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.
Unobtainable, unsustainable, inevitable. Films reviewed: Bookworm, Monkey on a Stick, Smile 2
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Toronto Fall Film Festival season continues with Rendezvous with Madness presenting docs and dramas, features and shorts, about addiction and mental health followed by in-person discussions, starting on October 25th.
But this week, I’m looking at three new films, a kids’ movie, a doc and a horror film. There’s a precocious girl looking for the unobtainable; a group of deranged gurus trying to hold onto the unsustainable; and a pop starch wants to escape the inevitable.
Bookworm
Co-Wri/Dir: Ant Timpson
Mildred (Nell Fisher) is a young girl who lives with her mom in New Zealand. She loves reading but hates school. Her desk is surrounded by leather-bound books alongside a microscope, a telescope, a typewriter and a record player. She talks like a grownup, and is obsessed by wild animals. Her dream? To catch on film a black panther said to be roaming in the woods (along with a big fat cash prize for anyone who can take a picture of it.) But her plans all change when her mother is sent to hospital in critical condition following an exploding toaster. That’s when her biological father comes into the picture. He flies in from America to save the day.
Strawn (Elijah Wood) is a professional magician — he prefers “illusionist” — who loves magic: like making small things disappear or pulling coins from behind someone’s ears. Most people are wowed by Strawn’s prestidigitations and puppy dog eyes, but not Mildred. She scoffs at magic and is quick to reveal all his tricks. They two are opposites at heart. If you say “David Copperfield” she thinks of Dickens while he thinks of the 
magician. Nonetheless, they are stuck together for now, so he agrees to take her camping. But little do they know of the exciting adventures and frightening dangers — like criminals, wild animals and crazy escapes — that lie ahead.
Bookworm is a very cute coming-of-age adventure about two strangers put together to form a makeshift family. It feels like a cross between a Roald Dahl Matilda and Taika Waititi’s Hunt for the Wilderpeople. It’s shot in the New Zealand wilderness amidst stunning mountains, cliffs and lakes. Nell Fisher is adorable as the obnoxiously mature Mildred, while Elijah Wood is equally adorable as the man-child who won’t grow up. I wanted to see this one because I loved director Ant Timpson’s bizarre debut, the violent comedy Come to Daddy. Bookworm is as different as any film could be but just as enjoyable.
I liked this one a lot.
Monkey on a Stick
Dir: Jason Lapeyre
It’s 1965 and America is in high hippie mode. A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada arrives in New York City from Calcutta. He’s there to sell books, including his own translation of the Baghdad Gita. But he ends up heading the Hare Krishna movement, a vast multinational phenomenon, a religion that espouses dancing, singing and chanting mantras in order to achieve a better afterlife. After picking up many devotees in New York, the movement exploded in popularity once he reaches California. Allen Ginzburg endorses it and George Harrison writes a song about it. Countless people join the religion, throwing away material possessions to dance, chant and collect alms in airports. But when the Swami dies, he leaves behind eleven gurus. That’s when things start to fall apart. This documentary — based on a bestselling book — exposes the crimes and excesses of the Hare Krishna movement in the 1970s and 80s.
One guru — in order to generate more money — sets up a drug ring of devotees instructed to smuggle hash from Pakistan to Canada. They have ties to the mob, leading to a series of violent crimes until it is finally exposed. Another guru collects automatic weapons, and goes on a shooting spree in California. A third guru — a self-declared Swami — the scariest of them all, builds himself an ornate golden castle in West Virginia, while his disciples — who have given away all their worldly 
possessions — live in a shanty town beside the castle without toilet paper or plumbing. He later plans murders and is suspected of molesting children.
In fact, the movement as a whole is riddled with problems. Women are treated as inferior beings who distract male practitioners from their religious obligations. Homosexuality is strictly forbidden as is all sex outside marriage. And heavy censorship prevails — no TV, magazines, newspapers, movies, or books are allowed, except for one official newspaper. And by the second generation — the 1970s and 80s, when most of the documentary takes place — kids are sent to schools with teachers who have no training. They lock kids in dark closets or dump them in trashcans as punishment, among even worse crimes.
Monkey on a Stick is a documentary that looks at crimes of the Hare Krishna movement. It’s told using talking heads — including former devotees — period footage, and many reenactments, with actors visually demonstrating what the narrators are talking about. There’s also a series of random people sharing their views on religion, God and the afterlife. Though quite disturbing in parts, on the whole, it’s a fascinating story that exposes events I had never heard about before.
Smile 2
Wri/Dir: Parker Finn
Skye Riley (Naomi Scott) is a pop superstar, about to launch a worldwide tour. She lives in a luxury apartment on Park Avenue, and can buy anything she wants. She’s busy 24/7 at dance rehearsals, talk show appearances and autograph signings, under the constant supervision of her stage mom (Rosemarie DeWitt) and her PA (Miles Gutierrez-Riley). It’s her big comeback, after a year of rehab. This follows a bout of addiction culminating in a terrible car crash that killed her boyfriend and put her in intensive care. A year later, she still suffers from intense pain, pain so bad she is forced to buy opioids on the sly. But everything changes when she witnesses her high school friend (and drug supplier), Lewis (Lucas Gage) kill himself in front of her eyes in the most gruesome manner imaginable. And he dies with a rictus grin plastered on his face.
That’s when things start to go bad. Everywhere she looks she
sees that awful smile. It’s like she caught a disease by witnessing her friend’s death. She starts seeing people who aren’t really there, and experiencing events that never happened — even though they feel so real. She begins to doubt her sanity. It’s like some alien presence has lodged itself into her brain. Her friends, family and colleagues look at her in a strange way, even as she fears she’ll end up dead in a matter of days, with that same awful smile. Can she break this smile cycle? Or is she headed for insanity and death?
Smile 2 is a genuinely-scary psychological thriller/ horror about fame, celebrity, and a deadly condition passed on from person to person. It’s also one of those Hollywood rarities: a sequel that’s demonstrably better than the original. Naomi Scott is terrific as Skye, a punky, self-centred celebrity; Skye’s not just a horror movie screamer, she’s a real character, complete with a psyche and a believable back story. The movie itself is really well made, with beautiful art direction, cool choreography, and ingenious camerawork and editing, where a scene can flip, elliptically, from an elevator ride to an overhead view of the street. Warning: it’s quite violent, so if you don’t like seeing blood and guts, stay away. But otherwise, Smile 2 is a really good, heart-pounding genre movie.
Bookworm, Monkey on a Stick and Smile 2 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.
