Reduplicatives. Films reviewed: Didi, Sing Sing, Kneecap
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Any given movie can be placed somewhere between truth and fiction — just depends on how close a fictionalization sticks to the true story. But when actors play themselves it tends to shift toward the truth side. This week, I’m looking at three great new movies that deal in dramatizations, semi-autobiographies, and fictionalizations. There’s a group of actors in a maximum security prison, some Irish rappers in Belfast, and a Taiwanese-American adolescent in the Bay Area.
Didi (弟弟)
Wri/Dir: Sean Wang
Chris (Izaac Wang) is a preteen schoolboy in Fremont, California in the Bay Area. He lives with his Mom (Joan Chen) his big sister Vivian (Shirley Chen) and his elderly grandmother Nai-nai (Zhang Li Hua). Missing from this picture is his dad who supports the family from his job in their native Taiwan but whom they rarely see in person. Home life is fractious at best — Chris is waging a long war with Vivian, and their practical jokes are getting increasingly extreme. Nai-nai feels isolated and takes out her anger on his mom, while she just tries to keep the family from falling apart. At school and in the streets, Chris’ best bro is Fahad (Raul Dial), who hangs with the rest of their crew. They’re all Asian-Americans — Filipino, Korean, Indian — but no one else is Taiwanese. He goes to his first house parties, and decides to meet a girl. He has crush on Madi (Mahaela Park) but doesn’t know what to do once they meet. And this is a seminal year. Vivian is heading off to college, and Nai-nai is rapidly aging. His mom pressures him to take tutoring with her friends’ kids, but he can’t stand that group.
When his first try at dating ends ends up in a fiasco, he feels betrayed by his usual crew. So he tries to make new, cooler friends. He approaches three skaters at a skate park and proposes shooting their videos. He doesn’t know the first thing about it, but at least he has new friends to hang with. He reinvents himself and hides his 
ethnicity (I’m half, he says). But as his anger, frustrations, insecurities and self-doubt build up, and his whole life feels uncertain, he doesn’t know which way to turn. Can Chris survive the unbearable pressures of adolescence?
Didi (the title means younger brother in Chinese) is a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story about Sean Wang’s own life growing up in Fremont in 2008. It feels honest and real, full of the angst and heartbreak of youth. It’s full of myspace and early texting, his computer screens filled with nihilistic accidents and explosions. Something about this movie really hit me; yes it’s a coming-of-age story with many of the expected scenes, but without any of the usual cliches. The acting is all-around great and for a first feature this one’s a real accomplishment.
I quite liked this one.
Sing Sing
Dir: Greg Kwedar
It’s Sing Sing, the infamous, maximum security prison, 30 miles up the river from New York City. Divine G (Coleman Domingo) is a long-time prisoner there, known for his acting and oratory skills, as well as his kind and giving nature. He’s also a star of the plays they put on at the prison. And they’re looking for new participants. Like Clarence “Divine Eye” Macklin (played by himself). Macklin shakes down people in the yard and always displays a tough, gangsta image. But Divine G recognizes his talent and encourages him to join up. And at the same time he’s working on the play, he also helps other prisoners appeal for parole or pardons. He himself was wrongfully convicted, but has less luck than the people he helps.
Now prisoners don’t just act there, they also direct, come up with the story, and do the production work as well. But despite his efforts to help him, Macklin brushes him off and puts down the acting exercises. This year’s play is made up of a fantastical amalgam of concepts: pirates, aliens, ancient Egyptians, and Shakespeare’s Hamlet, to name just a few. But obstacles threaten the whole production. Will Divine Eye learn to get along with Divine G? And can this experimental play work?
Sing Sing is a wonderfully revealing and well-acted drama about people putting on a show while incarcerated. It tells, sequentially, all the stages of putting on a play: auditions, 
exercises, read- throughs, dress-rehearsals and the show itself. Some of the main characters are played by accomplished actors, like the wonderful Coleman Domingo, and Paul Raci as the director. But co-star Clarence “Divine Eye” Macklin plays himself; the film is based on his own story. Other formerly incarcerated performers play themselves or other prisoners. More than that, it fleshes out the true stories of the characters they play. Some of the actors — huge bruisers with facial tattoos — if you ran into them in a dark alley, you’d probably scream and run away. But they’re actually nice, creative, and intelligent guys who needed something like this. Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA) is a highly successful program that gives meaning and purpose to the lives of prisoners. Within three years of being released from prison in New York State, 43% are back behind bars. But for participants in RTA the 3-year recidivism rate is less than 3%. That shows you how important it is.
Despite the desolate, horrific and overcrowded conditions in prisons, this drama will make you feel good about the world again.
