Bad Hombres. Films reviewed: Silent Night, Deadly Night, Dust Bunny, One Battle After Another
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
It’s easy to root for heroes with clean-scrubbed cheeks and virtuous demeanours, but they make for boring movies. Much more challenging are films where the main characters are anti-heroes, fatally flawed and yet still compelling.
So this week I’m looking at three movies featuring sympathetic portrayals of bad hombres. There’s a murderous Santa Claus, a retired revolutionary, and a monster who lives under your bed.
Silent Night, Deadly Night
Wri/Dir: Mike P. Nelson
It’s Christmastime and like every year Billy Chapman (Rohan Campbell: Halloween Ends) is on the road again. He’s a drifter in his early 20s, picking up work wherever he can find it. He ends up in a small town, and finds work in a store specializing in Christmas ornaments and memorabilia. He forms a crush on Pamela (Ruby Modine), the young woman who runs the store with her dad. But this place is doubly significant because Christmas is crucial to Billy’s self-identity. You see, when he was just a child, he witnessed his parents brutally murdered by a man dressed as Santa Claus. And now he has taken on that role for himself. Dressed in a Santa suit and wielding an axe, Billy kills one person per day, following his advent calendar, until Christmas.
So is Billy a psychopathic serial killer? Well, yes… but, like Santa, he punishes naughty people but lets good ones have a merry Christmas. Everyone he murders is bad… real bad. And how does he know this? A voice in his head tells him who to
kill. But things change when he finds himself falling in love with Pamela. And the feelings seem mutual; they somehow click. (She has Explosive Personality Disorder, sort of like his murder sprees only much less violent). Billy thinks it’s time to settle down, maybe give up all the killing. Can Billy ignore the nagging voice in his head? What will happen if he stops killing bad people? And how will Pamela react if she ever finds out the truth about Billy?
Silent Night, Deadly Night is a classic, slasher-horror Christmas movie about a young killer Santa. It’s ostensibly a remake of an 80s film of the same name (and its sequels) but updated to fit our times. It’s bloody, violent and sometimes disgusting but always in a funny, retro-camp style. I’m talking red & black freeze frames, and old-school soundtrack. And it’s shot in Manitoba, complete with hockey games and lumber yards. Ruby Modine is hilarious as Pamela, and Rohan Campbell manages to make his serial-killer Santa almost sympathetic.
Not your typical Christmas flick but if you’re looking for a funny, gross-out slasher, you can’t go wrong with Silent Night, Deadly Night.
Dust Bunny
Wri/Dir: Bryan Fuller
Aurora (Sophie Sloan) is a little girl who lives in a beautiful, antiquated apartment in an unnamed city. She is brave and resourceful with a wild imagination. Aurora has all the clothes, toys and games any girl could ever want. So why is she always so frightened? Because there’s something scary under her bed that won’t go away. It’s a dangerous monster that lives beneath her parquet floorboards, and she’s convinced he’ll eat you up if you ever step on the floor at night. So she gets around on a wooden hippo with wheels, using her mop as a paddle. Her parents tell her repeatedly that there’s nothing under her bed, just dust bunnies, but Aurora refuses to listen. She ends up sleeping on her outdoor fire escape to keep ahead of the monsters. One night she follows a stranger down a dark ally, where she witnesses him slaughtering a dragon. Here’s someone who can keep her safe from the monster — and he lives in her building! When her parents disappear one night she knows she needs help to stay alive. So she attempts to hire her downstairs neighbour (Mads Mikkelsen: The Promised Land, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Riders of Justice, Another Round, The Hunt) as a hitman, to kill the monster hiding beneath her bed.
Problem is he doesn’t believe in monsters; he thinks someone was sent to get him, and killed her parents by mistake. But in
the end, he agrees to help her. This news gets her boss very angry. Uptight and evil Laverne (Sigourney Weaver) wants Aurora dead, since she witnessed one of his assignments (he’s a professional hired killer). Soon others start appearing at her door including a suspicious guy with a moustache (David Dastmalchian) and a dressed-to-kill social worker (Sheila Atim). Who are all these people really? And will no-one listen to Aurora about the monster under her bed?
Dust Bunny is a whimsical horror movie seen through the eyes of a young girl, balancing crime and the supernatural. The hitman making friends with a little girl harkens back to Luc Besson’s classic The Professional (1992), starring Jean Reno and a very young Natalie Portman). But the look and style of this movie is totally different. This is not noir, it’s horror fantasy. It’s exquisitely detailed with flowers painted on walls, brightly coloured outfits and creaky, steampunk gears in an ancient elevator. Sophie Sloan is great as the spunky Aurora and a good foil for a gruff Mads Mickelson. The other adults are all comical caricatures but still fun to watch. And the special effects are amazing using animation and puppetry to convey what Aurora can see.
Though scary in parts, I think Dust Bunny is suitable both for kids and grown ups.
I like this one.
One Battle After Another
Wri/Dir: Paul Thomas Anderson (Licorice Pizza)
It’s a couple decades ago, somewhere in the American Southwest. An underground revolutionary faction, known as “The French 75”, is carrying out their latest plan: to liberate hundreds of undocumented workers from an ICE-type detention centre. Members of the group have memorized codes and passwords, and only use their nicknames.
Like JunglePussy and Mae West. Perfidia Beverley Hills (Teyana Taylor) is one of the organizers, and her lover Bob aka Rocket Man (Leonardo DiCaprio) is their fireworks expert. Over the course of the action that night, Perfidia, in a power move, forces their chief enemy, a hardboiled military officer named Col Lockjaw (Sean Penn) to have coercive sex with her. This leaves Lockjaw infatuated, and Perfidia pregnant. After the baby is born, Perfidia is captured by Lockjaw, and rats on her allies, in exchange for witness protection. But she manages to escape to Mexico, while Bob and their newborn-baby Willa hide out in a sanctuary city in California.
17 years later, Bob has become a useless pothead whose only responsibility is keeping his daughter Willa (Chase Infiniti) safe. She can never leave their house without carrying a tracking device, just in case the feds discover who Bob really
is: an underground leftist revolutionary. Willa studies martial arts with her sensei (Benecio Del Toro) and has a close-knit group of friends, named Bluto, Bobo, Riri and Autumn. They’re all getting ready for their high school dance. But little does she realize: her Mom, Perfidia — who she always thought was dead — is back in town; Col Lockjaw is planning a massive attack in order to capture his potential biological daughter; and Bob — following the capture of a key member of the French 75 — is called back to duty by the revolutionary group of his youth. What will become of this estranged family, their allies and their enemies?
One Battle after Another is an amazingly complex and satirical action thriller about a tiny cadre of underground revolutionaries and their rivals the CIA, Ice and the military. Add to this an underground railroad that helps threatened migrants; The Christmas Adventurers — a white supremacist elite fraternity courting Lockjaw as a member — and a monastery full of bad-ass nuns with secret connections… and that’s only part of the complex plot of this movie.