Family-friendly pics at #TIFF24. Films reviewed: The Wild Robot, Sketch
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
There’s lots happening in Toronto this weekend. At the Toronto Palestine Film Festival you can watch films and docs, go to concerts, art exhibitions, a brunch, workshops and discussions all weekend long, both online and at the Lightbox. And the Toronto Garlic Festival is on this Sunday on Spadina Road, with food, drinks, a garlic market and culture, too… including me! I’ll be giving a talk on garlic and the movies at 12:00 noon, with free admission.
But today I’m talking about two new, family-friendly movies that were featured at TIFF this year. There are monster drawings that come to life, and a robot stranded on an island that can talk to the animals.
Wild Robot
Co-Wri/Dir: Chris Sanders (Review: How to Train your Dragon)
It’s a small island in North America, sometime in the future. ROZZUM unit 7134 (Lupita Nyong’o) is a robot. She was built for family consumers, the product of a multinational corporation. Powered by AI, she speaks and understands multiple languages and is made to serve. Somehow her box has washed ashore on this island, but the expected suburban home is nowhere to be found. This place is uninhabited… by humans that is, but it’s teeming with wildlife. Deer and moose, bears and foxes, raccoons, porcupines, skunks, beavers, possums and all types of birds, insects and aquatic life. She sees animals ruthlessly killing and eating each other as part of their daily lives. She gazes at them all in wonder, but they regard her cautiously. She has no smell, can’t be eaten, but isn’t a predator either — what good is she?
But for the robot, it’s imperative she complete her assignment, any assignment. So she studies all the animals and learns to speak their languages. And when she rescues a newly-hatched gosling (Kit Connor) from a sly fox (Pedro Pascal), she has finally found her purpose in life: to take care of this newborn bird. You can call me 
Roz, she says, but the bird — who bonds with her the second he opens his eyes — would rather call her Mama. So Roz, the little bird, and the somewhat untrustworthy fox form a makeshift family, teaching the bird the facts of life as he grows up. But can they teach him to swim and fly before the great migration south for the winter?
The Wild Robot is an amazingly-moving animated film about nature and technology forming deep bonds of their own with humans nowhere to be seen. But the villains are all man-made. This is a thoroughly well-put-together movie, from the quirky characters, to the funny surprises, to the heart-stopping scenes of suspense. It’s a genuine tear-jerker, but with characters that are just loveable enough to care for, without making you cringe. Roz is a white enamel ball whose accordion arms can spring out and come back, and whose head has neat slots for add-on devices. Her whole body glows in different colours along the seams. I love the art direction, down to the 1950s woodsy, summer- camp font they use for the title. Based on a novel of the same time, it also borrows from classic kids’ literature like the Ugly Duckling, the Jungle Book and Doctor Doolittle, but it still feels completely original. It also features additional voices of Ving Rhames, Mark Hamill, and Catherine O’Hara to name just a few.
I recommend this movie for people of all ages and most robots and animals, too.
Sketch
Wri/Dir: Seth Worley
It’s a small town somewhere in the US. Taylor Wyatt (Tony Hale) lives with his two pre-teen kids Amber (Bianca Belle) and Jack (Kue Lawrence) in a lovely home backing onto a small forest. They’ve all been down in the dumps since their mom died, so Taylor has gone out of his way to hide any pictures of her, to help the family get through this difficult period. And now he’s trying to sell the house — with the help of his sister Liz (D’Arcy Carden), a real estate agent. Maybe that will wipe the emotional slate clean. But it’s not working, as becomes clear when Taylor is called into the kids’ school to talk to the principal. Little Amber is accused of plotting to murder a classmate! And they have a drawing she made to prove it.
Luckily, the sensible guidance counsellor manages to defuse the situation right away. Amber is angry, right? So she gives her a sketch book where she can draw away all her frustrations, however she likes — the book is hers to keep and she doesn’t have to show it to anyone. Better to draw it than to do it, right?
Meanwhile, her brother Jack spends lots of time in the woods where he discovers a small pond that seems to have curative powers. It heals a cut on his hand, and fixes a family heirloom he broke. Maybe if he dumps a box of his mom’s ashes into the water, it will bring her back to life? But Amber finds out and this leads to a big fight, followed by Amber’s sketchbook falling into the pond. And that’s when all the scary monsters she drew with crayons and glitter, start coming to life.
Sketch is a delightful adventure about two kids trying to stop gigantic imaginary creatures — who have come to life — from destroying their town and killing all the people. It’s cute, it’s fun and it’s a bit scary. It’s also a touch psychological and moralistic but not enough to drag it down. Movies like this used to be fairly common, but nowadays it’s almost rare to find a movie that isn’t tied to a game, a toy, a Disney princess or a Marvel superhero. And the special-effect monsters are really cool. What other movie can you get a 30-foot- tall creature wreaking havoc in a cornfield that is clearly made of crayon scribbles? In his first feature, director Seth Worley has created a good, fun, stand-alone movie that kids will love, and parents can enjoy.
Sketch, and The Wild Robot both premiered at TIFF with Wild Robot 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.
Current cinema. Films reviewed: Babysitter, A Thousand and One, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
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, a drama, an adventure-comedy and a sex-comedy. There’s a gang of thieves in the Middle Ages, a middle-aged couple in Québec with a seductive nanny, and a mom in Harlem with an undocumented son.
Babysitter
Wri/Dir: Monia Chokri
Cédric (Patrick Hivon) is a middle-class guy in a Montreal suburb, with an obsession with women’s breasts. He’s happily married with a newborn daughter but his sex life has completely dried up. Maybe that’s why, in a drunken stupor at a UFC fight, he throws himself at a sportscaster on live TV and kisses her. His immortal words Je t’aime Chantal! went viral, and made Cédric famous, but not in a good way. Now he’s on extended leave as the company investigates his sexual harassment. But with a colicky baby, neither he nor his wife on maternity leave Nadine (Monia Chokri) are getting any sleep: the baby never stops crying. So they hire a nanny named Amy (Nadia Tereszkiewicz) to take over some of the pressures of parenthood. And she has a magic touch with the baby, calming her down in an instant.
Amy is 22 years old with beautiful blonde hair and scarlet lips. She is 
both innocent and seductive. And soon enough she has Nadine and Cédric under her thumb, with Jean-Michel, Cedric’s brother (Steve Laplante) close behind. But when she shows up the next day in a semi-pornographic “French maid” costume — compete with short skirt, white stockings and high heels — the three of them don’t whether to faint or explode. Will Amy save their marriage by releasing tension, or has she gone too far? Will Cédric ever learn from his misogynistic behaviour? Will Jean-Michel ever get a hold of himself? And why does Amy act like she does?
