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.
Daniel Garber talks with Ugana Kenichi about The Gesuidouz at #TIFF24
Photograph by Jeff Harris.
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Translator: Aki Takabatake
The Gesuidouz are a punk band in Tokyo. Hanako is the band’s leader and vocalist, the only woman in the group. There’s Ryuzo on bass, Masao who wears a fright wig on guitar, and blonde mohican Santarou on drums, who doubles as the band’s cook. They write their own music and lyrics, perform live and have released a dvd album. The only problem is… they’re terrible! There’s no tune, rhythm or meaning to these songs, just a lot of incoherent noise. Almost no loyal fans and their discs are still sitting in cardboard boxes. Their manager issues an ultimatum: he’ll find them a house in the country to live in, but if they can’t write and release a hit single in time, this band is finished. What will become of The Gesuidouz?
The Gesuidouz is a Japanese punk-music comedy that reinvents the rock movie. It’s the work of indie filmmaker Ugana Kenichi. His fantasy films have screened at festivals worldwide, including Slamdance, Porto and many others.
I spoke with Uganda Kenichi in a room at the Hyatt Hotel during the Toronto International Film Festival, where The Gesuidozus had its World Premiere.
Genre movies. Films reviewed: Relax I’m from the Future, Strange Way of Life, Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Fall Film Festival Season in Toronto continues in October with Toronto After Dark, showing New Horror, Sci-Fi and Action movies from Oct 18-22 at the Scotiabank Theatre in front of huuuuge audiences, the perfect things to watch as Hallowe’en gradually approaches.
This week, I’m looking at strange new takes on traditional genre movies — a science fiction comedy, a western, and a vampire movie — two of which played at TIFF this year. There’s a reluctant vampire in Quebec, two old friends in the old west, and a misbegotten traveller… from far in the future.
Relax, I’m From the Future
Wri/Dir: Luke Higginson
Casper (Rhys Darby) is a guy from the future dressed in a purple lycra onesie. He jumped through a wormhole into the present but isn’t exactly sure what to do now. He doesn’t need anything fancy, he just wants to experience this era, one he considers great musically, artistically and all around cool. The one catch? He can’t go back to the future — he’s stuck here. Luckily he meets a compatible friend named Holly (Gabrielle Graham), a self described black, queer vagina-muncher. She agrees that right now is the best of all possible worlds for her. Though she thinks Casper is a homeless nut bar, she humours him and his strange stories. But everything changes when he proves to her he knows things he couldn’t know unless he travelled in time. Like what’s the next winning lottery ticket or predicting a strange phenomenon falling from the sky. So they agree to team up, to make some money and then save the world. What he doesn’t realize is there’s an assassin sent back in time by the government to disintegrate people just like him. Doris (Janine Theriault) is a ruthless killer who enjoys zapping miscreants like Casper. Then there’s Percy (Julian Richings), a suicidal waiter at a diner who is always doodling weird punk cartoon sketches. In the future, long after his death, Percy will become a famous folk hero, and Casper really wants to meet him before he dies. But will his actions upset the cosmic balance?
Relax, I’m from the Future is a funny low-budget science fiction comedy
about ordinary people bungling there way through time. I admit it, I’ll watch any time-travel movie, no matter how bad. Luckily, this one’s pretty good, both quirky and funny, with some clever, new time-travel twists, and minimal special effects. The costumes are great and the director make good use of split screen technology. It’s shot around Toronto and Hamilton, featuring local hardcore punk band PUP, with a mainly Toronto cast including horror stalwart Richings as Percy and featuring kiwi comedy star Rhys Darby from Flight of the Concords in the title role. If you want something light and silly, check out Relax, I’m from the Future.
Strange Way of Life
Wri/Dir: Pedro Almodóvar
Silva (Pedro Pascal) is a rancher in the Old West. He lives in a homestead in the mountains with his incorrigible, adult son. Jake (Ethan Hawke) is the sheriff of a small town who lives in a simple room. The two once were close but haven’t seen each other for 25 years. Until Silva walks through the police station door one day. Why is he there? Perhaps it has to do with a recent killing, whose shooter is still unknown (though Jake has his suspicions.) Or maybe it’s something totally unrelated to that. Soon enough, they’re up in Jake’s apartment for some hanky-panky as if they never left their wild young days. They were lovers once across the border in Mexico a quarter of a century earlier. Can that relationship be rekindled? Or will the recent murder make that impossible?
