Daniel Garber talks with Neha Hallim, Roni Harel Haber and Taf Mangwiro about TIFF Next Wave 2025!
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
If you believe the trades, the lucrative 14-24 year old movie 
market only really want to see action movies preferably based on either a plastic toy or video game, or else set somewhere in the superhero Universe. The bog studios bet big bucks on this prediction. But is it true? Aren’t there any movies without middle- aged men in tights that interest today’s youth?
Apparently there are. The Next Wave film festival, presented at the TIFF 
Lightbox, offers exactly that: a selection of innovative international features and shorts, aimed at 14-24 year olds, programmed by youth, for youth and about youth. The films and events are curated by a diverse posse of teenagers who apparently really know their stuff. Curators include cinephiles, movie geeks and future filmmakers, aged 14-18.
I spoke with programmers Neha Hallim, Roni Harel Haber, and Taf Mangwiro, in person at TIFF.
Instagram: @Nehahallim, @roni.haber @tafmangwiro
Letterboxd: @Nehahallim, @r0nii, @tafmangwiro
Next Wave runs from April 10-13, 2025.
Go to tiff.net/tiff-next-wave-2025 for details.
Road movies. Io Capitano, Ordinary Angels, Drive Away Dolls
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
The road from the festival circuit to your local cinema is a slow and tortuous one. I reviewed Meredith Hana-Brown’s Seagrass — a moving drama about a young couple and their daughters at an island retreat in BC — five months ago, but it’s finally hitting theatres this weekend — check it out! (Review here).
So, in recognition of that long and twisted path, this week I’m looking at three new road movies. There’s two lesbians in their twenties driving south from Philly, two teenaged boys travelling across the Sahara desert from Dakar, and a middle-aged hairdresser trying to get a little girl to a far-off hospital in time for a transplant.
Io Capitano
Co-Wri/Dir: Matteo Garrone
It’s present-day in Dakar, Senegal. Seydou (Seydou Sarr) is a 16-year-old student who works part time as a builder. With his best friend Moussa (Moustapha Fall) they’re saving money for a major purchase. Their goal? To travel to Europe to make it big as singer-songwriters. But though Seydou’s mother and others object — People die at sea! Europe is not like what they show on TV — the two boys sneak out one night, and head off on their journey. They buy their tickets for a long trip across the Sahara, via Mali and Niger to Tripoli, Libya, and from their on to Europe. They are promised modern new trucks to whiz them there. But they soon discover, the world is full of thieves, swindlers, and worse. They are forced to pay bribes to cross borders. Anyone who falls out of the rusty flatbed trucks is left behind to die. They are set upon by cruel bandits, separating the boys, with Seydou sent to a prison run by the Libyan Mafia. Inmates are subject to extortion and torture. And those who survive are sold into de facto slavery. But, somehow, Seydou makes it to Tripoli. Now he has to find Moussa, and get a boat to take them to Italy. But what will the future bring?
Io Capitano is a powerful, heartfelt drama about two young 
migrants trying to reach Europe. Seydou is a heroic figure who gradually matures from boy to man to leader. (The title means I am the Captain.) Garrone, as in most of his films (Reviews: Dogman, Reality, Gomorrah), again casts first-time actors in the main roles, giving the movie a hyper-realistic feel. Seydou, for one, is amazing, totally believable. And lest you think this is a gruelling journey, it is also filled with music, dance and magical fantasies that appear in Seydou’s mind.
Io Capitano is an uplifting and heroic story.
Ordinary Angels
Co-Wri/Dir: Jon Gunn (Writer/Producer: I Still Believe, American Underdog, Jesus Revolution)
It’s the 1990s in Louisville, Kentucky. Sharon (Hilary Swank) is a hair stylist who owns a beauty parlour. She’s known for her sparkling skirts, fringed leather jackets, and her long, curly hair with frosted tips. She likes getting drunk at roadhouses and dancing on the bar. But her best friend and coworker Rose (Tamala Jones), sees trouble ahead if she doesn’t stop drinking. Clearly, Sharon needs something — a lover, a religion, or a cause — to devote herself to. But her first marriage was a bomb (her adult son won’t even talk with her), and going to church isn’t her thing. But when she spots a local newspaper headline — Man’s wife dies, his 5-year-old daughter is suffering from a rare illness — she decides to do something about it. She starts raising funds at the hair salon, and spreading awareness of this family’s plight. Ed Schmitt (Alan Ritchson) is a simple roofer in debt half a million bucks, and his daughter Michelle (Emily Mitchell) needs expensive treatment. Sharon starts giving him envelopes of cash she raises, but he doesn’t feel comfortable. Why is this strange alcoholic woman giving him money?