Kneecap
Co-Wri/Dir: Rich Peppiatt
(Co-written by Móglaí Bap, Mo Chara)
JJ teaches music and the Irish language to bored students at a public school in West Belfast. He also speaks Irish at home with his girlfriend. They’re interrupted in bed one night by a phone call asking her to translate at the police station. She doesn’t want to, so JJ goes in her stead. The suspect is Liam, a lad in trackies arrested at a rave in the woods, who claims to speak only Irish no English. The detective wants JJ to help with the interrogation. She’s also curious about Liam’s notebook, filled with scrawled poems. Thing is, speaking Irish has a political dimension, too — it’s been an act of rebellion since long before independence from the British. So JJ stealthily sides with Liam, pocketing the book while Liam distracts the detective. JJ loves the rhymes, and wants Liam to rap them, in Irish, to hip hop beats (something never done before). Liam says, never without Naoise, his best pal and business partner.
They’re childhood friends, since Naoise’s IRA dad taught them to speak Irish before he went underground. Now they’re not just besties, they’re the main local dealers in drugs and hallucinogens. They agree to make a go of it, and come up with a name, Kneecap. (Kneecapping was a form of torture and punishment during The 
Troubles). Naoise calls himself Móglaí Bap, Liam’s handle is Mo Chara, and JJ is DJ Próvai. But he has to hide his face behind an Irish-flag-striped balaclava, or risk losing his job. Their first gig is at a local pub before a handful of old geezers. But word spreads, and soon enough, kids everywhere are copying their rhymes to JJ’s backbeats.
But not everyone loves them. The police detective is watching them closely, with veiled threats. A vigilante group — Radical Republicans Against Drugs — threaten physical punishment for snorting coke on stage. Naoise’s dad says their performance jeopardizes the cause. And even Liam’s clandestine girlfriend, Georgia — a Protestant no less! — hurls abuse at him as they have passionate sex in her bedroom. Will this Irish rap trio become famous? Or will they die trying?
Kneecap is a fast-moving musical, and a sex-and-drug-filled romp, with a large dose of Irish republican politics. This hilariously fictionalized biopic of the hiphop trio shows the nitty gritty of their sketchy lives. Surprisingly, the three chose to play themselves… and more surprising, they can actually act! They’re good. The rest of the cast are pro actors, including Josie Walker as the cop and Jessica Reynolds as Georgia, Liam’s sex friend. Gerry Adams plays himself, and Michael Fassbender — who was Bobby Sands in Steve McQueen’s gruelling Hunger — plays a similar role as Naoise’s underground Dad.
The film is stylized in presentation, with lots of cute animated details worked into the live action, plus occasional drug-filled fantasies using claymation. Even the violence — be it from guns or police clubs — is fantasy-like not gruesome. Most of the dialogue, and the rap, is in Irish/Gaelige, a once nearly dead language having a modern renaissance. Now, I don’t speak the language, but still, many of the Irish speakers in the movie sounded like absolute beginners, sounding out the words; but at least the three mains were speaking like it’s their native tongue, which is quite remarkable.
I found Kneecap a lot of fun.
Didi, Sing Sing and Kneecap all open in Toronto at the TIFF Lightbox this weekend; check your local listings.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website culturalmining.com.
Daniel Garber talks with Neil Diamond and Catherine Bainbridge about Red Fever
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Photos by Jeff Harris.
What do a feathered headdress on the cover of Vogue, a 70s pop video by Cher, and the gesture used by fans of the Kansas City chiefs have in common? They’re all about the world’s obsession with North American indigenous culture and how it’s been appropriated by the mainstream for fun and profit. And it’s used and misused everywhere, in Europe, North America — even in Asian culture — but with little or no attributions or compensation ever given to the people who originated them. What’s wrong with this, how 
can it be corrected, and what is the cause of Red Fever?
Red Fever is a punchy new documentary that takes a look at cultural appropriation of indigenous art, religion, customs, and their bodies and faces within the mainstream of art, fashion, sports, entertainment, and even democracy. Using fast-moving historical footage, photos and music, it brings us back to the largely unrecognized origins of many aspects of our daily lives. It’s seen through the eyes of 
Cree filmmaker Neil Diamond who guides us across oceans and continents, as he confronts, in a humorous way. Neil Diamond is known for Reel Injun, The Last Explorer and One More River. It’s co-directed by Catherine Bainbridge, a Canadian writer, producer and director who co-founded the award-winning indigenous production company Rezolution Pictures, and is best known for co-directing the award doc Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World.
I spoke with Neil and Catherine in person, in Toronto during Hot Docs.