Strange Way of Life is a short western about old friends meeting once again. It has showdowns and shootouts, horses and blankets, basically everything you’d expect from a western, just abbreviated and distilled. It’s instantly recognizable as the work of Almodovar: he uses primary colours to push a blue sky, red bandana or green denim jacket into the centre of your vision. It’s all done in the style of a 1960s spaghetti 
western, complete with panoramic scenery, twangy orchestral music, the whole shebang, but with a new, gay twist. This includes a frankly erotic — though not explicit — flashback to a scene involving red wine and Remingtons in a Mexican hideaway. He manages to pack a lot into 30 minutes but it still feels like the preview to a longer feature. But it’s showing along with another 30-minute short by Almodovar, so you’ll get your money’s worth.
Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person (Vampire humaniste cherche suicidaire consentant)
Co-Wri/Dir: Ariane Louis-Seize
Sasha (Sara Montpetit) is a teenage girl who lives with her cousin in an abandoned warehouse in a small Quebec City. She’s pale with long straight black hair and bangs who dresses like Wednesday Addams. She was traumatized at a childhood birthday party in the 1970s when her parents ate the clown. Now, half a century later, she’s still a teen and still can’t bring herself to kill people. Though a vampire she exists by sipping blood out of plastic medical pouches not jugular veins. Her dad and mom (Steve Laplante, Sophie Cadieux) sympathize with her, but think it’s time for her to grow up and kill some people. Otherwise her fangs may never emerge. That’s why she’s living with her cuz.
Paul (Félix-Antoine Bénard) goes to the local high school and has a part-time job at the bowling alley. He’s shy and withdrawn. He is brutally bullied both at school and at work by classmates who call him nacho boy and pour cheese whiz into his running shoes. If life is so miserable, why bother living, he thinks. And when he meets Sasha at random in a railway stockyard one night, something clicks. She needs to suck blood, and he’s willing to die. But as they get to know each other better they 
realize there’s something more between them. But how long can it last?
Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person is a very sweet coming-of-age romance in a semi-supernatural setting. It has a retro-goth feel to it with a fair amount of kitschy nostalgia woven in. This movie really grabbed me for some reason. I wasn’t expecting much, so was pleasantly surprised by how nice it is. Sara Montpetit and Félix-Antoine Bénard make a lovely couple of depressed misfits. And, despite occasional blood and horror, it’s mainly a sweet and vampiric rom-com.
Strange Way of Life and Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person both played at TIFF, with Strange opening this weekend, and Humanist next weekend both at the TIFF Bell Lightbox; And Relax I’m from the Future is also opening 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 Patricia Chica about Montreal Girls
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Rami is a young, naive pre-med student from the middle east who has just landed in Montreal. He’s staying with his cousin, the singer in a hardcore punk band. He wants to become a doctor to save people like his mom, who died of cancer. But when he sees what Montreal has to offer, his career goals take second base to his cultural and love interests. Poetry and women mean more to him than university textbooks. Torn 
between two beautiful, sexually-experienced women — Desiree, a photographer, and Yaz, a nightclub promoter — who happen to be best friends, he doesn’t know which way to turn. Can Rami figure out what to do with his life while juggling Montreal Girls?
Montreal Girls is a new, coming-of-age drama about the immigrant experience within that vibrant multicultural metropolis. It explores, sex, music, culture and family ties as a young man discovers a new world. The film is a first feature by Montreal-based award-winning director Patricia Chica who also co-wrote, produced, and edited the movie. A graduate of filmmaker programs at TIFF and Netflix/Banff, Chica’s work as a producer has been seen on Bravo, MTV, Showcase, National Geographic and many others outlets.
I spoke with Patricia Chica via ZOOM in Montreal.
Montreal Girls is playing in Toronto as part of FEFF, and for a run at the Revue Cinema.
Non-TIFF movies. Films reviewed: Nightclubbing, Honk for Jesus, Save Your Soul
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
TIFF, the Toronto International Film Festival starts in less than a week, and kicks off fall film festival season in Toronto.
I‘ll be bringing you lots more about TIFF later, but don’t forget the other festivals on this month. Caribbean Tales International Film Festival runs from Sept 7th through the 23rd; The Toronto Independent Film Festival is on from September 14 – 17; and the Toronto Palestine Film Festival opens on September 22nd.
But this week I’m talking about a couple movies not playing at festivals. There’s a documentary about the rise of punk rock in New York City, and a mocumentary about the fall of a Baptist preacher in Atlanta.
Wri/ Dir: Adamma Ebo
It’s springtime in Atlanta, Georgia, and churchgoers are preparing for Easter. It will also be the date of the triumphant re-opening of a Baptist megachurch, under the direction of Pastor Lee-Curtis Childs (Sterling K. Brown). Along with his wife, “First Lady” Trinitie Childs (Regina Hall) are looking forward to the triumphant return of their flock. But he has important issues to deal with — like what suit should he wear — his pink Prada, his purple Prada or his periwinkle Prada. Presentation is important. Trinitie, likewise, has been shopping for a particular beaded church hat, the perfect combination of beauty, wealth and reserve. But so far the response has been less than stellar; only a handful of true believers show up for the first Wednesday night service.
