Daniel Garber talks with Mia McKenna-Bruce about How to Have Sex
Mia McKenna-Bruce Photography: David Reiss, Hair: Ben Talbot, Make-Up: Sara Hill, Styling: Tilly Wheating
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Tara and her two best friends, Em and Skye, have finished school, written their A Levels and want to celebrate. So, like tens of thousands of others, off they go to a mediterranean resort with more sex, drugs, alcohol and loud music than you can shake a stick at. But the elephant in the room is Tara — she’s a “big fat virgin”, and her mates want to make sure she returns home cured of that ailment. But when the time comes, Tara doesn’t know what she’s supposed to do, who she’s doing it with, and whether she has any say in the matter. And when it doesn’t go as planned, she doesn’t know what to do, or who to turn to. Turns out she still doesn’t know how to have sex.
How to Have Sex is a stunning bittersweet, coming-of-age 
drama about friendship, cultural expectations and consent. It’s writer-director Molly Manning Walker’s first feature and stars Mia McKenna-Bruce as Tara. The film won the prestigious Un Certain Regard Best Film prize at Cannes, and is nominated for best British film at the BAFTA awards. Mia won Best Lead Performance at the British Independent Film Awards and was named Screen International’s ‘Star of Tomorrow’. She has also appeared in many TV shows and films since 2009, including The Witcher, Jane Austen’s Persuasion, and Vampire Academy.
How to Have Sex opens in Canada 0n February 9th.
I spoke with Mia in London via Zoom.
Mia won the 2024 BAFTA Rising Star Award on February 18, 2024.
Daniel Garber talks with Kore-eda Hirokazu about Monster at #TIFF23
Edited version (8m 27s)
Unedited version (17m 51s) 日本語付き
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Photograph by Jeff Harris
Minato is a school kid in a small town whose mother works in a dry cleaner. But when he comes home one day bleeding, in pain and deeply troubled wants to know who hurt him. When she finds his teacher, Mr Hori is to blame, she tries to get him punished but faces indifference or polite, meaningless words from the teachers and principal. But as the story unfolds, we discover his teacher may not be the monster she suspected.
Monster is also an intriguing new feature film by Kore-eda Hirokazu that looks at children, makeshift families, and positions of power, and examines who suffers from bullying and violent crimes, who is blamed for them, and who actually does them and gets away with it. He also ponders bigger concepts like disasters, reincarnation and life after death.
It features an intricate story, great acting, and a lovely soundtrack by the late Sakamoto Ryuichi. Kore-eda is an award-winning director, writer and producer, whom I’ve previously talks with about Like Father, Like Son, Our Little Sister, After the Storm, and The Third Murder.
I spoke with Kore-eda in person, on-site at #TIFF23.
Monster opens in Toronto on December 1, 2023 at the TIFF Bell Lightbox.
Daniel Garber talks with Kitty Green about The Royal Hotel at #TIFF23
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Photograph by Jeff Harris
Hanna and Liv are two American friends in Sydney, Australia, living it up on their work/study visas. But when their money runs out they realize its time to get a job. They land one at a pub in a remote mining town called The Royal Hotel. But Royal it ain’t. It’s a ramshackle enterprise, run by an alcoholic who never pays his workers, and is patronized by rude and rowdy miners, almost all male. There’s no wifi and nothing to do. And as the tension grows, Hanna and Liv wonder if the men around them are just boisterous… or potentially dangerous. And how long can they survive in this dingy pit of misogyny, dirt and snakes?
The Royal Hotel is a new Australian film about two women surviving in the Australian outback. It’s the work of award-winning Australian filmmaker Kitty Green, know for her feminist take on a range of issues from protests to workplace harassment in film like The Assistant. The Royal Hotel had its Canadian Premiere at TIFF. I last spoke with Kitty a decade ago at CIUT about her documentary Ukraine is not a Brothel .
I interviewed Kitty on site and in person at #TIFF23.
The Royal Hotel opens in Canada this weekend.
