’s last day is coming soon and the gangster are gathering forces to find and kill Pablo. Can Apo and Pablo leave Darknoon in a blaze of glory? And in the real world, can Pablo and Night permanently leave this crappy town and go somewhere safe and new?
Eat the Night is a glorious French thriller about online role-playing games and real-life crime. It’s passionate and tragic. About 25% takes place inside the otherworldly game, the rest in a cinematically cool, louche real world. Two very different places but visually harmonious. And as the movie progresses characters increasingly appear in the game as like their actual selves. Lila Gueneau plays Apo as a young artist who lives in an animated, comic book world complete with an elaborate pink cos-play outfit. As Pablo, Théo Cholbi is a nihilistic fighter/criminal with a pet green snake. As his lover and defender Night, Erwan Kepoa Falé is kinder and gentler but just as dangerous. Eat the Night (under the even more carnal title Devore la nuit) played in the Directors Fortnight at Cannes. a very violent and highly sexual film.
I think it’s great.
Eat the Night is playing at the Revue Cinema in Toronto on Feb 19, and opens at the Carlton and Yonge/Dundas on the 21st; check your local listings. Anacoreta will be available on demand starting the 21st.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website culturalmining.com.
Disappeared. Films reviewed: Dark Match, I’m Still Here
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
You may have heard about Sook-Yin Lee’s indie movie Paying For It, starring Dan Beirne as graphic novelist Chester Brown, and Emily Le as Sunny, modelled on Sook-yin herself as a TV VJ in the 1990s. It’s about their relationship after they broke up, when Chester decides only to sleep with paid sex workers. I interviewed Sook-yin and Dan way back in August on this show, and later ranked the movie on my Best-of-the-Year list. Well, good news: you can finally see Paying for It on the big screen starting this weekend. Check it out, it’s very cool, very indie and very local.
But this week I’m looking at two other new movies: a family drama set in Rio de Janeiro in the 1970s, during the military dictatorship; and a horror movie about pro-wrestlers in the sticks of northern Alberta in the 1980s.
Dark Match
Wri/Dir: Lowell Dean
It’s 1988, and a team of pro-wrestlers are getting ready for a big match in a small town somewhere north of Edmonton, Alberta. They’re there under the direction of a sleazy promoter named Rusty Beans (Jonathan Cherry). The wrestlers have worked together for years and know all the rules: the good guys win and the heels lose. This goes for men and women alike. And Nick — aka Miss Behave (Ayisha Issa) — doesn’t like it. She’s a damn good wrestler and wants some wins… along with a raise. But it’s always Kate the Great (Sara Canning) who gets the cheers while she gets the boos. The only ones she can complain to are the enigmatic Enigma (Mo Jabari) who never speaks or takes off his lucha libre mask… and Joe. She spends most of her off-time with Mean Joe Lean (Steven Ogg) a veteran wrestler, and a heel like her. It’s ambiguous whether they’re a couple or “friends with benefits”. Either way, they keep it on the down low. But (back to the story) everything went wrong when she lost her temper in the ring, which left her facing a pay cut and maybe losing her job altogether. Until, out of the blue, Rusty comes by with some good news for a change. They’ve all been offered a gig in a village they’ve never heard of somewhere up north. It pays really well, maybe even a cut of the door. It’s for a dark match — a special wrestling show, for their eyes only, with no cameras present. So they all pile into Rusty’s old rusty van and head into the sticks. When they get there, things seem a bit fishy. Joe think’s they’re all 
rednecks or Jesus freaks, led by a mysterious leader in a cowboy hat (Chris Jericho).
But hey, a gig’s a gig. Things get stranger the night before the big event. They stumble into some kind of weird orgy involving handcuffs, a hot tub, a threesome, a suckling pig, and some glowing green plonk. They wake up the next morning with aches and pains all over. But that’s just the beginning. The match is not what they’re used to. There are armed guards with AK47s standing outside the locked door of their green room. And the wrestlers aren’t coming back after their match! What’s going on… and why? Miss Behavin’, Mean Joe Lean and Enigma realize they have to do something… but can they stand up to a crowd of bloodthirsty satanic fans?