Babysitter is a funny and campy Québecois sex comedy. It’s done in the classic manner of French and Italian movies from the 60s where the arrival of an unexpected visitor disrupts a whole family, but updated for the “#MeToo” generation. It’s highly stylized done in a retro manner, 
with bright red colours popping up in every frame, from lipstick to poppies in the garden. And the main characters’ sexual fantasies are played out in soft focus in their heads, like David Hamilton’s softcore porn of the 1970s. There’s even a gratuitous scene with a group of teenaged girls in hot pants and roller skates gliding down a suburban street, a new generation thumbing its collective nose at uptight middle age. And while the movie seems to be shown through the male gaze, filmmaker Monia Chokri adds a satirical feminist subtext, keeping it entirely tongue in cheek.
A Thousand and One
Wri/Dir: A.V. Rockwell
It’s New York City in the early 1990s. Inez (Teyana Taylor) is a young hairdresser, just released from Riker’s. But when she goes back to her old neighbourhood, no one wants to talk to her and she can’t get her old job back. Worst of all, she is heartbroken to see her six-year-old son Terry maltreated by his foster parents. So one day she simply takes him away with her. And after a few weeks of couch surfing, they find a home in an old Harlem tenement, apartment number 1001. To keep them both safe from the law, she gets Terry a new social security number and a new name. He’s shy and rarely speaks but proves to be an excellent student, so much so his teacher helps him transfer to a highly competitive tech school for bright kids. Inez, meanwhile, gets back together with her boyfriend Lucky (William Catlett). Though he makes it clear he is not Terry’s father, eventually they marry and form a loving family. But life is not easy. They have to deal with an unscrupulous landlord, suspicious teachers and 
aggressive cops. And always hanging over their heads is the fact they’re living under fake names and could be caught at any minute.
A Thousand and One is a powerful, realistic and moving drama about the life of a family in Harlem in the 1990s and early 2000s. It’s both heartbreaking and inspiring. It traces their lives through changes of government, from Giuliani’s “Broken Windows” policy through Bloomberg’s “Stop and Frisk”, and how it affects Terry as a young Black man. It’s also a coming of age story, with three actors playing Terry at 6, 13 and 17 — Aaron Kingsley Adetola, Aven Courtney, and Josiah Cross — as he struggles through his best friend, his first crush, and his fractious relationship with his mother as they face the world. I love the period costumes, hair, locations and music. And Teyana Taylor is just amazing as Inez.
A Thousand and One is not a light movie, but it’s a good one.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
Co-Wri/Dir: John Francis Daley, Jonathan Goldstein
It’s sometime, somewhere far away in a mythical, mystical, medieval kingdom. Edgin and Holga (Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez) are former thieves locked up in a remote panopticon prison. They were caught trying to steal a magic totem but were double crossed by one of their gang. But they manage to escape. Now they want to form a new gang to pull off the ultimate heist: a charm that can bring Edgin’s wife back to life and restore his family including his daughter, Kira. Edgin is the brains, while Holga is the brawn, but they need more. They enlist Simon (Justice Smith) an insecure sorcerer with questionable powers (he earns his living picking pockets at a carnival side show.) Doric (Sophia Lilis) is a ginger-haired druid who can change, in a flash, into any animal she wants, from tiny worm to giant monster. And Xenk 
(played by Bridgerton heartthrob Regé-Jean Page) — an honest and noble member of an evil clan — agrees to join the heist but only if its for good reasons, not for profit.
But they must face their former ally Forge a con man (Hugh Grant). Up to now, he has taken care of Edgin’s little girl, but has since crowned himself King in alliance with a nefarious, all-powerful sorceress. To find his daughter, liberate the riches, and defeat the sorceress, the gang must first accomplish a series of nearly-impossible tasks, worthy of Theseus. Can this ragtag gang of miscreants pull it together? Or are they all headed back to prison?
Dungeons and Dragons: Honor among Thieves is a surprisingly entertaining adventure/comedy, based on the role-play board game of the same name. Players will delight in the more obscure references — from Gelatinous Cubes to Owlbears — but ordinary audiences can fully enjoy it without any background. It also incorporates the story-telling 
aspects of the game, giving the whole film a rich, mythical feel. I went into this movie expecting nothing — previous Dungeons & Dragons incarnations have been dreadful. I shouldn’t have worried about this nerd paradise, seeing its co-written and directed by none other than John Francis Daley, from the TV cult classic Freaks and Geeks (he was a geek, of course). If you like Game of Thrones or Lord of the Rings, but with more laughs and less excessive gore and ponderous speeches, then you’ll love this one.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honour among Thieves and A Thousand and One both open this weekend; check your local listings. Babysitter is playing at the Canadian Film Fest, on now.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website, culturalmining.com.
Exposing secrets. Films reviewed: John Wick: Chapter 4, The Five Devils, Ithaka
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 — an action film, a mysterious drama, and a documentary— from the US, France and Australia. There’s an assassin battling a secret organization, a little girl sticking her nose into hidden places, and a journalist jailed for bringing secret war crimes into the light.
John Wick: Chapter 4
Dir: Chad Stahelski
John Wick (Keanu Reeves) is a Belorussian assassin, under the control of a powerful, international cabal known as The High Table. He’s infamous for his relentless killing skills; he can wipe out an entire squadron with a just a pair of nunchucks. Wick wants out, but to do that he needs to be free. So he embarks on a complex series of tasks to complete before the Table frees him. In the meantime, The Marquis (Bill Skarsgård), the head honcho, wants him dead… so he gets Wick’s former best friend and partner to kill him.
Caine (Donnie Yen) is an expert martial arts fighter and shooter who happens to be blind. So Wick turns to another old friend, Shimazu 
(Sanada Hiroyuki) a hotelier in Osaka. Even though he could lose everything, he still agrees to hide Wick from the Marquis’ agents. Meanwhile, the marquis has put a multimillion dollar mark on Wick’s head, a reward that its steadily rising, letting loose an army of killers out for a quick buck, including a man with a dog known as the tracker 
(Shamier Anderson). Can Wick survive this army of killers? Or will this be his final showdown?
John Wick: Chapter 4 is nearly three hours of non-stop violence. The characters and storyline is strictly cookie-cutter, but the settings — in New York, Osaka, Paris, Berlin and Jordan — is vast and opulent. Every chamber has cathedral ceilings and gaudy rococo elegance. And the fight choreography is spectacularly orchestrated. The cast — including Laurence Fishburne, Ian McShane and the late Lance Reddick — are fun to watch. No one will call this a great movie, but if you enjoy endless fight scenes with hundreds of extras whether among the writhing bodies of a Berlin nightclub or in a traffic jam around the Arc de Triomphe, John Wick 4 will satisfy.