It’s inspired by Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland, but is set in the present, not the 1970s. Its dialogue is detailed and rich but always tongue in cheek, especially the outlandish names of characters and organizations. It’s also an out-and-out action thriller, with chases and close escapes, gun fights and explosions. Sean Penn acts like someone who has been chopped up and sewn back together, Teyana Taylor is perfection as the double/triple or quadruple agent; this is the first time I’ve ever seen Chase Infiniti, but she’s a powerhouse, and Leo Dicaprio — I’m no fan, but he’s so good in this movie, constantly beaten down but always surviving, like a Die Hard character but on the left. One of his best roles ever.
The film is beautifully shot in valleys and deserts, in a cinematographic style I’ve never seen before, like a camera mounted to the front of cars as they go up and down a hilly highway. Amazing! Soundtrack, costumes, art direction and the huge cast — many unforgettable roles I haven’t even mentioned yet — all so good.
One Battle After Another is an unforgettable movie. I recommend this one.
Dust Bunny and Silent Night Deadly Night both open in Toronto this weekend; And One Battle after another is still playing in some repertory cinemas; check your local listings.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website culturalmining.com.
Halloween-y. Films reviewed: Sew Torn, Kryptic
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Rarely have I seen two movies by the same director playing simultaneously, but that’s what’s happening right now. Richard Linklater (known for classics like Dazed and Confused, Boyhood, and Before Sunrise) is releasing two pictures. Blue Moon is a theatrical-style drama about the night when Rogers & Hart are replaced by Rogers & Hammerstein as the ruling 
Broadway musical pair (starring Ethan Hawke, Andrew Scott and Margaret Qualley). And Nouvelle Vague is a tribute to the French New Wave, and in particular, the filming of Jean-Luc Godard’s seminal film Breathless (À bout de souffle) in 1960. The movie’s in French, shot in beautiful B&W, and stars Guillaume Marbeck as Godard, Adrien Rouyard as Truffaut, and Zoey Deutch as Jean Seberg.
Together they make a perfect double-feature.
But it is Hallowe’en, so this week, I’m looking at two first-time features, a couple of Hallowe’en-y movies to watch at home this weekend. There’s a seamstress who witnesses a crime, and a zoologist who thinks she’s seen a mythical beast.
Sew Torn
Co-Wri/Dir: Freddy Macdonald
Barbara (Eve Connolly) is depressed. Up till now, she’s led a simple life. She lives in a remote village in the Swiss alps — a land of schnitzels and yodels — sleeps above her mom’s sewing shop. Barbara lives a cartoonish life carrying a flip phone, and driving a tiny, blue putt-putt car with a giant spool of thread and needle mounted on the back. She calls herself the Travelling Seamstress, and makes house-calls even for the tiniest job. Problem is her mom died recently, and she doesn’t know what to do now. Her work and life seem meaningless without her mother’s guidance. Though technically a grown up, she still feels and acts like a child. But life goes on.
Today’s appointment? Sewing a single button onto a wedding dress worn by a strident, middle-aged woman on her way to the ceremony (Caroline Goodall). But on the road she interrupts a shocking accident involving two armed criminals. Both men — a young guy (Calum Worthy) and a motorcyclist 
— lie bleeding on the tarmac, surrounded by plastic packages of white powder, and a suitcase full of Swiss francs. A drug deal gone wrong. But the criminals are strangers, and with all that money up for grabs… should she commit a perfect crime? Or call the police? Or just drive away, like it never happened? Each choice holds potential pitfalls. And what she doesn’t realize is the crime boss behind the whole operation (John Lynch) is cruel, ruthless and headed her way. Which path should Barbara take, and how will they change her future?
Sew Torn is an ingenious, crime/thriller, about a clever seamstress confronting dangerous killers. It’s also a mother- 
daughter / father- son coming of age story, with each of the young characters dealing with the legacy of their parents. The story is told and retold, as Barbara experience her various choices. The characters are cute, and the scenery appropriately incongruous. What’s really great are the intricate Rube Goldberg devices Barbara creates to fight off the criminals. All her schemes involve spools of thread, sharp needles and the ubiquitous sewing machines… adding still more surprises to this delightfully violent crime thriller.
Sew Torn is so good.
Kryptic
Dir: Kourtney Roy
Kay Hall (Chloe Pirrie) is a tall, gaunt woman with lanky hair and an intense gaze. She’s part of an afternoon hiking club walking through the hills and mountains of southern BC. Their tour guide tells them they’re in an area teeming with mythical creatures: The Ogopogos, the Sasquatch, the Windigo. In fact, a woman named Barbara Valentine disappeared a few years ago, so it’s important to stick together. Hearing this, Kay promptly veers away from the group into a nearby ravine in the hopes of catching a photo of the local monster. You see, she’s a veterinarian but also a cryptozoologist, in search of the unknown. And then she sees him, on a nearby hill: tall, hairy, stinky and dangerous… and headed her way. She wakes up dazed and confused, covered with a viscous white fluid… and no idea who she is. She has to use her driver’s license to find her name, her car and her home. And she’s haunted by sexually violent visions of her encounter with the creature.
The next day, she sets out on a journey through southwestern BC, in search of the beast… by tracing the steps of the missing Barbara Valentine. She follows the clues through rustic 
motels, sleazy roadhouses and trailer parks teeming with drug-fuelled swinger parties. And as she gets closer to finding out the truth, she discovers her own crucial role in all this. What dangerous secrets will her search reveal? Who is she…and what is her attraction to the cryptic beast?
Kryptic is a low-budget, monster/body horror flick set in rural BC, about a woman’s memory, identity and sexual attraction. There’s a fair amount of nudity, pervy sex and gory violence within a haze of alcohol and cannabis smoke. The story is OK (occasionally verging on the ridiculous) but it really takes off 
with all the strange characters — mainly women — she meets along the way. Like a faded glamour star running a motel, a die-hard monster hunter dressed like the beast, a barfly with crucial info, and a woman who claims to have had carnal encounters with the monster. Chloe Pirrie is great as Kay, wavering between naive and brazen, whenever her eyes glow green. Kamantha Naidoo is tough but sympathetic. Also notable are Pam Kearns, Jennifer Copping and Patti Allan. I also like the softly threatening and surreal feel of much of the film.
Though far from perfect, Kryptic still has lots of unexpected images to look at on a cold Hallowe’en night.
Sew Torn is now streaming on Shudder while Kryptic is available on Hollywood Suite. And the two Linklater movies — Blue Moon and Nouvelle Vague — are both playing at the TIFF Lightbox 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.
Films reviewed: Your Monster, Drive Back Home, Conclave
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
More Film Festivals are coming up soon, with ReelAsian, Cinefranco and BITS, Blood in the Snow, just around the corner.
But this week, I’m looking at three great new movies. There’s a consortium of cardinals locked in their chambers; a monster discovered in a closet by a NY actress, and a Toronto man forced out of his closet by the police.