Red Fever opens in Toronto on June 14th, 2024 at the TIFF Lightbox.
Movies with two directors. Films reviewed: Abigail, Unsung Hero, Sasquatch Sunset
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Not everyone likes every type of movie. Some want to be excited or scared, others want to be gently reassured, and still others expect to be intellectually stimulated. So this week I’m looking at three new movies — a horror, a family drama, and a strange arthouse flick — basically, something for everyone. There’s a group of kidnappers lured by a huge ransom, a family of Australian musicians with big ambitions, and a near-family of near-humans with very big feet.
Abigail
Dir: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett (Review: Ready or Not)
Abigail (Alisha Weir) is a poor little rich girl who loves ballet dancing. Though still very young, she is diligently rehearsing the lead role in Swan Lake, complete with tutu and toe shoes. Until she is injected with sedative, dragged from her mansion, and wakes up chained to a bed in a creepy castle far away. Who is responsible? A gang of professional criminals, none of whom have ever met before, but promised 7 million in cash each, if they can babysit Abigail until the whopping ransom arrives the next day.
The gang consists of Frank (Dan Stevens) a canny former cop, Dean (the late Angus Cloud) their ginger-bearded pothead driver; Peter (Kevin Durand) a musclehead enforcer, Sammy (Kathryn Newton) an expert hacker who favours expensive jewelry; Rickles (William Catlett) a sniper and former marine, and Joey (Melissa Barrera), their de-facto organizer. She’s the only one talking with the little girl… who is very frightened 
and distraught. To calm her down, Joey promises nothing bad will happen to her, pinky swear.
But things take a turn when one of the gang is discovered in the kitchen, headless. Even worse, they find out Abigail’s dad is one of the richest — and most dangerous — men in the world, known for cruelly torturing and killing anyone who crosses his path. And then there’s little Abigail herself: she’s not actually a girl — she’s a centuries-old vampire who feeds on human blood… who happens to like ballet. Can the gang escape this house of horrors? Or will they be killed, one by one?
Abigail is a violent and gory vampire horror/thriller. It’s a reboot of the classic story: “if you can stay in a haunted house overnight I’ll give you a million bucks”. It also plays on Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, Rian Johnson’s Glass Onion, or Tim Story’s The Blackening, where characters 
locked in an old house are killed, one by one. That said, the characters — and plot turns — in Abigail are different enough to keep you interested. Yes, there are cliches — a house full of suits of armour and widows that close and lock themselves — but it also adds shocking new twists to the old vampire myths — like, what happens to vampires when they die? (No spoilers).
If you like mystery and horror, with lots of blood guts and gore, tempered a fair amount of ballet dancing, I think you’ll enjoy Abigail.
Unsung Hero
Wri/Dir: Richard L. Ramsey, Joel Smallbone
It’s 1991. David Smallbone (Joel Smallbone) is a successful music promoter in Sydney, Australia. He lives with his pregnant wife Helen (Daisy Betts) and six kids in an enormous mansion, and manages tours by big musical stars. But when a bad business deal leaves him completely broke, they all decide to fly halfway around the globe to Memphis, Tennessee. But the promised job awaiting him… wasn’t there, and the pre-arranged rental house was completely empty. Luckily Mum is a quick thinker, and turns their suitcases into beds — who needs furniture, anyway? The kids love playing cricket in the empty rooms. But she still has eight mouths to feed — David, Helen, Becca, Daniel, Luke, Joel, Josh and Ben — three times a day, and no money to do it. But the heavens are shining bright on the Smallbones and they soon find work gardening and house cleaning, including with some of his former musical clients. The kids are pitching in, too, when they’re not being home-schooled. They have a money jar to pay for food and rent, and a wall chart with things they want and want to pray for; the Smallbones are a devout Christian family. It’s at a Church 
service that everyone notices what a beautiful and angelic voice Becca, the oldest daughter has (Kirrilee Berger). This provides David with the motivation he needs to get a music contract signed for Becca, thus saving their family from wrack and ruin. But can David and Becca do it? Or will the family fly back to Australia with their collective tails between their legs?
Unsung Hero is a biopic of the real-life Smallbone family, before the kids became famous, as seen through their mother Helen’s eyes. It shows how they pulled themselves back up after a major setback. It’s a faith-based movie, where praying and church play central roles throughout the film. The father David (circa 1991), is played by his actual son (in 2024). And the music they produce — from the beautiful singing of Kirrilee Berger, to the band For King + Country that Joel and Luke later founded — is good. Not to my taste, but it’s actually good. The problem comes from producing a biopic where the subjects have a central role in its content. I grew up in a family of seven and we kids fought verbally and physically all the time. In this movie, though, they are so kind and whitewashed they make the Brady Bunch kids seem like gangstas. Maybe that’s true in this family, but it rings false to me. Way too Hallmark-y. There are also a number of basic faux pas. Like having a flashback within a flashback in the opening scenes — that’s just clumsy editing.
