Big. Films reviewed: The Ballad of Wallis Island, Freaky Tales, The Friend
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Holiday Creep. People have been complaining about it for decades: Christmas lights appearing in September, chocolate Easter Eggs on sale in January… but have you ever heard of ‘Halfway to Halloween’ ? Well that’s what they’re calling a new series of films streaming on Shudder in April, marking six months since the last creepy holiday. I haven’t seen them yet, but some of these look really 
good. Like the Irish folk-horror FRÉWAKA, and Shadow of God, a Vatican exorcism thriller described as a “cataclysm of biblical proportions”.
But this week I’m looking at three new movies, two dramadies and one found-footage compilation. There are big egos on a remote island, big crime on the streets of Oakland, and a Great Dane in a tiny New York apartment.
The Ballad of Wallis Island
Dir: James Griffiths
Herb McGwyer (Tom Basden) is an irritable English musician who has fallen on hard times. He once was half of McGwyer/Mortimer, a folk-rock duo that dominated the charts of the early 2010s. But they broke up when McGwyer went solo, dumping his partner and lover. While still a name, he has lost any credibility he once had. So he agrees to do a private concert before a small crowd on a remote island… for half a million pounds. He is greeted on the stony beach by an enthusiastic ginger-bearded fellow named Charles Heath (Tim Key). Charles likes bad jokes, bulky sweaters and McGwyer/Mortimer. He’s a super fan, and talks non-stop.
McGuire wishes he’d shut up and leave him alone in his hotel room before the concert. What he doesn’t know is, there is no hotel, just Charles’s rustic stone cottage, the small audience will be just Charles… and it’s not a solo performance, but a double bill. Nell Mortimer (Carey Mulligan) his former partner is on her way from Oregon, and the two haven’t seen each other in more than a decade. Will 
McGwyer/Mortimer get back together again? Will the two fall in love again? Or is McGwyer taking the next boat back to the mainland? And where did Charles get all his money?
The Ballad of Wallis Island is a poignant musical- comedy about the big plans of an ordinary fan. It’s done with a faux retro feel, as if the group split up 50 years ago, not 10. Somehow, all of McGwire/Mortimer’s music was released on vintage vinyl, with all their concerts on VHS. And they really do sing: Tom Basden is a actual musician and Carey Mulligan has a lovely voice. Basden wrote the screenplay with the comedic Tom Key, and they’re a hilarious odd couple. But it’s the tender humour of this story that leaves you feeling warm and fuzzy inside.
I liked this movie a lot.
Freaky Tales
Wri/Dir: Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck
It’s 1987 in Oakland California, and trouble is brewing. A gang of neo-nazi skinheads is terrorizing punks (Jack Champion, Ji-young Yoo), by raiding their home base, 924 Gilman, to ruin a concert and smash up some heads. A debt collector (Pablo Pascal) is sent on his last job, to extort some money from a clandestine poker player. A corrupt kingpin (Ben Mendelssohn) is sponsoring a criminal raid on the home of a celebrated basketball player named Sleepy Floyd (Jay Ellis). And Danger Zone (Normani, Dominique Thorne), a pair of wannabe rappers who work at an ice cream parlour, find themselves in a rap battle against a noted misogynist. All these events are happening simultaneously to people leaving the celebrated Grand Lake Cinema after a show. But who will triumph at these battles royales — the good guys or the nazis?
Freaky Tales is an entertaining slice of nostalgia from the 1980s, told in the form of four, vaguely-linked chapters. Apparently they’re based on events that actually happened in Oakland in the 1980s. I love the 
look of this movie; it’s littered with 80s colour combos like pale green with lavender. And it liberally plunders images from old films, including The Warriors and David Cronenberg’s Scanners. The soundtrack is terrific, featuring hardcore, metal and hiphop all in one movie. And it’s got big stars like Pedro Pascal, Ben Mendelssohn and even a cameo by Tom Hanks. What’s missing though, is a real story, not just a hodgepodge of battles, fights, and massacres. I get it, it’s a tribute to an era and the city of Oakland, but where are the surprises, twists or experimentation? Not here.
Like I said, I enjoyed watching it, but there’s very little going on beneath its comic-book surface.
The Friend
Wri/Dir: Scott McGehee, David Siegel
Iris (Naomi Watts) is a writer and editor who lives in a sunny, rent controlled apartment in New York City. She teaches creative writing at a local college, but isn’t doing much writing herself. Instead she’s editing the work of her best friend Walter (Bill Murray), her mentor, one-time professor and even once a lover. Problem is, Walter’s dead and besides his unfinished manuscripts, he also left behind three former wives and an adult daughter Val (Sarah Pidgeon) he barely knew.
Iris is dealing with writers’ block, and pressure from his publisher to finish editing his work (“dead Walter is much hotter than living Walter”). Most of all she’s coping with her unexpressed mourning over Walter’s unexpected death. And then, suddenly, she finds herself in charge of Apollo, an enormous and stately Great Dane. For some reason, Walter had decided that Iris, not any of his three widows, would be the one best suited to handle his other best friend. But Iris doesn’t like animals and doesn’t know how to treat them. And it’s not like Walter left her any instructions. Apollo is petulant and bossy, pushing her out of her bed and lording it over her home. He won’t eat his food, he won’t drink his water. Iris is at loose ends. But just as she starts learning how to co-exist with the dog, she faces a bigger 
dilemma. It would be devastating to the dog to be torn away from his home yet again. But to discretely keep a Great Dane in a pet-free, rent-controlled apartment is insane… and grounds for eviction. IS there anyway she can save them both? And will Iris and Apollo ever come to terms with Walter’s suicide?
The Friend is a touching comedy about friendship, loss and mourning. For Iris, the friend of the title is both Walter and Apollo. It’s based on a novel by Sigrid Nunez, and it’s told using a literary narrative voice. We listen to Iris the writer, as she deconstructs and rewrites parts of the story we’re watching, even as they happen, with input from the dead writer Walter. Sounds stuffy and academic, right? But although it exists in an world of writing and publishing, this film is funny, sad and deeply moving. Naomi Watts carries the show as the introverted but empathetic writer Iris. And the monumental Great Dane is presented with amazing dignity. Apollo is never comical, nor does he talk, but he manages to convey emotions as deep as any of the human characters.
A very touching film.
The Ballad of Wallis Island, Freaky Tales and The Friend 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.
Unobtainable, unsustainable, inevitable. Films reviewed: Bookworm, Monkey on a Stick, Smile 2
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Toronto Fall Film Festival season continues with Rendezvous with Madness presenting docs and dramas, features and shorts, about addiction and mental health followed by in-person discussions, starting on October 25th.