Your Monster
Wri/Dir: Caroline Lindy
It’s present day Manhattan. Laura (Melissa Barrera) is a triple threat — she can sing, dance and act. She’s helping her boyfriend Jacob (Edmund Donovan) write his breakout musical, soon to open on Broadway with her in the lead role. But when she gets sick — the big C! — and needs surgery, he dumps her — out of the blue — while still in hospital. And casts another actress (Meghann Fahy), in her part. The surgery is a success but Laura is a total wreck. She’s doubly devastated, both from the sudden end of her five year relationship and for being cheated out of her big break. Her anger, frustration and self pity are all ready to explode. That’s when she makes an unexpected discovery. There’s a monster in her closet!
The creature (Tommy Dewey) is an actual monster, bearded with long hair, sharp teeth and leonine features, who talks like a dude. Apparently he has lived there all her life (she grew up in this house) she just never saw him before. It’s hate and fear at first sight. He threatens to tear out her throat and eat her alive — and tells her to 
leave the place and never come back. Meanwhile, Laura shows up for the audition uninvited and becomes the understudy for her own role. But things gradually warm up at home, as Laura and her monster get to know each other. But can she take him to the Halloween Ball? Will she ever get to perform her role on stage? And will her boyfriend ever take her back?
Your Monster is a very cute, rom-com/horror with a fair bit of singing, too. It’s a riff on Disney’s Beauty and the Beast but with a funnier monster and brooding beauty with a lot of anger inside. Melissa Barrera and Tommy Dewey have lots of chemistry while Edmund Donovan is suitably villainous as the bad boyfriend. He looks strangely like Jared Kushner. The movie as a whole is enjoyable and adorable. It takes a funny concept to its extreme. I like the costumes, I like tight script — the whole movie is much better than I expected. There’s a play within the play (half the scenes are rehearsals or performances) but even the “real” home scenes are theatrical. Your Monster will make a great date movie, but just keep in mind there’s a bit of horror within this rom-com.
Drive Back Home
Wri/Dir: Michael Clowater
It’s 1970 in the village of Stanley, New Brunswick.
Weldon (Charlie Creed-Miles) is a mechanic who lives with his mom, his wife and his son in the house he was born and grew up in. One night he gets a long distance phone call from Toronto. His estranged younger brother Perly (Alan Cumming) — an advertising exec who he hasn’t heard from in many years — has been arrested for gross indecency (meaning consensual sex with another man). The cop lays it out. If you can pick him up and take him home, all charges will be dropped. If not, he’s going to prison for five years. So Weldon loads up his pickup truck with enough sandwiches and gasoline for a long trip and leaves his village for the first time in his life. He’s terrified of having to speak French so he takes a circuitous route avoiding Montreal altogether.
He picks up Perly from the cop shop but there is no love lost between them. Perly is a city boy who wears a jaunty cravat while his big brother is a hick, who’s never seen a high-rise apartment or an answering machine. He just wants to drive back home. Perly isn’t a happy camper either: His marriage is a shambles, his career has tanked and his dog is dead, since the cops arrested him. But what’s left for him in Toronto? And so they begin their long journey home. But what secrets will be revealed along the way?
Drive Back Home is a bittersweet drama about family and trauma. It’s done in the style of classic Canadian Road movies, like Don 
Shebib’s Goin’ Down the Road, but this one is about leaving the big city. Their trip through rural Ontario and Quebec alternates between scenic beauty, rustic kindness, and vicious, small-town bigotry. Canada was still rife with homophobic hatred at the time — it was only decriminalized a year earlier, and there are disturbing gay-bashing scenes in this film along with a lot of homophobic F bombs.
The two main actors are English and Scottish but both quite good, and maintain decent Canadian accents, gruff for Creed Miles and arch for Cumming. The rest of the cast features prominent Canadian actors, with Clare Coulter as Adelaide, the hard-ass mom, Guy Sprung, as a Francophone farmer, Dan Beirne as a priest and Alexandre Bourgeois as a young guy they meet in a roadhouse bar. Drive Back Home is a moving look at Canada’s bad ol’ days.
Conclave
Dir: Edward Berger
A hush hangs over the Vatican; his holiness the Pope is dead. And the world’s Cardinals, in red robes with white mitres, are congregating to choose the next pontiff from within their group. Ballots are secret, but until one receives 2/3 of the votes, they are literally locked-in, no contact with the outside world. What are their criteria for the next pope? He must be virtuous and humble, but also healthy and strong. And he must be honest as the Pope is infallible. Bishop Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) is the Dean in charge of the highly secretive process. The most popular candidates: Bellini (Stanley Tucci), a modest liberal reformer, Tedesco (Sergio Castellitto), a bombastic traditionalist, and the highly respected Adeyami (Lucian Msamati). But Lawrence is privy to new information just before the lockdown. A drunken monsignor alleges the Pope fired Tremblay (John Lithgow) just before he died. And mystery man, Benitez (Carlos Diehz), appears out of nowhere claiming to be the Cardinal of Kabul, Afghanistan. And then there are the nuns, including Sister Agnes (Isabella Rossellini) who remain 
silent but see and hear everything. Which bishop will they choose to turn the conclave’s smoke from black to white?
Conclave is a stunningly- good thriller about secrets and subterfuge within the Vatican. The constant changes of political alliances as well as shocking revelations will keep your rapt attention until the very end. It presents a Vatican that’s both exquisite and decadent, with black mould spreading on it’s columns. It’s all the work of German director Edward Berger who made All Quiet on the Western Front, with Volker Bertelmann’s powerful music, and fascinating camerawork. It was filmed at Rome’s famous Cinecitta studio who are always deft at recreating the Vatican. I love this constant attention to detail — red sealing wax, Latin prayers, and tortellini soup.The acting is superb, especially Ralph Fiennes. I’ve never been a fan, but he is just sooo good in this role, maybe his best I’ve ever seen. Altogether, this makes Conclave a great night out.
Your Monster and Conclave both open this weekend in Toronto; check your local listings. And Drive Back Home is having its Toronto premiere tonight at CAMH on Queen West as part of the Rendezvous with Madness film fest.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website culturalmining.com.
A triptych and a prequel. Kinds of Kindness, A Quiet Place: Day One
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
If you’re wondering what to do on this long holiday weekend, I can tell you what you should do. Go see some movies. Here are two I recommend — an art house drama and a horror thriller. One’s a prequel in Manhattan, the other’s a triptych in New Orleans.
Kinds of Kindness
Co-Wri/Dir: Yorgos Lanthimos
(Past reviews: Poor Things, The Favourite, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, The Lobster, Alps, Dogtooth, )
It’s nowadays in the American deep south, where a lot of strange things are going on. Robert (Jesse Plemons) is an executive who lives a highly regimented life. Each day he reports his stats to Michael, the CEO. These include exactly what he eats at each meal, how much he drinks, even whether or not he slept with his wife (Hong Chau) the night before. He follows his boss’s orders down to the smallest detail. In return, his boss pays his salary and his car and sends him pricey — but inherently useless— gifts. But when Michael orders Robert to murder someone, he draws the line.