Dark Match is a horror movie about a wrestling match gone wild at the headquarters of a bizarre religious cult on the Canadian prairies. It’s bloody and gory with a hint of the 
supernatural at work. The cast is composed of both professional actors and pro-wrestlers (who, as we all know, do their own fair share of acting). It’s loaded with 80s music, big hair and grainy video footage with lurid red lighting. I was surprised how much I liked this sleazy, gritty B-movie, and I’m not even a wrestling fan. Of course you have to be comfortable with extreme violence, blood and death — it’s that kind of horror — but it’s also quite funny and goofy, too. So if you’re jonesing for some western-Canadian gore, Dark Match is it.
I’m Still Here
Dir: Walter Salles
It’s the early 1970s in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The Paivas are an upper middle class family who live so close to Leblon beach they can walk there barefoot. Eunice, their mom (Fernanda Torres) loves to float in the waves; she finds it relaxing. With five kids to take care of, she needs a bit of down time. Rubens Paiva (Selton Mello), the dad, is an engineer and former congressman for the Labour Party. He loves whisky, cigars and playing foosball with the kids. His firm is working on a huge project, an underground tunnel. But they still find time to get together with their close circle of friends and families: intellectuals, journalists, artists and activists, all on the left. Then there are the five kids: four girls: Veroca, Eliana, Babiu, and Ana, and one boy, Marcello. They love beach volleyball, soccer, pop music and a fluffy dog they find on the beach. Rubens names him Pimpão, after Verona’s shaggy friend.
But a dark cloud hangs over their otherwise idyllic lives. Brazil is ruled by a right-wing military dictatorship and they’re using a series of kidnappings of European diplomats to question and harass anyone vaguely on the ‘left”. Vera is sent off to London for her own safety. Then one day, five sketchy men invade 
their home draw the curtains, and without a warrant drive Rubens away to an unnamed location. When Eunice tries to free him, the government denies they ever took him. It’s up to Eunice to take care of the kids as she tries to find him. Has he been disappeared?
I’m Still Here is the incredibly moving, true story of a Brazilian family, based on the bestselling memoirs of their son, Marcello. While it covers the secret arrest of Rubens Paiva by the military dictatorship it’s also about the repercussions it had on the lives of Eunice, their entire family, their friends, and the country of Brazil as a whole. And that’s where it hits you — the intimate details of a remarkable family’s everyday lives: the super-8 movies they record, the records they listen to. I though it was going to be just an historical retelling of an important event. But it’s actually about everything, good and bad, that the family goes through. Now I’m not Brazilian, I don’t live on a beach in Rio, but for some reason I totally identified with this family, I felt a real connection.
Walter Salles directs an epic movie like this every decade or so, films like The Motorcycle Diaries and Central Station. 
Apparently he had personal ties to the Paiva family as a young man. Fernanda Torres gives an amazingly nuanced performance as Eunice, that had my eyes tearing up. I’m Still Here has been nominated for three oscars — best actress, best picture and best foreign film — and rightly so. I can’t say enough good things about this movie.
Dark Match and I’m Still Here 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.
Wolf men and assassins. Films reviewed: Wolf Man, Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
It may be cold outside, but things are burning up on the big screen. This week I’m looking a two new movies, a thriller horror and a documentary. There are wolf men in Oregon, and assassins in Congo.
Wolf Man
Co-Wri/Dir: Leigh Whannell
It’s present-day San Francisco. Blake (Christopher Abbot) is a lapsed writer who devotes his life to his wife and daughter. Charlotte (Julia Garner) is a careerist who is rarely at home, so Blake takes on the parenting role. He spends all his time with their precocious 10-year-old daughter, Ginger (Matilda Firth). But he and Charlotte are constantly bickering about her absentee-mom-ism. So when a package arrives with his late father’s will and a set of keys, he wonders if this is the miracle they need to keep thew family together. He has inherited — a house, a barn, and countless acres of lush green forest — the beautiful country he grew up in. Blake suggests the three of them go on a road trip together for some quality time. Young Blake was raised in isolation by a hard-ass survivalist who was strict and demanding toward his motherless son. That’s why Blake is so indulgent towards Ginger, who still dresses like a Disney princess at age 10.