If you want to watch an inspiring and positive 90s- era story about a musical family’s Christian life, you might like Unsung Hero. Otherwise, I don’t think you’ll get much out of it.
Sasquatch Sunset
Dir: David Zellner, Nathan Zellner
Somewhere in the redwood forests in Northern California, a pack of four unclassified animals are wandering around searching for food. They are covered in brown and grey hair, walk on two legs, and have opposing thumbs. Are they human, or are they animals? They are Sasquatches, popularly known as the Bigfoot. And they are a lot like us. They eat, sleep and have sex. Urinate, defecate, and puke when they eat something poisonous. They give birth and die. They play, communicate, make music and look at the stars in the sky. And they come in at least two genders and a number of sizes.
They commune with nature, and vice versa; snakes, skunks, deer and porcupines happily coexist, and even play with them. Sasquatch are mainly vegetarian though they do eat fish. They also make mistakes, especially the biggest of the four, the alpha Sasquatch. He has a tendency to stick his “stick” where it doesn’t belong. And the other three react loudly and 
emphatically when he does something he shouldn’t do. But when they encounter signs of humans — felled trees, camping equipment, a paved road — they are shaken to their core. Will they ever spot one of us?
Sasquatch Sunset is a very weird, arthouse film about the journey of Sasquatches in their natural habitat and the encroaching presence of humans. It feels partly like a nature documentary or an anthropological newsreel, but it’s also very funny at times. Sad too. And it has actual characters. They don’t have names but let’s call them the big, mean one, the relaxed one with breasts, the pensive intellectual and the adolescent (Nathan Zellner, Riley Keough, Jesse Eisenberg, Christophe Zajac-Denek). There is also dialogue — grunts and whoops, the banging of sticks and lots of jumping around and screeching. At first, I couldn’t tell them apart or even what their sex is — they‘re all really hairy! — but it gradually becomes quite apparent. And by the end I think you’ll feel for them and understand them, too.
Sasquatch Sunset is a very strange movie, but I liked it.
Abigail and Sasquatch Sunset, open this weekend in Toronto, while Unsung Hero starts next Friday; 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.
It’s all about the mood. Films reviewed: Bob Marley: One Love, The Taste of Things
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Many film critics — including myself — say that the most important part of a movie is the story. But that’s not always true. This week, I’m looking at two new movies where it’s all about the vibe, all about the mood, not the plot. There’s a cook cooking in 19th century France, and a musician making music in 1970s Jamaica.
Bob Marley: One Love
Dir: Reinaldo Marcus Green
It’s 1976, in Kingston Jamaica. Bob Marley (Kingsley Ben-Adir) and the Wailers are riding high with a string of worldwide hits. But the city is in turmoil, rocked by gang violence in the run up to a crucial election. US guns are flooding into the country. Bob Marley plans a “Smile Jamaica” concert to bring peace and lessen the tension between supporters of the leftist PM Manning and the pro-American conservative candidate Seaga. Bob — known as Skipper to his friends — is Rastafari, an anti-colonialist, afrocentric religion calling for a return to Africa from Babylon. But just days before the concert, Bob, Rita Marley (Lashana Lynch), and others were shot and wounded in a planned assassination attempt, with cars full of armed gang members invading their compound to stop them from singing. The concert goes through as planned, but they are forced to move to London for safety.
There, they put together their next album, Exodus, and embark on a tour of Europe, to be followed by a triumphant trip to Africa, Bob Marley’s dream. The album is a 
huge hit, and his fame grows. But there’s trouble brewing between Bob and Rita, who have known each other since they were kids. They also face financial questions — are they being cheated out of their money by backroom management? And a wound to his foot from a soccer game isn’t healing like it should. Can Bob and Rita work out their problems? Will they ever make it to Africa? And can Bob Marley and the Wailers return to Jamaica and live in peace?
Bob Marley: One Love is the long-awaited biopic about the musician and his life. Aside from a few flashbacks to his childhood and his start as a musician, the film focuses on two years of his life in the 1970s. So we see the musicians playing, in studio and at stadium concerts, hanging out in nightclubs and concert halls, or writing new songs at home. We also see them smoking spliffs (a Rastafarian sacrament) and playing soccer or fussball in their off hours. But what we don’t get much of is Bob Marley’s inner thoughts, his love life, his heart and soul. This is a common problem in hagiographic biopics that are approved every step off the way by his family.