But this week, I’m looking at three new films, a kids’ movie, a doc and a horror film. There’s a precocious girl looking for the unobtainable; a group of deranged gurus trying to hold onto the unsustainable; and a pop starch wants to escape the inevitable.
Bookworm
Co-Wri/Dir: Ant Timpson
Mildred (Nell Fisher) is a young girl who lives with her mom in New Zealand. She loves reading but hates school. Her desk is surrounded by leather-bound books alongside a microscope, a telescope, a typewriter and a record player. She talks like a grownup, and is obsessed by wild animals. Her dream? To catch on film a black panther said to be roaming in the woods (along with a big fat cash prize for anyone who can take a picture of it.) But her plans all change when her mother is sent to hospital in critical condition following an exploding toaster. That’s when her biological father comes into the picture. He flies in from America to save the day.
Strawn (Elijah Wood) is a professional magician — he prefers “illusionist” — who loves magic: like making small things disappear or pulling coins from behind someone’s ears. Most people are wowed by Strawn’s prestidigitations and puppy dog eyes, but not Mildred. She scoffs at magic and is quick to reveal all his tricks. They two are opposites at heart. If you say “David Copperfield” she thinks of Dickens while he thinks of the 
magician. Nonetheless, they are stuck together for now, so he agrees to take her camping. But little do they know of the exciting adventures and frightening dangers — like criminals, wild animals and crazy escapes — that lie ahead.
Bookworm is a very cute coming-of-age adventure about two strangers put together to form a makeshift family. It feels like a cross between a Roald Dahl Matilda and Taika Waititi’s Hunt for the Wilderpeople. It’s shot in the New Zealand wilderness amidst stunning mountains, cliffs and lakes. Nell Fisher is adorable as the obnoxiously mature Mildred, while Elijah Wood is equally adorable as the man-child who won’t grow up. I wanted to see this one because I loved director Ant Timpson’s bizarre debut, the violent comedy Come to Daddy. Bookworm is as different as any film could be but just as enjoyable.
I liked this one a lot.
Monkey on a Stick
Dir: Jason Lapeyre
It’s 1965 and America is in high hippie mode. A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada arrives in New York City from Calcutta. He’s there to sell books, including his own translation of the Baghdad Gita. But he ends up heading the Hare Krishna movement, a vast multinational phenomenon, a religion that espouses dancing, singing and chanting mantras in order to achieve a better afterlife. After picking up many devotees in New York, the movement exploded in popularity once he reaches California. Allen Ginzburg endorses it and George Harrison writes a song about it. Countless people join the religion, throwing away material possessions to dance, chant and collect alms in airports. But when the Swami dies, he leaves behind eleven gurus. That’s when things start to fall apart. This documentary — based on a bestselling book — exposes the crimes and excesses of the Hare Krishna movement in the 1970s and 80s.
One guru — in order to generate more money — sets up a drug ring of devotees instructed to smuggle hash from Pakistan to Canada. They have ties to the mob, leading to a series of violent crimes until it is finally exposed. Another guru collects automatic weapons, and goes on a shooting spree in California. A third guru — a self-declared Swami — the scariest of them all, builds himself an ornate golden castle in West Virginia, while his disciples — who have given away all their worldly 
possessions — live in a shanty town beside the castle without toilet paper or plumbing. He later plans murders and is suspected of molesting children.
In fact, the movement as a whole is riddled with problems. Women are treated as inferior beings who distract male practitioners from their religious obligations. Homosexuality is strictly forbidden as is all sex outside marriage. And heavy censorship prevails — no TV, magazines, newspapers, movies, or books are allowed, except for one official newspaper. And by the second generation — the 1970s and 80s, when most of the documentary takes place — kids are sent to schools with teachers who have no training. They lock kids in dark closets or dump them in trashcans as punishment, among even worse crimes.
Monkey on a Stick is a documentary that looks at crimes of the Hare Krishna movement. It’s told using talking heads — including former devotees — period footage, and many reenactments, with actors visually demonstrating what the narrators are talking about. There’s also a series of random people sharing their views on religion, God and the afterlife. Though quite disturbing in parts, on the whole, it’s a fascinating story that exposes events I had never heard about before.
Smile 2
Wri/Dir: Parker Finn
Skye Riley (Naomi Scott) is a pop superstar, about to launch a worldwide tour. She lives in a luxury apartment on Park Avenue, and can buy anything she wants. She’s busy 24/7 at dance rehearsals, talk show appearances and autograph signings, under the constant supervision of her stage mom (Rosemarie DeWitt) and her PA (Miles Gutierrez-Riley). It’s her big comeback, after a year of rehab. This follows a bout of addiction culminating in a terrible car crash that killed her boyfriend and put her in intensive care. A year later, she still suffers from intense pain, pain so bad she is forced to buy opioids on the sly. But everything changes when she witnesses her high school friend (and drug supplier), Lewis (Lucas Gage) kill himself in front of her eyes in the most gruesome manner imaginable. And he dies with a rictus grin plastered on his face.
That’s when things start to go bad. Everywhere she looks she
sees that awful smile. It’s like she caught a disease by witnessing her friend’s death. She starts seeing people who aren’t really there, and experiencing events that never happened — even though they feel so real. She begins to doubt her sanity. It’s like some alien presence has lodged itself into her brain. Her friends, family and colleagues look at her in a strange way, even as she fears she’ll end up dead in a matter of days, with that same awful smile. Can she break this smile cycle? Or is she headed for insanity and death?
Smile 2 is a genuinely-scary psychological thriller/ horror about fame, celebrity, and a deadly condition passed on from person to person. It’s also one of those Hollywood rarities: a sequel that’s demonstrably better than the original. Naomi Scott is terrific as Skye, a punky, self-centred celebrity; Skye’s not just a horror movie screamer, she’s a real character, complete with a psyche and a believable back story. The movie itself is really well made, with beautiful art direction, cool choreography, and ingenious camerawork and editing, where a scene can flip, elliptically, from an elevator ride to an overhead view of the street. Warning: it’s quite violent, so if you don’t like seeing blood and guts, stay away. But otherwise, Smile 2 is a really good, heart-pounding genre movie.
Bookworm, Monkey on a Stick and Smile 2 all open this weekend in Toronto; check your local listings.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website culturalmining.com.
TIFF24! Films reviewed: The Substance, Anora PLUS curtain-raisers
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
TIFF, the Toronto International Film Festival is now in full swing, showing films from around the world — basically what you’ll be seeing in local theatres over the next year or so. Though tickets have gotten a bit pricey and are hard to get, there are still some free screenings, and you can also stand in line for rush tickets even if they’re sold out. Meanwhile King Street West between University and Spadina is closed to traffic this weekend, and worth checking out — lots of games, free samples, drinks, food, and endless fans looking for a glance at celebrities.