So off they head for his isolated cabin in remote Oregon. But
what Blake seems to have forgotten is there are wolves in them thar hills! Big bad wolves, mean ugly wolves, the kind who stand on two feet and like wolfing down people like them. Sure enough, as they approach their farm one of them woolfies drives their u-haul off the road… and they’re forced to run for their lives. Luckily the house is still wolf-proof, with iron bars on all the windows. Unluckily, Blake gets himself slashed by the Wolf Man, and he’s changing into something different. Can he keep his vulpine urges in check and protect his family from harm? Or will he be the biggest danger to them of all?
Wolf Man is a cabin-in-the-woods werewolf movie with a few new twist. In this version, people don’t turn into wolves on a full moon and then change back again; they’re in it for the long haul. And these werewolves aren’t sleek, or sexy or furry, never mind cute or loveable. They’re more like zombies infected with a horrible virus that makes their teeth and hair fall out and their skin go bumpy and gross. These werewolves want to eat flesh and blood, preferably human. Once infected, they can no longer speak or understand people.
There’s no sex in this movie, not even a kiss, it’s totally sterile. In this neck of the woods everyone’s a guy, with literally no women at all. And every man could be a wolf man. Women and girls are urban sophisticates, while men and boys are potential redneck killers. Christopher Abbot plays Blake as a male Oprah mom who is inevitably drawn back to the dangerous manliness he grew up with. Julia Garner’s Charlotte is a less developed character, just an aloof woman forced to either scream and run or fight back.
But not enough to save a story that doesn’t quite cut it.
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat
Co-Wri/Dir: Johan Grimonprez
It’s June 30, 1960, and the Democratic Republic of Congo is reborn as a free, democratic state, after nearly a century of brutal colonial rule under the King of Belgium. Leopold II is notorious for chopping off the hands of men, women and children who didn’t produce their quota of rubber. Congo (under the Union Minière) is a very rich country full of diamonds, copper, tin, and uranium, extracted and shipped to Europe and the US. Its rubber and copper were crucial to winning the world wars and their uranium fuelled the atomic bombs dropped on Japan. Its first elected prime minister, Patrice Lumumba, gives a speech on independence day, celebrating the transfer of power from their previous colonial rulers. He rightly condemns the colonial atrocities and speaks out in favour of the non-aligned movement (former colonies in Europe and Asia). While his speech is well-received locally, Europeans — including the Belgian 
royal family — are shocked and aghast. Will they lose control of the Union Minière, and will the US give up its uranium source? Not a chance. They accuse Lumumba of being a communist, despite his stressing independence and nationalism. So they declare Katanga, an area rich in minerals, as independent from the DRC. The seceded state is essentially ruled by white Europeans and Rhodesian mercenary police and a military that operates with impunity, kidnapping miners and bombing uncooperative villages.
The US (especially the CIA), fearing the so-called communist Lumumba, launch a two-pronged campaign: a covert one, involving assassinations, bombings, kidnappings and regime change; and a diplomatic one, where famous American jazz musicians are flown to independent African states to perform as ambassadors of Jazz. Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Nina Simone and Max Roach, have no idea they ware working 
for a CIA front. By January, 1961, the wildly popular Lumumba is dead, assassinated in Katanga with Belgian and American complicity.
Soundtrack of a Coup d’Etat is a fantastic documentary that retells the events of those six months. The doc is 2 1/2 hours long, so I can only give you the briefest outline of what it’s about. But the film itself is amazing, covering everything from pan-African nationalism and the Cold War, to non-aligned nations, colonialism, and the UN. We hear Malcolm X in Harlem, Andrée Blouin on women’s rights in Africa, Castro in NY, and Nikita Khrushchev’s famous shoe speech (where apparently he didn’t actually say what they said he said) in the general assembly. It’s filled with compelling imagery: Alan Dulles the head of the CIA smoking his pipe; a North Rhodesian mercenary recounting the tens of thousands of people they killed with impunity; the Soviets crushing Hungary, and Voice of America broadcasts. There are hilarious propaganda newsreels like the US parachuting record players and vinyl discs across the iron curtain. And through it all, jazz music from America to Africa.
