Outstanding, great… or just ugly? Films reviewed: Eleanor the Great, Out Standing, The Ugly
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Toronto Palestine Film Festival is on right now, with movies, shorts and docs by and about Palestinians, as well music, cuisine and art to share with other Canadians. This is it’s 17th year and it’s never been more relevant, so check it out.
But this week, I’m looking at three new movies that premiered at TIFF and are all opening theatrically this weekend. There’s an elderly woman who tells a lie, a woman with an “ugly” face who disappears without a trace, and a female officer in the Canadian Army who wishes a certain photo would just go away.
Eleanor the Great
Dir: Scarlett Johansson
Eleanor Morganstein (June Squibb) is a grandmother in her 90s. Since her husband died ten years back, she has shared her Florida condo with her best friend Bessie whom she’s known for 70 years. They do everything together, and work well as a team. Where Bessie is timid, Eleanor is brash and outspoken. If there’s something Bessie wants, Eleanor knows how to get it, even if it involves telling a few fibs. She has chutzpah to spare. But when Bessie suddenly dies, she realizes there’s no reason to stick around, so she packs up her stuff and flies back to New York for the first time in decades. She’s staying with her daughter Lisa (Jessica Hecht) and her grandson Max (Will Price). She’s hoping for some quality time but Lisa’s a worrywart and Max is always busy at school. So she takes up her daughter’s offer to attend some classes at the JCC she signed her up for; maybe she’ll make some friends. The first class is a washout — broadway musicals — so she wanders into another group almost by accident. It’s a support group for Holocaust survivors, and the members urge Eleanor — as a newcomer — to tell her story. She’s not a holocaust survivor, but her best friend Bessie was… and she knows all her memories, especially the death of her brother. So, in deference to Bessie, she tells them to the group as if they’re her own. Why not, right? It goes over well… a bit too well, actually. A teenaged college student Nina (Erin Kellyman) is auditing the group and soon bonds with Eleanor (her mom recently died and her dad is distant and 
withdrawn.) The two women bond and start sharing intimate stories.
Nina is in a journalism class, and wants to make a video of her telling her holocaust memories as part of an assignment. Then things get really out of hand: Nina’s dad (Chiwetel Ejiofor) happens to be a popular TV news journalist… and he wants to make Eleanor his next feature. But what will happen to her friendship with Nina — never mind her own family — once the truth inevitably comes out?
Eleanor the Great is a nice, light movie-of-the-week-type drama about death, mourning, and inter-generational relations. It’s a very simple and easy movie, part comedy, part weeper. What’s good about it is the acting. June Squibb — who really is in her 90s — is great as the energetic, down-home Eleanor. (She played another rebellious granny in last year’s hit Thelma.) This is Scarlett Johansson’s first time as a director, and luckily she doesn’t bite off more than she can chew. She concentrates on characters — Squibb and Kellyman are both great in their roles — more than the basic story. And you know what? That’s good enough.
I wouldn’t call Eleanor the Great great, but it’s worth the watch.
Out Standing
Co-Wri/Dir: Mélanie Charbonneau
It’s the 1990s, and Captain Perron is leading a troop of UN peacekeeping forces in the former Yugoslavia. Why is this unusual? Sandra Perron (Nina Kiri) is a Canadian woman, the first to lead a squad of infantry soldiers in combat, and the first female to serve in the prestigious 22nd division, known as the Van Doos. Raised as an army brat in bases across Canada, she comes from a long line of soldiers, so it makes sense that she is following in her father’s vocation. She trained as a cadet and received commendations while still a teenager. And she’s the first woman to survive the brutal training that squadron demands. But there’s a photo circulating from her past that’s threatening to derail her military career. It’s a picture of her tied to a tree, barefoot, in the snow and semiconscious.
It was part of her training in a Prisoner of War exercise that went far beyond the normal treatment soldiers are forced to endure. A Canadian woman facing treatment tantamount to torture at CFB Gagetown in New Brunswick. But Captain Perron isn’t the one who released the photo, one fact she didn’t want the photo circulated. She had endured years of hazing bullying, harassment, obscene phone calls, sabotage to her kit, and a hidden campaign by certain officers to get rid of her. They detest the idea of serving alongside or under the command of a woman. And unlike the other women who 
attempted to to join the Van Doos, she alone managed to survive and not quit.
Out Standing is a biopic about a trailblazing woman in the Canadian Armed Forces. It’s both moving and disturbing. The title, based on her memoirs, refers both to her achievements and to the notorious photo of her standing tied to a tree. (That pic was eventually published by the press, triggering a wave of shock and disgust across the country, and, one hopes, an improvement in how women are treated in the military.) Nina Kiri gives an excellent performance, totally believable as Perron.
While Hollywood churns out dozens of war movies each year, showcasing the latest weapons and fighter planes, you rarely see a Canadian one. This one is full of details carefully chosen to distinguish how soldiers behave here. The military culture is quite different. Unlike in the US there’s no Sir-yes-sir! And instead of saluting a Canadian soldier stand sharply at attention. I never knew this because you never see it in movies. For this alone it’s a eye-opener. The film is not perfect — there’s a particularly clumsy scene near the end — but altogether it’s a compelling and disturbing look at a Canadian woman’s life in the military.
The Ugly
Wri/Dir: Yeon Sang-ho (Peninsula, Train to Busan)
Lim Yeon-gyu (Kwon Hae-hyo) is a well-known carver of dojang, the name stamps used in Korea like a signature on official documents. He built up his business from scratch while raising his son as a single parent. (His wife ran away soon after the baby was born.) He trained his son Lim Dong-hwan (Park Jeong-min) in every aspect of the craft. Now an adult he is taking over the family business. At this moment, a documentary filmmaker (HAN Ji-hyeon) is celebrating this dad’s life as a national treasure. Why did she choose this man for her documentary? He’s been blind since birth, which makes his many accomplishments even more impressive. But filming is put on hold when a surprise announcement arrives. They’ve found Dong-hwan’s mother decades after she disappeared. Turns out she’s been dead all that time and only her bones remain. This comes as a total shock to Dong-hwan, and it just gets worse.
First his mother’s long lost relatives arrive for the funeral but they’re despicable people who just want to make sure he doesn’t claim any family inheritance.They bullied and beat his mother, a veritable Cinderella raised by this cruel family. It’s also the first time he hears his mother described as ugly. Ugly how? He longs to see a photo of her, something to display at the funeral, but there are no photos anywhere. Of course his blind father doesn’t have one. While Dong-hwan is trying to process all this new information, the filmmaker leaps on it as a great story and insists on continuing the documentary but with a new twist: who killed his mom and why? Together, over a series of interviews with hidden cameras, they uncover 
events and people from her past as the tragic puzzle gradually falls into place.