So this week I’ll talk briefly about some TIFF movies to look out for, as well as two TIFF reviews. There’s an exotic dancer who meets a young Russian in Coney Island, and a TV dancercise star who meets her better self in Hollywood.
Curtain raisers
Here are a few movies coming to TIFF that look good.
Triumph, set in post communist Bulgaria, is about some high-ranking military brass on a top-secret mission to find a powerful, secret chamber, with the help of a psychic.
The Brutalist starring Adrian Brody, Felicity Jones and Guy Pearce, is a drama about a post-WWII Hungarian architect brought to America by a powerful industrialist who will change his and his wife’s lives forever.
Diciannove, is a first feature about a 19 year old man leaving Sicily to satisfy his obsession with 19th century (and older) literature.
And We Live In Time, starring Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield as two people who meet at random and form a couple.
These are just a few of many movies premiering at TIFF.
Anora
Wri/Dir: Sean Baker (reviews: Tangerine, The Florida Project, Red Rocket)
Ani (Mikey Madison) is an exotic dancer in her early twenties. She lives with her sister in a small house in Brooklyn. When she’s not performing on stage or doing lap dances in private rooms, she’s probably talking to her friends in the green room. Her best friend works there, and so does rival frenemy. Her whole life is centred on this nightclub, until one night when she is requested to handle a client who specifically wants a Russian-speaking dancer. Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn)
is just a kid, barely legal. After they have fun in the back, he invites her to spend a weekend at his house. It’s a mammoth gated mansion with huge windows and designer furniture. His king sized bed has red silk sheets, and they make love all night long. She meets his coney island entourage and his moustached body guard. Ivan is infatuated with Anora and she likes him a lot, too. On a whim, he flies them all to Vegas on a private jet where he claims his own special suite at a casino. Ivan throws $1000 chips on the table like petty cash. Then this kid buys Ani a huge diamond ring and a sable coat before he proposes. They are married the same day. What she doesn’t realize is he’s the son of an immemsely rich and powerful Russian oligarch. All this money and possessions belong to his parents and they want him back in Russia. They’re flying back to NY to annul the wedding and three tough guys arrive to keep them 
company. Is this legal? And can Ivan and Ani escape from their clutches?
Anora is a fantastic, high-speed adventure, full of emotion, humour, thrills, a bit of violence and lots and lots of sex. Mikey Madison is amazing as the tough but tender Anora, and newcomer Mark Eydelshteyn bounces around like a bag of springs waiting to uncoil. All of Sean Baker’s movies — Tangerine, The Florida Project, Red Rocket — are about sex work, and are always told from the point of view of the sex workers themselves. But Anora goes far beyond his previous work in both depth and feelings.
Rarely do I walk out of a movie thinking I want to watch this one again. Anora is that good.
The Substance
Wri/Dir: Coralie Fargeat
Elisabeth Sparkle (Deni Moore) is a TV star. She’s the queen of primetime dancercise, and has millions of fans. She’s been pumping away at it for decades in her trademark lycra leotards. She wears brightly coloured designer fashion, drives a snazzy convertible, and lives in a luxurious penthouse suite facing an enormous rooftop billboard with her smiling face and fit body staring back at her. But one day she overhears her oleaginous producer Harvey (Dennis Quaid) talking about her behind her back. To hell with ratings, he says, she’s jumped the shark. We need someone younger and prettier. Is her time running out?
She gets so flustered that she crashes her beautiful sports car and 
ends up in hospital. Miraculously, she escaped without a scratch, but an unnaturally handsome young medic, slips her a note. It’s a secret clinic where scientists have concocted a substance that can develop a “better” version of yourself — prettier, younger, and with more sex appeal — to keep you on top of your game. And after some misgivings, she follows the instructions to a secret place where she picks up the stuff. What she doesn’t realize is, it doesn’t actually make you any younger looking or prettier. No, it creates a fully formed body double to take your place. Sue (Margaret Qualley) takes over in public and lands a TV show to replace Elisabeth Sparkle. But like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, they alternate, one sleeps while the other one plays. And if either of them disobey any of the rules around the substance… bad things happen to them both.
The Substance is a cautionary tale about Hollywood’s extreme infatuation toward youth and beauty. It is shocking, disgusting and amazing. Quaid and Qualley are both great but if anyone understands Hollywood’s obsession with youth and beauty it’s Demi Moore. In 1991, she appeared naked while pregnant on the cover of Vanity Fair under the headline More Demi Moore. In 2005, she married Ashton Kutcher, 15 years younger than her. In this movie she’s allowed to take it to extreme proportions — no spoilers — toward a totally over-the-top ending. Director Coralie Fargeat is French, and though the cast and topic are American, it uses a quintessentially French female gaze. There’s a grotesque obsession with food, and who but a French would imagine an American network TV show on New Year’s Eve featuring topless Folies Bergeres dancers?!
Don’t get me wrong, this is an extreme movie, but it is also like nothing you’ve ever seen.
Anora and The Substance are both featured at TIFF this year — go to tiff.net for details.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website culturalmining.com.
A triptych and a prequel. Kinds of Kindness, A Quiet Place: Day One
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
If you’re wondering what to do on this long holiday weekend, I can tell you what you should do. Go see some movies. Here are two I recommend — an art house drama and a horror thriller. One’s a prequel in Manhattan, the other’s a triptych in New Orleans.
Kinds of Kindness
Co-Wri/Dir: Yorgos Lanthimos
(Past reviews: Poor Things, The Favourite, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, The Lobster, Alps, Dogtooth, )
It’s nowadays in the American deep south, where a lot of strange things are going on. Robert (Jesse Plemons) is an executive who lives a highly regimented life. Each day he reports his stats to Michael, the CEO. These include exactly what he eats at each meal, how much he drinks, even whether or not he slept with his wife (Hong Chau) the night before. He follows his boss’s orders down to the smallest detail. In return, his boss pays his salary and his car and sends him pricey — but inherently useless— gifts. But when Michael orders Robert to murder someone, he draws the line.
Daniel (Plemons) is a police officer whose wife Liz (Emma Stone) is lost at sea in a boat accident. She is eventually rescued and returns home. But he insists she’s not really his wife: she looks, speaks and acts exactly as his real wife did, but he is sure she was switched for someone else. So he thinks of ways to expose her plot.
Two strangely-dressed members of a bizarre religious cult 
(Stone and Plemons) centred on bodily fluids, are seeking a woman to join their group, because of special powers she might have. But is their devotion to the cult leaders Aka and Obi (Chau, Dafoe) absolute? Or do they owe allegiance to certain outside forces?