MassachuTIFF! Films reviewed: Dumb Money, The Holdovers, American Fiction
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
TIFF23 is over but it has ushered in Toronto’s Fall Film Festival Season. Toronto Palestine Film Fest offers film screenings, live concert performances and museum installations, starting on Sept 27th. And you can catch eight short dance films, called “8-Count” at the Hot Docs cinema on the 27th and at York U on the 28th. But this week, I’m talking about three more great movies that played at TIFF, all from the USA, all set in Massachusetts. There’s a prep school student named Tully, a novelist with the nom de plume Studd, and an online investor known as Roaring Kitty.
Dumb Money
Dir: Craig Gillespie
Keith Gill (Paul Dano) is a investment analyst in Brockton, Massachusetts who posts his financial details daily online on a sub/Reddit. He works out of his basement. One day he notices a stock he likes is undervalued, so he buys 50,000 shares and posts the recerd on YouTube. It’s GameStop, a shopping mall chain that buys and sells video games and equipment. And when it goes viral, and everyone starts buying them, the prices climb. The chain doesn’t go bankrupt and ordinary people — the dumb money of the movie title — start making good money on sites like Robinhood. That’s good for everyone, right? No — not for short sellers. Those are the wall street tycoons who make their fortunes by betting on the future price of a stock being lower than the current price. But this one is soaring exponentially,
resulting in a short squeeze where the short sellers have to buy back shares at a much higher rate than they bet on. Can Keith — and all his followers — keep GameStop shares afloat? Or will Wall Street triumph once again?
Dumb Money is a simple but very fun movie — based on a true story that happened just two years ago — about ordinary investors trying to beat Wall Street at their own game. It follows Gill, his wife Caroline (Shailene Woodley) his bro Kevin (Pete Davidson), and the many small investors across the country: a nurse, some college students, even a mall employee of GameStop (played by actors including America Ferrera, Anthony Ramos). They’re pitted against the Wall Street short sellers (Vincent d’Onofrio, Seth Rogan). Most of the characters never actually meet one another, but somehow it all holds together. It’s a lot like The Big Short, but the heroes and heroines are regular people not just a bunch of rich guys playing the system. There’s a warm and rustic feel to this movie — a nostalgia for last year! — with nice characters you want to get to know. Nothing spectacular but Dumb Money is highly entertaining and a hell of a lot of fun.
For some reason, I really like this one.
American Fiction
Co-Wri/Dir: Cord Jefferson
Thelonious Ellison (Jeffrey Wright) known as “Monk” to his family and friends is an upper-middle writer and academic. He’s spending time with his family in Massachusetts after being unceremoniously put on leave from his college for displaying the “N word” in class — white students said it made them feel “uncomfortable”. Coming from a family of doctors (he’s a PhD), Monk has very high standards when it comes to literature. He sneers at pulp fiction. Unfortunately his novels aren’t selling. What is selling is We’s Lives in Da Ghetto, written by an equally upper-middle-class, college-educated writer, Sintara Golden (Issa Rae). Monk holds fast to his ideals: he’s a writer who is black, not a black writer. But his agent (Jon Ortiz) wonders why Monk can’t write more “black”. In a fit of pique, Monk churns 
out the trashiest novel he can imagine, full of dreadful stereotypes and contrived black slang, gangstas, single parent families and crack dealers. But to his surprise and disgust, there’s an instant bidding war for the book, finally offering him 3/4 of million dollars. (He wrote it under the pen name Stagg R. Lee, posing as a fugitive from the law.) He wants to come clean and call off the deal, but he does need the money to pay for a nursing home for her mom (Leslie Uggams). But as his mythical fame starts to grow, and Hollywood comes knocking at his door, he winders how long the truth comes out?
American Fiction is a scathing comedy about academia, literature, movies and white American attitudes toward Blacks. It’s also an interesting family drama — with his clever divorced sister Lisa, his incorrigible divorced brother Cliff (Sterling K Brown) and the family maid Lorraine (Myra Lucretia Taylor). It’s also a potential romance, when he meets Coraline (Erika Alexander) a neighbour to the family’s beach house. This is director Cord Jefferson’s first feature, but he makes a mature, clever movie. He takes what could have been a simple farce, and turns it into something bigger than that. Jeffrey Wright is perfect as Monk, never hamming or mugging, just honing his character to a sharp and pithy — but flawed — person.
Great movie.