The Five Devils (Les cinq diables)
Co-Wri/Dir: Léa Mysius
Vicki (Sally Dramé) is a bright young girl who lives in a small village in the French alps. Joanne, her mom (Adèle Exarchopoulos) teaches aqua fitness, while Jimmy, her dad (Moustapha Mbengue) is a fireman. But Vicki has no friends, and is constantly bullied at school, perhaps because she’s mixed-race in a mainly white town (her mom is white, her dad’s from Senegal.) Vicki has a unique skill no one else knows about: she can identify anything or anyone purely by its scent. If she picks up a leaf she instantly knows what kind of animal bit it, and its size, age, even its feelings. And she can recognize people at twenty paces, blindfolded, just by their smell. Vicki starts finding things, and like an alchemist, puts them into jars, carefully labelling each one.
But when a surprise visit by her aunt Julia, her father’s sister (Swala
Emati), things start to change. There’s something in Julia’s past that has turned the whole village against her. When Vicki discovers how to harness her power of smell to travel, temporarily, back in time, she finds that she may have played a role in Julia’s younger life. But can she influence what already happened?
The Five Devils is a very cool French mystery/drama with a hint of the supernatural and a sapphic twist. The alps may be majestic but they hide a sinister past, and a stultifyingly provincial and xenophobic culture. This is conveyed in the large, tacky murals and oddly dated architecture that pops up everywhere. The three female leads Exarchopoulos, Dramé and Emati are amazing (with full points on the Bechdel test). Mysius is an accomplished 
scriptwriter who has worked with such luminaries as Claire Denis and Jacques Audiard. You can tell. And an unexpected twist at the very end will have you leaving the theatre with an extra jolt.
I like this movie.
Ithaka
Wri/Dir: Ben Lawrence
Twenty years ago this month, US- and British-led forces invades Iraq under the pretence of finding Weapons of Mass Destruction supposedly threatening the west. Nothing is ever found and over 200,000 civilians are killed, 4 million displaced, and the entire middle east thrown into disarray, leading to the rise of fundamentalists like ISIS, unrest and civil war from which, 20 years later, it has yet to recover. In 2010, army specialistChelsea Manning anonymously releases a huge trove of secret military files to Wikileaks, a website founded specifically to expose things like war crimes and corruption, without endangering news sources and reporters who cover them.
It’s founded by Australian journalist and hactivist Julian Assange. That’s when Wikileaks catches the world’s attention by exposing, 
on video, the US military gunning down innocent civilians in Iraq in cold blood, including Reuters journalists. None of the perpetrators of these — and countless other war crimes — ever served time, but Manning is arrested and jailed, while Assange is forced to seek refuge in the Ecuador Embassy in London. He is afraid that travelling to Sweden for questioning will lead to him being extradited to the US. His fears are correct, and he is later jailed in Belmarsh, a maximum security prison in London, awaiting deportation to the US on charges of espionage. He remains there today.
Ithaka is a personal and intimate documentary about Assange in jail in London during the trial, and the events that led up to it. Using original interviews and contemporary news reports, it fills in the blanks you may have missed. It also reveals the CIA’s involvement, including plots to murder him. The doc follows two people: John Shipton, Assange’s dad, and Stella Moris, his wife and the mother of their two sons. Shipton is an Australian house builder and peace activist. Moris is the Johannesburg-born daughter of Swedish and 
Spanish parents who were active in the anti-Apartheid movement. She also serves as his lawyer. Assange is off camera, but his cel phone voice is often present.
For a man like Assange, who has done more to expose government and corporate corruption than almost any other journalist today, to be charged with espionage and threatened with life in prison is a travesty of justice. His suffering and deterioration in solitary confinement is cruel and unusual punishment. If you want to learn more about him, or to show your support, Ithaka is a good place to start.
John Wick Chapter 4 and The Five Devils open in Toronto this weekend; check you local listings. Ithaka is now playing at the Hot Docs cinema.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website, culturalmining.com.
Summer entertainment. Films reviewed: Three Thousand Years of Longing, Alienoid, The Good Boss
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
This week I’m talking about three entertaining summer movies from around the world. There’s a British academic who meets a djinn in Istanbul; an ambitious businessman forced to “weigh his options” in Spain; and some alien, time-travelling prison guards trying to catch mutant convicts in medieval Korea.
Three Thousand Years of Longing
Co-Wri/ Dir: George Miller (Based on the short story by A.S. Byatt)
Dr Alithia Binney (Tilda Swinton) is a British academic in Istanbul for a conference. She’s a narratologist, someone who studies the structure of stories and how they’re told. She’s been obsessed by stories since she was a kid, when she even had an imaginary friend. She’s still more comfortable reading than talking to other people. But these imaginary friends seem to be reappearing more often lately. A small man in a lambskin coat talks to her in the airport — but no one else sees him. And when giving a lecture a strange man in Mesopotamian garb appears in the audience. But she really 
starts to worry when one of them doesn’t go away. This all started when a glass bottle she found in an Istanbul antique store let loose a gigantic genie (Idris Elba) — or Djinn as he calls himself. To no one’s — surprise since we all know this narrative structure — he grants her three wishes. But to the Djinn’s shock she says she doesn’t want anything. She’s content with what she has, and besides, these sort of stories always go wrong in the end. So the Djinn tells her his 3000-year-long story instead, and what will happen if she doesn’t use those wishes. And an amazing tale it is, with characters like Solomon and Sheba, and the sultans of Ottoman Arabia. There’s a sluggish prince locked in a fur-lined chamber with a dozen huge-breasted Rubenesque consorts. And a woman genius in the Renaissance who just wants to study. Like a story within a story, these talks are told by the 
djinn as they both sit in her hotel room, dressed in white terrycloth robes and towel turbans. Is this all in her mind, or is it real? And if so, what will her wishes be?
Three Thousand Years of Longing is the retelling of stories within stories, in the style of The Thousand and One Nights, but told from a contemporary perspective. These are framed by Alithia’s own stories, and contemporary events. George Miller, of Mad Max fame, directed this, and spares no special effects — there is a mind-boggling plethora of CGIs in every scene: with non-stop, lush magical images. Idris Elba is fun as the Djinn with his pointy ears and the blue-green scales on his legs; and Tilda Swinton is great as always, this time bedecked in rose-coloured skirts, with a red pageboy haircut and academic glasses. Nothing deep here and it’s not terribly moving, but I always love a good story, well-told.