Daniel (Plemons) is a police officer whose wife Liz (Emma Stone) is lost at sea in a boat accident. She is eventually rescued and returns home. But he insists she’s not really his wife: she looks, speaks and acts exactly as his real wife did, but he is sure she was switched for someone else. So he thinks of ways to expose her plot.
Two strangely-dressed members of a bizarre religious cult 
(Stone and Plemons) centred on bodily fluids, are seeking a woman to join their group, because of special powers she might have. But is their devotion to the cult leaders Aka and Obi (Chau, Dafoe) absolute? Or do they owe allegiance to certain outside forces?
Kinds of Kindness is a series of three short, complete films shown in sequence. While each story has different characters, they are played by the same cast: Stone, Plemons, Chau, Dafoe, plus Margaret Qualley, Mamoudou Athie, and Joe Alwyn. Only one character, a cryptic, usually dead or nearly dead man known only as RMF (Yorgos Stefanakos) is in all three.
But this is a Yorgos Lanthimos film, so naturally it’s loaded with awkward behaviour, stilted dialogue, and deadpan humour. He also flirts with the most shocking and gruesome themes imaginable, things like accidental suicide, cannibalism, 
self mutilation, and drugged sex, but presented in the most blasé way possible. The art direction is brilliant, presenting garish consumerism in the form of giant pantsuits and bright coloured sports cars. So uncool it’s beyond brilliant.
The acting is fantastic.
Plemons plays variations on a theme: angry white guy, kiss-ass white guy, and angry kiss-ass white guy. Dafoe is a domineering patriarch, whether all-powerful, ineffectual or benign. Margaret Qualley can sex it up as a kept mistress or play it down as a veterinarian. And Emma Stone is perfect, as always, with fully-developed oddball characters in at least two of the films. I know people who love Lanthimos’s movies and people who really hate them. I’m on the love side, but I can’t say Kinds of Kindness didn’t disturb me. It did.
But that’s part of his genius.
A Quiet Place: Day One
Co-Wri/Dir: Michael Sarnoski
Samira (Lupita Nyong’o) is is a depressed and lonely poet. She doesn’t live in NY City anymore; nor does she write. She lives in a hospice now, waiting to die of an incurable illness, with only a kind nurse (Alex Woolf) and a little black and white cat named Frodo to keep her company. But today will be a bit different. She and the the rest of the patients are heading into the city to watch a show. Sam agrees to go, as long as she can have one of the things she misses most — a slice of NY pizza. But the trip is cut short by a surprise emergency announcement: everybody must leave the city immediately! The emergency is a series of fighter jets that are dropping something on the city, something dangerous and deadly. Soon the streets are chaotic, filled with crashing cars and screaming people. Sam is separated from her group, stunned by a huge explosion that leaves her covered with dust and ash.
What’s going on? A small army of enormous creatures that look like a deadly cross between insects and gorillas have descended on the city, slaughtering and eating hundreds of people at a time. They have long claws that can slash you apart, and can find you using their extremely sensitive sense of hearing. They can hear a pin drop a mile away. On the other hand, they can’t see, they can’t smell, they can’t swim. So if you stay completely 
still and make no human -ike noises, they can’t find you. The tunnels are flooded and the bridges destroyed to contain the monsters so the only way off the island is by ferries leaving the South Street Seaport. Waves of people head south… except Sam., her cat and an Englishman in a suit she met named Eric (Joseph Quinn). They’re walking against the tide, heading up to Harlem together to claim that last slice of pizza. But can they stay quiet long enough to get there alive?
A Quiet Place: Day One is an apocalyptic, dystopian thriller horror. Lupita N’yongo does an excellent job as a woman who is both strong and dying, adding pathos to what could have just been fear. I saw the IMAX version and the sound and camerawork is amazing, with blurred backgrounds and amazing tricks in the dark using flashlights and phones. Special effects are seamless; they look completely real. And there a number of moving scenes that rise above the usual horror you expect, like the foreboding in a marionette show. There are lots of poignant moments like that. Occasionally it goes over the top in its 
sentimentality, — like when Eric does a Charlie Chaplin style pantomime — but it usually stays in check.
Day One is a prequel to the rest of the Quiet Place series, giving some hints as to the origin of a world overrun by monsters, while intentionally leaving much of it unanswered. Are they aliens? Biological weapons? Were they created on earth or did they come from outer space? I don’t know, but it keeps you wondering all the way through this powerful horror thriller.
A Quiet Place: Day One, and Kinds of Kindness, 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.
Only in the Movies. Films reviewed: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, My Love Affair with Marriage, Talk to Me
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
In the film industry, one of the biggest gender gaps is with directors — very few movies are directed by women, and corporate studios are loathe to hire them. Which means we get tons of stories told from a male point of view, but far fewer from women. (Documentaries are an exception.) The Female Eye Film Festival showing this week in Toronto is trying to even the odds, by presenting new movies by women from around the world. But things might be changing. I went to a midweek promo screening when theatres are usually quiet, and was shocked to encounter a bright pink crowd. Women in pink skirts and wigs posing for selfies, skinny guys sporting neckerchiefs, kids, grownups, even grannies, were lined up for popcorn and packing the house with a degree of enthusiasm I haven’t seen since Harry Potter. Clearly, Greta Gerwig’s Barbie is a cultural phenomenon, and I do plan to see it, once the pink tsunami dies down.
This week, though, I’m looking at three new films, one horror and two animation. There’s a hand in Adelaide, Australia, a girl in Riga, Latvia, and four turtles in the sewers beneath Manhattan.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
Dir: Jeff Rowe, Kyler Spears
For anyone who hasn’t heard, Raphael, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Leonardo are four teenagers who live together in the sewer underground in New York City. When they were babies, a secret lab was raided spilling radioactive goo, turning four tiny turtles into mutant humanoid creatures. They were raised by a rat who also was exposed to the slime, and who trained them in martial arts. He has just one rule: never let humans see you, or they will call you a monster and hand you over to evil scientists who will milk you dry to create supersonic weapons. But the masked foursome, being teenagers, wish they could just be like normal humans, going to high school, the prom, meeting other friends… They finally get their chance when they team up with April O’Neil, an aspiring student journalist (nicknamed Puke Girl). If the TMNTs can stop a bizarre crime spree plaguing the city — and 
April report that story on TV news — maybe the people will welcome them in as heroes. Alas, it’s not as easy as it looks. There’s a gang of evil scientists who want their blood, and a mysterious group of mutant supervillains who may be just as strong they are. Can the Turtles avoid the scientists and defeat the mutants? Or will they live their lives eating pizza in the sewers of Manhattan?