The film is made of excerpts from previously-made audio
documentaries combined with non-stop black and white footage and stills. Most cuts are only about 2-3 seconds, giving the whole film the feeling of a glorious collage of African history. (It’s similar to the films of Adam Curtis, but without his spoken narration.) Many of the subtitles are large fonts superimposed on photos in blues, yellows and pinks, like the cover of a Blue Note jazz album.
A crucial historical document and a work of art, Johan Grimonprez’s Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat is a must-see.
Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat and Wolf Man 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.
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.
Daniel Garber talks with Joshua Oppenheimer about The End at #TIFF24
Photograph by Jeff Harris.
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
It’s some time in the not so distant future. A tight-knit family live in a mansion furnished with old masters and French impressionist paintings on their wall. Their stay-at-home mom is fastidious with keeping things in order. Dad is a retired powerhouse exec who made a killing in the Indonesian oil industry. And their beloved homeschooled 20-year-old son who is curious about the world and loves playing with his toy train set. This lovely, peaceful household is complemented by their faithful butler, Mom’s best friend, and a doctor who is always on call. But something is wrong here. Why is their skin so pallid, their lighting unnatural, and why don’t they ever go outside? It’s because they’re living in a bunker, hidden deep underground as the planet burns. These people may be the only survivors of the end of the world.
The End is also a new film, a musical drama about the last survivors of climate catastrophe. It’s fascinating and devastating, infused with dry, dark comedy. The End is directed and co-written by award-winning filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer, best known for his shocking documentaries The Act of Killing and the Look of Silence.
I spoke with Joshua Oppenheimer on-site at TIFF.
The End opens theatrically in Toronto on Dec 13, 2024.
Blockbusters. Movies reviewed: Gladiator II, Wicked, PLUS Scared Sh*tless at #BITS
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
What’s a blockbuster? Apparently they were named after the American bombs in WWII that were so powerful they could flatten a city block. And as winter holidays approach, the big studios are releasing potential blockbusters; real movies not just Disney, Marvel and Star Wars drivel. Two new movies, Wicked and Gladiator II, open this weekend perhaps in an attempt to duplicate the way Barbie and Oppenheimer drew crowds into theatres. If they’re both hits, I wonder what people will call them? Wick-iator? Gladwick? Who knows? (Since recording, “Glicked” has become the word of choice.) This week I’m looking at those two big-budget Hollywood films: swords and sandals in ancient Rome and songs and dances in the land of Oz. But before that, for something completely different, a low-budget horror comedy about Toronto toilets.
Scared Shitless
Dir: Vivieno Caldinelli
Sonny (Daniel Doheny) is a depressed college drop out. Since his mom died of an unspecified infection, he’s suffered from a pathological fear of germs. He relentlessly washes his hands after touching almost anything and is always armed with small plastic bottles of Pepto-Bismol to keep himself from being sick. He lives with his dad, Don Donahue (Steven Ogg), the owner and sole employee of Donahue plumbing. Unlike Sonny, Don has no qualms about getting his hands dirty — it’s part of his job. So he decides to take a leap, and bring his germaphobic, OCD son with him on his next assignment. Maybe the shock of plumbing will pull him out of his stupor.
Luckily, it’s an easy one. Old Mrs Applebaum (Marcia Bennett) 
calls him almost weekly to help with a dripping faucet or a backed up toilet. “I think she just likes the company” he says. Sonny gets the dry heaves from look at a toilet, never mind touching one. But he agrees to do it. Meanwhile, all is not well at the Palmer Estates, that low-rise 1960s apartment building with questionable plumbing. Turns out, one of the tenants is a mad scientist who has created an apocalyptic monster, which is living within the building’s pipes. (The biologist is played by Kids in the Hall’s Mark McKinney channelling Captain Kangaroo). The beast is shaped like a giant fleshy tadpole, but with four lethal appendages dangling out of its razor sharp gullet, big enough to bite off your head or your nether regions.