The Holdovers
Dir: Alexander Payne
It’s December, 1969 at Barton Academy, an elite prep school in New England. Mr Hunham (Paul Giamatti) the hard-ass classics teacher, is put in charge of the kids who have nowhere to go over the winter holidays. Although its Christmas, he assigns the kids homework. These boys are troglodytes and its up to Hunham to whip them into shape, or at least try to. He’s the kind of guy who drops quotes in Latin and ancient greek to no one else’s amusement. He has a glass eye and smells like old fish. Cooking and cleaning is done by Mary Lamb (Da’Vine Joy Randolph). She works at Barton so her son can study there and go to University. But, unlike the rich kids he couldn’t afford to pay for college. So he got drafted and died in Vietnam. Mary is still at the school, because where else is she going to go? Then there’s the students — Jason, an heir to a aviation fortune but his hair is too long for his dad’s wishes; the class pot dealer, Kountse, and Alex and Ye-Joon two little kids, too far from home — their parents are in Salt Lake City and Seoul. But after an 
unexpected event, only one student is left with Mary and Mr Hunham.
Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa) is the smartest kid in class, gangly and arrogant, but also a trouble maker. His divorced parents are rich but neglectful, so he’s been kicked out of a long list of prestigious boarding schools. If it happens again he’ll be sent to military school, a fate worse than death. Can the three of them, Angus, Mr Hunham and Mary, form a truce and act like a makeshift family? Or will they drive each other crazy first?
The Holdovers is a remarkably good coming-of-age comedy/drama with a compelling story and fantastic acting. It tugs at your heart without ever resorting to sentimentality. Paul Giamatti is always good, in this case as an unusual anti-hero, while the other two, Dominic Sessa and Da’Vine Joy Randolph, are totally new faces (never seen them in a movie before) but they’re both so good. They are three-dimensional and real, arrogant and vulnerable, and totally believable. I went into this movie with zero expectations, and was shocked by how good it is. I’m purposely not giving away the plot — no spoilers — but I can’t see anyone not liking this movie.
All three of these movies played at #TIFF23. with American Fiction winning the People’s Choice Award, and The Holdovers the runner up. Dumb Money opens this weekend across Canada; check your local listings.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website, culturalmining.com.
Daniel Garber talks with Mehdi Fikri about After the Fire at #TIFF23
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Photograph by Jeff Harris
Driss, Malika, Karim and Nour are close-knit siblings who live in the banlieux of Strasbourg, France, sworn by their late mother to stay together. When the black sheep, Karim turns to drugs and petty crime, Malika writes him off as a lost cause. But when he is arrested and dies in police custody, she decides to take action. And as she finds herself the main spokesperson for large scale protesters and rioters, she must learn to navigate the world of French politics, justice, media and police. Can Malika find justice for Karim after the fires have ended?
After the Fire is a stirring, dynamic, and hard-hitting look at immigrant communities — personified by one family — fighting back against an oppressive establishment. It’s exciting, surprising and deeply moving. It’s French writer and filmmaker Mehdi Fikri’s first feature, and it had it’s world premiere at TIFF.
Mehdi talks about the justice system, political films, BPM, La haine, Camélia Jordana, media training, Algerian music… and more!
I spoke with Mehdi in person at #TIFF23.
Daniel Garber talks with MH Murray and Mark Clennon about I Don’t Know Who You Are at #TIFF23
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and
CIUT 89.5 FM.
Photographs by Jeff Harris
Benjamin is a talented artist, singer and musician in downtown Toronto. He has a new boyfriend after a messy break up, and is performing again after a long hiatus since his last tour. So why is he manic, frantic and at wits end? Because — after a night of drunken partying — he was sexually assaulted by a stranger, may have been exposed to the HIV virus, and has only 3 days to start taking PEP to stop a potential infection. And he doesn’t have enough money to pay for the prescription. And as the tension and panic grows, so does his sense of despair. Can he ever escape from this
spiral? And does he even know who he is anymore?
I Don’t Know Who You Are is a passionate drama about a gay black man in Toronto facing a seemingly unsurmountable obstacle. The film is M. H. Murray’s first feature, and stars Mark Clennon who also co-wrote the screenplay and performs his own music. MH Murray is a native Torontonian who graduated from York U with a degree in film studied, and created the web series Teenagers. Marc Clennon is a Jamaican-Canadian actor, musician and singer.