The Pastor is known for his fiery, passionate preaching, about things like the “sins of homosexuality” and other such vices. But he fell from grace after his own sexual dalliances came to light. Nothing illegal — “consenting adults” and all that — but his reputation as a trusted guide and healer is in tatters. Meanwhile a rival church has sprung up down the road. Run by a younger couple, Keon and Shakura Sumpter (Conphidance, Nicole 
Beharie), their church has no dark clouds hovering overhead. A few of the faithful have stuck with the Pastor, but most of them switched churches. Can Lee-Curtis and Trinitie convince their flock that all is well and it’s time to come home? Can Trinitie stand by her husband after what he did? Or is this the beginning of the end?
Honk for Jesus, Save your Soul is a satirical social comedy about hypocrisy in religion. The title refers to one of their many attempts to get people to come back to the mega-church’s reopening. The film is done in the form of a documentary, an invisible crew that follows them around, unwittingly exposing their embarrassing or horrible behaviour. (Through no fault of her own, the “First Lady” suffers the effects of his misdeeds.) This alternates with off-camera moments, like Lee-Curtis and Trinitie attempting to have sex in bed (apparently, for a man with a mission, he doesn’t want anything missionary-style just 
from behind with his eyes closed, to her great disappointment.)
Does this movie work? Only partly. It’s a comedy but it’s rarely funny. The camerawork is well done — from their gaudy suits and the royal thrones they sit on, to poignant images like a tiny black Jesus statue wheeled out in a last attempt. And the acting is very good: Sterling K. Brown perfectly plays the pastor as a conceited show-off, bearing his near-naked body whenever possible. Regina Hall as the always suffering Trinitie — who has to face the vitriol of her former friends — gives a nicely sympathetic performance. But the movie itself drags. There are few surprises. It feels way too long, and it’s not very funny… it just makes you squirm uncomfortably. Honk for Jesus all you want, but don’t rush to see this one.
Nightclubbing: The Birth of Punk Rock in New York City
Wri/Dir: Danny Garcia
Its the 1960s in a rough neighbourhood in Manhattan. Max’s Kansas City is a restaurant with an upstairs bar and lounge, where musicians perform before small audiences. Its down the street from Andy Warhol’s factory whose denizens hang out there along with writers and artists. But everything changes when the Greenwich Village mainstay, The Gaslight, loses its lease. Its manager moves to Max’s and starts booking bigger and bigger acts. Velvet Underground, establishes its rep there, as a place for independent bands. Iggy Pop meets David Bowie at Max’s and start to collaborate, and the New York Dolls set up camp there. As its fame grows, punk becomes a phenomenon with lots of sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll. Max’s washrooms double as a notorious site for quickies. Someone in the film says they everyone there was high all the time, with heroine the drug of choice. Malcolm McLaren shows up after 
Sid Vicious leaves the Sex Pistols and becomes the Doll’s manager, bankrolling their rehab in exchange for them wearing his clothes on the stage. Though CBGBs ends up more famous, it’s Max’s that really starts the punk scene in NY.
Nightclubbing is an oral history of the early days of the NY punk scene told by the musicians themselves, their fans and followers, staff at the clubs, family and friends. Featured artists include Billy Idol, Alice Cooper, Penny Arcade, Sylvain Sylvain, and many many others.
Illustrated with still photos and archive footage, it is meticulously researched and edited into a continuous seamless narrative. And the music never stops. Some people 
are on the screen for just a few seconds, with maybe a simple line or two, while others, like Jayne County, provide the funniest and juiciest bits. And it’s a pretty juicy story. Like did you know Deedee Ramone’s girlfriend tried to pull a Lorena Bobbitt on him when she discovered he was hustling on 53rd st? Or that Max’s owners were busy counterfeiting hundred dollar bills in the back room? The club closed forever in 1981, but its legend lives on. If you’re into the history of early NY punk, Nightclubbing is a must-see.