Bob Marley is sanctified, but not humanized — there seems to be a glass wall separating the audience from the character. At the same time, there are some fascinating revelations about his past, and interesting glimpses into the workings of Jamaican music scene (mainly through flashbacks). So we get to see Scratch Perry in studio, and the Wailers grooving on stage. The script is not great, it drags a bit, but photography is quite pretty, and the acting (largely played by British actors speaking Jamaican patois) is believable. Most important of all is the music, which sets the vibe that keeps the film moving all the way to the finish.
It’s the music that makes Bob Marley: One Love worth seeing.
The Taste of Things (La passion de Dodin Bouffant)
Co-Wri/Dir: Tran Anh Hung
It’s the late 19th century, in France. Eugenie (Juliette Binoche) is an haut cuisine cook at a chateau, surrounded by a lush vegetable garden. She’s preparing an elaborate meal for Dodin (Benoît Magimel) and his fellow gourmets. She’s assisted by Violette, the maid, and supervised by Dodin. And what a meal it is, with each dish requiring multiple stages, and dozens of steps. Even something as simple as consommé is actually a complex, refined broth known for its subtle flavours. We follow each step, from picking vegetables in the garden, to sautéing the meat, simmering it, and removing the scum.
This day, there’s a new face in the kitchen, Violette’s young niece. Pauline (Bonnie Chagneau-Ravoire) has a preternatural ability to taste all the elements of a dish, despite not yet developing a refined palate. Perhaps she’ll become Eugenie’s apprentice some day? In the meantime Eugenie takes pains to hide her occasional dizzy spells.
After 20 years, Dodin and Eugenie have an unusual relationship; they work together, 
effortlessly in the kitchen, like a well oiled machine. And at night, if she chooses to do so, Eugenie leaves her chamber unlocked so Dodin can spend the night.
But it’s hard to tell if they are lovers, boss and worker, or husband and wife (with all that entails). What future dishes will they prepare? And will they ever tie the knot?
The Taste of Things is a mouth-watering look at 19th century French cooking. It’s nominally about a relationship, but not really. There’s also a visit to dine with a wealthy prince, and a look at strange new gardening techniques. But the plot is unimportant. As I watched this movie, I wasn’t thinking about why Eugenie has dizzy spells, or trying to keep track of Didot’s gourmet friends. It’s inconsequential.
It’s the food that’s important, the cooking and the eating. I was kept drooling for two hours, trying to guess what they’re making. Oh, that’s vol au vent! What’s with the meringue? Is it Baked Alaska? (a.k.a. omelette à la norvégienne). I was mentally 
cooking alongside the burbling, burnished copper pots on the wood-burning stove. And the eating is remarkable, too, including a scene where the gourmets cover their heads with white napkins as they consume a tiny songbird (known as ortalans) whole.
Certainly, Binoche and Magimel have chemistry — apparently they were once a couple in real life — but not enough to carry the movie. It’s the food — and the mood — that makes watching it worthwhile.
Bob Marley: One Love and The Taste of Things are both playing now in Toronto; check your local listings.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website culturalmining.com.
Daniel Garber talks with 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.
Current cinema. Films reviewed: Destroy All Neighbours, Freud’s Last Session, T.I.M.
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
It’s “award season” when prizes are handed out to the best — or most widely publicized — movies. But not every film is prestigious or a blockbuster. So this week, I’m looking at three new movies — one each from the US, Ireland and England — that might otherwise fall through the cracks. There’s a robot with human traits, a music producer turned serial killer, and a psychoanalyst talking about God.
Destroy All Neighbours
Wri/Dir: Jonah Ray Rodrigues
William (Jonah Ray Rodrigues) lives in a rundown apartment with his girlfriend Emily (Kiran Deol) a lawyer. He’s tall, skinny, and wears unfashionable clothes and nerd glasses. He works in a studio at the soundboard, helping bands record their music. But sometimes he feels like he’s just a knob- turner, going through the motions. His real passion is recording the ultimate prog-rock album, and is constantly coming up with new ideas, but never finishing it. Emily encourages him to give up and move on, but he feels he has to do it. But he’s getting more and more tired and frustrated by the people around him. At work, his boss is constantly ragging him for being late. And the latest client, Caleb Bang Jansen is insufferable. Even the panhandler where he parks his car is getting on his nerves. At home, Eleanor, the elderly pothead superintendent (Randee Heller) is constantly calling him for help with the fuses. Another neighbour, Phillip, lets his pet pig roam the halls. But worst of all is the new tenant next door. Vlad (Alex Winter) is hideously ugly, aggressive and incredibly loud, playing non-stop euro disco all night long. Vlad lifts weights using buckets of cement attached to his barbell. He’s a scary guy, William is passive aggressive and terrified of face to face confrontations.