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is a new reboot of the beloved comic, TV and movie franchise. Gone are the skateboards, surfer slang and whitebread voices of their earlier versions; this origin story starts again from scratch, in a multiracial city moving to the tune of 90s hiphop. At least they still eat pizza.. As always, it’s meant for 
small children, who seemed to like it a lot at the screening I went to. I liked it too. It’s visually stunning, with a colour palette ranging from acid green to day-glo blue and fluorescent red projected against dark city alleys. The characters themselves are a combo of 3-D models and hand-drawn illustration, with squiggles and scribbles appearing everywhere. And the voices —of the Ninja Turtles — are actual teenagers instead of grown ups faking it. I went in expecting very little and was surprised and pleased by its fast pace, sophisticated art work and fine music.
My Love Affair with Marriage
Wri/Dir: Signe Baumane (Rocks in my Pockets)
It’s the Soviet Union. Zelma is a little girl at her first day of school in Latvia. She’s tough and self-assured. When a boy starts bothering her, she clocks him. So she’s shocked when she is punished and ostracized for defending herself. “Girls don’t fight” she is told. She doesn’t wear makeup or bows un her hair, so the boy she has a crush on, studiously ignores her. Her mother instructs her to find a man, get married and put up with whatever he does. Later at university, she meets a fellow artist, Sergei, who flatters her and says he loves her. Could he be her soulmate?
Or is love just an illusion?
My Love Affair with Marriage is an animated, feminist coming-of-age story about a Latvian girl — and later as a woman and an artist trying to fit into a society that doesn’t seem ready to accept her. It handles her first period, her sex life, and her frustrating relationships and marriages. And it takes place both both during the USSR and after its collapse. (There’s even some scenes in Toronto.) It’s presented in the form of a highly-stylized animated musical, with three, bird-like women who 
sing songs about her progress like a veritable Greek chorus. The characters are beautifully-coloured, hand-drawn pen and ink, that vary from spare, to surreal, to scientific and even psychedelic. And that’s not all. It’s narrated through a series of medical drawings, narrated by a talking synapse. Each time Zelma falls in love or gets angry, it’s explained as her hypothalamus secreting hormones, oxytocin and dopamine. The film is told and sung in American English (Baumane is Latvian, based in Brooklyn) but it’s totally Eastern European in its humour, style and look. This is the second movie of hers I’ve seen, and I quite liked it.
Talk to Me
Dir: Danny and Michael Philippou
There’s a phenomenon going around on TikTok in Adelaide, South Australia. On the clips, people have weirdly distorted faces for a little while before they turn back to normal. Those who have done it swear it’s the most incredible thing they’ve ever experienced. So some friends decide to try it out one night. It isn’t drugs, it isn’t hypnotism, it’s something totally different. Mia (Sophie Wilde) has been deeply depressed since her mom died of a sleeping pill overdose so she’s sleeping on her best friend Jade’s couch (Alexandra Jensen). They go to high school together. Mia helps out with Jade’s younger brother Riley (Joe Bird). She picks him up from school and comforts him when he has one of his frequent nightmares. Riley and Jade’s single mom is working all the time. So they decide it’s time to try this new thing out, along with Jade’s boyfriend Daniel.
The party — if that’s what it is — focuses on a graffiti covered plaster hand. You light a candle, hold onto the hand and say “talk to me”. Then you say “I let you in” and that’s where the fun starts. You experience mind-blowing visions, your face distorts wildly, and some people do or say godawful things. 90 seconds later you blow out the candle and let go of the hand and it’s all over. The thing is, what you’re doing is opening the gate between the living and the dead, and allowing these ghosts/spirits/demons into your brain, for that short period of time. But when Mia, Jade, Daniel And Riley try it out, things don’t go exactly as planned. What is that hand? What does it do, 
exactly? And can they undo what they unwittingly started?
Talk to Me is a terrifying thriller/horror, one of the scariest movies I’ve seen in a long time. I’m talking pounding heart, gasping for breath, out-and-out horrifying sensations. It also includes a good dose of psychological thriller, in case you like that too. So if you don’t like scary — stay far away. There are some short-lived but shocking scenes of violence at key points in the film. I’ve seen countless movies about seances and ouija boards going bad, but there’s something about this one that feels entirely fresh and new. If you’re looking for some great horror, see Talk To Me.
Talk to Me opens this weekend, check your local listings; My Love Affair with Marriage is the closing film at the Female Eye Film Festival at the HotDocs Cinema in Toronto; and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem opens across the continent on August 2nd.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website, culturalmining.com.
Outcastes. Films reviewed: The Childe, Nimona
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
It’s the Canada Day long weekend — what better time is there to catch up on some movies? You might want to make time for a fascinating new documentary called Making Time about some rebellious and original horologists, people who literally make time.
But this week I’m looking at two new movies — an action thriller, and an animated fairy tale — about outcastes, and how we can embrace differences. There’s a mixed-race man who discovers his dad is a millionaire… and a commoner accused of murdering a queen!
The Childe
Wri/Dir: Park Hoon-jung
Marco (Kang Tae-Ju) is an impoverished young man in the Philippines who lives with his ailing mother. He’s an amateur boxer saving as much money as he can to pay for her operation, but it’s never enough. So when a strange man shows up representing a wealthy client in Seoul, Korea, his ears perk up. The man offers to pay for the surgery and then some; in return, Marco would have to fly to Seoul immediately to meet the client. Why him? Because the millionaire is Marco’s dad and he wants to meet his son before he dies. Now people call Marco a “Kopino” — his biological father (who he’s never met) is Korean and his mom Filipina. She insisted he study English and Korean when he was growing up, so he’ll be able to communicate with him when he gets there.
So off he flies to Korea, first class, but he finds the people he meets are not particularly friendly. Not just unfriendly, but outright abusive, calling him a mutt — and worse — because of his mixed background. Which quickly turns to actual danger — some people are trying to kill him. There’s a sadistic and sinister young man (Kim Seon-ho) who constantly chews gum and sips coca-cola as he brags about his 
expensive shoes and car. He tells Marco that he’s his best friend, even as he kidnaps him (some friend). Then there’s a woman named Yun-ju (Go Ara) who clearly wants him gone And his half brother Han (Kim Kang-woo) and half sister each of whom have evil plans of their own all involving Marco. What’s so special about him? What do they want from him? And why do some of them want him dead?
The Childe is a very fast- moving action-thriller shot in SE Asia and Korea. Lots of fights, excellent chase scenes and plot twists. Although quite violent, most of it takes okay off-camera, giving the film a lighter tone. Kim Seon-ho is sufficiently creepy to be humorous, and Kang Tae-Ju is just right as the hapless hero. And — no spoilers — I did not guess the big revelation near the end. Nothing deep here — The Childe is an action movie, after all — but it is totally watchable.