But the kids and Ed’s mom take to Sharon like bees to honey. 
She helps him balance his books, and raises money from the bigwigs in Louisville. Soon everyone knows about Michelle’s plight. But when the big day comes for a liver transplant, the city is closed down by a freak snowstorm. And the hospital is halfway across the country. Are Sharon — and the community’s — wits and determination be enough to save a dying girl?
Ordinary Angels is an uplifting, non-preachy faith-based drama about an ordinary woman trying to change the world. It feels a bit manipulative at times, with gushing music, and twinkling stars overhead . Ed barely talks — he’s the strong, silent type, just yes ma’am, no ma’am — and little dying Michelle is way too cute. Luckily, Hilary Swank is just great as the indefatigable Sharon, a woman who won’t take “no” for an answer. Yeah, the movie is a little bit forced and a little too long, but it also tugs your heart-strings in just the right places. And it’s great seeing a large group of people working together in an attempt to save a life. (It’s based on a true story.)
So if you like tear-jerkers, this one is a two-hankie classic, one that’ll leave you crying, for sure.
Drive Away Dolls
Co-Wri/Dir: Ethan Coen
It’s 1999 in Philadelphia.
Jamie and Marion are best friends, but couldn’t be more different. Jamie (Margaret Qualley) has a southern drawl and a wild-at-heart attitude. She’s always up for a roll in the hay with any chick she meets in a lesbian bar. Marian (Geraldine Vishvanathan) is reserved and uptight, stuck in a futureless, cubicle office job. But when Jamie’s long-time girlfriend Sukie (Beanie Feldstein) catches her cheating in their own apartment, she goes ballistic. Sukie is a hot-headed cop and Jamie knows when it’s time to skedaddle. So she decides to go for a drive home to Tallahassee with Marian as her co-pilot. Luckily, Jamie knows about a great deal at Drive Away autos — they deliver the car to Tallahassee and they get the ride for free. What they don’t know, is they’re driving the wrong car, carrying unexpected cargo in the trunk: a metal suitcase… and a human head!
You see, that metal suitcase contains something of crucial importance to someone with a lot of power, and a gang of ruthless men want it back. And they’re racing down the highway trying to catch up with 
Jamie and Marion and take back the suitcase. But the clueless pair are taking their own sweet time, with Jamie smoking pot and meeting up with nubile soccer players in honky-tonk bars and sleazy motel rooms on the way, while Marion has to deal with over-zealous redneck sheriffs. But the criminals are steadily getting closer, and who knows what will happen if they meet. What’s in the metal suitcase? Can Jamie and Marion stay friends? And is there something deeper going on between them?
Drive Away Dolls is an unapologetic B-movie, a non-stop comedy-thriller about lesbians on the road. It’s full of wanton sex and gratuitous violence, though nothing overly explicit. It also features cameos by A-listers like Matt Damon, Pedro Pascal and Colman Domingo. And it’s all strangely interspersed with vintage, psychedelic soft-core hippy-porn, (its meaning only revealed at the end). This is like a Coen Brothers movie, but no Joel. Instead Ethan is paired with longtime film-editor (and wife) Tricia Cooke who also co-directed and cowrote it, apparently based on her own salad days. It’s great raunchy fun. The only thing that puzzles me is, in a movie that’s all about lesbians, why does the trailers completely hide that fact? (Not to mention changing the title from Drive Away Dykes to Drive Away Dolls.) But I guess you have to sell a movie to a broader audience or you won’t get the crowds.
Either way, I really enjoyed this one.
Io Capitano is now playing at the TIFF Lightbox; with Drive Away Dolls and Ordinary Angels both opening 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 Niels Arden Oplev about his new film Rose
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
It’s fall of 1997 in northern Denmark. Inger is a woman in her thirties preparing for a trip. She’s going on a group tour of France culminating in a visit to Paris. She’s accompanied on this vacation by her sister Ellen and Ellen’s new husband Vogn. This is her first visit back to Paris since she was a young woman. Why? Because she’s been institutionalized in a mental hospital for many years, and this will be her first big trip. Inger is intelligent, kind and giving, a great pianist and speaks fluent French. But she sometimes says or acts in ways that 
disturb other people — especially Andreas, a man on the bus who objects to having her on board. Can Ellen take care of Inger? Does she need taking care of? And what does Inger expect from her trip to Paris?