Nightclubbing: The Birth of Punk Rock in New York City will be playing at the Carlton Cinema in Toronto on September 16th-18th; and you can catch Honk for Jesus, Save your Soul across North America starting this weekend; check your local listings.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website, culturalmining.com
Daniel Garber talks with Chris McKim about his new doc Wojnarowicz: F**k You F*ggot F**ker
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
It’s the 1980s in New York, a city in decay, nearly bankrupt and crumbling, with the AIDS epidemic looming just around the corner. David is the son of an abusive dad who grew up in Hell’s Kitchen. He’s a rebel, in a punk band and into transgressive writers like Genet and Rimbaud. He earns money selling sex in Times Square. He expresses himself through murals in abandoned piers, and stencil graffiti spray-painted on city sidewalks. He samples found images, photocopying and 
rephotographing them. But suddenly he’s at the epicentre of a new art movement in the East Village. His paintings appear at the Whitney Biennial and people are paying money for his art. Eventually he becomes a central voice in both the art and gay rights movements before he died in his thirties in 1992.
Who was this David Wojnarowicz, anyway?
Wojnarowicz: F**k You F*ggot F**ker is the name of a new documentary about the life and work of the artist, writer and activist. The film incorporates voice recordings, film, video and stills as well as new interviews with his contemporaries. It follows the events of his life where art, culture, sexuality and politics interacted. The doc is produced by WOW Docs / World of Wonder’s Randy Barbato & Fenton Bailey and directed by award-winning filmmaker Chris McKim, known for his wide range of projects from co-creator of RuPaul’s Drag Race to the Emmy-winning documentary Out of Iraq.
I spoke with Chris McKim in L.A., via ZOOM.
Wojnarowicz opens today in Toronto at the digital TIFF Bell Lightbox
Do opposites attract? Films reviewed: Tito, Uncle Peckerhead, My Days of Mercy
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Do opposites attract? This week I’m looking at three new indie movies about odd combinations. There’s an introvert confronting an aggressive frat boy; a law-and-order lawyer vs an activist opposed to capital punishment; and a punk band with a hillbilly roadie… who’s also a cannibal!
Tito
Wri/Dir: Grace Glowicki
Tito (Grace Glowicki) is a young guy who lives alone in an empty wooden house. He’s tall and gangly, dressed in black with heavy brow and sideburns, and straight hair tucked behind his ears. He always carries a red plastic whistle around his neck, to scare way the baddies. And they’re everywhere, banging at the doors, scratching at the windows or just roaring and howling inside his head. He’s 
very hungry – down to just pickle brine in the fridge – but he’s too scared to go outside.
Everything changes when he wakes up to find a strange man in his kitchen, cooking breakfast. Who is he? John (Ben Petrie) says he’s there to lend a hand and make a friend. Tito is petrified and repulsed by this invasion, but he joins him at the table. John is the yin to Tito’s yang. He’s a frat boy bro who gesticulates with grand gestures and talks and shouts non-stop; while the introverted Tito can barely choke out a syllable. But when he passes 
Tito a joint, the voices in his head turn to music, and he even lets John take him for a walk. Can Tito emerge from his shell? Can this odd couple become friends? Or will it lead to trouble?
Tito is a stylized and impressionistic character study, a look inside an introvert’s brain. Sort of a cross between acting, modern dance 
and pantomime. Petrie is great as John, the self-declared “pussy-hound”. He’s loud, manipulative and bursting with barely-controlled aggression. And Glowicki perfectly conveys a young man’s paranoia with a hunched-over walk, pulled inward and cringing at the slightest provocation. Tito isn’t your usual comedy, drama or art house film, but is fascinating and watchable nonetheless.
Uncle Peckerhead
Wri/Dir: Matthew John Lawrence
Judy (Chet Siegel) is a happy-go-lucky musician in her thirties whose dream is finally coming true. Her punk band – called Duh – is going on their first tour! They make a good trio: Mel (Ruby McCollister) on drums is a ginger-haired nihilist, Max (Jeff Riddle) on bass and vocals is a friendly chowderhead, bald and bearded; and Judy – skinny with long black-hair, who plays bass and lead vocals – keeps the group running. She has everything ready – demo tapes, T shirts, a full roster of music, and clubs booked to play it in. There’s only thing missing: money – barely two coins to rub together. They’ve already quit their day jobs
and they’re being kicked out of their apartment. But when their van gets repossessed, they’re really in trouble. How can they go on tour without wheels?
Luckily they meet a polite and friendly man with a van (David Littleton) who offers to be their roadie. He’ll drive and do the heavy lifting in exchange for meals and gas money. It’s a deal! And what’s his name? “My dad always called me Peckerhead, but you can call me Peck.” They’re all set… except for one problem. At midnight, Peck changes in strange ways, and a hidden evil beast emerges. And pretty soon they’re leaving a pile of half-eaten mutilated corpses 
wherever they go.
Uncle Peckerhead is a horror/comedy road movie, about the usual aspects a touring band faces – pretentious musicans, unscrupulous managers, adoring fans – combined with hilarious extreme violence and gore. It starts out quirky and funny, but gradually builds to an over-the-top, blood-drenched finish. Fun music, silly characters, unexpected situations and lots of splashing blood. Siegel is great as Judy and Littleton steals the show as the aw-shucks, cannibal yokel.