When he finally visits Vlad to ask him to turn down the music, they get in a fight and somehow Vlad ends up impaled on a stake, and — accidentally — decapitated! 
William doesn’t know what to do, but finally realizes he has to dispose of the body. But things have changed since Vlad — new bodies keep piling up — always killed unintentionally by him, by strange coincidences. He becomes a serial killer by default, or a serial manslaughterer, as he likes to say.
But when the all the people he killed come back to life, he realizes something really strange is going on. Can William keep his boss and girlfriend happy, record his prog rock album, stop killing people, and living a normal life? Is he destined for a very dark future? Or is he just losing his marbles?
Destroy all Neighbours (the title says it all) is a comedy/horror movie, with an emphasis on in-your-face, gross-out humour. So there’s lots of disgusting blood and 
gore, but it’s always so exaggerated it’s funny, not scary, in the manner of Monte Python or Army of Darkness. Jonah Ray Rodrigues is the writer/ director/star and the current host of Mystery Science Theatre 3000. I admit it’s an acquired taste, and some of the gags and schtick fall flat, but I was laughing more than not. I happen to like that kind of humour (in moderation) but, admittedly, it’s not for everyone. So if you’re into bloody horror-comedy set in L.A.s skid row, or even if you’ve ever had annoying neighbours, I think you’ll love Destroy all Neighbours.
Freud’s Last Session
Co-Wri/Dir: Matt Brown
It’s September, 1939. Germany has invaded Poland and Great Britain is about to go to war. Sigmund Freud (Anthony Hopkins) and his daughter Anna (Liv Lisa Fries) left their homes and vocations in Vienna after the Anschluss — the unification of Austria and the Third Reich, and moved to London. His office is decorated with the art and bric-a-brac of home: Persian rugs, African fertility statues and Catholic saints. Anna continues to research and give lectures on psychoanalysis and child psychology, but Sigmund, due to his age (he’s 83) and poor health (he’s dying of cancer) rarely leaves his home now. But on this day he has an unusual visitor: CS Lewis (Matthew Goode). Lewis is a don at Oxford where he teaches English and has written a book about Pilgrims Progress. (He later goes on to write The Chronicles of Narnia.) And he’s still suffering from shell shock from WWI. But why are they meeting? Lewis wants to talk with Freud about God and religion. He once was an atheist but now has adopted theism and Christianity as his guiding light. Freud, on the other hand, is a committed atheist and finds all religions equally fascinating and equally false. Still, they have a spirited discussion on a wide range of issues. But certain topics are taboo. For example, Freud refuses to talk about the fact that Anna has a female lover. And Lewis considers his own sexual relationship with his late best friend’s mother as something too private to share. Meanwhile, air raid sirens are going off, Freud is struggling with the oral prosthetic he calls his “Monster” and nobody knows what the future will bring. Will this be Freud’s very last session?
Freud’s Last Session is a fictional historical drama adapted from the successful stage play. There’s no evidence that an elderly Freud and a younger Lewis ever actually met; the story functions more as an intellectual exercise than a theatrical drama. So it’s not captivating, but it did keep my attention. They try to perk it up a bit with flashbacks — Lewis in the trenches in WWI; Freud as a small child — but I found them lacklustre at
best. There are some clever touches, where Freud ends up reclining on the settee while Lewis takes on the analysts role. Of course it has nice period costumes and sets, but the main reasons to see this film is first the topics and second the acting. The topics range from sex to psychoanalysis to theology. Devotees of Freud and/or Lewis may get a kick out of it, but no major revelations here. The acting, though is delightful. Hopkins walks through his usual role — along with a few artfully-placed wunderbars and ja ja ja and das ist gut! so we don’t forget he’s Austrian. Goode is more passionate, fearful and sad. Best of all is German actress Liv Lisa Fries (from Babylon Berlin) as Anna Freud, who gets to rush around London looking for meds for her Dad.
Freud’s Last Session is not bad, but not noteworthy, either.
T.I.M.
Co-Wri/Dir: Spencer Brown
Abi and Paul Granger (Georgina Campbell, Mark Rowley) are married, professionals, double-income, no kids, moving into a beautiful, modern home in rural England. It’s at the end of a long country road, with open staircases, glass walls and a huge garden, all paid for and arranged by Abi’s employer. She’s an engineer who specializes in AI robotic prostheses. She designs the human-looking hands of robots. Paul is currently unemployed, but is in line for a corporate position in London. They’re both looking forward to their first child, and are working hard at it each night.