Nimona
Dir: Nick Bruno, Troy Quane
(Based on the graphic novel by ND Stevenson)
Picture a medieval town with modern technology. That’s where
Ballister Boldheart lives.. It’s a walled city — to keep out monsters — with a castle, a benevolent queen and knights in shining armour. But it’s also a place with flying cars, cel phones and video cameras. Ballister is a knight himself, or about to become one. The queen has declared henceforth that a commoner like Ballister, not just royalty, can become a knight. This is a historic occasion, and he — along his boyfriend, Ambrosius Goldenloin, a knight himself — are overjoyed at this upcoming change. Until something terrible happens in front of thousands of onlookers. While handing his sword to the queen, a laser beam shoots out of it, killing her on the spot. And this is done in front of the horrified face of his lover who sees it all. Next thing you know, he goes from noble hero to public enemy #1, and is thrown into the dungeon.
That’s where he meets a punky and spunky young girl dressed in pink named Nimona. She wants to work for Ballister as his henchman. She likes killing people and blowing things up, and who better to do it with than an arch-villain like him. But when he explains he’s innocent, she
says she’ll work for him anyway. But what can a little girl do that a knight like Ballister cannot? A whole lot, it turns out. She has special powers that let her turn into a rhinoceros, a mouse, a gorilla or a whale in a moment’s notice. The little girl is just one of her identities. Can they escape from the prison, clear his good name, find the killer, and win back his boyfriend? Or will he languish behind bars to the bitter end?
Nimona is a very cute animated fairy tale with science fiction and fantasy elements worked in. It’s made in a traditional style, but frequently shifts to other designs for flashbacks and origin stories woven throughout — love the art direction. (The killing of the queen is strangely close to Alec Baldwin’s tragic shooting on a movie set 
immediately after being handed a weapon, but I’m pretty sure this was made before the real-life incident happened.)
Riz Ahmed plays the voice of Ballister, with Chloe Grace Moretz as Nimona — two actors who always seem to choose just the right movies to appear in (this is another one). Nothing earth-shattering about this one — it’s basically for kids or families — but it is fun, exciting and quite touching in parts. Ballister and Ambrosius happen to be gay, but it’s not central to the plot, any more than Ballister’s brown skin. So if you’re looking for something fun that also has a message and is very well made, check out Nimona.
The Childe opens theatrically this weekend in Toronto; check your local listings; and Nimona is now streaming on Netflix.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website, culturalmining.com.
Almost human. Films reviewed: Shin Ultraman, M3GAN plus the best movies of 2022!
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Happy New Year, everybody!
As we move closer to an uncertain future, we’re finding it harder to tell the difference between a human and a robot, or human thoughts vs artificial intelligence. This week, I’m looking at two new movies about almost humans. There’s a semi-human superhero who comes from outer space, and a cute little robot doll with a very dark side.
But before that, I’m going to run through what I think were some of the best movies of 2022.
Best movies of 2022
Every year, I see hundreds of movies so it’s hard to narrow it down to just a few, for that reason only I don’t include documentaries, like Laura Poitras’s fantastic All the Beauty and the Bloodshed; nor cartoons, like Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinnochio, only movies that I saw on a movie screen and reviewed last year. There are many other good, or even great movies I saw, but here are what I think are the best movies of 2022, in alphabetical order:
All Quiet on the Western Front, Dir: Edward Berger
Armageddon Time, Dir: James Gray
Broker, Dir: Kore-eda Hirokazu
EO, Dir: Jerzy Skolimowski 
The Innocents, Dir: Eskil Vogt
Memoria, Dir: Apichatpong Weerasathakul
Nope Dir: Jordan Peele
The Northman, Dir: Robert Eggers
Tár, Dir: Todd Field
Triangle of Sadness, Dir: Ruben 
Östlund
The Whale, Dir: Darren Aronofsky
Shin Ultraman
Dir: Shinji Higuchi
It’s present-day Tokyo, and things are not going well. Previously unknown monsters — or “S-Class Species” — keep appearing from nowhere and wreaking havoc across Japan. They’re drilling holes, smashing dams and sucking up electrical power like slurpees. Luckily, there’s a government body that handles cases like this. They’re the S-Class Species Suppression Protocol, or SSSP. The head guy, Tamura, gives the orders, while the scientists investigate. Strategist Kaminaga (Saitoh Takumi) is a nerdy, introvert who speaks with no inflections or emotions. He works with newcomer analyst Asami (Nagasawa Masami) his exact opposite, an assertive woman who wants Kaminaga to be her buddy. And two more members round up their team.
Fortunately, whenever the Kaiju monsters appear, a strange giant 
man, dressed in a silver and red suit, arrives to save the day. He is dubbed Ultraman, protecting Japan from these strange invaders. But why does Kaminaga always disappear when Ultraman arrives? And is he human, alien, or somewhere in between?
The Japanese government — and the rest of the world — takes notice. They want to find out where Ultraman comes from and what his secret powers are. Things get more complicated when a benevolent-seeming alien arrives on earth, saying he will handle international relations from now on. But 
no one realizes his real aim — to take over and kill all the homo sapiens on the planet… unless Ultraman and the SSSP stop him first.
Shin Ultraman is a purist reboot of the classic Japanese 1960s TV show. I remember seeing reruns as a kid, and really liking it. This new version is a re-creation set in present-day Japan, but with nothing particularly contemporary or different from the original. It does include some political content — government politicians and bureaucrats who repeatedly make the wrong decisions — and the other characters are modernized. Watching this movie — which I enjoyed! — it seemed identical to what I remembered, until I re-watched bits of the original, and was shocked at how bad and campy the special effects had been. Here the CGI and costumes are much, much better. But it preserves the sombre and earnest tone that geeky, sci-fi devotees demand. If you’re a fan of Ultraman, or of Japanese kaiju movies in general, you won’t be disappointed — this is the real thing.
M3gan
Dir: Gerard Johnstone
Gemma (Allison Williams) is an inventor who, as part of a team, develops toys at a conglomerate called “Funki”. Their last big success was a Furby knock-off, but it’s losing market share, so they need a new hit. All their hopes lie on a project she’s been secretly working on for a long time, but it’s not quite ready yet. It’s code-named M3gan — Model 3 Generative Android — and is a robot in the form of a smart and pretty little girl. With a titanium core and sophisticated AI memory, she can talk, walk and act like a real human.
More than that, Megan’s artificial intelligence lets her learn and change as she grows up. By bonding with her primary owner, she’s not just a toy, she’s a friend for any little girl. But she wouldn’t come cheap — she’s priced more like a car than a toy. Gemma’s boss is pushing her to finish Megan’s prototype, ASAP, to attract new investors, when, suddenly, disaster strikes. In a freak accident, her sister and brother-in-law are killed by a snowplow on a ski trip, leaving their 10-year-old daughter — Gemma’s niece — an orphan. Cady (Violet McGraw) needs someone to turn to in her hour of grief, and Gemma, as her closest living relative, is appointed her guardian. But she knows nothing about parenting; she lives alone and devotes all her time to her career.