My Days of Mercy
Dir: Tali Shalom-Ezer (Princess)
Lucy (Ellen Page) is a woman in her twenties who lives in a small Ohio town with her older sister Martha (Amy Seimetz) and her little brother Ben (Charlie Shotwell). The three of them drive their camper across the country to protest capital punishment in front of prisons where an execution is about to take place. She’s part of a large community of protesters that regularly meet and comfort one other. At one such demo she shares a cigarette with a woman named Mercy (Kate Mara). The two are quite different – Mara is a well-dressed lawyer with neatly cut blond hair from Illinois, while Lucy is working class, in jeans and T-shirt – but something clicks. When the two meet again they become friends, and ther friendship leads to a relationship. Soon they’re meeting in motels, the RV or in Lucy’s 
home for passionate sex.
But something keeps them apart. Mercy’s father is a cop whose partner was killed. She’s at the demos to support the executions. While Lucy is there because her dad is on death row, blamed for the murder of her mom. She, Martha and Ben have spent the past six years devoting their lives to save him. Can Lucy and Mercy overcome the political and family divisions that keep them on opposing sides? Or is their romance doomed from the start?
My Days of Mercy is a great Romeo and Juliet (or Juliet and Juliet?) romantic drama, tender and moving, and starkly told. Each episode 
is set outside a different prison, punctuated by a still shot of a dying prisoner’s last meal. Their romance is erotic, the sex scenes tastefully done, though surprisingly vanilla (were Lucy and Mercy both raised by missionaries?) It’s beautifully shot in a realistically rendered working-class home and the insides of actual prisons. Ellen Page and Kate Mara are full of passion and pathos as the star-crossed lovers, their story skillfully told. It’s a real tear-jerker – I cried at least twice – both for the couple and the horrors of executions. I recommend this one.
Tito and Uncle Peckerhead are now playing digitally and VOD and My Days of Mercy starts today.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies each Friday morning on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website culturalmining.com.
Changes. Films reviewed: Venus, RBG, Boom for Real
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com.
Spring Film Festival Season is going strong in Toronto with world premiers, features and short films to reflect every taste. Inside Out is one of the world’s largest LGBT film festivals; ICFF, the Italian Contemporary film festival, has parallel screenings in eight cities across Canada; and Toronto’s Japanese Film Festival features great movies and a special appearance by Nobel Peace Prize co-recipient Setsuko Thurlow. And brand new this year is Toronto’s True Crime Film Festival – the title says it all. They’re all coming soon.
This week I’m looking at three new movies – a dramedy ad two documentaries – opening today, which (coincidentally) are all directed by women. There’s a teenaged boy who changes New York’s art scene, a diminutive judge who changes US laws, and a woman in her thirties who just wants to change herself.
Venus
Dir: Eisha Marjara
Sid (DeBargo Sanyal) is a Montrealer in her thirties going through some major changes. Her longtime boyfriend Daniel (Pierre-Yves Cardinal: Tom at the Farm) dumped her, and a strange, 14-year-old kid has been following her 
around. But the biggest change of all is her gender – she’s transitioning from male to female, and is about to appear as a woman, in public, for the very first time. That’s when Ralph (Jamie Mayers) the 14 year 
old skate kid who’s been following her around finally tells her why: Sid, he says, you’re my dad!
What?! First of all, she says, I only have sex with men, second of all I’m brown – Sid is of a Punjabi ancestry – and you’re white. But doesn’t she remember Kristin from high school? (Kristin is 
Ralph’s mom and Ralph read in her diary that she had a fling with Sid as a teenager).
When she gets over the shock Sid takes a crash course in Parenting for Dummies, and starts to bond with Ralph. Her 
ex-partner Daniel reappears in her life, and accepts her change of gender. And her estranged parents, her transphobic Mamaji (Zena Darawalla) and laid-back Papaji (Gordon Warnecke: My 
Beautiful Launderette), welcome her back with open arms when they discover they’re grandparents. But trouble lurks. Will Daniel come out publicly as her partner? Will Ralph tell his Mom he found his birth parent? And will Sid survive the stress of transition?
Venus is a very cute dramedy, one that shows pathos without too much treacle, and keeps you interested. And the cast is uniformly believable and endearing, especially the principals: Sanyal, Mayers and Cardinal.
RBG
Dir: Julie Cohen, Betsy West
In 1970s America it was not illegal to refuse women bank loans without a man’s signature, to fire them for being pregnant, to pay them less than men, to bar them from public schools, private clubs and other institutions… even for husbands to rape their own wives.