The Ugly is a mystery about a kind-hearted woman — the main character’s mother — and how she is horribly treated because of her looks. It’s a heart wrenching story, a dark, bleak view of humanity with only Dong-hwan (and his mother) as redeeming characters. The story is told as a series of interviews with the various characters and extended flashbacks to what actually happened (The actor who plays Dong-hwa also plays his blind father as a young man in the flashbacks, while Jung Young-hee plays his mother, but always from behind or from the side, without ever revealing her face). In Yeon Sang-ho’s previous movies (Peninsula, Train to Busan) the action hero is surrounded by mutants or zombies or killers. The Ugly is about normal people but they’re just as hideous.
The Ugly is a powerful and dark look at human cruelty and physical beauty.
Eleanor the Great, Out Standing and the Ugly all open this weekend in Toronto; check your local listings. This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website culturalmining.com.
Hot and cool. Films reviewed: Ne Zha 2, Honey Don’t! PLUS Canadian films at #TIFF50
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
This week, I’m talking about two more hot summer movies, one from China and one from the US. There’s a red-hot demon who wants to live forever, and a cool, hard-boiled detective who faces death on a daily basis.
But first a look at Canadian movies premiering at TIFF’s 50th anniversary.
TIFF Canada
This year, TIFF has programmed dozens of Canadian movies — far two many to mention, but here’s a brief survey of some films worth notice.
First some documentaries:
In Modern Whore director Nicole Bazuin and subject Andrea Werhun (she was featured in Paying for It: Interview last year) challenge misconceptions about sex work and sex workers. Ni-naadamaadiz: Red Power Rising by Shane Belcourt (Red Rover: review) with Tanya Talaga is about an indigenous youth-led, 90 day armed occupation in Kenora, Ontario, back in 1974. And Min-Sook Lee’s (Migrant Dreams: interview) deeply personal film There Are No Words looks at her own mother’s suicide when she was still a child.
How about some dramas? First, two Canadian films set nowhere in particular:
There’s Honey Bunch, by Madeleine Sims-Fewer, Dusty Mancinelli, a psychological thriller about a couple in an isolated rehab centre; and Clement Virgo’s (Brother: Review; The Book of Negroes: Interview) Steal Away, the story of two princesses… of a sort.
From Atlantic Canada comes Sk+te’kmujue’katik (At the Place of Ghosts) Bretten Hannam’s (Wildwood: Interview) eerie thriller about two Mi’kmaw brothers confronting their past; And Andy Hines’ Little Lorraine, a crime thriller about drug-smugglers in a Cape Breton mining town.
Two Quebec movies look really promising. Philippe Felardeau’s (Monsieur Lazhar: Review) Lovely Day is a comedy drama about the events leading up to a wedding; and Mathieu Denis’ (Corbo: review) The Cost of Heaven, a shocking true-crime family drama that took actually place in Montreal in 2012.
I’m really looking forward to seeing what two young Toronto directors are up to next. Chandler Levack’s (I like Movies: Interview) Mile End Kicks is a romantic comedy about a music critic who moves to Montreal to get her life in order. While Matt Johnson’s (Blackberry: Review) Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie is a comedy apparently about a failed cover band in Toronto want to play at the Rivoli.
Blood Lines is Gail Maurice’s (Rosie: Interview) singular, same-sex Metis love story from the Prairies. And Tasha Hubbard’s (Nîpawistamâsowin: We Will Stand Up: Interview) Meadowlarks is a real-life drama about four indigenous siblings separated by the Sixties Scoop getting back together again in Banff, Alberta for the first time in 50 years.
And, finally, from the North comes Oscar-winner Zacharias Kunuk’s (Maliglutit: review) The Wrong Husband, an Inuit historical drama / folktale set 4,000 year in the past.
That’s just a sample of some of the Canadian films premiering at TIFF.
Ne Zha 2
Wri/Dir: Jiaozi
It’s hundreds of years ago in China, when demons and gods still roam the earth. Two supernatural beings, the fiery and impetuous Ne Zha and the calm and focused Ao Bing, once rivals, now find themselves in the same situation.They are both bodyless, floating around like ghosts. If they don’t get their bodies back soon, they will cease to exist. Once they’re reborn, if they pass three tests, they can drink the potion of immortality. Fortunately, a magical cure involving a giant lotus blossom drenched with semen-like fluid, can bring them back to life. Unfortunately, it works for Ne Zha but not for Ao Bing. And Ne Zha needs Ao Bing’s steady hand to pass the trials. So they come to a compromise: Ao Bing’s spirit will share Ne Zha’s body and they’ll try to work together. But can they pass the tests, resist the four dragons, cooperate with the old man of the south in his floating jade castle, stay out of the cauldron of fire, and fight off the thousands of evil demons who may try to eat them?
Ne Zha 2 is an animated kids’ movie straight out of China, about a rambunctious little red devil with pointy teeth, a wide mouth and fierce eyes. It’s a sequel, and is immensely popular in East Asia, even more so than the original. Ne Zha 2 has only played in IMAX in China but has already cleared 2 billion 
dollars. There’s tons of Chinese cultural and folklore and historical stuff you probably won’t understand, but I think kids will get it. Lots of jokes little kids will laugh at, about farts, piss, and vomit. There are dozens of characters voiced in English by stars like Michelle Yeoh. The animation is usually great, but there are scenes where the background doesn’t match the characters, which is off-putting. And it’s 2 1/2 hours long, which is a big chunk of your time. So if you curious about what the most popular animated film ever looks like, now’s your chance.
Honey Don’t!
Dir: Ethan Coen
It’s a hot summer’s day in Bakersfield, California; so hot you could fry an egg on the trunk of a car. But you wouldn’t want to do it on this one: it’s upside down in the desert, the wheels still spinning, a woman dead inside. An accident? Or murder? Honey O’Donohue, PI (Margaret Qualley) is there to investigate. And so is a police detective named Marty (Charlie Day) who practically drools whenever Honey is around. To his eyes, she’s a tall glass of water — and he wants a sip! — but he’s barking up the wrong tree: Honey only sleeps with women… and usually one night stands. And she’s not just a pretty face, she’s sharp, with a dry wit, a hard drinker who can deck any gunman without breaking a nail. She’s at the crime scene because the dead woman is her client — she hired Honey because she felt she was in danger. Turns out she was right, and dead bodies are piling up for unknown reasons. And all roads lead to a deeply corrupt and lascivious preacher named Drew Devlin (Chris Evans) who clearly has the devil in him. He has wanton sex with parishioners and a 
side hustle selling drugs for the French Mob. So Honey enlists a rough-looking gumshoe named MG (Aubrey Plaza) to help her catch the bad guys, and find her missing niece. They end up in bed together, repeatedly. Is this love? Or just lust? And will Honey ever find out who’s behind the crime wave?