Alienoid
Wri/Dir: Choi Dong-hoon
It’s Korea six centuries ago, when a metal object tears through the sky, killing a woman with its tentacles. But, believe it or not, the tentacles are from the good guys, and the medieval Korean woman is actually an escaped mutant killer from another planet. You see, Guard (KIM Woo-bin) and Thunder are alien prison guards who lock the mutant prisoners inside human brains… and if they try to escape, earth’s atmosphere will kill them in a few minutes. But the humans with the alien prisoners locked inside them have no idea.
The woman they killed has a newborn baby girl, so they take her with them back to 2022 and raise her like she’s their own child (yes, little Ean has two daddies!) But they’re neither human nor mutants — Guard is a sophisticated robot and 
Thunder is a computer program, but they both can take on human form. Now in 2022 things are going bad. Alien mutants have arrived on earth to free the prisoners and turn the earth’s air toxic for humans but breathable by them. And they’re winning the battle.
But back to 600 years ago, things aren’t as bad. Muruk (RYU Jun-yeol) is a young Dosa, or spell caster, who earns his living as a bounty hunter. Now he’s after something more valuable — a legendary crystal knife called the divine blade for its strange powers. He tracks it down to a wedding and impersonates the 
groom to steal it. What he doesn’t know is his “bride” is also an imposter seeking the same prize. So are Madame Blue and Mr Black, veteran sorcerers who make their living selling magic trinkets, as well as some evil killers, one of which dresses like a man from 2022. Who are all these people? What’s going on here? Will the world be destroyed? And what’s the connection between then and now?
Alienoid is a Korean movie about science fiction time travel that spans all genres. It’s part action, superhero, fantasy, romance, drama, and comedy. It deftly incorporates the time-travelling robots from Terminator; HK style airborne fighting, and the funny, soapy characters of Korean historical TV dramas all pulled together in a way I’ve never quite seen before. It has a 
huge budget — 33 billion won — but it’s not a superhero movie. That’s another great thing about Alienoid: unlike superheroes, all the main characters may have some special powers but they also have major flaws: they mess up a lot, lie, cheat, steal, and behave like grifters. One warning (not a spoiler) the movie finishes, but it doesn’t end, with the next sequel coming out next year. So if you’re looking for a highly entertaining two hours, you can’t go wrong with Alienoid.
The Good Boss
Dir: Fernando León de Aranoa
Julio Blanco (Javier Bardem) is the owner of Blanco Scales, a factory in a small Spanish town — he inherited the company from his Dad. They make everything from bathroom scales to enormous steel balances that can weigh a whole cow. He knows he’s a successful businessman and a good boss by the way his smiling employees applaud him whenever he makes a speech. They’re like his children, he says beneficently, and when they have a problem, he has a problem — his door is always open to help them out. Then there’s his industry trophy wall, directly across from his marital bed, that recognizes him for his business accomplishments. There’s just one prize he hasn’t won yet, the official regional award, which could open huge doors in government contracts. He’s one of three nominees and he really wants to win it.. All he has to do is make everything run perfectly and all his employees content within one week — that’s when the inspectors are coming.
The problem is, not everything is as perfect as he imagines. 
Production is weeks behind schedule, because Miralles — whom he’s known since childhood — is not paying attention. He’s too busy stalking his wife who he thinks is cheating on him. Won’t Blanco help him catch her in flagrante delecto? Jose, a laid-off employee, doesn’t want to leave; he’s camped out in front of the factory demanding to be rehired. And long-time mechanic Fortuna’s son has been arrested for assaulting strangers in the park — won’t Blanco behave like a role model and get the kid a job somewhere? And then there’s problems of his own creation: he’s flirting with a beautiful new intern, Liliana (Almudena Amor) who seems equally attracted to him. She even has the scales of Libra tattooed on her neck. Little does Blanco know, she’s the daughter of his wife’s best friend, the same one he coddled as an infant. Can he solve all his company’s problems in just one week? Or is he just digging deeper into a hole?
The Good Boss is a biting social satire dealing with class, race, and gender in contemporary Spain. Javier Bardem is terrific as the smarmy Blanco, a big fish in a small pond who loves his glassed-in office where he can lord over all the little people beneath him. A comedy, it’s full of every possible pun about scales — the blind justice statue, the Libra sign, tipping the scales… to name just a few. And though a light comedy, it looks at very dark issues with a jaundiced eye.
I enjoyed this one, too.
Three Thousand Years of Longing and Alienoid both open this weekend across North America; check your local listings; and you can catch The Good Boss now at the TIFF Bell Lightbox in Toronto.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website, culturalmining.com
Cults and kidnappers. Films reviewed: The Black Phone, One Summer Story
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Spring film festival season continues in Toronto with the Japanese and Jewish film festivals coming to a close, while ICFF — the Italian contemporary film festival — and Lavazza IncluCity are just beginning. The festival features film composer Ennio Morricone, Giuseppe Tornatore (who won an Oscar for Cinema Paradiso), and Allesandro Gassmann, the son of star Vittorio Gassman, and an accomplished actor in his own right. Movies at this festival are being shown both in theatres and outdoors in open air screenings.
This week, I’m looking at two new movies. There’s a thriller-horror about a boy who is kidnapped in 1970s Colorado; and a girl who discovers her biological father was a member of a religious cult in Japan.
The Black Phone
Dir: Scott Derrickson
It’s the late 1970s in Denver, Colorado. Finney (Mason Thames) is a kid in junior high who lives with his sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw), and their angry and depressed dad, a widower. Finney is into rocket ships and baseball — he’s the pitcher on his team. But he’s bullied at school. Luckily his best friend Robin is always looking out for him.
But all is not well in Denver. Teenagers are disappearing, one by one, with no bodies ever found. But when Robin disappears, he turns to Gwen for help — she has psychic dreams that might tell them where he is. But before they can do anything, Finney finds himself locked in a basement cell, somewhere in the city. theres just a toilet, a mattress, and a barred window way up near the ceiling. And an old black phone mounted on the wall, but with all the wires cut. The guy who kidnapped him — known as the Grabber (Ethan Hawke) — is a freelance magician who always covers his face with hideous 
masks reflecting changes in his warped psyche. Before long, Finney is in despair and figures he’s going to be killed soon, just like the other boys before him. Until… the black phone starts to ring! And coming from somewhere is the voice of one of the previous victims, who says he can tell Finney how to escape.
Is this real or just his imagination? Can the dead really speak? And will Finney ever get out of there?