So, to kill two birds with one stone, she brings M3gan home to take care of Cady, even while she works on the toy’s programming in time for the big launch. She observes them 
interacting through a one-way mirror in a glassed-in playroom at the company. Megan has only one overriding rule: to protect Cady from any danger, both physical and emotional. Cady loves M3gan, who is very protective of her best friend. But when she allows them outside of the lab, things turn dark. And when the dead bodies start piling up, Gemma realizes something is terribly wrong with her design. Can she fix Gemma before she goes rogue? Or is it too late?
M3gan is a thriller-horror take on the classic story — dating back to Frankenstein — about the bad things that can come out of a benevolent scientist’s experiment. It’s also about bad grown-ups and evil kids — in addition to M3gan — facing their comeuppance. For a movie that doesn’t ever take itself top 
seriously, it succeeds in being both kinda scary and funny. It has lots of kitschy, fake toy ads, and your usual stock characters, like grumpy boss, noisy neighbour, spoiled kids. Beware: there is a fair amount of violence, including a disturbing scene where a boy assaults M3gan thinking she’s a doll, so definitely not suitable for everyone, but I liked it. Allison Williams is excellent as Gemma, and Megan (composed of actor Amie Donald, the voice of Jenna Davis and lots of CGI) is a doll villain that’s weird enough that I think we’ll be seeing lots more of her.
M3gan opens this weekend; check your local listings. And you can see Shin Ultraman on January 11th and 12th at the TIFF Bell Lightbox.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website, culturalmining.com.
It’s Halloween! Films reviewed: Last Night In Soho, Antlers, Locke & Key
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Awooooooo…!
It’s Hallowe’en again — the perfect time to watch some spooky and scary movies!
This week, I’m looking at a fashion student in London who travels back in time from her attic apartment; a family in Massachusetts who find keys that open locked doors; and a school boy in the Pacific Northwest who always keeps his father’s door locked… from the outside.
Last Night In Soho
Co-Wri/Dir: Edgar Wright (Scott Pilgrim vs the World)
Eloise (Thomasin McKenzie) is an idealistic young student at a fashion college in North London. Though raised in remote Cornwall, she already sews her own dresses and wants to follow in her grandmother and mom’s footsteps as a designer. She’s also obsessed by the early 1960s — the fashions, the people and the music — and she constantly listens to her grandma’s old discs on a portable record player. But she can’t stand the condescending attitude of her roommate Jocasta and most of the other students. So she rents an attic bed-sit flat in Soho, and gets a job at a local pub to pay for it. But everything changes on her first night in her new home. She awakens to 
find herself in Soho, circa 1964!, experiencing life through the eyes of young woman named Sandie (Anya Taylor-Joy: Queen’s Gambit)! Where Ellie is shy with mousy brown hair, Sandie is blonde, brash and self-confident. She marches into the Cafe de Paris and declares she’ll be the next singer on that famous stage. When Ellie wakes up in the morning, things are back to normal, but she feels. different. She starts sewing a 60’s style dress based on what she wore the night before in Soho. And she starts mimicking Sandie’s look and lifestyle — dying her hair, wearing makeup and sticking up for herself. But gradually she realizes 60s Soho wasn’t the fun place she imagined — it was actually full of exploitation, violence and organized 
crime. And the separation between the two worlds starts to blur… with the ghosts of Sandie’s far-off dangers appearing in her real life in modern London. Is Eloise losing her mind? And can she ever escape from this dual existence?
Last Night in Soho is a cool, fun and sometimes scary coming-of-age story loosely wrapped in a time-travel theme. Throw in life in London, 60s girl groups, fashion, Soho burlesque and seedy organized crime, and you have a fascinating and unique world to explore. Thomasin McKenzie (Leave No Trace) gives a terrific performance as a young woman trying to hang on to her sanity, while Anya Taylor-Joy (you might recognize her from the TV series The Queen’s Gambit) is a dynamo as her alter ego. Throw in some real ’60s stars — Terrence Stamp as a sleazy barfly, and an almost unrecognizable Diana Rigg as a curmudgeonly landlady — and you’re left with a lot to watch.
Great movie.
Antlers
Co-WriDir: Scott Cooper (Hostiles)
Julia (Keri Russell) is a school teacher in a mining town in the Pacific northwest. She lives with her brother Paul (Jesse Plemons), the local sheriff. She fled to California 20 years earlier to escape her abusive father. But now that he’s dead, she feels safe to move back again. Little does she know there are other dangers in this small town. In any case, she’s having trouble fitting in. None of the 12 year olds in her class participate, or even seem interested, in what she’s teaching. And one kid in particular, Lucas (Jeremy T Thomas) looks malnourished, bullied and fearful. And he draws terrifying pictures at his desk. She reaches out to help him, but though needy, he rejects her. You see, his dad ran a meth lab in an abandoned mine where something terrible happened.
Now his dad and his seven-year-old brother are ill with a strange disease — the can only eat raw flesh. Lucas keeps them locked up in the attic, 
bringing them small animals he traps and any roadkill he can find. But it’s not enough. So here we have a do-gooder teacher who wants to save what she sees as an abused and neglected child, while he’s trying desperately to keep his family alive. But when Lucas’s dad tries some human flesh, he really starts to change, both physically and mentally. Can a little boy keep a monster at bay? Or will it take a schoolteacher to stop this cannibal killer?
Antlers is a bloody and gory — though not all that scary — horror movie 
set among the gorgeous lakes and mountains of Western Canada. Strangely, the monster in the story — modelled on the Windigo, a rapacious half-human, half-animal creature — is part of the Anishinaabe culture in the east, not the Pacific Northwest. And aside from Graham Greene (as a walk-on indigenous explainer), everyone else is white. That said, I like the acting, and the fact the characters are not all strictly good or bad, more nuanced than in your typical scary movie. Antlers is a chilling — though slow-paced — horror-thriller with enough blood and guts to keep you satisfied on Hallowe’en.
Locke & Key
Developed by Meredith Averill, Aron Eli Coleite and Carlton Cuse, based on the graphic novel by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez
It’s the present day in small-town Mathesen, Massachusetts. The Locke family — eldest son Tyler (Connor Jessup: Blackbird, Closet Monster ), Middle sister Kinsey (Emilia Jones) and the youngest Bode (Jackson Robert Scott) — and their mom (Darby Stanchfield) have just relocated from Seattle. Their dad died in a terrible incident so maybe a new environment will help them get over it. They move into the stately family home, a huge, but crumbling, mansion known as the Key House. It’s been in the family for generations. While the Lockes know next-to-nothing about their history, everyone in this town knows exactly who they are. The two eldest enroll in the local prep school — Tyler joins the hockey team while Kinsey falls in with a crowd of 
amateur filmmakers — while Bode is left to explore the mansion. And what he discovers is magical — a series of keys, each with its own properties. One lets you walk through a door and emerge wherever you want to be. Another lets you enter someones mind and explore their memories. Soon Tyler and Kinsey join in, but their mother and their uncle Duncan (Aaron Ashmore) can’t comprehend anything magical, even when they experience it themselves. Only kids can remember it. But all is not just fun and games, There’s an evil shape-shifting demon, a beautiful woman known as 
Dodge, who covets these keys for her own nefarious purposes. Who will triumph in the end?