Honey Don’t! is a very light and fun detective story, loaded with sex and violence, that spoofs old fashioned film noir movies. It quotes generously from Russ Myers’ films like Faster Pussycat, Kill! Kill!, and other cult classics. It’s the work of Ethan Coen — one of the two Coen Brothers — and his partner Tricia Cooke. This is number two of a planned trilogy of Lesbian B-Movies (Cooke is bisexual). Admittedly, I walked out of this movie scratching my head — it’s highly entertaining, but very superficial and doesn’t neatly tie up all the loose ends. But you know what? After a day thinking about it, I kinda like the way it doesn’t completely finish… it feels like the pilot episode of a TV detective series. Margaret Qualley is terrific, and Aubrey Plaza looks and acts totally different from any of her recent roles. So if you’re yearning for 90 minutes of forgettable sex, violence and over-the-top characters, I think you’ll like Honey, Don’t.
I did.
Honey Don’t and Ne Zha 2 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.
Not tourists. Films reviewed: Souleymane’s Story, The Legacy of Cloudy Falls
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
August is when people scour the earth for vacation spots, where they can soak up the glamour and romance of famous locales without ever actually living there. This week I’m looking at two new movies about the people who live in popular tourist destinations. There are asylum-seekers in Paris, and psychic-debunkers in Niagara Falls.
Souleymane’s Story
Co-Wri/Dir: Boris Lojkine
Souleymane Sangaré (Abou Sangaré) is a young man on a bike. His friends call him Souleye de Paris. He earns his keep delivering meals to paid customers across the city using his smartphone to record the deliveries and pass on his next assignment. Other young men from West Africa look up to him as a role model, and beg him to help them become couriers too. But Souleymane’s life is more complicated than it seems.
Originally from Guinee, he arrived in France as a refugee seeking asylum. His beloved girlfriend back home (they speak by phone) is talking about marrying someone else, and his mother seems particularly out of touch when he speaks with her. He is homeless, and sleeps in a dormitory far from the Gare du Nord. But he never gets a full night’s sleep because he is forced to wake up in the middle of the night to electronically reserve his next night’s bed. He catches a bus ride to and from the shelter, and if he’s late he’s forced to sleep in the rough. 
Even his delivery job is done on the sly, using someone else’s name who takes a large cut of each transaction (he’s undocumented and can’t work legally.) And everything he does is done for one goal: his asylum interview scheduled in just a few days. He’s studying hard to pass that ordeal. And to do that correctly, he needs to hire a coach to fill in the forms and train him on exactly what to say.
So when an accident messed up a single delivery, his carefully constructed life suddenly becomes precarious. Can Souleymane keep his job, pay his asylum coach, and pass the government interview? Or will he be sent back to the country he fled?
Souleymane’s Story is a powerful, fast-moving, slice-of-life drama about a refugee in Paris. Souleymane is in constant motion, on a bike, climbing staircases, on trying to catch the 
metro or a bus. Most of the movie is in the form of a flashback as he waits for his immigration interview. And as it slowly builds to that event, everything leading p to it is exposed, climaxing in a heart wrenching, tear jerking finish. The dialogue shifts between French and a number of other West African languages, showing the polyglot nature of life in the big city.
I don’t recognize the director or any of the actors, but it has a realistic feel.
Good movie.
The Legacy of Cloudy Falls
Wri/Dir: Nick Butler
It’s summertime in the city of Niagara Falls. A group of long-term tenants at a seedy apartment building live in close proximity. Terry (Andrew Moodie) is a single, middle-aged gay, Black man who runs an unsuccessful souvenir shop. He spends his lonely days surrounded by fridge magnets and snow globes that nobody seems to want. But he has one goal: to locate the son of a man he once knew. Terry fantasizes about his next door neighbour, Edwin, a compulsive, body-conscious young man who lifts weights and decorates himself with home-made tattoos. Edwin (Josh Dohy) just appeared there one day, 
claiming he is the nephew of the hotel’s owner but Terry has never seen them together.
Brigit (Grace Glowicki) sees herself as a debunker of the lies and scams perpetrated by fortune tellers and mind-readers. (She’s also having an affair with a croupier at the casino, but that’s another story.) She has a website devoted to her whistle-blowing, which no one seems to read. Still, she’s ready to catch her Moby Dick, a man named Walter Pryce, due to arrive in town soon. Pryce is a tele-psychic whose YouTube videos are watched by millions, and who Brigit vows to take down.
Finally there’s Riley (Amanda Martínez) a cynical, compulsive liar, who pretends she’s the director of a talent agency. She keeps her boss semi-conscious through the use of sleeping powders generously sprinkled into her drinks. But she feels strangely drawn to Calvin (Richard Zeppieri) a shy man who appears at the office one day, with dreams of becoming a professional actor. These are just a few of the plot streams happening simultaneously in and around the apartments as recounted in a nasal voice by Rita (Susan Berger) a senior with bottle-red hair who sees everything going on at the Cloudy Falls.
The Legacy of Cloudy Falls is a comedy/drama about a group of quirky and tragically lonely characters as they interact with one another. (I kept hearing the lyrics to Eleanor Rigby in the back of my mind.) Vendettas, scams and conspiracy theories ebb and flow like the misty waterfall nearby. Amid walls 
painted with UFOs, no one seems to do what they’re supposed to be doing but somehow, still continue to get along. This film is retro kitsch mixed with Wes Anderson-style odd-balls. There’s something about Niagara Falls that brings all these strange people to one place — especially in movies. (I’m thinking Albert Shin’s Disappearance at Clifton Hill from 2019, for example).
This is director Nick Butler’s first feature after a series of shorts and many years oworking in casting for various TV series — which may explain the episodic nature of this film — stories that are linked and coexist but have their own separate narratives.
So if you’re in the mood for something whack but oddly compelling, check out this one.
The Legacy of Cloudy Falls opens on August 25 in Toronto, with Souleymane’s Story playing this weekend at the TIFF Lightbox; check your local listings.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies each Saturday Morning on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website www.culturalmining.com.
Hate and Love. Films reviewed: Another Simple Favour, On Swift Horses PLUS more Hotdocs!
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
This week I’m looking at two new movies, a dark comedy and a romantic drama. There’s a true-crime writer in search of a killer on the Isle of Capri, and a dishonourably discharged sailor looking for forbidden love in the casinos of Las Vegas.