Rose is a touching new drama that looks at families, memories, forgiveness, and what it’s like dealing with mental illness, both oneself and one’s sister. It offers a fresh look at a real-life situation that is seldom talked about. In this case, it’s based on a true story experienced by its writer/director, award-winning Danish filmmaker Niels Arden Oplev. Oplev has won Emmys for his TV work, the Crystal Bear at Berlin, and many others. He is best known for The Girl with a Dragon Tattoo.
I spoke to Niels Arden Oplev in L.A. via ZOOM.
Rose is available on VOD/Digital beginning on December 26th, 2023.
Directed by Women. Films reviewed: The Blue Caftan, Priscilla, Rodéo
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Fall Film Festival Season in Toronto continues in November with Cinéfranco presenting its 26th year of Canadian and International Francophone cinema. This means not just great movies from France, Belgium and Switzerland, but also a Spotlight on the African Diaspora, with films from Congo, Senegal, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco as well as four new Québec features curated by La Tournée Québec Cinéma.
This week, I’m looking at three new movies directed by women — two of which are playing at Cinéfranco. There’s a craftsman in Morocco with eyes on his apprentice; a trucker in Québec on a road trip with his daughter, and the wife of a certain rock’n’roll singer in a mansion called Graceland.
The Blue Caftan
Co-Wri/Dir: Maryam Touzani
Salé, Morocco.
Haliim and Mina (Saleh Bakri, Lubna Azabal) are a childless couple with a small tailor’s shop in the town’s marketplace. Mina is petite with angular features, her black hair pulled back. She runs the front of the store, balancing the books. Halim works at the back. He is tall with blue eyes and a moustache. He’s a maalem, a trained craftsman who sews and embroiders in the traditional way. No sewing machines here; he does everything by hand. But customers complain he’s taking too long. They want modern, chic clothes not old fashioned caftans. To speed up the process, Mina hires a new apprentice, but with low 
expectations. They cheat, they steal and they quit after just a few months of training. But Yousef (Ayoub Missioui) is a quiet and gentle soul who really wants to learn. Money is not his goal, he says — he has supported himself since he was eight. But as they all work together on an exquisite blue caftan embroidered with gold thread, Mina notices an unusual dynamic: Halim seems taken by the young apprentice, who is always close to her husband. And the couple is facing another crisis that could totally change their. Can they solve these problems together?
The Blue Caftan is a beautiful and touching story about an unexpected menage a trois in Morocco. It’s languid and subtle, with a sensual, though not explicit, undertone. The camera focuses on Halim’s fingers touching Yousef’s hand as he guides him in sewing a thread… or the bare feet of two men revealed behind a door at the local hammam — or bathhouse — looking for some furtive sex. Belgian actress Lubna Azabal gives a powerful as Mina, while Saleh Bakri will move you to tears. I’ve never seen Ayoub Missioui before but he also gives a great performance within the triangle.
The Blue Caftan captures not just the look of small-town Morocco, but also the the constant sounds of the souk: the voices, music and calls to prayer always drifting through the windows along with the smell of ocean air.
A beautiful movie.
Priscilla
Co-Wri/Dir: Sofia Coppola
It’s the late 1950s. Priscilla Beaulieu (Cailee Spaeny) is a 14-year-old American girl on a military base near Bad Nauheim, West Germany. She’s an army brat, living a typical American life but overseas. She misses her friends back home and feels stifled on the base. Enter Elvis Presley (Jacob Elordi) the 24-year-old superstar. He’s drafted into the army but manages to live a life of luxury and stardom while serving his time. But when his pimp — I mean superior officer — asks Priscilla if she’d like to meet Elvis, everything changes. It sets in motion a years-long courtship and their eventual marriage many years later. And a strange courtship it is. They share a bed, but sex is forbidden. Elvis is always on pharmaceuticals, but when he slips her a sedative, she wakes up two days later with no recollection of what happened. He chooses what dresses she can wear, what colour to dye her hair — she’s almost like his own personal Barbie doll. And he is always somewhere far away, shooting a movie in Hollywood with Ann-Margaret or recording a record with The Boys, his entourage of old friends and musicians 
who never leave his side. Is Elvis is cheating on her? Will they ever consummate their relationship? Or will she remain an icon of virtue and purity in his eyes, but with no life of her own?