The Black Phone is a fantastic thriller about a kid vs a deranged serial killer. Though billed as a horror movie, and there are some very scary scenes here and there, it’s miles ahead above most of the gory schlock passing for horror movies these days. This one is more about suspense, mystery and adventure than meaningless, gratuitous violence. There is violence, but it fits within the movie. The characters are all well-rounded with complex back stories. There are lots of red herrings to lead you astray, but the whole movie leaves you with a sense of satisfaction, not dread. And it avoids the cheap scares typical of many horror flicks. The film perfectly captures the feel of the 1970s, through the rock soundtrack, costumes and locations. The acting — especially heroes McGraw and Thames, as well as the villains including the creepy killer and the brooding father, and the many school bullies — is really well done. The Black Phone is based on a story by Joe Hill, who also 
wrote the graphic novel the great TV series Locke & Key was based on. He’s an amazing storyteller… who also happens to be Stephen King’s son. (I mention that because he’s of the same calibre). And writer-director Scott Derickson has done some good stuff himself.
If you don’t want to be scared — stay far away. But if you’re looking for a good chiller-thriller, you’re really gonna like this one.
One Summer Story (Kodomo ha Wakatteagenai)
Dir: Okita Shûichi
It’s present-day Japan. Minami (Kamishiraishi Moka) is a teenaged girl who lives with her Mum, stepfather, and little brother. Backstroke is her thing — she’s on the school swim team. And she’s obsessed with a TV anime series called Koteko, about a Count who is literally a royal sack of cement and his two gloopy sons Concrete and Plaster. One day she’s at a swim practice when she sees something unbelievable on the roof of their school: a boy is painting something on a large easel. could it be true? she runs over to take a look. A boy is painting a character from her favourite anime series. They hit it iff immediately.
Moji-kun (Chiba Yûdai) comes from a long line of Japanese calligraphers. But when she visits his home, she sees a paper talisman with the exact writing as one she always carries with her. The words come from an obscure religious cult, a client of Moji’s father. After some investigation, they discover Minami’s birth father is somehow associated with the cult… and perhaps is why she never knew him. So she decides to secretly show up at his door to find out the truth. Will she find out about her missing history? Or is she just opening a can of 
worms?
One Summer Story is an extremely cute coming-of-age drama about a girl discovering her birth father with unexpected results. Its also about her new friend — and his unusual family — who helps her on her way.
Based on a manga, it also incorporates a non-existent, animated TV show within the story line. Lots of quirky but likeable characters and an unpredictable plot make it a pleasure to watch. And with much of it set at a beachside home or a swimming pool, it gives off a nice cool energy on a hot summer’s day.
The Black Phone opens this weekend; check your local listings; One Summer Story’s is playing at the Toronto Japanese Film Festival for its Canadian premiere on Sunday, June 26th at 7:00pm, at the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website, culturalmining.com.
Leaving a mark. Films reviewed: Charlotte, Marvellous and the Black Hole, The Bad Guys
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Spring festival season is on now, with Hot Docs, Toronto’s international documentary film festival, right around the corner.
But this week, I’m looking at three new movies, one live and two animated, about people trying to leave a mark on society. There’s a gang of criminal animals offered a chance to go straight; an angry 13-year-old girl who looks for solace in magic tricks; and a young artist who decides to chronicle her life in Nazi Germany in the form of hundreds of paintings.
Charlotte
Dir: Tahir Rana, Éric Warin
It’s the 1930s in Nazi Berlin. Charlotte Salomon , known as Lotte, is a young woman living with her father and stepmother. On a trip to Rome with her grandparents she meets a a kindly American heiress named Ottlie. She liked Lotte’s drawings and invites her to stay in her expansive villa in Cote D’zur in southern France. But Lotte is accepted at the prestigious art academy, despite the fact she is Jewish, so doesn’t want to leave Berlin. But under the harsh rules, only symmetry and precision are acceptable in art, while “deviant artistic expression”, like Charlotte’s, was considered degenerate. She is eventually expelled, and when her father is arrested and tortured by the Gestapo she decides it’s time to leave her home. She joins her grandparents at Ottlie’s mansion. And she’s delighted to learn there is a studio set up for her so she can create her paintings. She also finds love, in the form of Alexander, a refugee from Austria who works as a 
groundskeeper on the estate. But she has to put up with her deeply disapproving and domineering grandfather, who has become bitter in his old age. But as the Nazi’s encircle southern France, she knows her time is limited. So she starts to document her life in a series of hundreds of gouache paintings on paper. Will Lotte and her lover survive the war? And what about her art?
Charlotte is an exquisitely made animated historical drama, based primarily on the stories told in the actual paintings of Charlotte Salomon, titled Life or Theatre, that included both 
memories she witnessed and things she thought about. Some describe her art as the first graphic novel, since her paintings (there were over a thousand) often include words and ideas. The movie is quite troubling in parts, as people are forced to do terrible things under the stress of war. But it’s set in such beautiful locations — the Vatican in Rome, her home in Berlin, swimming in lakes, or nestled among the rolling hills of southern France — that its beauty mitigates its tension. And the paintings themselves appear on the screen in blobs of coloured paint that gradually transform into her own art. Keira Knightly provides Charlotte’s voice, with Brenda Blethyn, Jim Broadbent as her grandparents. I’ve seen it twice now, and still find it moving, tragic, and inspiring, and visually very pleasing.
Marvellous and the Black Hole
Wri/Dir: Kate Tsang
Sammy (Miya Cech) is a moody and truculent 13 year old girl who lives with her domineering father and computer geek sister. Ever since her mother died she lashes out at anyone who comes near her. She smokes cigarettes, talks back, and uses a needle to secretly tattoo herself. But her busy father gets tired of her anger and attitude, and tells her if she doesn’t pass a class in entrepreneurship at the local community college he’ll send her off to summer camp (which Sammy considers a fate worse than death.) So she takes the course which she hates. One day, while sneaking a smoke in the college washroom, she meets Margot the Marvellous (Rhea Perlman), a professional magician with a hidden past. She press-gangs Sammy into serving as her assistant at a kids’ birthday party. She is secretly impressed by Margot’s ability to make flowers bloom on her sleeves, and somehow can grab a real, live white rabbit out of thin air. So they make a pact: Sammy will help Margot with her show in exchange for teaching her magic tricks and helping her pass the course. But will Sammy ever learn to control her anger and escape from the black hole she’s been stuck in since the death of her mother?
Marvellous and the Black Hole is an excellent coming-of-age story about a troubled girl taken under the wing of a sympathetic magician. Miya Cech is terrific as tough-girl Sammy, and Rhea Perlman (best known for playing Carla, the surly barmaid on 
Cheers) shows a softer side here. There’s a real beauty to this film — from the integration of classic silent film, to the jerky stop-motion animation used for special effects, to the nicely compact sets used in class, at home, and on a stage — that gives it an extra oomph you don’t find in your usual teen drama. This is a good, indie YA movie.