I spoke with MH and Mark at #TIFF23 at the Intercontinental Hotel.
I Don’t Know Who You Are had its World Premiere at TIFF23.
Second chances. Films reviewed: Dreamin’ Wild, Scrapper
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
TIFF, North America’s most important film festival, is starting less than two weeks from now, bringing us some of the best upcoming movies in the world. But if the SAG-Aftra and WGA strikes aren’t settled by then, it will be unusually lacking in big star energy (obviously because Hollywood actors can’t promote studio premieres during the strike.) That means no crowds on King street trying for a glimpse of someone famous. So the people at TIFF are scrambling for other big names to replace them. Of course actors from Asia and Europe will be there, and the directors aren’t on strike so I think if a movie star directs they can show up — like Bradley Cooper, Michael Keaton to name just two. There are also people having “conversations”; the four members of Talking Heads — David Byrne, Tina Weymouth, Chris Frantz, and Jerry Harrison — will all be there together again as actual “talking heads” with Spike Lee leading a Q&A after a screening of Jonathan Demme’s Stop Making Sense (1984). Then there are subjects of documentaries — like Lil Nas X. So if you’re into big names and big crowds, looks like there will be quite a few at TIFF this year.
I’ll be talking more about TIFF films next week, but in the mean time I’m looking at two new movies about second chances. There’s an unknown record album from the late 70s that becomes famous 30 years later, and a 12-year-old girl who meets her dad for the very first time.
Dreamin’ Wild
Co-Wri/Dir: Bill Pohlad (Love & Mercy)
It’s 2011 in Washington State. Joe and Donnie Emmerson are brothers who live on a remote farm. As teenagers in the late 1970s, Joe (Jack Dylan Grazer) and Donnie (Noah Jupe) cut a record album together. While Joe just played the drums, Donnie wrote the music and lyrics, did the vocals, played all the instruments and did the recording, editing and producing. The album was called Dreamin’ Wild because the ideas came to Donnie in his dreams. He was often up all night trying out his latest, writing new ones every night. It was a labour of love… but the album failed miserably, and sold virtually no copies.
Thirty-some years later, Donnie (Casey Affleck) is still a musician, and still working and living with his partner Nancy (Zooey Deschanel). He’s depressed and moody. Joe (Walton 
Goggins) gave up drumming years ago and is happy hauling logs on the farm. And then something remarkable happened: someone found an old copy of the album, put it online and it went viral. Everyone is looking for Donnie and Joe, but they live on a farm without wifi. But a record producer finds them and says he wants to remaster the album… and sell them. Is this for real? Or will it be yet another colossal let-down in Donnie’s miserable existence?
Dreamin’ Wild is a tender but slow-moving drama based on real events. The acting is A-list, with Casey Affleck, Zooey Deschanek, and Walter Goggins (the rangy cowboy from the TV series Justified) plus Beau Bridges as their Dad. But Noah Jupe as young Donny really stands out. Unfortunately the story is way too slow and too depressing, with lots of long silences that lead to nowhere and a plot without any big conclusions. Luckily the constant images of vast forests and fields, hills and skies are magnificently photographed. And about half of the movie is just the actors — and the original musicians — playing their music, which I quite liked.
So I think it balances out in the end.
Scrapper
Wri/Dir: Charlotte Regan
Georgie (Lola Campbell) is a young girl who lives alone in a small town in Essex outside London. She does all her chores — laundry, vacuuming, cooking, and cleaning — without anyone asking. She also steals bikes to make enough money for food. She even gets the clerk at a convenience store to record random phrases she uses to deal with social workers on the phone. (They think she’s living with her uncle, Winston Churchill). And she hangs out with her best friend Ali (Alin Uzun). Her single mom died a while back but 
she’s been happily taking care of herself — who needs school? (She’s on extended leave for grieving.) It’s a dream life… until there’s an unexpected visitor.
A young guy in trainers and a trashy haircut jumps over her garden fence and makes himself at home. Who are you? Jason, he says. I’m your Dad (Harris Dickinson). He’s here to help her out — but she doesn’t trust him. Can he win over her affections? What are his real intentions? And can the two of them survive on the margins?