Kinds of Kindness is a series of three short, complete films shown in sequence. While each story has different characters, they are played by the same cast: Stone, Plemons, Chau, Dafoe, plus Margaret Qualley, Mamoudou Athie, and Joe Alwyn. Only one character, a cryptic, usually dead or nearly dead man known only as RMF (Yorgos Stefanakos) is in all three.
But this is a Yorgos Lanthimos film, so naturally it’s loaded with awkward behaviour, stilted dialogue, and deadpan humour. He also flirts with the most shocking and gruesome themes imaginable, things like accidental suicide, cannibalism, 
self mutilation, and drugged sex, but presented in the most blasé way possible. The art direction is brilliant, presenting garish consumerism in the form of giant pantsuits and bright coloured sports cars. So uncool it’s beyond brilliant.
The acting is fantastic.
Plemons plays variations on a theme: angry white guy, kiss-ass white guy, and angry kiss-ass white guy. Dafoe is a domineering patriarch, whether all-powerful, ineffectual or benign. Margaret Qualley can sex it up as a kept mistress or play it down as a veterinarian. And Emma Stone is perfect, as always, with fully-developed oddball characters in at least two of the films. I know people who love Lanthimos’s movies and people who really hate them. I’m on the love side, but I can’t say Kinds of Kindness didn’t disturb me. It did.
But that’s part of his genius.
A Quiet Place: Day One
Co-Wri/Dir: Michael Sarnoski
Samira (Lupita Nyong’o) is is a depressed and lonely poet. She doesn’t live in NY City anymore; nor does she write. She lives in a hospice now, waiting to die of an incurable illness, with only a kind nurse (Alex Woolf) and a little black and white cat named Frodo to keep her company. But today will be a bit different. She and the the rest of the patients are heading into the city to watch a show. Sam agrees to go, as long as she can have one of the things she misses most — a slice of NY pizza. But the trip is cut short by a surprise emergency announcement: everybody must leave the city immediately! The emergency is a series of fighter jets that are dropping something on the city, something dangerous and deadly. Soon the streets are chaotic, filled with crashing cars and screaming people. Sam is separated from her group, stunned by a huge explosion that leaves her covered with dust and ash.
What’s going on? A small army of enormous creatures that look like a deadly cross between insects and gorillas have descended on the city, slaughtering and eating hundreds of people at a time. They have long claws that can slash you apart, and can find you using their extremely sensitive sense of hearing. They can hear a pin drop a mile away. On the other hand, they can’t see, they can’t smell, they can’t swim. So if you stay completely 
still and make no human -ike noises, they can’t find you. The tunnels are flooded and the bridges destroyed to contain the monsters so the only way off the island is by ferries leaving the South Street Seaport. Waves of people head south… except Sam., her cat and an Englishman in a suit she met named Eric (Joseph Quinn). They’re walking against the tide, heading up to Harlem together to claim that last slice of pizza. But can they stay quiet long enough to get there alive?
A Quiet Place: Day One is an apocalyptic, dystopian thriller horror. Lupita N’yongo does an excellent job as a woman who is both strong and dying, adding pathos to what could have just been fear. I saw the IMAX version and the sound and camerawork is amazing, with blurred backgrounds and amazing tricks in the dark using flashlights and phones. Special effects are seamless; they look completely real. And there a number of moving scenes that rise above the usual horror you expect, like the foreboding in a marionette show. There are lots of poignant moments like that. Occasionally it goes over the top in its 
sentimentality, — like when Eric does a Charlie Chaplin style pantomime — but it usually stays in check.
Day One is a prequel to the rest of the Quiet Place series, giving some hints as to the origin of a world overrun by monsters, while intentionally leaving much of it unanswered. Are they aliens? Biological weapons? Were they created on earth or did they come from outer space? I don’t know, but it keeps you wondering all the way through this powerful horror thriller.
A Quiet Place: Day One, and Kinds of Kindness, both open this weekend in Toronto; check your local listings. This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website culturalmining.com.
Separated. Films reviewed: I Used to be Funny, Longing, Robot Dreams
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Not all love is sexual, and not all relationships lead to marriage. This week, I’m looking at three bittersweet dramas about people separated, against their will, from those they love. There’s a teenaged girl separated from her nanny (who is also a standup comic); a man separated from his biological son (who is also dead); and a dog separated from his best friend (who is also a robot).
I Used To Be Funny
Wri/Dir: Ally Pankiw
Sam (Rachel Sennott: Shiva Baby) is a standup comic in downtown Toronto. She shares an apartment with friends and fellow comics Paige and Philip (Sabrina Jalee, Caleb Hearon). But Sam can’t do her act anymore. She rarely showers, changes her clothes, or eats. She dumped her longtime boyfriend Noah (Ennis Esmer), and she quit the day job that used to pay her rent. Now she just sits around all day, staring at the wall. Why? Well, obviously she’s severely depressed. She’s also recovering from a traumatic violent event.
Things used to be better. She had a job in the suburbs as a nanny for a troubled 12-year-old named Brooke (Olga Petsa). Brooke’s mother was dying in hospital, her aunt had little free time and her dad was always busy — he’s a cop. But now Brooke has disappeared and her aunt doesn’t even know where to look for her. And when Brooke throws a rock through her window, Sam decides maybe she should join the effort to find the runaway and bring her home. But where is she hiding, why is she angry at Sam, and what will happen if she finds her?
I Used to Be Funny is a bittersweet comedy about a wise-
But it’s also Sam dealing with a not-at-all funny event — no spoilers here. It costars many Canadian comic actors, including Hoodo Hersi, Dan Beirne (The Twentieth Century, Great, Great, Great) and Jason Jones in a rare serious role. Rachel Sennott is excellent as Sam.
I Used to be Funny is a humorous look at depression and assault.
Longing
Wri/Dir: Savi Gabizon
Daniel Bloch (Richard Gere) is a successful businessman, and committed bachelor. He enjoys sex, not commitment or kids. He owns a factory and lives in a luxurious penthouse suite looking down on Manhattan. But when a when a surprise visitor arrives at his door, he is floored by her message. Rachel (Suzanne Clément) is a Canadian woman he had a fling with 20 years earlier. She reveals she was pregnant when she returned to Canada, later married and raised Allen — his biological son — with another man she married. But Allen died in an accident two weeks earlier. Daniel is floored. She hasn’t come for money or legal action, just to tell him the news. So he travels north to Hamilton, to attend a memorial and find out more about the son he never knew. And what he found was both frightening and endearing.
He talks to the people who played a key role in his son’s life, and discovers some surprising facts. He was a piano virtuoso. His best friend (Wayne Burns) says Allen was involved in a drug deal. A much younger girl (Jessica Clement) was in love with him, but says the feelings were not reciprocal. And his school teacher Alice (Diane Kruger) says he was obsessed with her and painted romantic poems about her on the school walls. What was Daniel’s son really like? And what can he do to remember someone he never knew?