Priscilla is a biopic about the life of Elvis’s girlfriend and wife from the late 50s to the early 70s. And in the world of celebrity biopics, this a strange one, where the main character functions mainly as a side kick or an afterthought to the much more famous singer. It feels like all the fun stuff is happening off screen, and we’re left with Priscilla waiting for Elvis to come home. We constantly hear about his manager the Colonel but he rarely appears (no Tom Hanks in this version, thank God). As in most of Sofia Coppola’s films, there’s an air of detachment and ennui that only a third-generation Hollywood icon could feel. And though skilfully made, Priscilla left me feeling like I missed the real movie and had to watch this substitute instead.
Rodéo (Eng. title: Stampede)
Wri/Dir: Joëlle Desjardins Paquette
Serge Jr (Maxime Le Flaguais) is a trucker in Eastern Quebec. He is macho, with long hair and a beard and quick to fight, especially after too much to much to drink. Maybe that’s why his wife Jessica divorced him. He likes death metal music, and his prized green semi. He has the truck jacked up with flashing lights and horns, the perfect thing for drag racing. But most of all, he loves his daughter Lily (Lilou Roy-Lanouette). She’s cute, blonde and sharp as a tack. Only ten, but she can already scare grownups with her foul mouth, loud yells and lethal karate moves. But when Serge keeps Lily overnight at a truck rally, against custody rules, Jessica cuts off all ties. She won’t let Lily see her dad anymore. Until he shows up one day at her karate dojo, ready to roll. They’re heading out on a cross country drive, just the two of them — with Jessica’s permission, he says — to participate in the biggest truck drag race in the country — the Calgary Stampede! So she climbs into his truck and they take off, due west. But is there more to this trip than meets the eye?
Rodéo is a working-class, father-daughter road movie about 
meeting strange people, getting into trouble, and discovering the much- hated Canada — outside of Quebec — for the very first time. It’s also a bit of a thriller, as the two reveal their secrets and lies even as a larger world closes in on them. The camerawork and art direction is stunning, with flashing coloured lights and clouds of mist, steam and smoke mysteriously following the two of them on their journey. And the acting — and accents — are first rate.
I like this movie.
Priscilla just opened at the TIFF Bell Lightbox, with the Blue Caftan and Rodéo/Stampede both playing at Cinéfranco at the Carlton Cinema in Toronto.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website, culturalmining.com.
Friends. Films reviewed: Blackberry, Book Club: the Next Chapter, The Maiden
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Toronto Spring film Festival season continues with Reelabilities on right now, with pay what you can admission to these fully accessible films, by, for and about disabled and deaf people. And on the horizon look out for Inside Out 2SLGBTQ+ film fest starting on May 25.
This week I’m looking at three new movies opening this weekend — two comedies and a drama — from the US and Canada. There are longboarders in Calgary, wedding planners in Tuscany, and entrepreneurs and engineers playing with their Blackberries.
Blackberry
Co-Wri/Dir: Matt Johnson
It’s 1996 in Waterloo, Ontario. Research in Motion is a motley crew of programmers and engineers developing products in a strip mall. They hold onto their college-boy culture (it’s mainly guys), playing music, eating junk food, joking around and watching movies when they’re not writing code. But they work their asses off, too. They want to launch a cel phone like nothing the world has ever seen before. RIM was founded by Mike Lazaridis (Jay Baruchel) and Doug Fregin (Matt Johnson). Blackberry would let you send fully encrypted texts wherever you are using only your thumbs and a built-in keyboard. It’s the first “smart phone”.
They are brilliant at inventing things and getting them to work, but less skilled on the financial side. In fact, they are deeply in debt, having been double-crossed by a silicon valley corporation. In walks financial wizard Jim Balsillie (Glenn Howerton). He doesn’t know anything about the tech side, but he was impressed by their pitch. So impressed he promises to bail them out, inject cash, and get the cel phone off the ground. In return he declares himself co-CEO (to their objections). And within a few years, Blackberry has captured half the cel phone market. But can they survive the advent of the iPhone.
Blackberry is a hilarious and brilliant look at the rise and fall
of a Canadian device that once dominated the global market. It’s full of geeks nerds and douchey pricks, tremendous discoveries and idiotic errors that, in hindsight, could have been avoided. It’s shot in that 20 oughts retro mode, and Baruchel and Howerton will amaze you. As will many of the smaller parts — like Sungwon Cho and Michael Ironside. I’ve been watching Matt Johnson (co-writer, director and costar) since his first film The Dirties appeared at the Toronto After Dark Festival a decade ago. His talent is unique, weird, and quirky; what could have been a dull corporate biopic gets the full Matt Johnson treatment and ends up as a perfect period piece.