But first… with Hotdocs continuing through the weekend, here are some more documentaries playing there that caught my fancy.
Endless Cookie (Peter and Seth Scriver) is a highly original animated film that uses bright colours and stylized characters — in the form of elastic bands, or peaches — to retell the stories of two half brothers, one from the Shamattawa First Nation in Northern Manitoba, the other from Toronto’s Kensington Market.
Coexistence, My Ass by Canadian filmmaker Amber Fares (Speed Sisters: Interview, 2015) looks at an Israeli stand-up comic who uses her tragic hilarity — in Hebrew, Arabic and English — as a scathing critique of her own country’s policies.
My Boyfriend the Fascist (Matthias Lintner) is an intimate, personal film about a leftist Italian filmmaker in South Tyrol and his virulently anti-communist Cuban-Italian lover who is drifting further and further to the extreme right.
Supernatural (Ventura Durall) is about an MD forced to deal with the legacy of his own dad, who was famous as a shaman, and a telepathic healer who still has a grateful followers including one woman who swears he saved her life.
And finally…
Ragnhild Ekner’s Ultras is a stunning, impressionistic look at the shared subculture of superfans at soccer clubs on four continents, including chants and Tifos, both elaborate synchronized formations in the stands and the creation of massive cloth banners that span a stadium and then disappear in just a few minutes.
All of these played at Hotdocs, including some with additional screenings this weekend.
Another Small Favour
Dir: Paul Feig
It’s summer in Connecticut, and Stephanie, a writer and single mom (Anna Kendrick), is sending her son off to camp. Which gives her time to promote her latest book, “The Faceless Blonde” a true-crime saga of adultery, deceit and murder. She knows the story better than anyone since she’s the one who lived through it all (barely) and helped the police catch the murderess and lock her up.
So imagine her surprise when she receives a fancy invitation to a wedding on the Isle of Capri. It includes a private jet, a luxury hotel suite and a seat at the head table as Maid of Honour. What’s the catch? The bride is Emily (Blake Lively) the very same convicted killer who tried to murder her! Somehow, Emily’s out of prison and betrothed to a fabulously wealthy and powerful man.
Naturally, Stephanie is suspicious. How could she trust the woman who tried to kill her? But in the end, she decides to go — and film it all for her popular vlog. The location is lavish… but also dangerous, with a notorious cliff where many had met their maker. Guests include Sean (Henry Golding) Emily’s bitter ex-husband; Linda (Allison Janney), Emily’s conniving aunt and Margaret (Elizabeth Perkins), her batty mother; 
Dante (Michele Morrone), her handsome brooding fiancé; and Portia (Elena Sofia Ricci) Dante’s acid-tongued matriarch. The danger comes from the fact that Dante’s family are connected to the mob, and almost everyone at the party holds a deadly grudge toward at least someone else. Poor Stephanie is left fending off the eye-daggers that everyone is sending her way, but even so, some of the main characters are being killed, one by one. Who is behind these murders? What is their motive? And can Stephanie make it out of there alive?
Another Simple Favour is a dark comedy/thriller about killers killing other killers at a wedding. Apparently it’s a sequel to a similar movie that came out in 2018, but I can’t compare it to that since I never saw it. I can compare it to other high-budget movies made especially for streaming sites (This one is premiering on Prime). It shares their characteristics: famous directors, top stars, exotic locales, racy dialogue and designer costumes. Thing is, Another Simple Favour is a comedy but 2/3 of the jokes fall flat, and a mystery but highly contrived. The writing and directing are both mediocre at best. The characters are simplistic and just so-so, including a whole bunch I didn’t bother mentioning because they have no obvious role other than that they were in the original film. Blake Lively’s Emily tosses the C-word like party favours at a wedding. Her character just doesn’t seem believable. Henry Golding is irritating, and Elizabeth Perkins is embarrassingly bad. Happily, Allison Janney is fun and Anna Kendrick is truly delightful. And, yes, it’s crap but it’s fun crap, and it kept me interested even though I knew it was bad. If I had bought a ticket to Another Simple Favour in a theatre, I’d feel ripped-off, but since it’s a TV movie on a streaming site, it left me feeling mildly entertained.
On Swift Horses
Dir: Daniel Minahan
It’s the 1950s in San Diego after the Korean War. Muriel (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and Lee (Will Poulter) are a newly-married couple who moved west from Kansas to seek their fortune. While Lee is infatuated with his new wife, Muriel is more reserved. He wants to move into a new house in a suburban development, but she is reticent to leave the city… until she meets Sandra (Sasha Calle) a woman whose house borders the new development. She’s single, independent and mysterious, someone Muriel can spend time with. But they’re both waiting for Lee’s younger brother Julius (Jacob Elordi) to show up, and kick in his share of the mortgage. The problem is while Lee is an ordinary grunt, his brother is tall, dark and handsome with huge ambitions. He’s not like us, Lee says.
Indeed, he has moved to Nevada to make big bucks in Vegas as a card shark. But he soon realizes since you can’t beat a casino, so you may as well join them. They place him in the unfinished rafters immediately above the game tables where he looks down through holes to spot card counters and cheaters. There he meets Henry (Diego Calva) a Mexican who shares his duties. It’s hot up there so they strip down to white singlets. Soon they’re sharing an apartment and then a bed; secretly, of course. Is this love?
Meanwhile, back in San Diego, Muriel overhears regulars at 
the diner she works at, discussing sure-fire horses to bet on. She makes to he tracks to try her luck. And with some newfound earnings she feels confident enough to pay a visit to Sandra down the road. Is this just a fling? Or the real thing? Will Julius ever join them in San Diego? And what would Lee do if he ever discovered both his brother and his wife are flirting with same-sex partners?
On Swift Horses is a romantic drama about love in repressive 1950s America. It recreates the era with detailed period sets and music set against paintbrush desert sunsets. It’s passionate and erotic with a novelistic scope (based on the book by Shannon Pufahl). The main characters both find themselves doing illicit and mildly illegal things — gambling — to support their highly illegal actions — same sex relationships. Though never explicit, somehow Edgar-Jones as Muriel spitting an olive pit into Sandra’s open hand, or 
dancing to music in Sandra’s living room in her underwear seems much more sexualized than her having obligatory coitus with her husband. Likewise Elordi as Julius exudes sexual desire in every scene. While the film does verges on the sentimental with its gushing music and tragic near misses, by the end, you’ll be siding with the characters and hoping their love will be eternal.
On Swift Horses is now playing; check your local listings. and Another Simple Favour is streaming on Prime
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website culturalmining.com.