Longing is a quirky, disjointed drama about kinship and death as a father desperately tries to become a belated part of his late son’s life. Richard Gere underplays his role, almost to the point of absurdity, but it somehow makes sense within the nature of his character. It’s also about the boy’s parents, not just Daniel and Rachel, but his other de facto parents And it all takes place in a very posh and elegant version of Hamilton, unlike any Hamilton I’ve ever seen. This is a strange movie that sets up lots of tension-filled revelations, but then attempts to resolve them all using an absurd ceremony.
Longing never blew me away, but it stayed interesting enough to watch.
Robot Dreams
Co-Wri/Dir: Pablo Berger
It’s the early 1980s in the East Village of NY City. There are tons of people, but they’re not people, they’re animals. Literally. Bulls and ducks, racoons and gorillas. Dog — a dog with floppy ears and a pot belly — lives there, alone in an apartment, gazing longingly out the window at happy couples cavorting in the summer sun. Dog plays pong by himself, or eats TV dinners while watching TV. He’s bored and lonely, with no one to play Pong with or just hang out. Until he orders a robot — as advertised on TV, some assembly required — and waits eagerly for it to arrive. He’s a delight with tubular arms, a mailbox shaped trunk, an elongated German helmet as a head, with round eyes and a happy smile. They are instant friends, maybe soulmates. They go rollerskating in central park, take pictures in a photo booth. Feelings grow. Another day they head out for the beach. They sunbathe and swim together — a perfect day. Until the robot finds himself rusted solid just as the beach is closing for the night. And despite Dog’s efforts, he is too heavy to drag home, so he comes back one next day to get him. But the beach is closed for the season, locked up behind a metal fence. And despite repeated tries, Dog can’t 
seem to rescue Robot from his sandy prison. Can Robot survive for a year, unmoving, in the great outdoors? And will that spark between Robot and Dog still remain in the spring?
Robot Dreams is an amazing animated film about friendship and loss. It’s called Robot Dreams because much of the film takes place inside the robot’s imagination as he lay on the beach, It’s set in the grittiness of 1980s New York, with graffiti-filled subways, punks in East Village, break dancing teens and Jean-Michel Basquiat. Remember Zootopia, that animated movie where everyone is an animal? Robot Dreams is the flip side of 
that, darker, cooler, adult, more Fritz the Cat than Disney or Pixar. There’s also no dialogue, but it’s anything but silent, with constant music and grunts and quick-changing gags and cultural references. But it’s also very moving — you can feel the pathos between Dog and Robot. I saw this movie cold (without reading any descriptions) and it wasn’t till afterwards that I realized it’s by Pablo Berger, the Spanish director who, more than a decade ago, made the equally amazing Blancanieves, a silent, B&W version of Snow White as a toreador. The man’s a genius.
I totally love Robot Dreams.
I Used To Be Funny, Longing and Robot Dreams all open theatrically 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.
Daniel Garber talks with Amnon Carmi and Ben Ducoff about Yaniv
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
It’s an average day at an inner city high school in New York City… and the kids are excited about the auditions for the annual school musical. But everything comes to screeching halt when the tight-ass principal cuts their budget down to zero. Bernstein, the director, is mortified, and his students are crushed. Until his grandpa comes up with a possible solution: gambling… but of a particular type. Apparently, there’s an underground card game at a secret location in Rego Park, where Chassids run a gambling den devoted to a game called yaniv… the 
same game Bernstein has played with his grandpa for years. And with the help of fellow teacher, card counter (and compulsive gambler) Jonah, maybe, just maybe, they can earn enough money to put on the play. But to make it work, Jonah will have to dress up like an actual Chassid, complete with fringes and prayer curls. Can they pull off the deception, and win enough money? Or is their downfall spelled Y-A-N-I-V?
Yaniv is also the name of a new film directed by Amnon Carmi and co-written by and starring Ben Ducoff. It’s a fish-out-of-water, 
madcap, high school comedy thriller — with a hint of romance — all set on the fringes of New York’s insular Chassidic community. Amnon Carmi is a filmmaker, animator and artist. Ben Ducoff is a dramatist, producer and performer. And they both teach at H.E.R.O. High School in the South Bronx.
I spoke to Amnon and Ben in New York City via ZOOM.
The film is having its Canadian Premiere at the Toronto Jewish Film Festival, on June 6, at 7:30 pm at the Ted Rogers Hot Docs Cinema.
Born, reborn. Films reviewed: Spark, Wilfred Buck, Babes
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Toronto’s Spring Festival season continues with TJFF, the Toronto Jewish Film Festival, starting on May 30th. I haven’t seen any of the films yet but some of them look really interesting: The Catskills, a doc about the heyday of borscht belt comics; Just Now Jeffrey, a coming-of-age comedy set during the last days of Apartheid South Africa; The Goldman Case, an historical chronicle of a French revolutionary; The Anarchist Lunch, a doc about the 30 year-long friendship of a group of Vancouver leftists; and Midas Man, a biopic about Brian Epstein, the man who made the Beatles into stars.
But this week I’m looking at three new features, two directed by first timers and one by an accomplished pro. There are two women preparing for births, a man who sees the same day constantly reborn, and another man who passes his knowledge on to the next generation.
Spark
Wri/Dir: Nicholas Giuricich
Aaron (Theo Germaine) is a young artist who lives with his platonic roommate Dani (Vico Ortiz). He’s single and on the prowl, looking for a lover, but with not much luck. So he is intrigued when he gets a mysterious invitation in a red envelope. A friend of his is planning a big party and she want to match up some of her friends before they arrive. So Aaron drives to the appointed place. He’s an artist at heart and draws little sketches on post-it notes to lead his potentially perfect match to his car. He is pleased to meet Trevor (three-time Olympic medalist Danell Leyva) a swarthy and smouldering athlete. In an otherwise empty house they tenuously chat, take a selfie, and pour a couple Old Fashioneds. Aaron is smitten, Trevor less so. But sparks do fly, and they wind up having passionate sex. But just at the point of climax… Aaron wakes up, groggy headed, and back in his own bed. Was that all a dream? But when Dani repeats the same 
things they had said the day before, and his publisher calls again for his drawings which he had sent him yesterday, he realizes something: it’s as if that day never happened. In fact, it’s the same day. He goes through the steps again, with Trevor, this time trying to fix his past mistakes, but to no avail — he’s back in his home, in a flash, right after sex. He repeats this date, over and over, testing out tiny changes to see how they might effect him or Trevor’s reactions, but no luck. Is he doing something wrong? What can he change to fix things? Or is he trapped in a never-ending cosmic sex loop.