Locke & Key is a wonderful TV series that’s part adventure, part horror, part psychological thriller and part family drama. I’m purposely revealing very little because I don’t spoil the plot, but it’s well acted — with a mainly Canadian cast — and lots of unexpected plot turns and cool special effects. And the series was shot right here, just outside CIUT’s broadcast studios in the gothic hallways of Hart House (pre-Covid, of course.) So if you’re looking for something Hallowe’en-y to binge on, you have to check out Locke & Key.
Locke & Key seasons 1 and 2 are streaming now on Netflix; Antlers and Last Night in Soho both open this weekend; check your local listings.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website, culturalmining.com.
Daniel Garber interviews CODY CALAHAN about his new film ANTISOCIAL
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining,com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Toronto — called Antisocial, which says things online are not normal at all.It envisions a world where a mysterious virus is spreading like wildfire across the planet, turning everyone into robo-zombies!
Antisocial follows a group of university students preparing for a New Year’s Eve bash right when the virus hits. Who will live and who will die? And can the virus be stopped?
Antisocial is now playing in Toronto and the film’s director, Cody Calahan, tells us more…
Backstory. Movies Reviewed: Bones Brigade An Autobiography, A Late Quartet PLUS Monsters and Martians
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM, looking at high-brow and low-brow movies, indie, cult, foreign, festival, documentary, genre and mainstream films, helping you see movies with good taste, movies that taste good, and how to tell the difference.
Backstory
You probably hear the term “backstory” a lot when people are talking about books or movies. A backstory is the background, the things that happen before the main story begins. It’s usually not the main part of the story, but more likely one of the crucial elements that fuel a plot. It also makes you think about the choices we make in our lives and the effects it leads to later on.
So this week I’m talking about two movies that deal explicitly with their backstory. They’re both American movies – one’s a documentary about a some guys who find themselves becoming professional athletes at a very young age, the other one’s a light drama about four professional musicians who find themselves linked, potentially for the rest of their lives.
Bones Brigade: an Autobiography
Dir: Stacy Peralta
First the backstory: Dog Town and Z-Boys was a fantastic documentary about kids who elevated skateboards to the level of coolness their older brothers had reached with their surfboards. They took over the empty swimming pools in Southern California to skate in, and it was all captured on film by Stacy Peralta.
In this new movie, Peralta continues the story from the early 80s by following one group or team, the Bones Brigade, as skating shifted from being an underground phenomenon to a huge international business.
The Bones Brigade was a group of skaters notable for their youth – some started as pre-teens — their skill, and their unusual lack of drugginess. Some of them would just hang out and eventually become part of the group, while others were nurtured or sought out in remote parts of the country as the next big thing. And they started to win competitions, which led to sponsorship… which led to sales and labels and fame and international renown, until they became superstars, almost (it seems) by accident.
Crucially, they recorded everything they did (on videotape, film and stills) which made its way to skate videos, magazines and print ads. They bucked the trend of selling products and glamourizing skate stars in their ads. Instead, they marketed its cachet and uniqueness with weird random images — like bizarre, staged fires and explosions — without ever emphasizing the skateboards themselves, just the mindset. They wavered from 
supremely goofy dorkiness to unreachable levels of casual hipness, without ever defining which they end of the scale they fell on. Sort of a Mickey Mouse Club for skaters. But they were just unknown teenagers who were good with the board.
It traces the story of the six guys — in detail – who turn legends as they invent new moves (like the ollie) and styles that become the standard of competitive meets. Peralta also talks to their former rivals, and the contemporary artists and musicians who helped fuel the phenomenon. It’s an “autobiography” because it combines period footage with the same six people two decades later who tell what happened to them over two decades.
Bones Brigade is long and detailed, but of great interest and historical value and fun to watch. I thought it concentrated a bit too much on the less interesting aspects – sales, ownership, advertising, corporate infighting – and, (at least in the version I saw at hotdocs early this year) it had lost some of the free feelings that Dogtown and Z-Boys inspired. It’s also a lot longer than most big screen documentaries – it felt more like a two-part TV doc. Even so, it’s the definitive history of skating in the 80s and 90s.
A Late Quartet
Dir: Yaron Zilberman
Backstory: a famous cellist pulls together three young musicians – one directly out of music school – to form a string quartet that lead to great success.
The Fugue Quartet is getting together again for a triumphant 25th annual tour. The lead violinist, Daniel (Mark Ivanir), is a moody and intense perfectionist, who writes detailed notes on his score and follows them to a T. Robert (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) is a petulant and sulky second violinist – he wants to be free and chafes under Daniel’s demands; Juliette is the violist (the marvelous Katherine Keener) — the stable core. And Peter the Cellist (Christopher Walken) is the founder and eminence gris. They function as a perfectly-tuned contraption, beloved around the world.
But, out of the blue, the cellist discovers his hands aren’t functioning quite right. Peter is messing up. So, as he seeks a medical explanation he puts the quartet on hold… temporarily. That’s when things start falling apart. Robert who goes jogging around Central Park with a much younger Spanish musician (Liraz Charhi) loves her praise, 
but takes her off-hand comments too sriously – she wonders why he’s not the first violin. Suddenly he decides he’s tired of being second fiddle and wants to share the lead part. (What?!)
Meanwhile, his marriage – with Juliette – falters. And Alexandra (Imogen Poots), has personal ties to all four members: Peter teaches her class at music school, Daniel is her coach, and Robert and Juliette her parents. As the ultimate wildcard she further disrupts the quartet’s equilibrium with a shocking revelation.
Soon everything just falls apart like a house of cards.
Will they ever play together again? Will Juliette and Robert get back together? Can they work with Daniel? Will Peter recover or can he be replaced if he doesn’t? And will they still exist as a group?
A classical musician told me the rivalry between 1st and 2nd violin was ridiculous and clichéd, that actors don’t understand musical instruments. All true I’m sure, but I’m a movie critic, not a musician. I thought it was a good, low-key drama about music and relationships and the first feature film by a documentary director. Good acting – all four of them, with nice plot, fun characters, nice soundtrack. I enjoyed it.
Bones Brigade: an Autobiography and a Late Quartet both open today. Coming next week is the first annual Monsters & Martians International Film Festival in Toronto which will be showing wacky and weird science fiction flics, involving Chinese speaking space aliens in Rome; a new film by Kevin Smith; and evidence that Cthulhu is replacing werewolves, vampires and Zombies as the hottest monster.
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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