Blackberry is a great tech-geek flick.
Book Club: The Next Chapter
Co-Wri/Dir: Bill Holderman
Viv, Carol, Diane and Sharon have known each other for more than 50 years but live in various cities across the US. Viv (Jane Fonda) is a bon vivant and advocate of free sex, Carol (Mary Steenbergen) is a chef, Sharon (Candice Bergen) is a judge, now retired, and Diane (Diane Keaton) is just herself, a flibertigibbet-y worrywart. But as they adjust to retirement in their seventies+ (up to 85), they feel the need for something new. Viv, after a lifetime denouncing the patriarchy and heteronormative institution of marriage, suddenly decides to exchange rings with her longtime lover. Seeing this her three friends decide they must go to Italy to celebrate her engagement. And after lots of hemming and hawing, they are off to Rome, Venice and Tuscany, celebrating the culture, scenery, fashion, shopping and food Italy offers them. But can they overcome all the obstacles they encounter on the way?
Book Club: the Next Chapter is a comedy road movie about 
sexually-active elderly women having a romp together in Europe. It’s also an unoriginal, cliche-ridden touristic guide to Italy: from riding gondolas in Venice to ogling marble statues in Rome. But even as I was cringing at the truly awful jokes (like Chef Gianni wants to show me his Cucina… what should I do? I bet chef Gianni’s cucina is really big!) I was smiling through the whole dreadful movie. Why? Because to see Fonda, Keaton, Bergen and Steenburgen — plus the great Italian actor Giancarlo Giannini — in a movie together is fun, even a godawful movie like this one… and they looked like they were having a really good time.
The Maiden
Wri/Dir: Graham Foy
Kyle and Colton are best buds at a high school in suburban Calgary. They’re on their longboards, skating across their neighbourhood till it turns into vacant lots, open fields, and forest, a river and railway tracks. Kyle (Jackson Sluiter) is a rebel, he likes hardcore music and carries spray cans to put his tag Maiden on every bridge and surface they pass. Colton (Marcel T. Jiménez) is the taller one but more hesitant and introspective. He lets Kyle take the lead but gleefully joins in smashing up a TV or giving a ritual burial to a dead cat they find in a half-built house. But then something terrible happens and Colton is left all alone to deal with his devastating loss. The second part of the film retells many of the events this time using the point of view of a shy young woman named Whitney (Hailey Ness). But time, reality, and death are all fluid in this film, and not what you think.
The Maiden is an amazing — and constantly surprising — first film by a new director, originally from Calgary, about 
friendship and loss, bullying and cruelty but also about finding the joy of life. All the main players are first-time actors who play their parts perfectly, while the photography is beautifully shot on grainy 16mm film.
This movie has so many jarring images — like Colton in a red hoodie in the school hall, drowning in a sea of cowboy hats during the Calgary Stampede — images that stick with you long after the film is over. People singing to songs only they can hear. It presents life shattering events but without ramming it down your throat. So much is left unsaid — and that’s what gives The Maiden its unexpected power.
Really good movie.
Blackberry, Book Club: The Next Chapter and The Maiden 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.
Deliveries. Films reviewed: Dog, Parallel Mothers PLUS BTFF!
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
It’s Black History Month and The Toronto Black Film Festival is on now through Monday, February 21st celebrating its 10th anniversary. It’s showing — get this! — 200 movies, including features, shorts, documentaries, and more, from Canada and around the world. It features the Canadian premier of Krystin Ver Linden’s Alice, starring Common and Keke Palmer. There are also panel discussions, and if you’re an emerging black filmmaker, check out the Fabienne Colas Foundation’s Being Black in Canada program, with films geared specifically to cities like Montreal and Halifax. There’s also a special tribute to the late Sidney Poitier. That’s at the Toronto Black Film Festival – TBFF for short — all happening through Monday.
This week, I’m looking at two new movies, one from the US, the other from Spain. There’s a war vet delivering a dog, and a fashion photographer delivering her baby.