And when blood starts appearing in the toilets, Sonny realizes this is bigger than he thought. He turns to the building’s superintendent to call 911. But Patricia, the super, (Chelsea Clark) who coincidentally was Sonny’s classmate at university, refuses to call. The building belongs to her parents, and she doesn’t like any 
bad PR. So the two of them — and his Dad — bravely set off to find the trouble before it gets any worse. But are they two late?
Scared Shitless is a crude and funny comedy/horror movie about a monster who lives in your toilet. Since it takes place in an apartment, you get to meet all sorts of weird and kinky characters, like an elderly couple into S&M role play. I think it’s trying more for the funny than the scary, and that’s fine with me. It’s also very much a Toronto movie, with both the main actors and the supporting ones — including perennial horror favourite Julian Richings — are recognizable as locals. Ogg, Doheney and Clark are all fun in their roles, as is the monster, known as Project X. It’s the creation of the legendary Steven Kostanski who previously brought us Manborg and Psycho Goreman. So if you’re the kind of person who keeps copies of Fangoria hidden under your bed, you will love Scared Shitless.
Paul Mescal plays Lucius in Gladiator II from Paramount Pictures.
Gladiator II
Dir: Ridley Scott
It’s the early 200s in ancient Rome. Lucius (Paul Mescal) is a gladiator preparing for a fight in the coliseum. But he’s not there for the coins he might win or the chance of buying his freedom in the future. He wants revenge and he wants it now. He’s a slave, captured after a battle in Numidia where his wife was killed. And he blames Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal), a much-admired general. Lucius was discovered by entrepreneur and kingmaker Macrinus (Denzel Washington) who thought he noticed rage in Lucius face — just what a great fighter needs. But others are interested in Lucius too. The crowds cheer for him, the Senators scheme for him, and the two emperors Geta (Joseph Quinn) and his brother Caracalla (Fred Hechinger) have ideas of their own. But it’s Lucilla (Connie Nielsen) — a major character in the first Gladiator movie — who has personal reasons for him to stay alive. Who is Lucius? Why is he so important? And will he get the revenge he seeks?
Denzel Washington plays Macrinus in Gladiator II from Paramount Pictures.
Gladiator is an epic action drama set within a decadent ancient Rome, complete with senators, citizens plebes, gladiators, slaves and the Pretorian Guard. I have a low bar when it comes to action movies; as long as they have good fights and chase scenes, it’s acceptable. This one has so much more: a compelling plot with unexpected twists, great characters and excellent acting. Paul Mescal plays the driven gladiator as a classic hero on a quest. Denzel Washington is nicely
Pedro Pascal plays General Acacius in Gladiator II from Paramount Pictures.
slippery, and Pedro Pascal is truly majestic as the military hero. The cast is rounded out by Derek Jacobi — who brought ancient Rome to a generation as I,Claudius — and Little Britain’s Matt Lucas as the MC. There are even quotes from Virgil in the dialogue — not your usual action movie fare. Gladiator II is not perfect. There was no romance or love aside from filial piety. I thought the CGI animals — especially a vicious troupe of man-eating monkeys — was ridiculously fake. And though it harkens back to the sword and sandal flics of the 50s and 60s, Gladiator is no Spartacus, and Ridley Scott ain’t Stanley Kubrick. But Scott still knows how to craft a totally watchable, old-skool Hollywood drama like almost nobody else.
What can I say? I had a great time watching Gladiator II.
Wicked
Dir: Jon M. Chu
It’s the land of Oz. Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) is a new student at Shiz, an exclusive boarding school like Hogwarts but without much magic. Her Dad — the governor of Munchkinland — sent her there to take care of Nessarose, her beloved little sister. Elphaba doesn’t get along with her roommate, the most popular girl in school. Glinda (Ariana Grande) is everything Elphaba is not. She’s a rich, frivolous, self-centred airhead, who cares more about fashion than thinking. She wears pink frocks, and tosses her blond tresses from side to side, to get whatever she wants. Elphaba is smart, diligent and pure-hearted. She dresses only in black, so as not to draw attention to herself. Why then is Glinda adored and envied, while Elphaba is mocked and feared?