Spark is a queer fantasy drama about a man caught in the never-ending cycle of a repeated day. I like these kinds of movies, from Groundhog Day to Russian Doll, where people are caught in a time warp. It’s also “queer” in that it’s about a gay relationship of sorts, between Aaron a gay transman who desires Trevor, presumably a gay cis man. And this is where it gets even more interesting. First that Aaron’s gender and his sexuality are never mentioned by anyone in the film; they don’t need explanation — they’re accepted as given. And Aaron is played by a non-binary actor, Theo Germaine, who was also a terrific — though very different character — in the TV series The Politician. Dani is played a non-binary performer as well. Perhaps in some future world this will be commonplace, but for now at least this is rare in its casually deft handling of identity, gender and sexuality within a science fiction milieu.
Very good first feature.
Wilfred Buck
Wri/Dir: Lisa Jackson
Wilfred Buck is an indigenous astronomer, educator and writer. He was born in the Opaskwayak Cree Nation in Northern Manitoba, near the Saskatchewan border. As a child he learned the thrill of the hunt with his friends, fishing at a nearby lake. As a young man, he made his way south to Winnipeg, where he was jailed almost immediately. In the 1960s, he fell in with a bad crowd, there. He liked the music, the drugs and alcohol a little too much, and ended up living on the streets, a self-described liar, thief and drug dealer. He was harassed, beaten up and almost drowned left to die in icy waters. But things started to change when he was taken under the wing of elders from his first nation and educated about his culture. He learned about rocks and nature, participated in a pow wow, and gradually learned about preparing crucial ceremonies like the Sun Dance: how to build a sweat lodge, and when to present tobacco. And he learned to look up into the night sky and 
understand the stars there. He became a knowledge keeper and an astronomer telling stories of what the constellations are, where the stars point and what they mean.
I grew up loving trips to the planetarium where the astronomer pointed out the three stars of Orion’s belt, or the chair-shaped throne of Cassiopeia. I took it for granted that they were discovered and named by the ancient Greeks and were accompanied by their stories. But what I didn’t know was that there are whole other constellations up there with their own stories attached to them. Wilfred Buck has devoted his life to passing on this knowledge of the skies to a new generation.
Wilfred Buck is a beautiful retelling of this charismatic man’s life story, partly narrated, partly reenacted, partly composed of period footage. Actors recreate the four stages of his life. All this is combined with the man himself pointing out gorgeous images in the night skies and on a planetarium dome. This story is both inspiring and invaluable as Buck passes on his knowledge to new generations.
Babes
Dir: Pamela Adlon
It’s early morning on Thanksgiving Day in New York City. Eden and Dawn (Ilana Glazer, Michelle Buteau) are meeting in Greenwich Village for a movie. It’s a tradition, one the best friends have kept for decades, ever since they were neighbours in Astoria, Queens. Eden, a yoga teacher, still lives there but Dawn is a dentist now, married with a kid and lives in a fancy brownstone in the Upper West Side. And she’s 9 months pregnant. But their tradition changes suddenly when her water breaks. To make sure it’s a birth to remember Eden sets out to buy her the most luxurious and expensive sushi ever… but is turned away from the hospital. Instead she shares it with a stranger in a red tux she meets in the subway. She ends up sleeping with Claude (Stephan James) and a few months later, she’s pregnant! He’s out of the picture, but she can’t wait to see her experience through from now till birth with her besty Dawn by her side. But how much time can a married mom with a full-time job, a 3 year old, and a crying newborn devote to her friend?
Babes is a comedy about how two friends deal with pregnancy and 
giving birth. It’s funny, surprising and audacious. It looks at morning sickness, amniocentesis, labour, placentas, lactation, breastfeeding, daycare, and everything — I mean everything — else, in an entirely new way. But it’s mainly just funny schtick, both in dialogue and their whole-body style of acting. The lines are clever and twisted, with virtually nothing I can repeat verbatim on daytime radio. I was laughing my head off, especially in the first half hour. And the bawdy acting — things like Dawn on mushrooms shooting imaginary jets of breast milk across the room, or Eden crawling between Dawn’s legs to see how dilated her vagina looks — is just brilliant. They’re both former standup and sketch comics — Ilana Glazer is known for Broad City, Michelle Buteau for Survival of the Thickest — and with their totally different body types, size and ethnicity, they play off each other with a sort of sloppy synchronicity. Not every gag works, and the serious parts of the story are less interesting than the funny ones. It’s also loaded with scatological references, way too many for my taste, but at least they talk about their bowel movements rather than showing them. And the men serve mainly as sidekicks — this is a women’s movie. Does’t matter; the side roles, from Elena Ouspenskaia as a doula, to Susanna Guzman as a babysitter, there are a couple dozen great characters.
Babes knows how to work it just fine.
Wilfred Buck now playing at the Hot Docs cinema in Toronto; Spark had its world premiere last night at the Inside Out Film Festival; and Babes opens this weekend at the TIFF Lightbox in Toronto; check your local listings.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website culturalmining.com.
Only in the Movies. Films reviewed: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, My Love Affair with Marriage, Talk to Me
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
In the film industry, one of the biggest gender gaps is with directors — very few movies are directed by women, and corporate studios are loathe to hire them. Which means we get tons of stories told from a male point of view, but far fewer from women. (Documentaries are an exception.) The Female Eye Film Festival showing this week in Toronto is trying to even the odds, by presenting new movies by women from around the world. But things might be changing. I went to a midweek promo screening when theatres are usually quiet, and was shocked to encounter a bright pink crowd. Women in pink skirts and wigs posing for selfies, skinny guys sporting neckerchiefs, kids, grownups, even grannies, were lined up for popcorn and packing the house with a degree of enthusiasm I haven’t seen since Harry Potter. Clearly, Greta Gerwig’s Barbie is a cultural phenomenon, and I do plan to see it, once the pink tsunami dies down.
This week, though, I’m looking at three new films, one horror and two animation. There’s a hand in Adelaide, Australia, a girl in Riga, Latvia, and four turtles in the sewers beneath Manhattan.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
Dir: Jeff Rowe, Kyler Spears
For anyone who hasn’t heard, Raphael, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Leonardo are four teenagers who live together in the sewer underground in New York City. When they were babies, a secret lab was raided spilling radioactive goo, turning four tiny turtles into mutant humanoid creatures. They were raised by a rat who also was exposed to the slime, and who trained them in martial arts. He has just one rule: never let humans see you, or they will call you a monster and hand you over to evil scientists who will milk you dry to create supersonic weapons. But the masked foursome, being teenagers, wish they could just be like normal humans, going to high school, the prom, meeting other friends… They finally get their chance when they team up with April O’Neil, an aspiring student journalist (nicknamed Puke Girl). If the TMNTs can stop a bizarre crime spree plaguing the city — and 
April report that story on TV news — maybe the people will welcome them in as heroes. Alas, it’s not as easy as it looks. There’s a gang of evil scientists who want their blood, and a mysterious group of mutant supervillains who may be just as strong they are. Can the Turtles avoid the scientists and defeat the mutants? Or will they live their lives eating pizza in the sewers of Manhattan?