Dog
Dir: Reid Carolin, Channing Tatum
Jackson Briggs (Channing Tatum) is a vet with a dog. Nothing so unusual about that. Except he’s a veteran, not a veterinarian. And the dog isn’t his. And he’s driving it down the West coast to attend a funeral — the dog is invited, not Briggs. Huh? You see, Briggs wants to reenlist — he’s an Army Ranger. He spent the past three years in a fog of alcohol and drugs, but he’s all dried out now and ready to ship off. But his Captain isn’t so sure. So they make a deal. Briggs drives Lulu, a decommissioned army dog, to the funeral of a member of their company who recently died. Lulu was an important part of his life, so it’s only fitting she should attend his funeral. In exchange, the Captain agrees to look again at Briggs reenlisting. 
Lulu, despite her name, is no French poodle. She’s a Belgian Malinois. She looks like a German Shepard but smaller with a charcoal face and pointy ears. They are specially bred for security forces and trained to defend, attack and track. And Lulu has PTSD, she goes crazy if you touch her ears, or if she hears loud noises like thunder, guns or bombs. These are fiercely loyal dogs but they have to trust their owners. And Lulu and Briggs don’t like each other, so she’s muzzled and stuffed into a tiny kennel on the back seat. Soon enough though, she has completely destroyed her plastic prison and is chewing up the carseats. Can Briggs get Lulu to the funeral in time? Or will the two of them tear each other apart first?
Dog is a nice road movie about a man and his dog, and the people they encounter on their journey. People like two beautiful women who practice tantric sex; a dangerous hippie who runs a 
grow-op; a dog trainer, a psychic, and Briggs’ long-lost daughter. They wind up in a luxury hotel, in abandoned barns, a night in jail and hitchhiking in the desert. And all along the way, we have Briggs’s non-stop monologue as he talks to Lulu. Luckily, the dog and the actor are interesting and appealing enough to keep your attention with the point of view shifting back and forth between Briggs and Lulu. Dog is a low key comedy-drama, but with enough surprises, laughs — and a few sad parts — to make it a worthwhile watch.
Parallel Mothers
Dir: Pedro Almodóvar
Janis (Penelope Cruz) is a high-profile photographer in her late 30s. She’s in a Madrid hospital about to give birth for the first time. There she meets a teenaged girl, also single and pregnant, named Ana (Milena Smit). She comes from a rich family — her dad’s a businessman, her mom an actress — but they are divorced and Ana is less than enthusiastic about raising a kid. Janis, on the other hand, can’t wait.
Her baby is the result of a fling with a man she photographed once, named Arturo (Israel Elejaide). He’s a forensic anthropologist who works with an organization that disinters, identifies and reburies many of the lost victims of Spain’s fascist dictator Francisco Franco. More than 100,000 people are still 
missing, many killed by Franco in the Spanish civil war and afterwards. This includes Janis’s own great grandfather and others from her ancestral village. Arturo says he’ll look into her village, but he can’t promise her anything.
But back to the two mothers. After a few years, one of their babies dies, and the two bond together to raise the surviving kid. But both mothers hold deep dark secrets they have yet to reveal. Can Janis and Ana make it as a couple? What about the child? 
And then there’s Arturo… and her village?
Parallel Mothers is a wonderful, tender, surprising and moving drama set in Madrid. Like all of Almadòvar’s recent movies, it has an amazing story, told in an eye-pleasing manner, from the opening line to the closing credits. They all share recognizable styles and images, as well as his troop of actors, 
including Rossy de Palma, but Parallel Mothers is also a unique stand-alone film. If you’re already a fan of Almadòvar, you will love this one and if you’ve never seen his films before, this is a gapped place to start.
Dog opens theatrically in Toronto this weekend; check your local listings. Parallel Mothers is now playing at the TIFF Bell Lightbox.
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 filmmaker Bretten Hannam about Wildhood premiering at #TIFF21!
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Photos of Bretten Hannam by Jeff Harris.
Link and Travis are half-brothers who live with their physically abusive dad in a trailer park down east. Link hates it there, but it’s the only life he’s known since his mother died when he was three. But when he finds a birthday card his dad has hidden from him, he realizes his mother might still be alive. So the two 
brothers run away. On the road they meet Pasmay, a Mi’kmaq who was kicked out of his home because of his sexuality. Together the three embark on a journey down a twisted path where mi’kmaw and two spirited cultures meet. For Link, it’s an education and an initiation into a world he finds both frightening and alluring. Can this 
mismatched threesome become a makeshift family? And will they ever find out what happened to Link’s mother?