Remote houses. Films reviewed: Anacoreta, Eat the Night + TBFF!
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
February is Black History Month, the perfect time to check out Toronto’s Black Film Festival. It features movies, docs and shorts from Canada and around the world. Like Karen Chapman’s Village Keeper a drama set in Toronto’s Laurence Heights neighbourhood, about an overprotective mom with her two teenage kids who are forced to move into their grandmother’s crowded apartment. And in the documentary feature category, Tara Moore tells the history of apartheid South Africa and how it affects that country now, in Legacy: The De-colonized History of South Africa. Toronto Black Film Festival is running now through February 17th at the Carlton Cinema.
But this week, I’m looking at two new movies, from Canada and France, about remote houses. There’s a group of friends at a haunted cabin in the woods, and a teenage girl and her brother living in a world that only exists online.
Anacoreta
Co-Wri/Dir: Jeremy Schuetze
It’s a beautiful cabin in a remote part of Vancouver Island. Jeremy (Jeremy Schuetze) is there with three friends Antonia (Antonia Thomas), Matt (Matt Visser) and Jess (Jess Stanley) for one last look at his late grandfather’s cabin before it’s sold. It’s a beautiful old building overlooking pristine blue waters and mountains rising dramatically right behind them. It’s like paradise: they grill sausages and play beer pong, pick low-hanging fruit while watching a black bear cub sun itself on the grass. But despite all the natural beauty, something is creepy here. Antonia sees a truck following them whenever they’re driving. They find a dead black cat in their freezer. And things get really spooky when Jess starts sleepwalking. Is this place haunted? The thing is, they’re also there to shoot a film. And some of those scary parts might have been planned and executed by Jeremy, their director, to get some good reactions out of the cast. He’s a bit of dick, and the rest of them are not happy about it.
But that’s not all. Jeremy’s grandfather made his fortune 
writing Hardy Boys -type mysteries in this very cabin. And when they find an unpublished script things get even weirder. It mentions a place called Afterglow, a mausoleum about seven hours away. That’s where ghosts are said to live just underground. So of course they have to go there and see for themselves. Is it all a hoax? Or is it real? And who will survive this perilous journey?
Anacoreta is a horror movie about four friends in a cabin in the woods and a documentary (or mockumentary) about making a movie. All the actors and crew use their real names, Jeremy and Matt wrote the script, and Anotonia and Jess produced it. Same with the cameraman and the boom, who also appear as characters in the film. But it also takes pains to 
remind us they’re shooting a movie, often repeating scenes two or three times, till Jeremy is satisfied. Which partly interrupts the scariness, but also makes the scary parts seem more real, in a found-footage / Blair Witch Project kind of way. Does it work? It kinda does. It makes you believe the movie you’re watching is a disaster project, while at the same time, reminding you it’s all just a scripted story.
Budget? Low.
Indie? Yes.
Acting? Good.
Canadian? Very.
Meta? You bet!
Scary? Not too shabby, especially near the end.
Eat the Night
Wri/Dir: Caroline Poggi, Jonathan Vinel
Apolline (Lila Gueneau) is a high school student with curly reddish hair. She lives with her big brother Pablo (Théo Cholbi). They spend most of their time online, on a role-playing game called Darknoon. It’s an apocalyptic fantasy land, where their avatars live exciting lives, killing thousands of competitors in exotic sword fights. Apo much prefers Darknoon to real life. At school she’s an ordinary girl somewhere in France. Online she’s an anime figure with enormous breasts and sharp, pink leather spikes coming out of her shoulder. Pablo’s avatar has pierced nipples and carries a sabre. Apo rides on the back of a giant blue cat she tamed. In real life, Pablo drops her off at school each day on his acid-green Kawasaki. Their mom’s gone and their dad is never around, so they take turns cooking for each other. But the tide turns when Darknoon announces 
it’s shutting down, permanently, on the Winter Solstice, just a few weeks away. Apo is devastated.
Pablo also has a side hustle selling colourful little pills at clubs and parties. It’s a one-man operation using a metal crank-press to turn out tiny batches of uppers, molly and acid, one by one. But when a big-time dealer sees him encroaching on his turf, his henchmen beat Pablo up. That’s when a stranger appeared to tend his wounds and wipe up the blood. His name is Night (Erwan Kepoa Falé). Pablo needs a bodyguard and a business partner. Night quits his job, and moves in, and soon they’re having passionate, violent sex in Pablo’s hideaway. But Darknoon’s last day is coming soon and the gangster are gathering forces to find and kill Pablo. Can Apo and Pablo leave Darknoon in a blaze of glory? And in the real world, can Pablo and Night permanently leave this crappy town and go somewhere safe and new?
Eat the Night is a glorious French thriller about online role-playing games and real-life crime. It’s passionate and tragic. About 25% takes place inside the otherworldly game, the rest in a cinematically cool, louche real world. Two very different places but visually harmonious. And as the movie progresses characters increasingly appear in the game as like their actual selves. Lila Gueneau plays Apo as a young artist who lives in an animated, comic book world complete with an elaborate pink cos-play outfit. As Pablo, Théo Cholbi is a nihilistic fighter/criminal with a pet green snake. As his lover and defender Night, Erwan Kepoa Falé is kinder and gentler but just as dangerous. Eat the Night (under the even more carnal title Devore la nuit) played in the Directors Fortnight at Cannes. a very violent and highly sexual film.
I think it’s great.
Eat the Night is playing at the Revue Cinema in Toronto on Feb 19, and opens at the Carlton and Yonge/Dundas on the 21st; check your local listings. Anacoreta will be available on demand starting the 21st.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website culturalmining.com.
Good Euro at #TIFF24. Films reviewed: Miséricordia, Vermiglio, The Girl with the Needle
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
There was a dearth of European movies at TIFF this year with far fewer high-profile films from countries like France, Benelux, Scandinavia, Romania and Poland. But there were still some very good ones. So this week, I’m talking about three new European films that were featured at TIFF. There’s a mom with a baby in Copenhagen, an army deserter in Tyrol, and a funeral-goer in southeastern France.
Miséricordia
Dir: Alain Guiraudie (Review: Stranger by the Lake)
Jeremie (Félix Kysyl) is a boyish-looking man from Toulouse returning to the tiny village of L’Aveyron in southeastern France. He’s there for a funeral, the untimely death of the village’s baker. Jeremie knows the village and all its people very well, as he was the baker’s assistant for many years. He asks the baker’s widow, Martine (Catherine Frot), if he can stay there for a few days.