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is a new reboot of the beloved comic, TV and movie franchise. Gone are the skateboards, surfer slang and whitebread voices of their earlier versions; this origin story starts again from scratch, in a multiracial city moving to the tune of 90s hiphop. At least they still eat pizza.. As always, it’s meant for 
small children, who seemed to like it a lot at the screening I went to. I liked it too. It’s visually stunning, with a colour palette ranging from acid green to day-glo blue and fluorescent red projected against dark city alleys. The characters themselves are a combo of 3-D models and hand-drawn illustration, with squiggles and scribbles appearing everywhere. And the voices —of the Ninja Turtles — are actual teenagers instead of grown ups faking it. I went in expecting very little and was surprised and pleased by its fast pace, sophisticated art work and fine music.
My Love Affair with Marriage
Wri/Dir: Signe Baumane (Rocks in my Pockets)
It’s the Soviet Union. Zelma is a little girl at her first day of school in Latvia. She’s tough and self-assured. When a boy starts bothering her, she clocks him. So she’s shocked when she is punished and ostracized for defending herself. “Girls don’t fight” she is told. She doesn’t wear makeup or bows un her hair, so the boy she has a crush on, studiously ignores her. Her mother instructs her to find a man, get married and put up with whatever he does. Later at university, she meets a fellow artist, Sergei, who flatters her and says he loves her. Could he be her soulmate?
Or is love just an illusion?
My Love Affair with Marriage is an animated, feminist coming-of-age story about a Latvian girl — and later as a woman and an artist trying to fit into a society that doesn’t seem ready to accept her. It handles her first period, her sex life, and her frustrating relationships and marriages. And it takes place both both during the USSR and after its collapse. (There’s even some scenes in Toronto.) It’s presented in the form of a highly-stylized animated musical, with three, bird-like women who 
sing songs about her progress like a veritable Greek chorus. The characters are beautifully-coloured, hand-drawn pen and ink, that vary from spare, to surreal, to scientific and even psychedelic. And that’s not all. It’s narrated through a series of medical drawings, narrated by a talking synapse. Each time Zelma falls in love or gets angry, it’s explained as her hypothalamus secreting hormones, oxytocin and dopamine. The film is told and sung in American English (Baumane is Latvian, based in Brooklyn) but it’s totally Eastern European in its humour, style and look. This is the second movie of hers I’ve seen, and I quite liked it.
Talk to Me
Dir: Danny and Michael Philippou
There’s a phenomenon going around on TikTok in Adelaide, South Australia. On the clips, people have weirdly distorted faces for a little while before they turn back to normal. Those who have done it swear it’s the most incredible thing they’ve ever experienced. So some friends decide to try it out one night. It isn’t drugs, it isn’t hypnotism, it’s something totally different. Mia (Sophie Wilde) has been deeply depressed since her mom died of a sleeping pill overdose so she’s sleeping on her best friend Jade’s couch (Alexandra Jensen). They go to high school together. Mia helps out with Jade’s younger brother Riley (Joe Bird). She picks him up from school and comforts him when he has one of his frequent nightmares. Riley and Jade’s single mom is working all the time. So they decide it’s time to try this new thing out, along with Jade’s boyfriend Daniel.
The party — if that’s what it is — focuses on a graffiti covered plaster hand. You light a candle, hold onto the hand and say “talk to me”. Then you say “I let you in” and that’s where the fun starts. You experience mind-blowing visions, your face distorts wildly, and some people do or say godawful things. 90 seconds later you blow out the candle and let go of the hand and it’s all over. The thing is, what you’re doing is opening the gate between the living and the dead, and allowing these ghosts/spirits/demons into your brain, for that short period of time. But when Mia, Jade, Daniel And Riley try it out, things don’t go exactly as planned. What is that hand? What does it do, 
exactly? And can they undo what they unwittingly started?
Talk to Me is a terrifying thriller/horror, one of the scariest movies I’ve seen in a long time. I’m talking pounding heart, gasping for breath, out-and-out horrifying sensations. It also includes a good dose of psychological thriller, in case you like that too. So if you don’t like scary — stay far away. There are some short-lived but shocking scenes of violence at key points in the film. I’ve seen countless movies about seances and ouija boards going bad, but there’s something about this one that feels entirely fresh and new. If you’re looking for some great horror, see Talk To Me.
Talk to Me opens this weekend, check your local listings; My Love Affair with Marriage is the closing film at the Female Eye Film Festival at the HotDocs Cinema in Toronto; and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem opens across the continent on August 2nd.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website, culturalmining.com.
Daniel Garber talks with Valerie Kontakos and David Bourla about Queen of the Deuce
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
New York City in the 1970s is a gritty city with a chip on its shoulder. Crime is rampant, and its government faces bankruptcy. But it’s also exploding with creativity and freedom of expression, in film, theatre, music and art, while the sexual revolution, the women’s movement and gay rights are in full swing. The city’s centre is 42nd street, and the strip running from Times Square to the Port Authority and north on 8th ave is filled with porn theatres and peep shows. And on top of it all sits a Jewish Greek-American woman, Chelly Wilson, ruling over her porn empire.
Queen of the Deuce is a fantastic new documentary about Chelly’s 
life, her work, her family and the world she built. Born in Thessaloniki, she hid her children, escaped the Nazi invasion, and gradually made her way to the top of the NY porn movie industry. The doc includes personal photos and letters, period footage, animation and talking heads to give a first-hand look at a previously unknown hero.
The film was directed by Valerie Kontakos, a well-known documentarian, founder of the NY Greek Film festival and on the Board of Directors of the Greek Cinematheque. The film features members of Chelly’s family, including her grandson, David Bourla, a screenwriter in his own right, known for action films like Push.
I spoke with Valerie in Athens and David in New York City from Toronto, via Zoom.
Queen of the Deuce is playing in Toronto at the Hot Docs Cinema as part of TJFF on June 3rd, 2023.
Feelings. Films reviewed: Almamula, About My Father, You Hurt My Feelings
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Inside-Out film festival is on now, playing a broad spectrum of movies, docs and shorts reflecting the world’s 2SLGBTQ+ communities. It avoids stereotypical LGBT films, choosing instead thoughtful and even experimental new films. For example, there’s a great new doc on the Indigo Girls called It’s Only Life After All and many, many more, now through June 4th, in person and online.