Now this house is completely on the grid. Everything’s smart — smart windows, locks, heating, computers, lighting — all controlled through a central console, and co-ordinated with their smart watches and phones. The central console, though, is something her company invented. It’s a Technologically Integrated Manservant, T.I.M. for short, or just Tim. Tim (Eamon Farren) is a humanoid robot with perfect male features, blond hair, and artificial intelligence; he’s constantly learning. He’s a prototype: he can cook gourmet foods, do heavy lifting, play the piano, send and answer emails. Abi’s boss is adamant that all his employees have a T.I.M., so they can get rid of the bugs in the system before the upcoming release. Abi, loves her new toy, but Paul is less enthusiastic. Why did T.I.M. barge into their bedroom while they were making love? T.I.M. says Abi’s blood pressure and temperature had risen, he just wanted to make sure she was OK. But Paul suspects T.I.M. of spying on him. He thinks TIM sends messages to Abi whenever Paul visits Rose their only neighbour (Amara Karan), feeding Abi’s suspicious jealousies. And when he catches T.I.M. perving through Abi’s clothes, he knows something is very wrong. Is T.I.M. morphing into something bad? Can a robot even have feelings? And if things go wrong, who will Abi trust: Paul, the fallible human, or T.I.M., the perfect machine?
T.I.M. is a sci-fi thriller about the potential dire consequences of AI given a human form. This isn’t the first humanoid movie — there have been at least a dozen in the past few years — and some of the plot is predictable. And it does have that “pandemic movie feel” to it, with a tiny cast (just four main characters) located in an isolated country setting, but, in this case, it really works. It’s scary, it’s creepy, it’s interesting. It feeds on your worst fears about electronic devices communicating without your knowledge, and the possibility of the singularity, when humans will no longer be essential. I’m not familiar with any of the actors but the cast is good. The storyline is compelling, and most of all, the movie feels believable. So if you ever feel like your smart phone is a bit too smart, you’ll like this scary, sci-fi thriller. It’s a good one.
Freud’s Last Session opens this weekend in Toronto; check your local listings. Destroy All Neighbours is streaming exclusively on shudder.com, starting today; and T.I.M. is now available digitally and on V.O.D.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website culturalmining.com.
My, my. Films reviewed: My Animal, Maestro
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
This week, I’m looking at two new films opening this weekend — a horror movie from Canada and a biopic from the US. There’s a young conductor with his eyes on Carnegie Hall, and a young werewolf with her eyes on a figure skater at the hockey rink.
My Animal
Dir: Jacqueline Castel
Wri: Jae Matthews
It’s a cold day in the 1980s somewhere in Northern Ontario. Heather (Bobbi Salvör Menuez) is a young woman with blood-red hair. She reads women’s bodybuilding magazines on the sly and watches female pro-wrestlers late at night on TV. She’s athletic herself — works part-time at the arena’s snack bar — and hopes to join the local hockey team as goalie. Heather lives in the outskirts of town with her grizzled dad who runs a diner (Stephen McHattie), her angry, alcoholic mom (Heidi von Palleske) and the twins Cooper and Hardy (Charles and Harrison Halpenny). She and her little brothers inherited red hair from their mom and an unusual trait from their Dad. That’s why their mom keeps everyone shackled to their beds whenever there’s a full moon. Can’t have them 
running around unwatched after midnight — they might bite someone! Yup… they’re werewolves.
Everyone knows everyone in this town, so when a new face appears at the rink, Heather takes notice. Jonny (Amandla Stenberg) is a beautiful, young, pro figure skater. She’s kept under tight control by her effeminate father (who is also her ice-dance-partner) and her domineering baseball-player boyfriend (Cory Lipman).
But when Heather meets Jonny, they both sense something electric between them. They start going out late at night to parties and adventures, like dropping acid at the casino with their friend Otto (Joe Apollonio). Heather says she wants to show Jonny new things — if she’s not too scared to try. Are they just friends? Or something more? Will Jonny accept Heather’s shape-shifting… never mind her sexuality? Or will Heather’s late-night risk-taking lead to violence, or even death?