She puts him up in her adult son Vincent’s old room (Jean-Baptiste Durand) — which still look’s like it’s a kid’s room. Vincent, though, is a married adult, a tough guy known for his moodiness and sudden bursts of anger. Then there’s Walter (David Ayala), the town recluse, a large, droopy man with coarse features who seldom speaks with anyone other than his dog and Vincent. And an Abbey from an ancient monastery who always seems to turns up when anything significant happens.
So Jeremie’s presence upsets the local rhythm. Vincent treats Jeremie like they’re still kids, picking play-fights with him, grabbing and punching. He uses his key to barge in on Jeremie in bed at 4 am (on his way to work, he says). He suspects Jeremie is sleeping with his
mom. But in reality, Jeremie seems more attracted to the late baker than his wife. When Jeremie drops by Walter’s place for some chat and a few glass of the local pastis — Walter warns him not to let Vincent know he was there. With his tongue and inhibitions loosened Jeremie comes on to Walter sexually which shocks and confuses the much bigger man. By the next morning there’s a dead body buried in the woods, a witness, a killer trying to keep it a secret, and the gendarmes starting an investigation. Whodunnit, who will get caught, and what will happen to the rest of the characters?
Miséricordia is a cross between dark comedy and film noir. Like a stage play, it’s full of dialogue overheard through half open doors, people disappearing behind curtains or hiding in someone else’s bed. It deals with lust and passion — and compassion, anger but also forgiveness (Misericordia is Latin for mercy). And a fair amount of unexpected erotic nudity. It’s shot on grainy colour film, among the ancient whitewashed houses, stone monastery, and the wilds of the nearby forests — it’s visually beautiful. Alain Guiraudie who directed the great Stranger by the Lake once again crafts an unusual mystery with a queer undercurrent.
This is a really good movie.
Vermiglio
Dir: Maura Delpero
It’s near the end of WWII in a mountainous village tucked away in Tyrolia, northern Italy. Two faces arrive in town one day, one familiar, one unknown. They are both deserters, Italian soldiers press-ganged into the German army, but the stranger, a Sicilian named Pietro (Giuseppe De Domenico), knows only this friend Attilio, he served with. He also saved his life and practically carried him all the way home. Pietro’s Italian is totally different to them so he seldom speaks. They put them up in a barn, just to be safe, and feed them.
The patriarch of this village is Cesare (Tommaso Ragno) a highly respected schoolteacher with ten kids of his own. Most of the kids sleep together, some three to a bed, and there’s a constant stream of patter and dialogue within the family. The oldest daughter is Lucia (Martina Scrinzi), named after the village’s patron saint. There’s also Flavia, the precocious daughter and Ada the religious one. Lucia knows nothing about sex, but does know she likes Pietro. They flirt, court, kiss, and marry. He signs up for the adult literacy lessons his new father-in-law teaches. And finally, as Lucia’s belly grows, he abruptly leaves the village for a short visit home in far-off Sicily. But when he fails to return after months away without even a postcard, Lucia begins to worry. What has happened to her Pietro?
Vermiglio gives a look at the consequences of ambition, rivalry, love and betrayal in an isolated village where everyone knows what everyone else is doing. It follows all the members of this family, though especially the daughters and their hard-working mother (10 kids!) over the course of one year.There’s a lovely ebb and flow, with 
characters appearing and disappearing, deftly interwoven throughout the film in dialogue and action. Though linear in structure there’s no clear explanation of much of what is going on — you have to figure that out yourself. Filmed under soft natural lighting, you’re as likely to see an extreme closeups of milking a cow’s udders, as you are a furtive kiss. I found Vermiglio fascinating and empathetic — you really care about what happens to all these characters.
I like this one.
The Girl with the Needle
Co-Wri/Dir: Magnus von Horn
It’s WWI in Copenhagen Denmark. Karoline (Vic Carmen Sonne) works in a sweatshop making uniforms. She hasn’t heard from her husband Peter since he enlisted with the Germans, and without his income she’s behind on her rent and faces eviction. In desperation she visits the factory owner Jørgen (Joachim Fjelstrup) and asks for her military widow’s pension. But without any proof of his death, there’s nothing he can do. But he does find her attractive and soon they are having furtive sex in back alleys. Inevitably she gets pregnant so he does the honourable thing and proposes… until his aristocratic mother stops him cold. Not only won’t he marry her, she must be 
fired from her job. Meanwhile, it seems her husband was not killed at the battlefront, but he’s unrecognizable. Peter (Besir Zeciri) now wears a mask to cover his face that had been blown off and them sewn back together. Peter now works at a carnival freak show revealing his face for a few krone.
In desperation, Karoline takes a knitting needle to a public bath and attempts to kill the foetus in her womb by jabbing it, but ends up injuring herself and nearly passing out. But she’s spotted by Dagmar (Trine Dyrholm) who runs a local candy store, and her pretty, blonde daughter Erena (Ava Knox Martin). She nurses her and tells her what to do if she starts bleeding again. And she gives her a bag of candy with the shop’s address on it. Dagmar is always there when there’s no one else to turn to. And when she finally gives birth, penniless and homeless, Caroline shows up at the candy store asking for help give away her baby. She can’t afford to pay her — this is a business, Dagmar reminds her — but agrees to let her stay there for now, as an 
on-call wet nurse. Many young women pass through there with their kids, so she’s always ready to lend a hand. But what really happens to those babies?
Based on a true story, The Girl with the Needle is a powerful movie about a horrifying case that shocked the world (no spoilers). It shows us a Copenhagen riddled with friction and sharp divisions between the haves and have-nots. It also repeats a theme of disturbing images of grotesquely deformed faces. It’s shot in glorious black and white by the Polish cinematographer Michal Dymek, who also filmed Jerzy Skolimowski’s EO two years ago. There’s some serious acting here, especially the three main women. This is one of those jaw-dropping movies where you go in expecting a conventional, scary-type horror movie, but you end up watching something much bigger than that. This is a fantastic and very disturbing movie, but with a touch of hope.
And it’s Denmark’s choice for the Oscar for best international Feature.
Keep your eyes peeled for Miséricordia, The Girl with the Needle, and Vermiglio, that all played at TIFF and should be opening theatrically over the next year.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website culturalmining.com.
Bad destinations. Films reviewed: Borderlands, Only Flows the River, Cuckoo
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Looking for fun and adventure? Look no further. This week I have three new movies from around the world: a supernatural thriller set in Bavaria, a dark mystery in northwestern China, and an action comedy that takes place…in outer space!