Scrapper is very good comedy drama about a feisty working 
class girl making her way in the world with her equally scrappy father. It starts out like a whimsical comedy — with shades of Home Alone — but once you get into it, you’ll see it’s actually quite a touching story. If this is Lola Campbell’s first role, she’s a natural — because she creates this unforgettable character and carries it through. Harris Dickinson has also invented an entirely new persona, after playing a gay thug in Coney Island in Beach Rats and a clueless male model in Triangle of Sadness.
I like this one.
Both of these movies open this weekend in Toronto — Scrapper at the TIFF Bell Lightbox and Dreamin’ Wild at the Carlton and across Canada; check your local listings.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website, culturalmining.com.
Daniel Garber talks with Patricia Chica about Montreal Girls
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Rami is a young, naive pre-med student from the middle east who has just landed in Montreal. He’s staying with his cousin, the singer in a hardcore punk band. He wants to become a doctor to save people like his mom, who died of cancer. But when he sees what Montreal has to offer, his career goals take second base to his cultural and love interests. Poetry and women mean more to him than university textbooks. Torn 
between two beautiful, sexually-experienced women — Desiree, a photographer, and Yaz, a nightclub promoter — who happen to be best friends, he doesn’t know which way to turn. Can Rami figure out what to do with his life while juggling Montreal Girls?
Montreal Girls is a new, coming-of-age drama about the immigrant experience within that vibrant multicultural metropolis. It explores, sex, music, culture and family ties as a young man discovers a new world. The film is a first feature by Montreal-based award-winning director Patricia Chica who also co-wrote, produced, and edited the movie. A graduate of filmmaker programs at TIFF and Netflix/Banff, Chica’s work as a producer has been seen on Bravo, MTV, Showcase, National Geographic and many others outlets.
I spoke with Patricia Chica via ZOOM in Montreal.
Montreal Girls is playing in Toronto as part of FEFF, and for a run at the Revue Cinema.
Daniel Garber talks with Valerie Kontakos and David Bourla about Queen of the Deuce
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
New York City in the 1970s is a gritty city with a chip on its shoulder. Crime is rampant, and its government faces bankruptcy. But it’s also exploding with creativity and freedom of expression, in film, theatre, music and art, while the sexual revolution, the women’s movement and gay rights are in full swing. The city’s centre is 42nd street, and the strip running from Times Square to the Port Authority and north on 8th ave is filled with porn theatres and peep shows. And on top of it all sits a Jewish Greek-American woman, Chelly Wilson, ruling over her porn empire.
Queen of the Deuce is a fantastic new documentary about Chelly’s 
life, her work, her family and the world she built. Born in Thessaloniki, she hid her children, escaped the Nazi invasion, and gradually made her way to the top of the NY porn movie industry. The doc includes personal photos and letters, period footage, animation and talking heads to give a first-hand look at a previously unknown hero.
The film was directed by Valerie Kontakos, a well-known documentarian, founder of the NY Greek Film festival and on the Board of Directors of the Greek Cinematheque. The film features members of Chelly’s family, including her grandson, David Bourla, a screenwriter in his own right, known for action films like Push.
I spoke with Valerie in Athens and David in New York City from Toronto, via Zoom.
Queen of the Deuce is playing in Toronto at the Hot Docs Cinema as part of TJFF on June 3rd, 2023.
Daniel Garber talks with Jeff Harris about #Oscars 2023!
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
It’s post-pandemic Oscar time, when they roll out the red carpets for the stars, choose some issue to temporarily weep about, and pay homage to some of the best, (and not-so-best) movies from the past year. And always a surprise. Will this year be a punch or a slap? A photobomb? Or maybe a misread best picture award? Stay tuned tomorrow to find out.
And to help us understand the movies in competition at this 
year’s academy awards — what to see, what to avoid, what’s great, what’s terrible, who should win, and who we think will win — I’m going to speak with cinephile Jeff Harris. Jeff is a Toronto-based photographer, former photo editor at Maclean’s, and who is continuing a twenty five year art project of self-portraits taken each day. You may recognize his he takes the pics that go with my interviews each year at Hot Docs and TIFF (which he has been covering since 2002). And now he’s the one producing my segments on this show.
I spoke with Jeff Harris in person, in Toronto.
The Academy Awards will be televised on Sunday, March 12th.
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