My Animal is a beautiful look at a bittersweet romance between a lesbian, hockey-playing werewolf and a (possibly) straight figure skater. Although the two lead roles (starring the wonderful Stenberg and cool newcomer Menuez) are played by Americans, they, and the movie itself, feel totally Canadian, from the Zamboni to the snack bar to the snow-swept highway. (It was shot in Timmins, Ontario). I love the look of this film, playing with red, black and white, from Heather’s dark red bed sheets and ginger hair, to the hockey uniforms and maple leaf flags at the rink. From its gorgeous nighttime photography, to its blurry 80s music tracks, it’s relatively low-budget and simple but really good. Appropriately — and keeping with the red and white colour scheme — it won Best Director, Best Screenplay & Best Cinematography at the Blood in the Snow Film Festival. My Animal picks up on paths paved by classic female werewolf pics like Ginger Snaps.
I liked this one a lot.
Maestro
Co-Wri/Dir: Bradley Cooper
It’s 1943 in New York City. Leonard Bernstein (Bradley Cooper) is a musician, composer and conductor in his mid-20s, who suddenly gets a phone call from Carnegie Hall. Their regular conductor is ill, and they want Lennie to come in that day, without any rehearsals, to take his place. He leaps into the role, feeling the music and motivating al the musicians to play with passion. The concert is broadcast live on radio, nationwide, to huge response. This kickstarts his future as a conductor and suddenly the world is his oyster. He celebrates his newfound success with his boyfriend David (Matt Bomer) also a musician, and his career starts to soar.
Later, he meets Felicia Montealegre (Carey Mulligan) a broadway actress originally from Chile. 
They fall in love and raise three children together. He composes movie and stage scores for hit musicals like West Side Story and Candide, and brings largely unknown composers, like Mahler, into the public eye. But Lennie is never quite ready to give up his gay sex life, and has a series of longtime lovers. Can Lennie and Felicia’s relationship weather both his superstar status and his sexuality? Or will it tear their marriage apart?
Maestro is a biopic about the personal and professional life of the celebrated conductor Leonard Bernstein. The musical side of this film is a visual and audio treat, with extended performances recreated with detailed care, in the original locations, Carnegie Hall, Tanglewood, and a cathedral in London. Beautiful music and photography. The film itself is told chronologically in three parts. The 40s and 50s are filmed in the style of movies from that period — gorgeous black and white, with elliptical scene changes, where he’ll leave his bedroom and walk straight onto a stage in front of a cheering crowd. Cooper perfectly captures Bernstein’s physicality in his conducting, jumping on the platform, thrusting a hand forward or balancing on one foot. The second part is in a 
grainier faded colour film to represent the 60s and 70s, while the third section is also in colour but with sharp photography, following his increasing fame and his faltering marriage. These are punctuated by word-for-word recreations of actual interviews.
But there’s a big difference between accuracy and reality. The script seems to be based on actual letters and diaries that Lennie and Felicia wrote at the time. This makes their lines sound scripted or transcribed, not real. And in the first section they speak with mannered voices, as if they were characters in a 1940s movie.
Mulligan is wonderful as Felicia, but you wonder, why — in a movie that puts Bernstein’s gayness 
front and centre — are we seeing detailed and extended private arguments between Lennie and Felicia, while his relationships with men are kept opaque? And for a movie about sexuality, why is it so non-sexual? Aside from an occasional post- coital cigarette (he was a chain smoker) or a short kiss, it’s kept anodyne and almost fully-dressed, a movie you could watch with your grandparents without blushing.
There are many delightful parts of the film, with good acting all around, and, as I said, the concerts are magnificent… I just never felt like I was learning anything new about Leonard and Felicia or delving deeply into their psyches.
Maestro is playing now at the TIFF Bell Lightbox, and opening soon at other theatres across Canada — check your local listings. My Animal is also playing nationally at select theatres.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website, culturalmining.
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 Cam Christiansen about Echo of Everything
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
What do punk, gospel, jazz and Andalusian duende music have in common? They all bring an ecstatic reaction from musicians making the music and listeners dancing to it. It’s a primal response dating back thousands of years, with music bringing joy, anger, sadness, and inspiring sex and even violence from its listeners. Are these ecstatic reactions still around today? And are the notes and rhythms 
we hear an echo of ancient rituals or even primordial sound waves?
Echo of Everything is an amazing new documentary about music and how it affects us emotionally, spiritually and scientifically. A highly personal film it incorporates expressionistic scenes in black and white, philosophic interviews and intense musical performances recorded in supersaturated colour. And running throughout is a constant stream of sound and rhythm, recorded around the world.
Echo of Everything is written and directed by Calgary-based filmmaker and animator Cam Christiansen, known for his award-winning features Wall and I Have Seen the Future.
I spoke with Cam in person, on-site during Hot Docs at the Luma Café at the TIFF Bell Lightbox.
Echo of Everything had its world premiere at Hot Docs and is opening theatrically later this year.
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