Borderlands
Co-Wri/Dir: Eli Roth
It’s outer space in a post-apocalyptic future dominated by a multi planetary corporation known as Atlas. The worst place in the universe is the planet Pandora, once prosperous, but now decrepit and desolate. That’s where Atlas CEO’s daughter still lives. Pandora is a mecca for treasure hunters looking for a legendary vault, one that will provide limitless wealth to its discoverer. Tiny Tina (Ariana Greenblatt) Atlas’s teenaged daughter, still lives there. But when she is kidnapped by Roland, an ex-soldier (Kevin Hart) and Krieg, a deranged, masked muscleman (Florian Munteanu) Atlas is furious, not least because his daughter may hold the key to that vault. So Atlas (Edgar Ramírez) approaches Lilith (Cate Blanchett) to bring her home. Lilith is a hard-boiled bounty hunter, notorious for her ruthlessness; she’ll shoot anyone who gets in her way. And she hates Pandora more than most, having lived a traumatic childhood there. But business is business, so when Atlas offers an enormous sum of money to compete this “simple” job, she flies off to rescue Tiny Tina.
Problem is it’s anything but simple. Tiny Tina doesn’t want to be rescued. She’s also dangerous: the cute teddy bears she carries are lethal explosives. Eventually they form a truce: Lilith, Roland Tina, and Krieg, along with Claptrap — a wise-cracking R2D2 — and Tannis (Jamie Lee Curtis) an academic with a sketchy past. But can they fight off all those dangerous treasure hunters? And who in this group can be trusted?
Borderlands is a science fiction action/comedy based on a video game. It’s filled with strangely shaped vehicles, scary monsters and cool weapons. It has pretty good special effects and a stellar cast. Unfortunately, the movie kinda sucks. It’s like a third-rate Mad Max. Eli Roth, is a competent, though gory, horror director, but he totally missed the boat with this one. The story stays close to the original game, but who wants to watch characters advancing to higher levels in a game you’re not playing? It just doesn’t translate into a movie plot: Cross a bridge before it 
collapses. Enter the elevator before the bad guys attack… Boooring. The jokes are not funny, the script is awful, the CGI is relentless, and the characters are shamelessly stolen from movies like Blade Runner, Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Tank Girl.
Perhaps fans of the game will enjoy seeing their favourite characters on the big screen, but otherwise I can’t see any reason to watch this.
Only the River Flows
Co-Wri/Dir: Wei Shujun
It’s the early 1990’s in China. Detective Ma Zhe (Zhu Yilong) is a recent arrival to Banpo, a rundown small town on the Yellow River. HIs wife is pregnant with their one child, He was an award winning cop back in Yunnan before transferring here and the ambitious Police Chief (Hou Tianlai) has high hopes. He wants to move the police HQ to an abandoned cinema. But first, Ma’s team must prove its crime-solving talent. Lucky for Ma a kid finds a dead body by the riverbank. It’s an old lady who tends her geese but rarely interacts with anybody else. She lives with a formerly homeless drifter she adopted, who people in the village call Mad Man. However any evidence was washed away with the flowing river. A similar killing is discovered a few days later by the river; a local poet, whose writing ties him to a single woman.
There are a lot of seemingly unconnected clues. A cassette tape found near a crime contains crucial information recorded on it. One interrogated witness admits his guilt —- but is he telling the truth? The more clues they find, the less sure Ma is. And the longer he takes to close the file, the more agitated his ping-pong-playing Police Chief becomes. Eventually, truth merges with fantasy until Ma can’t tell his dreams from reality. Can he regain his clear 
head and catch the real killer (or killers)? Or will this case be his last?
Only the River Flows is a policier portraying an earlier China that’s dirty and poor. Though it involves a series of killings, the mystery is less important than the mood: dark, wet and crumbling. There are some surprisingly memorable scenes: like a primitive CSI where they strike a hog carcass to determine which knife was used in the killing. The film manages to be cynical and satirical, without being out-and-out depressing, poking fun at things like the PRCs obsession with official banners and awards. The acting is good, but the camerawork and art direction is great, infusing the film with a miserable nostalgia. I’ve never seen a film by Wei Shujun before, but his reputation precedes him. And he was born after the film takes place.
Not bad at all.
Cuckoo
Wri/Dir: Tillman Singer
It’s the forests of Bavaria, in the not-so-distant past. Gretchen (Hunter Schafer) is a depressed and angry 17-year-old who carries a switchblade in her pocket. She likes scowling and playing goth music on her electric guitar. She was sent to Germany to stay with her divorced dad, his second wife and their kid Alma (Mila Lieu) after her mom died. They live in a modern house near a seedy, isolated resort — named after the cuckoo — that they want to develop. The hotel is owned and run by a slimy control freak named Herr König (Dan Stevens), who hires Gretchen to work at the front desk; We need more English speakers, he says.
But she soon discovers this guesthouse is no picnic. Female visitors are prone to vomiting and keeling over in the lobby. Strange noises and powerful invisible waves, coming from nowhere, wreak havoc with their brains. And when Gretchen rides her bike home one night — over Herr Konig’s objections — she is closely followed and nearly killed by a terrifying hooded woman — with round glasses and grasping claws — running all the way. She narrowly escapes by seeking refuge inside the local hospital. But the police dismiss her scary experiences as a prank by local kids. Her family and their friends (except her mute half-sister Alma, and a bearded detective named Henry) seem to have turned against her. The longer Gretchen stays there, the more beaten up she gets, with an arm in a sling and gauze across her forehead. But every attempt to escape is thwarted by invisible forces, fueled by time gaps in her memory. Can she ever get away from this godforsaken place? And who are the scary people here: Demons? Vampires? Werewolves?
Cuckoo is a highly-original story of a sensitive teenaged girl 
trapped in a bizarre situation. It’s a fantasy thriller/horror but different from anything I’ve seen. It’s not set in any particular era but probably the 1990s. (Picture older hospital rooms, endless rows of filing cabinets) Writer-Director Tillman Singer also composed some of the songs. The acting is excellent, and more than that, the actors really seem to enjoy their strange characters, especially Hunter Schafer (Euphoria) and Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey). Cuckoo is funny, sexy, scary, totally unpredictable and weird as all get-out.
I loved this one.
Borderlands, Only the River Flows, and Cuckoo all open this weekend in Toronto; check your local listings.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website culturalmining.com.
From Venus to Limbo. Films reviewed: The Strangers: Chapter 1, Limbo
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Toronto’s Spring Festival season continues with Inside Out, the 2SLGBTQ+ film festival which opens this Friday, and runs through June 1st. The opening night show is the comedy My Old Ass, starring Aubrey Plaza, and the closing night show is a must-see for Toronto music-lovers; it’s called We Forgot to Break Up, and features tunes by iconic artists like Peaches, Gentleman Reg, The Hidden Cameras and Torquil Campbell of Stars.