Wildhood is a wonderful new film that’s a romantic drama, a coming-of-age story, and a picaresque adventure all in one. It encompasses brotherhood, family and identity — all told from an indigenous and queer point of view. It’s written and directed by Bretten Hannam and it’s their first feature film.
I spoke with Bretten Hannam from Toronto via Zoom.
Wildhood had its world premiere at TIFF21.
Heroes? Films reviewed: Lorelei, Stillwater, The Green Knight
Heroism is not just a thing of the past; it can still be found in unexpected places. So this week I’m looking at three new movies about flawed men on heroic journeys. There’s a man straight out of prison looking for his long-lost lover; an American in France who wants to rescue his daughter; and a medieval knight who wants to prove his valour.
Lorelei
Wri/Dir: Sabrina Doyle
Wayland or “Way” (Pablo Schreiber) is fresh out of prison. He’s tall and muscular with a goatee. He served 15 years for armed robbery, taking the fall for his motorcycle gang. Way’s on parole now, living at a local church, run by the kindly Pastor Gail. There he happens upon a single mom’s support group where he sees a blast from the past. Dolores (Jena Malone) is pretty and petite with blonde hair and an uplifting spirit. She was his high school sweetheart, a champion swimmer, the love of his life. The dreamed of moving to LA together but his incarceration ended all that. Now she has three kids, all from one night stands. She named them each after colours she likes. Dodger Blue (Chancellor Perry) is a 15-year old with attitude; Periwinkle Blue, or just Perry, (Amelia Borgerding) is 11 or 12 and starting to rebel; and Denim Blue, who is 6 (Parker Pascoe-Sheppard) is adorable but gets bullied at school for wearing girls’ clothes.
Wayland’s first night with Delores is a disaster — he says he has 
forgotten how to do it. But things get better. She cleans rooms at a motel while he gets a job demolishing vehicles at a junkyard. And since he can’t afford a car, he fixes up a run-down ice cream truck and uses that to get around. But things look risky. He earns extra money transporting drugs for the gang. And his parole officer keeps showing up at the worst possible times. Then there’s the kids. Wayland’s not looking for commitment, but expectations change over time. Can the relationship last? Is it a 
package deal? Will he be sent back to prison? And can people living a life of poverty hang onto their sense of self-worth?
Lorelei is a bittersweet drama about a passionate and loving couple trying to overcome the enormous problems they face. The characters are real, not just Hollywood stereotypes, and that makes it all the more moving. (It’s a real tear jerker.) And it keeps defying what you think would happen in a more formulaic version. Schreiber and Malone have great chemistry, and the kids, all played by first-time actors, are really good. For a first feature, the director did an amazing job.
I really like this one.
Stillwater
Co-WriDir: Tom McCarthy
Bill (Matt Damon) is good at fixing things. He likes guns, praying and country music. He’s from Stillwater, Oklahoma where he worked as a roughneck at the oil wells until he spent time in jail. Now he does whatever he can find. So what is he doing in the south of France? He’s there to try to get his adult daughter Allison (Abigail Breslin) out of prison. She was a college student in Marseilles when her roommate was found brutally murdered. She was convicted and sentenced for the killing but continues to protest her innocence. She says she knows who really killed her, but he has disappeared. The police and lawyers refuse to do anything so Bill decides to track down this guy, get his DNA and free his daughter.
In the meantime, he’s staying at a cut-rate hotel, where he comes to the rescue of a little girl named Maya (Lilou Siauvaud) who is locked out of the room next door. In gratitude, Virginie, an actress and Maya’s mom (Camille Cottin), helps him with some translations. (Bill doesn’t speak any French.) Eventually they become friends, he moves in with them, and he lands a demolition job in Marseilles. Will there be a relationship in the future? Can a conservative redneck American get along with a liberal French woman in the arts? Is there love in the horizon? Can he catch the real killer and free his daughter? Or will it all come to naught?
Stillwater is the slow telling of a story about a flawed, middle-aged guy 
trying to do right by his estranged daughter. It’s also about polarized American politics in the age of Trump, transplanted onto a French setting. It’s billed as a thriller, but a thriller it ain’t. There are a few thrilling parts, and some unexpected plot twists, but it’s mainly too long, too slow and pretty bleak. It moves like still water.