The Bad Guys
Dir: Pierre Perifel
It’s a time like the present in a city like Los Angeles where a criminal gang (known as the “Bad Guys”) runs rampant, robbing banks, wreaking havoc and scaring the hell out of locals. The group consists of five members: Wolf, their charismatic leader; Snake, his second in command; Shark, a master of disguises; Piranha, a crazed tough guy; and Tarantula, a computer geek who can break into anything. Together they’re unbeatable. But they’re finally caught when a difficult heist at a gala event goes wrong. The police want to send them to prison, but a local pundit and inventor — a guinea pig named Prof Marmalade — says he can turn them from bad guys into good guys using his powers of persuasion. But can a leopard change its spots?
The Bad Guys is a very cute and enjoyable animated crowd-pleaser, aimed primarily at kids, but interesting enough that grown-ups can enjoy it, too. It’s also a feel-good movie about the value of friendship and the pleasure we can get from doing good things for others. And there are cool subplots involving a meteorite, lab tests, computer-operated zombies, and much more. But mainly, it’s an 
action-packed comedy thriller, with lots of chase scenes, twists and turns, and a fair amount of suspense.
One quibble: all the main characters (except the chief of police) are animals — including fish and insects — and have all the best lines. Most of the humans rarely speak. But there are also pets — like cats and guinea pigs — that don’t talk either. Which makes the logic a bit confusing, but enjoyable nonetheless. It stars the voices of Sam Rockwell, Awkwafina, Anthony Ramos, Zazie Beetz, Alex Borstein, and the inimitable Richard Ayoade as Prof Marmalade.
The Bad Guys is a very cute, fun movie that’ll leave you smiling.
The Bad Guys and Charlotte both open this weekend in Toronto; check your local listings. And Marvellous and the Black Hole is opening in select cities; look out for it.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website, culturalmining.com
Against the Grain. Films reviewed: Judy vs Capitalism, Monkey Beach, The Trial of the Chicago 7
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Toronto’s Fall Film Festival Season continues with ImagineNative Film + Media Arts Festival, the world’s largets indigenous film festival, and Rendezvous with Madness, the first and largest arts and mental health festival in the world, both running through Sunday, the 25th.
This week I’m talking about three new movies – a doc, a drama and a courtroom pic – about people who go against the grain. There’s a young woman resisting ghosts, another woman fighting anti-abortion activists; and boomers protesting the war in Vietnam.
Judy vs Capitalism
Dir: Mike Holboom
Judy Rebick is a well-known activist and writer in Toronto. As a former Trotskyite revolutionary turned writer and TV commentator, she’s a pro-choice feminist and socialist known for slogans like “Radical is Practical”. She can be seen everywhere, from CBC panels to tent-city protests. A new documentary looking at her life divides it into six stages: Family – her dad was a baseball player quick to pick fights; Weight – she says she has a pair of hips “like two battleships”; Feminism – women’s bodies and the violence they face; Abortion – her hands-on role in legalizing reproductive rights in Canada; Others – her struggles with depression and mental health; and End Notes – her views on various political topics, like the rise of neo-liberalism, 
the war in Gaza, and as head of NAC, the National Action Committee on the Status of Women.
Did you know she single-handedly fought off a man trying to stab Dr Henry Morgantaler with a pair of garden shears? This film includes footage of that in slow motion. Each section begins with a speech – some mundane talks in lecture halls, others shouted through a bullhorn at a rally. Judy vs Capitalism is directed by artist/filmmaker Mike Holboom in his patented style: clear sound and straightforward narration, combined with avant-garde images: slow motion, high speed, underwater photography, blurred and melting visuals, random faces… basically Holboom’s interpretations of Rebick’s moods, memories, thoughts and ideas rather than the typical clips you might expect in a conventional biography. Judy vs Capitalism is an experimental look at a Canadian icon.
Monkey Beach
Dir: Loretta Todd (Based on the novel by Eden Robinson)
Lisa (Grace Dove) is a young woman who lives in East Vancouver. She’s been there for the past two years with nothing to show for it but a bad hangover. Till her friend Tab tells her it’s time to go home, back to her family in the Haisla community in Kitimat. So she does. Her family is shocked but delighted to to see her – they weren’t even sure she was still alive. There’s her mom and dad, her little brother Jimmy (Joel Oulette) a swimming champ, and her Uncle Mick (Adam Beach) who told her at an early age to say “f*ck the oppressors!” Then there’s her grandma Ma-Ma-Oo (Tina Lameman) who taught Lisa everything she knows… including things she doesn’t want to know. Like why a little man with red hair keeps appearing. A crow talks to her, and ghosts (people who should be dead) appear to her in real, human form. (Tab, for example, was murdered but she’s still around.) Worst of all are the dreams and premonitions she keeps having – that her brother Jimmy, the swimmer – is going to drown. Are her 
powers a gift or a curse? Can she ever live normally? And can she keep Jimmy out of the water?
Monkey Beach is a good YA drama filmed in the gorgeous forests and waters of Kitimat in the pacific northwest, with a uniformly good indigenous cast. It incorporates traditional Haisla culture and practices with contemporary, realistic social problems, sprinkled with the supernatural. And it flashes back and forth between the present day and Lisa’s childhood. I like this movie but I can’t help but compare it to the CBC TV series Trickster, which is edgier, faster-moving and more complex. They’re both based on Eden Robinson’s novels – Monkey Beach was her first, showing many of the themes later explored in Son of a Trickster. That said, if you’re a fan of Trickster, you’ll want to see Monkey Beach, too.
The Trial of the Chicago 7
Wri/Dir: Aaron Sorkin
It’s the summer of ‘68 in the USA, and the youth are restless. Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King had just been killed, with demonstrations springing up across the country. The US is embroiled in an increasingly senseless war in Vietnam and it’s an election year. So droves of young people converge on the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, to have their voices heard. The protests are brutally crushed by police and state troopers. Nixon is elected in November, and the protest leaders, known as the Chicago 7, are arrested and put on trial. The defendants are from the SDS – Students for a Democratic Society, a radical group that sprung out of 
the labour movement – led by Tom Hayden (Eddie Redmayne) and Rennie Davis (Alex Sharp); the Yippies, founded by Abbie Hoffman (Sacha Baron Cohen) and Jerry Rubin who use performance and pranks to forward their agenda; anti-war activist David Dellinger (John Carroll Lynch); and Bobby Seale (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) co-founder of the Black Panther Party, known both for its militant image and progressive social programs. The charge? Conspiracy, even though these group leaders had never met one other.