But this week, I’m looking at two new movies — a mystery and a horror — about what can happen when you end up in a small town. There’s a police detective caught in Limbo an outpost in the Australian outback, and a young couple looking for a way out of Venus, a small town in Oregon.
The Strangers: Chapter 1
Dir: Renny Harlin
Maya (Madelaine Petsch) and Ryan (Froy Gutierrez) are a young couple driving from New York City to Oregon in a fancy new SUV. Maya is a young architect aiming for a position at a Portland firm, and Ryan is willing to relocate if she gets the job — they’ve been together for 5 years and things are looking good. Until they turn off the highway for a bite to eat, and find themselves in an isolated town called Venus, Oregon. GPS doesn’t work here and wifi and telephone signals are intermittent at best. And the people all seem like extras from the movie Deliverance. And when they come out from the local diner their car — mysteriously — isn’t working anymore. Says the mechanic: We gotta wait for parts before we can fix it. So they are forced to spend the night at an Air BnB, a small cabin in the woods isolated even from the town. It’s a creepy place, filled with scary, old things like… record players! And a piano! And a chicken coop out front! They’re disturbed by a loud rapping on the door by a young woman in a hoody, her face obscured. But when the girl leaves, 
everything seems kinda normal again. So, like the sensible couple they are, he drives back in town, leaving her alone in the cabin to smoke a joint. That’s when things get really scary.
A man in a mask keeps sneaking up on her and spying on her but he disappears as soon as she turns around. Not eventually she discovers it’s not her imagination. There are three sadistic killers chasing her and Ryan all over the place, holding a giant axe. They’re all wearing masks: a burlap sack with a face drawn on it, a baby doll mask, and one that looks like a 1920s flapper. Can Maya and Ryan somehow escape these scary people, and get away from this awful little town? Or will they just die?
The Strangers: Chapter 1 is a cabin-in-the-woods horror movie. Cabin in the Woods movies are sub-genre I like. And the acting is not bad — Madelaine Petsch is Blossom from the TV series Riverdale. You can sympathize with the two main characters. And it even a bit scary. But there’s something wrong with this movie. It’s non-stop deja vue. It’s like a collage of scenes blatantly stolen from countless other horror movies. I’ve seen all these masks before. I’ve 
seen the guy with the axe. The wooden house, the chickens — it’s like they didn’t even try to think up something new. I’m tempted to blame this on AI, but I think it’s just lazy writers. And it doesn’t even make sense. Do the killers wait around for hapless strangers to arrive at random so they can put on their stupid masks and terrify them. And if so… Why? The title should tell you something — it’s “Chapter 1” in a potentially endless series. So don’t expect it to explain anything — maybe that comes in chapter 19 or 20.
I was actually looking forward to seeing this movie, because it’s by Finnish director Renny Harlin who was a big name in the 90s for his classic action thrillers like Die Hard 2, and The Long Kiss Goodnight. But The Strangers is so deeply stupid it tarnishes his reputation.
Limbo
Dir: Ivan Sen
Travis (Simon Baker) is a police detective in South Australia. He has buzzed hair and beard, aviator-style glasses and tattoos all over his body. He’s also a junkie — he carries his paraphernalia wherever he goes. This time, he’s been sent to the outback to investigate a cold case about a girl named Charlotte who disappeared two decades earlier. The police never caught the actual criminal, nor find the missing girl… maybe because she’s aboriginal. So Travis pokes around for clues. Unsurprisingly, the locals are not impressed. Charley (Rob Collins) Charlottes brother, had been blamed for her disappearance.
He tells Travis to fuck off. Emma (Natasha Wanganeen) the waitress in the town diner, wants to help — and likes having Travis around. And the three kids she takes care of also want to find out what happened to Aunt Charlotte. And then there’s Joseph (Nicholas Hope), a sketchy old guy who lives in a cave, and who used to run dodgy party nights for teenagers with a friend. He denies any involvement but seems to know a lot. Meanwhile, Travis is stuck there till they fix his car — he’s forced to drive around in an ancient jalopy. Can he get the locals to talk? Will he ever discover what happened to Charlotte and why? And as he uncovers deep dark secrets, will the people there end up better or worse?
Limbo is a detective drama about an old mystery. It’s a slow burn — very slow in fact — more like a revelatory drama than a mystery. It deals with dark secrets and the pervasive class divisions and racism toward the indigenous people there. It takes place in the lunar landscape of an area once exploited for opal mines, with deep tunnels drilled into the ground and hills made of the rubble they dug up. The hotel he stays in has walls drilled into the earth. Everything is dirt, sand, rock and sun. The people all seem to live in caves or mobile homes.
This indigenous Australian director, Ivan Sen, is also the writer, producer, cinematographer, editor and the composer of the soundtrack, so it has a completeness about it, the work of a single mind. It has amazing panoramic views, all done in black and white. The production design and aesthetics of the film — sets, costumes, cars — is very cool as well. And great acting. If you want to watch a moody, noir-ish drama under a bright summer sun, I think you’ll like Limbo.
The Strangers: Chapter 1 opens theatrically this weekend; check your local listings. Limbo is now available on VOD.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website culturalmining.com.
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.
Daniel Garber talks with Paul Kemp about Searching for Satoshi
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Exactly 15 years ago on Halloween day in 2008, an unknown man named Satoshi Nakamoto published a white paper that has affected countless people’s lives. That’s the same year as the Great Recession that followed the Wall Street crash and bailout. The paper was an elegant mathematical treatise outlining BitCoin, a parallel, person-to-person crypto-currency that functions without any bank, credit corporation or national government at its helm. Satoshi Nakamoto released his design of a blockchain database for anyone to use. But a few years later, in 2011, he disappeared leaving Bitcoins now worth as much as $70 billion. Who was he? Where did he go? Why did he disappear? And is Satoshi still alive?
Searching for Satoshi: The Mysterious Disappearance of the 
Bitcoin Creator is a new documentary that looks at the elusive Satoshi Nakamoto and who he (or she?) really was. The film tracks down some of the people rumoured to be him, and tries to see whether he’s still alive. It’s the work of multi-award-winning Toronto documentarian Paul Kemp. I’ve spoken about his work many times on this show. I interviewed Drew Hayden Taylor about the series Going Native and the doc The Pretendians that Paul Kemp directed and produced, and talked about Transformer with Michael del Monte and trans bodybuilder Janae Marie Kroczaleski which Kemp produced.
Searching for Satoshi premiered earlier this week on The Passionate Eye and is currently streaming on CBC Gem.
I spoke to Paul Kemp in Toronto via ZOOM.
culturalmining.com 
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