It’s because of her skin colour; as Kermit the Frog said, it’s not easy being green.
But one person does like her: Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh). She believes Elphaba possesses magical powers she just needs to keep them under control. If she does, perhaps the kind and benevolent Wizard of Oz (Jeff Goldblum) may even allow her to visit him in the Emerald City. When Glinda hears this, she decides it’s time to kiss and make up. .. and maybe she’ll get to learn some magic, too?
But their relationship is complicated. Glinda is dating a dashing young prince (Jonathan Bailey) who seems more intrigued by the green-faced and moody Elphaba than by her. And Dr. Dillamond, their history teacher, is a goat. Animals once were equal to humans, but not any more. While Glinda is indifferent to their plight, Elphaba thinks the animals must be respected and 
protected. With all these ideas whirling around Elphaba’s head, what will happen next? Is Glinda her friend or her rival? And will she ever get to meet the Wizard of Oz?
Wicked is a spectacular musical about the origin of a misunderstood young girl who later becomes known as the wicked witch of the West. It’s a whopping 2:45 long, but you wouldn’t know it; it whizzes by at a very fast pace. Even so, it’s only part one of a two-part saga. It’s based on a broadway musical, which was adapted from the novel Wicked by Gregory Maguire , which in turn was a riff on the movie The Wizard of Oz and the L Frank Baum books. Apparently, the musical was a huge hit and has a fanatical following — at my screening there were people in at my screening loudly applauding after every great solo. And I bet they also liked a scene where Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel — who starred in the original stage production — sing a duet, sort of a play within a play.
But I went in an absolute beginner, knowing nothing about it. Didn’t matter.
Wicked is an excellent movie. It’s all shot on a set, but is cinematic, not theatrical. There’s seamless editing, great acting, and impressive art direction. Dozens of professional dancers twist and leap across the stage. Cynthia Erivo is a powerful singer whose Elphaba is nicely empathetic. We can feel her. She’s amazing. Ariana Grande may be a pop star but she shows genuine talent here: a skilled actor with a beautiful voice.
I am not a devotee of Broadway musicals, but I really enjoyed Wicked.
Wicked and Gladiator II open this weekend in Toronto; check your local listings. And Scared Shitless is playing tonight (November 23) at 9:30 pm, as part of B.I.T.S. Canadian horror festival.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website culturalmining.com.
Bullies and the bullied. Films reviewed: Memoir of a Snail, The Line
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Fall Film Festival Season continues in Toronto with ReelAsian and BITS. ReelAsian, which is on right now, brings features docs and shorts from East and South Asia, and from the Diaspora in North America. Many of the films are premieres! BITS — Blood in the Snow — is an all-Canadian festival of horror, genre and underground films that shatter taboos and conventions — including the second season of David J Fernandes’ TV series Creepy Bits. The festival runs from November 18th-23rd.
But this week, I’m looking at two new indie movies, from Australia and the US. There’s a frat boy in Oklahoma caught between the horns of a dilemma; and a bullied girl in Canberra who wants to curl up in her shell.
Memoir of a Snail
Wri/Dir: Adam Elliot
Grace and Gilbert are twins who live with their dad in a high-rise tenement in a big Australian city. Their mom died in childbirth, so they’ve only ever known their father, a former Parisian street busker known for his pyrotechnics. Gilbert embraces his love of fire and gunpowder. Grace models herself after her mother, a specialist in snails; she always wears antennae over her knit cap, and thinks of herself as a mollusk. And since she still shows the scars of a cleft palette, she is constantly bullied at school and called rabbit face. Gilbert is always there to defend her, and the two are best friends. Until their father dies, leaving them both as orphans. The twins are separated and adopted on opposite ends of the country.
Grace ends up in the nation’s capital, Canberra. She’s adopted by a dull, beige couple with no kids. They also happen got be nudists and swingers. Grace’s only friend is an elderly woman named Pinky she meets at the library where Grace spends all her time. Pinky is both warm and eccentric and shares her lusty history with Grace who participates vicariously.