This week, I’m looking at three movies; an Argentinian drama from Inside Out, plus two new US comedies. We’ve got a rom-com, a social comedy, and a coming-of-age thriller.
Almamula
Wri/Dir: Juan Sebastián Torales
Nino (Nicolás Díaz) is a teenaged schoolboy with dark hair and glasses in Northern Argentina. He lives in a suburban neighbourhood with his Mom and Dad (Maria Soldi, Cali Coronel) and his older sister Natalia. But when word gets out that he’s gay, he is punched, kicked and spat upon by a group of boys from his school, who leave his bruised, unconscious body in a rusty car. And the attackers parents blame Nino for “corrupting” their sons’ minds. So the family packs up their car and moves to their dad’s second home, a huge wooden house, far away, in a remote rural area. He runs a business chopping up trees and bulldozing forests, but the workers are worried because another boy, also Nino’s age, recently disappeared into the woods and never came back. They blame it on Almamula, a mythical monster who lures boys and men into her clutches. She preys, they say, on carnal sin.
Nino is enrolled in confirmation classes learning prayers, morality and sin, along with lessons about puberty. But poor Nino has a one-track 
mind: sex. He finds himself turned on even by statues of a half-naked Jesus writhing on a cross. And he is drawn to the woods, hoping to see Almamula there. Only Maria (Luisa Lucia Paz) understand the old ways of the woods and helps Nino in his journey.
The verdant forest is filled with twisted vines, and mouldering swamps, simultaneously erotic and terrifying, like his own sexual thoughts. His dreams drift in and out of reality as he ogles workmen in his house, his sister’s boyfriend, and above all, a handyman named Malevo (Beto Frágola). A handsome indigenous fisherman, Malevo sleeps in a tent on the riverbank beyond the forest. He represents absolute freedom to Nino. Malevo rejects religion and follows other traditions — respect the forest or it will get revenge. Nino is torn between heaven and hell, carnal sin and carnal sex. Even when stigmata appear on his palms and thorns scratch his forehead, he can’t decide whether to worship Jesus or succumb the red-eyed monster. Surrounded by the obvious lies and lusts of the locals and his own family, which way will Nino turn?
Almamula is an unusual coming-of-age story about a teenager’s sexual awakening. It incorporates fairytales, mythology, and religion as seen through Nino’s confused and sexually-obsessed mind. Although not a horror movie, per se, it’s told in that style, with sounds of dragging chains, scary monsters, and highly sexualized nightmares. The old wooden house they move into creaks and groans, its ceiling fans rarely turning. And nature is always close by, both alluring and brutal in its grandeur. Great acting and beautifully shot in the wilds of rural Argentina, Almamula is a strange and fascinating story.
About My Father
Dir: Laura Terruso
Sebastian Maniscalco (Sebastian Maniscalco) is a hotel manager in Chicago in his 40s. He’s in a long-term relationship with his girlfriend Ellie (Leslie Bibb) a painter who just had her first one-woman show. After much hemming and hawing, Sebastian nervously agrees to meet her parents, and if all goes well, to smooth the way toward marriage. But there’s a fly in the ointment: his dad. Salvo Maniscalco (Robert De Niro) is a Sicilian immigrant and Sebastian’s only family, and he insists on coming along, too. A widower, Salvo was a successful hairstylist in his prime, known for his brash opinions, old-world ways and his generous use of men’s cologne. Sebastian is afraid he’ll embarrass him in front of his potential in-laws.
They get their first glimpse of Ellie’s family at an airport near DC when her preppy brother Lucky tells them to ditch their rentacar and fly with him in his private helicopter. Ellie’s family is not just rich, they’re filthy rich and Plymouth Rock powerful. Old money. His dad 
owns a chain of luxury hotels, and his mom Tigger (Kim Cattrall) is a Senator. Their summer home is a mansion inside a country club. Will they accept Sebastian into their rarified world? Does he want to be a part of it? And what about his dad?
About My Father is a broad comedy about class and ethnicity, and it’s kind of funny. I laughed more than once, and some of the side characters — like Tigger and the two brothers, Lucky and Doug, a new-ager — keep the plot moving. De Niro plays his dead-pan dad to perfection, reversing the role he played in the Meet the Fokkers series. The big question is who the hell is Sebastian Maniscalco, who write and stars in a movie, about himself (starting with a cute family history). In real life he’s a stand-up comic with some acting roles, not a hotel manager. The problem is the character Sebastian (a hotel manager) is prone to suddenly shift into the real Sebastian’s stand-up comedy schtick. I guess his die-hard fans will find it funny to see a comedian duck walk across a room flapping his arms, but to me it was just embarrassing. That said, though neither uproariously hilarious nor terribly original, About My Father is watchable, funny and even heartwarming.
You Hurt My Feelings
Wri/Dir: Nicole Holofcener
Beth and Don (Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Tobias Menzies) are married professionals living a comfortable life in New York City. They are also deeply in love, so close that they share ice cream cones. Beth is a published author who also leads writers’ workshops; she’s trying to get her first novel published. Don is a well-established therapist who mainly counsels bickering couples and neurotic individuals. Sarah (Michaela Watkins), Beth’s sister and best friend, lives nearby with her partner Mark (Arian Moayed). She’s an interior decorator, he’s an actor.
Everything’s going great until Beth and Sarah overhear Don and Mark talking about her latest unpublished novel… and her always loving, always supportive husband says her book sucks. Beth is devastated. Is their marriage a lie? Is nothing true? She’s not the only one going through a bad time. Some of Don’s patients are insufferable, and he finds himself forgetting who is who. Is he fit to be a psychiatrist? Sarah begins to think her thankless job is a joke, spending weeks 
tracking down a particular light fixture. And Mark wonders, at his age, why is he still a struggling actor? Even Beth and Don’s only son Elliot (Owen Teague) is working in a pot dispensary and refuses to show her the manuscript he’s writing. What can be done to fix all their lives?
You Hurt My Feelings is a very funny, satirical social comedy. It gently mocks everyone involved, but especially Gen-X educated, white, urban professionals. Like any comedy, it goes for the laughs but what sets this apart is that the characters are flawed, realistic and believable — rather than over-the-top exaggerations. Julia Louis-Dreyfus is as good as ever, and in a very different role from the wise-cracking ones in Seinfeld and Veep. This is a very sweet and funny movie.
About my Father and You Hurt My Feelings both open this weekend in Toronto; check your local listings. Almamula is playing tonight, Saturday May 27, 9:30 pm, at the TIFF Bell Lightbox as part of the Inside Out Film Festival.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website, culturalmining.com.
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