The Trial of the Chicago 7 is two-hour film that manages to condense hundreds of days of testimony into a few key scenes. This includes a shocking re-
enactment of the binding and gagging of Bobby Seale in the courtroom. The script’s pace is fast, the production values excellent, and the acting is superb, especially Baron-Cohen in an unusual funny-serious role, Mark Rylance as their lawyer, William Kunstler, Frank Langella as the unjust judge Julius Hoffman, and Lynch as the veteran pacifist. Women are invisible in this film, except as receptionists, wives-of and one undercover FBI agent. I was glued to the screen the entire time. Still, it leaves me with an uneasy feeling Aaron Sorkin has done some subtle, historic slight of hand. He portrays the anti-war movement as mainly about honouring and saving the lives of American soldiers, not Vietnamese civilians. It buries the aims of the defendants beneath petty squabbles. And somehow he takes a protest aimed squarely at Democratic politicians — the hawks and conservative Democrats in a city and state run by that party — into a Democrats vs Republican division…!
Hmm…
Judy vs Capitalism is at Rendezvous with Madness; Monkey Beach is at ImagineNative, both through Sunday; and The Trial of the Chicago 7 is now streaming on Netflix.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies each Friday morning on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website culturalmining.com.
Shrink Brink Link? Films reviewed: Little, The Brink, Missing Link
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Toronto’s Spring Film Festival Season is in full swing right now. Images – which features art movies, videos and gallery installations — is on this weekend. And Cinefranco brings new French-language movies – this year from La Belle Province – starting next week.
But this week I’m going to spill some ink on three new popular movies that just might make you think. There’s an animated movie about a British explorer searching for the missing link; a political documentary about democracy teetering on the brink; and a comedy about a magical spell that makes a hard ass businesswoman shrink!
Little
Dir: Tina Gordon
It’s present day Atlanta. Jordan (Regina Hall) is a successful, self-made businesswoman whose company creates games and apps. Violently bullied as a badly-dressed teenaged nerd she vows never to put up with it again as a grown up. Instead, she becomes a bully herself, taking it out on her employees, her lover, and even random strangers and kids. She even attacks a little girl with a magic wand whose father runs a food truck. But her biggest target is April (Issa Rae), her faithful personal assistant who is always there to help her. But Jordan’s status is thrown into question by two events.
First her biggest client threatens to pull his account if she 
doesn’t come up with a new, youthful pitch in 48 hours. And when she wakes up the next morning she’s reliving her worst nightmare: she’s been magically transferred into her teenage face and body! Her adult privileges suddenly disappear and young Jordan (Marsai Martin) is forced to enroll at the same Windsor Jr High suffered through in her youth. She is a nerd again before, long she straightened her hair and wore makeup, badly bullied and 
forced to sit with the rejected kids. April has to cover for her at work, and becomes her public face. Can she survive as a bullied teenager, can her company be saved, will she ever turn back again, and can she get in touch with her inner child?
Little is a very funny, body-transformation comedy, like Freaky Friday or Big. The plot is fairly tame and predictable, and seems to suggest kids can be rescued from bullying with a few instagram photos! But Issa Rae is good as April, and Marsai Martin brilliant as the “little” Jordan, perfectly channelling an adult’s gestures and expressions into her performance. And finally, finally Hollywood seems to have figured out that movies from a black and female point of view can be enjoyed and appreciated by a general audience.
Little is an easy-to-like comedy that provides almost constant laughs.
The Brink
Dir: Alison Klayman
Steve Bannon is an extreme right-wing nationalist ideologue. He allies online fake-news site Breitbart with the so-called Alt Right. He goes on to lead Donald Trump’s successful presidential campaign. But Bannon is fired soon after the Unite the Right riots in Charlotteville North Carolina which resulted in violence and death. This documentary follows Bannon’s daily life from that time until last fall’s US election. In between, Bannon tours Europe with Belgian Mischäel Modrikamed in an attempt to unite the extreme right within the EU. He thinks he can pull together disparate nationalists, islamophobes, populists, neo-fascists, and Euroskeptics into a unified bloc. This includes questionable figures like ultra-nationalis Viktor Orban, Nigel Farage, French Front National, the nazi-affiliated Swedish Democrats, an Italian 
party with fascist roots, and Belgium’s extremist Parti Populaire.
Can an American extremist successfully steer the rise in populism into a unified Europes Front? Or are is the American right – and the much reviled Trump – too different from their euro counterparts?
The Brink is a capable documentary about a player in the extreme right. It reveals the source of his funds – a Chinese billionaire – and his political ties. It even includes footage of his visit to Toronto for a debate between the right and the extreme 
right where he is dismayed by the widespread protests and his lack of support. The Brink clearly exposes how his racist, antisemitic, anti-immigration and islamophpbic ideology has led directly to right-wing terrorism.
But it also humanizes and normalizes him as just a guy who wears two shirts and wonders whether he looked OK or said the right thing in his last interview. As Bannon says, any publicity is good publicity.
Missing Link
Dir: Chris Butler
It’s Victorian England. Sir Lionel Frost is an international explorer looking for fame and adventure. He survives an encounter with the Loch Ness Monster but fails to reach his real goal – membership in a prestigious gentleman’s club. But his luck changes with a letter from America, telling him where 
to find Sasquatch, a mythical, missing link between man and ape. He makes a wager with the club’s leader, Lord Piggit: if he brings back a live sasquatch, they will let him join the club.
But when he encounters Big Foot he is shocked to discover he’s just like you and me. He speaks english, reads and writes, and 
is an all around nice guy, just much bigger and hairier. He’s the last of his species and longs for a friend like himself. He agrees to travel with Lionel to England, as long as he first visits his people – the Yetis – who are said to live in Tibet. With the help of Adelina, a willful widow (and former lover of Lionel) the three set out on an adventure around the world. Will they find the Yeti, complete their missions, and avoid a murderous hitman sent to stifle thir voyage at all costs? And will 
Mr Link – or “Susan” as he prefers to be called – ever find a true friend?
Missing Link is a wonderfully made animated film using stylized puppets for its characters. It’s from Laika studio that also brought us Boxtrolls, Caroline and Paranorman, also by director Chris Butler. Much of the humour comes from the naïve but nice Susan as a fish out of water experiencing the outside world for the first time. It features the voices of Zach Galafianakis, Zoe Saldana, and Hugh Jackman.
Missing Link is funny, surprising, beautiful, quirky and heartwarming. If you like animation (but without any treackly Disney princesses) this is the one to see.
The Brink, Missing Link and Little all open today in Toronto; check your local listings.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Friday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website, culturalmining.com
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