Gilbert finds himself on the other side of the continent in an isolated apple farm, outside Perth. He is put to work at a Dickensian conveyor belt controlled by his dictatorial, bible-thumper of a stepmother named Ruth, and her troglodyte sons. 
The two survive only by sending one another letters. Gilbert wants desperately to leave, while Grace becomes a recluse holed up in her home surrounded by the kitty snail-like objects she hoards. Can they survive in their dystopian prisons? And will they ever see one another again?
Memoir of a Snail is a dark animated comedy about coming of age of a shy and introverted young woman. It’s entirely made of stop- motion figures and locations. The stories take place within a wonderful, wabi-sabi world of the crumbling and dingy detritus that Grace compulsively collects. And you can’t call this a kids’ movie, as it deals with all sorts of squirmy adult concepts including bodies and sexuality. And it’s not disneyfied happy stuff either; it’s hilarious and quirky, Roald Dahl meets Tim Burton.The voices are provided by fave Aussie actors Sarah Snook and Kodi Smit-McPhee as the twins, Jacki Weaver as Pinky, with Eric Bana and Nick Cave in other roles.
Memoir of a Snail is a wonderfully depressing comedy with a satisfying end.
I like this one a lot.
The Line
Co-Wri/Dir: Ethan Berger
It’s 2014 at a university in the deep south. Tom (Alex Wolff) is a student there, paid for by his single mom’s savings (she’s a nurse). But his grade point average is low, and his interests are focused mainly on snorting coke and getting laid. He shares a room with his best friend Mitch (Bo Mitchell) who calls Tom “Sunshine”. He is constantly hugging and touching Tom. Mitch is rich, but he’s a total wreck —irresponsible, slovenly, self-pitying and undependable. They met the year before while being pledged at a powerful frat house and have had each others’ backs since then. He’s even met Mitch’s father (John Malkovich) who promises to set him up with a good job after graduation — one of the benefits of “Greek” life. They live inside the frathouse now.
As sophomores, they are full members of KNA, and Tom is being groomed as their next president. But things start to deteriorate as this years pledges start their initiation. The problem is Mitch has a hate on for a new pledge named Gettys O’Brien (Austin Abrams). O’Brien is totally chill and publicly mocks the ridiculous hierarchy, and homo-erotic rituals. He also disrespects Mitch’s insecurities about his own looks and body. So Mitch despises the popular freshman and goes out of his way to make his life miserable… but to no avail.
Tom, meanwhile, is ambitious. He wants to improve his grades and he’s crushing on a smart woman in his class. Annabelle (Halle Bailey) is extremely self-confident, hates frats, and dares to publicly denounces the university’s biases. But Tom persists, even while knowing his all-white ultraconservative frat will never accept him 
dating a black, feminist who doesn’t shave her armpits. And the university itself is coming down hard on the Greeks, following reports of dangerous practices going on there. They lay down the law: a total ban on hazing and off-campus retreats. Of course Mitch ignores all this and immediately plans the ultimate hazing retreat adventure, where he can get revenge on O’Brien. The frat’s president makes Tom goes to keep it all safe. This puts Tom between a rock and a hard place. Can he calm the waters? Or are they heading toward a genuine Hell Week?
The Line is a very dark and unsettling drama that gives an inside look at the secretive world of fraternities. It’s also about friendship and obligation, hierarchy and the chilling power of money over basic morality. The title refers to a hazing ritual where pledges are hooded and tied together in a dangerous setting. I saw this movie because Alex Wolff is in it, and he only seems to be in worthwhile movies. In an interesting performance, he puts on a deliberately-acquired, heavy southern drawl — interspersed with extended mumbling — a style of talking apparently de rigueur at frats. Bo Mitchell is also very good. The plot is told without easy solutions and obvious heroes and villains; it’s more subtle than that, but this is not a feel good movie. And while a good film, it’s quite disturbing with unexpected violence and is not for the faint of heart.
Memoirs of a Snail and The Line 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.
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