Enter noted lawyer Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Born in Brooklyn, she is one of few female students at Harvard Law in the 1950s which helps shape her legal outlook. She observes the oppression and panic of 
the Red Scare. She also experiences discrimination first hand, as she and other women are ignored by professors and barred from accessing archives. Later, she works for the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) and begins to challenge laws that discriminate against women, 
one at a time, through lawsuits. Many of her cases make it to the all-male Supreme Court, whose members understand civil rights on the basis of race, but can’t yet conceive of it on the basis of sex.
She teaches them what’s what.
Later this diminutive, shy woman becomes a law professor, a circuit judge in the Washington, D.C. Appeals Court and eventually a Supreme Court 
justice herself, often leading dissenting positions on the increasingly conservative court. More recently, in her eighties, she has been adopted by young feminist activists as a “rock star” or celebrity of sorts; an unusual role model for a youth-obsessed culture.
RBG is an interesting and informative – if conventional – look at her policies, her home life, her late husband, and her love of opera.
Boom For Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat
Dir: Sara Driver
It’s 1978 and New York is a bombed out city. Crime rates are soaring, the government is bankrupt, and poor neighbourhoods like the Lower East side are abandoned and crumbling. With hard times come big changes. Both Punk rock and hip hop culture 
are developing side by side, and into this incubator steps a 16 year old boy named Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Born in Brooklyn, the son of a Haitian Dad and a Puerto Rican mom, Jean Michel is homeless, 
kicked out for dropping out of high school. Now he’s couch-surfing in the lower east side, and becoming an artist. He expresses himself as SAMO, a graffiti artist. But instead of the 
bold, chunky murals and tags that cover the subways Jean-Michel scrawls pensive poetry and enigmatic thoughts using plain – though distinctive — letters. He later develops his images – childlike hearts, crosses, three pointed crowns, Batman and science books – and applies them to diverse media: everything from walls, to clothing, to refrigerator doors. He targets walls near Soho, so galleries will notice. He already 
thinks of himself as a superstar, just one who is not famous yet.
But Soho galleries don’t care much about youth, punk, hip hop or black culture in general. So the artists create their own spaces in a DIY mode. Still a teenager he attends seminal art happenings and events around the city, whether or not he is actually invited, spontaneously adding his art directly 
to gallery walls And he refines his distinctive look, with short dreads and a partly shaved skull.
Boom for Real is a brilliant documentary about an artist life before his incredible fame in the art boom of the 1980s and his untimely death. It situates him within an era: of Fab 5 Freddy and Planet Rock; Club 57 and the Mudd Club; Grafitti art, Jim Jarmusch, club kids and Quaaludes, fashion, music, rap and art. It’s the best sort of documentary, one that functions as a constantly-flowing oral history told by the people who were there. It shows a fantastic array of period photos, videos and images documenting Basquiat’s teenaged years. Even the closing credits are thoughtfully laid out.
Beautiful movie.
Venus, RBG, and Boom for Real all open today in Toronto; check your local listings.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Friday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website, culturalmining.com.
Can depression lead to great sex? Films reviewed: Axolotl Overkill, Entanglement, Fake Tattoos
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Feeling blue? Don’t worry, things will get better, and bad events, even depression, can sometimes lead to great sex. This week I’m looking at three movies (from Berlin, Montreal and Vancouver) where a chance meeting offers new hope to depressed people.
There’s a brooding introvert picked up by a girl at a thrash concert; a teenaged girl who encounters a middle-aged woman in a coke-filled haze; and a depressed guy who wants to have sex …with his sister?!
Axolotl Overkill
Wri/Dir: Helene Hegemann (Based on her novel Axlotl Overdrive)
Mifti (Jasna Fritzi Bauer) is a student at an alternative high school in Berlin, and she’s depressed. Her parents are divorced, with her mom in hospital, brain dead, and her rich dad gallavanting around with no time for his kids. She’s forced to live with her adult half-sister and half-brother, in an uneasy arangement. She hates school and acts out, upsetting everyone she meets. She even gets in a food fight with the lunch lady. Turns out this lunch lady is an equally rude TV star named Ophelia (Mavie Hörbiger) who is working at the school because she was sentenced to community service. She’s beautiful, famous,
and occasionally psychotic. Mifti attaches herself to Ophelia and her entourage to explore and discover the mysteries of Berlin’s nightlife. This involves exotic pets, throbbing music, cigarettes and handguns. She goes on weekend-long benders, snorting coke in men’s rooms, and picking up cab drivers for furtive sex. Somewhere along the way she meets a strikingly beautiful, but mysterious, woman named Alice (Arly Jover), who is at least three times her age. They embark on an intense 
sexual relationship. Can Mifti survive her dysfunctional family, her nihilistic nature, and her crash-and-burn lifestyle? Or will it all come tumbling down?
Helene Heggemann is 25 now, and a sensation in contemporary Germany. This is her first directed feature, but she’s been writing novels and plays for a decade. I like the picaresque structure of the movie, journeys from place to place with Mifti absorbing it all, taking it all in. At the same time, Mifti is self-centred, rude and offensive — and comes from a privileged background — so it’s hard to sympathize with her. Lots of passion and emotion in this movie but no love, just alienation. The plot’s confusing too, so it’s hard to tell what’s real, what’s imaginary and what’s a flashback. Still, I enjoyed this unsparing look at underground Berlin seen through a teenager’s eyes.
Entanglement
Dir: Jason James
Ben (Thomas Middleditch) lives alone in an apartment in BC. He was married and successful, until his wife ran off with another guy. Now he’s severely depressed, to the point of suicide. He’s seeing a child psychologist (he’s 30) and takes anti-psychotic meds. Only his 
neighbour Tabby (Diana Bang) is looking out for him. He has hit rock bottom… until two random events change everything.
First his parents tell him a family secret. He has a sister he’s never 
met… well almost a sister. In fact she was an infant adopted by his childless parents but taken back on the first day when his mother discovered she was pregnant. Ben decides to find his almost sister. Next he meets a woman at random who is everything he’s not. Ben is gangly, ginger haired and shy. Hanna (Jess Weixler) is vivacious and spontaneous, willing to break into a swimming pool for a late night skinny dip. She is sexy and wild, with bleached-blonde hair. She’s a pick-pocket and also a bit of a stalker – she pursues Ben with a vengeance. She even wants to have sex with him. Tabby warns Ben to take it slowly… she might not be what she says she is. But Ben is totally 
into her… even though Hanna might be that almost sister he’s looking for. He’s convinced it’s all quantum physics, random events are all connected and we should let the universe figure it out.
Entanglement is a fun and comic look at a dark subject – depression, attempted suicide and psychotic breakdowns. It shifts from simple comedy into psychedelia, as Ben sees the world in his own way. It also has a very surprising ending – no spoilers. Middleditch and Weixler make a great yin and yang couple, while Bang is perfect as the “straight man.”
I liked this movie a lot.
Fake Tattoos (Les Faux Tatouages)
Wri/Dir: Pascal Plant
Theo (Anthony Therrien) is a shaggy-haired guy in Montreal, celebrating his 18th birthday. He’s broody and intense, into hardcore black Tshirts and tattoo designs. He quaffs a six pack of beer – bought legally for the first time – and heads to a thrash punk concert by himself. He’s a loner, but lets loose in the crowd, just another moshing body.
Afterwards a young woman approaches him about a tattoo on his arm. It’s a fake, she says, but a good one. Mag (Rose-Marie Perrault) has a nose ring and blonde hair with pink tips. She’s getting over a bad breakup. She’s a funny extrovert, and tries to break through Theo’s standoffish attitude. They end up sleeping together, which quickly turns from a one-night stand into an intense serious relationship. This may be love. Alas, like a cup of 
yogurt, it’s due to expire in just a few weeks. He’s moving to LaPocatiere a small town way up the St Lawrence, to get away from something terrible in his past. Why is Theo a loner? What is he escaping? Can Mag recover from a previous bad relationship? And will their love endure?
Fake Tattoos is a wonderful story about young summer lovers in Montreal. The pair have amazing chemistry that comes through in this short and simple love story. It’s a sweet look at first love. This is Pascal Plante’s first feature – 
it played at Slamdance and at the Berlinale this year — and I can’t wait to see his next one.
Entanglement opens today in Toronto; check your local listings. Fake Tattoos and Axlotl Overkill are both playing at the TIFF Next Wave Film Festival that’s on next week. And if you’re 25 or under, tickets are free – go to tiff.net for details. This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Friday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website, culturalmining.com.
Village People. Films reviewed: Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures, Silence, 20th Century Women
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Everyone lives in a neighbourhood, whether it’s a city or a small town. This week I’m looking at movies about village people. There’s a photographer in the East Village, a priest in a Japanese village, and a woman who believes it takes a village.
Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures
Dir: Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato
Robert Mapplethorpe was a major 20th century artist who rose to fame just as four major changes were taking place: the gay liberation movement, the Aids crisis, the socially conservative backlash under Ronald Reagan, and the sudden rise in value of contemporary art and photography. Born in Queens NY he went to Pratt art college and moved in with 
underground poet and musician Patti Smith. He smoked acid and boiled a dead monkey. Mapplethorpe fell in with the jet-set of the ultra-rich in Mustique, in the Caribbean, creating a demand for his black and white photos. And his second life was spent in a legendary S&M gay bar called the Mineshaft in the meatpacking district. Likewise, he divided his work 
into three categories: X, Y and Z. Explicit gay S&M imagery (X); flowers (Y); and nude portraits of African-American men, focusing on their genitals (Z). He died of Aids in the late 80s at the height of his career, just as conservative Jesse Helms blocked his art from a Washington museum, plus a court case labelling his art as obscene.
This documentary covers his life and career, and most of all reveals his work. It’s a great introduction to his art and its history, but I was bothered by its stance: venerate the art – as significant and valuable; but denigrate the artist – as vain, selfish, ambitious and petty.
Silence
Dir: Martin Scorsese (based on Endo Shusaku’s novel)
Rodrigues and Garupe (Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver) are Jesuit priests in 17th century Portugal. The Jesuit mission to convert the Japanese under Frances Xavier has failed: the Tokugawa government banned Christianity, and closed off the country to all outside contact. Japanese Christians have reverted back to Buddhists or else practice their religion underground. Worst of all, their mentor, Father Ferreira (Liam Neeson) is missing. So they sneak into Japan with the help of a shady fisherman named Kichijiro (Kubozuka Yousuke). Once there, to their surprise they discover hidden Christians everywhere, who call them Padre and rush to confess. But behind the scenes lurks the grand inquisitor Inoue (Ogata Issei), a samurai whose sole job is to flush out hidden Christians, and convert them to Buddhism. When he finally meets 
Rodrigues, the two embark on an extended religious debate. Who will triumph? The Christ-like Rodrigues or the cunning Inoue?
Silence is a beautiful-looking movie. For Rodrigues, Japan is witnessed mainly through cracks in wooden walls, either hiding from the authorities or imprisoned by them. The islands are lush and green shrouded in a mist that surrounds the padres and their followers. But 
once the action shifts to a battle of minds on government land, it becomes sharp and austere.
The original novel is by Shusaku Endo, a Catholic Japanese novelist (a rare thing). Andrew Garfield (who plays Rodrigues) is becoming a poster child for Christian philosophy in a Japanese setting – he’s also starring in Hacksaw Ridge about a conscientious objector fighting in Okinawa in WWII. Garfield is great, as is the entire Japanese cast, filled with top actors and a surprising number of directors. (You can tell they all want to appear in a Scorsese film). To name just two, Kubozuka is fascinating as the Judas character Kichijiro, and Ogata is amazing as Inoue (he starred in Aleksandr Sokurov’s masterpiece The Sun). Silence is a long and intense movie, filled with philosophical debate, and punctuated by disturbing death and torture. This is not an easy movie to take in but it’s well-worth seeing.
20th Century Women
Wri/Dir: Mike Mills
It’s 1979. Dorothea (Annette Bening) is a single mom in small town California who works as a designer in a canning factory. She’s a 20th century woman who wears Birkenstocks and smokes menthol cigarettes. She was the first female pilot in the Air Force in WWII. Now she lives in a big house with her son Jamie (Lucas Jade Zumann). Jamie is 15, rides a skateboard and just hangs out. But when he nearly dies after a silly game, Dorothea realizes they aren’t connecting anymore. So she asks for help from the younger women in her life. Julie (Elle Fanning) is Jamie’s childhood crush. She likes riding her bike and 
attending her mom’s psychotherapy encounters. She’s exploring sex and will sleep with any guy she likes…except Jamie. Well she’ll sleep with him and share his bed, just no sex. Abbie (Greta Gerwig) rents a room in their house, recovering from cervical cancer. She’s a punk 
photographer who dyes her hair red. She introduces Jamie to feminism with a copy of Our Bodies Ourselves. He gets in his first fist fight at school in an argument about clitoral orgasm. And then there’s William (Billy Crudup) a hippy handyman drifter who repairs the house in lieu of rent. Mom is loving and giving and wants to share it all with Jamie and the rest, but fears the effects of feminism, and the sexual revolution on his development as a man. And Jamie? He just wants to live life and make sense of it all.
Twentieth Century Women is a funny and fascinating ensemble piece. It’s narrated by an omniscient version of Dorothea in some future incarnation. There are a few jarring anachronisms: would a 15 year old in 1979 receiving a gift of recorded music exclaim “It’s a Mixtape!”? But that doesn’t detract from this excellent coming-of-age story within an impromptu family. Great movie.
Silence is now playing, 20th Century Women opens today in Toronto; check your local listings; and Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures opens on January 13th, with a special screening at the AGO. This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Friday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website, culturalmining.com
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