The Green Knight
Wri/Dir: David Lowery
It’s Christmastime in the era of King Arthur, chivalry and magic. Sir Gawain (Dev Patel) is an aristocratic layabout more comfortable rolling in the hay at the local brothel than appearing in the royal court. But he’s the nephew of the King and Queen, and his mum (Sarita Choudhury) is a powerful sorceress. So when their feast is interrupted by an unexpected visitor, Gawain pays attention. The Green Knight, a huge and imposing creature who looks like he’s made of a tree, challenges anyone to a special game. A one-on-one fight, to be revisited one year later at the Green Knight’s home. The trick? Whatever the winner does it will be revisited upon him next year. Gawain volunteers — for a good chance to prove his valour and bravery and to become a knight. Without considering the consequences, he quickly beheads the Green Knight. But one year later he must visit his castle and get his head chopped off. He sets off on a journey 
encountering many unexpected challenges, including a highwayman, (Barry Keoghan), a red fox, a ghost (Erin Kellman) a Lord (Joel Edgerton) and a beautiful and mysterious, woman (Alicia Vikander). Will Gawain show valour or cowardice on his long journey? And will he survive his meeting with the Green Knight?
The Green Knight is an ingenious retelling of the ancient myths and stories of the British Isles and France. It’s not a straightforward adventure, but one loaded with dreams, magic and alternate realities. At times it’s unclear whether what you’re seeing is real or imaginary. It’s highly stylized, with gorgeous costumes and settings, which look 
simultaneously contemporary and medieval. It also uses unusual media – from puppet shows to tapestries and paintings – to advance the story. Dev Patel is great (he carries the entire movie) but so are most of the others. Surprising phenomena are presented without comment, like a parade of naked giants lumbering past, or Gawain’s own semen serving as a shield of immortality. You might walk out of this movie thinking huh? What did I just see?, but if you think back to director David Lowery’s previous work, like A Ghost Story, you can accept his surreal mysticism at face value. This is a beautiful and fascinating film, a new, bold take on an ancient tale.
Lorelei is now available on VOD and digital formats. Stillwater and The Green Knight opens theatrically or digitally 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.
Older. Films reviewed: Nomadland, Supernova, Can’t Get You Out of My Head
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
As the baby boomers age, so do the characters in their movies. This week I’m looking at two dramas and a documentary about travelling around. There’s an older woman exploring the western US in her dilapidated mobile home; two older men driving through northern England in their old camper; and an intense documentary series that takes you across the twentieth century and back again.
Nomadland
Wri/Dir: Chloe Zhao
(Based on the book by Jessica Bruder)
Fern (Frances McDormand) is an ornery, older woman with short grey hair who lives in Empire, Nevada, a company town that processes gypsum. She likes wearing overalls and reciting Shakespeare. She followed her beloved husband to Empire decades earlier with the promise of lifetime employment. It proved true for him — he died at work. But the empire has fallen. Now she’s a widow, the plant is closed, the company has pulled up its stakes, and the town itself no longer exists; it’s been wiped off the map, literally. She’s broke with no prospect of work, so she packs up all her stuff, piles it into a ramshackle RV, and sets out on the highway. She’s not homeless, she’s houseless. Her home is on wheels.
She encounters a group of people like her, camping in RVs in the 
desert, like old war horses put out to pasture. They’ve got no money — instead they share goods at a trading post, sing songs around a campfire, and do each other favours like fixing flat tires. They live entirely off the grid. (You’ve heard of Burning Man? This is Burning Van.) Fern meets Dave, a friendly guy with a greying beard (David Strathairn), and she begrudgingly shack up with him. They go their separate ways looking for work where they can find it. But she meets up with him again in the Badlands as she travels across the American west. Will they live together permanently? Can Fern settle down? Or will she stick to her nomadic life and the freedom of the open road?
Nomadland is an engrossing, gritty drama about an older woman on the road trying to make it on her own. It’s all about finding friendship and hope amidst loneliness and poverty. Frances McDormand is remarkable as Fern, acting alongside non-actors, ordinary people playing themselves.
This is Chloe Zhao’s third feature, and like her earlier films, it feels part documentary, part drama, slow paced and very real.
It’s all shot on location, against magnificent and stark scenery, the desert, the mountains, the sterile interior of an Amazon warehouse and the rustic kitchen of the famous Wall Drugs. Nomadland isn’t a Hollywood feel good movie — its even mildly depressing in parts, but on the whole it’s a magnificent and moving picture. Just Great
Supernova
Wri/Dir: Harry Macqueen
Sam and Tusker are a middle aged couple who have lived together in England for decades. Tusker (Stanley Tucci) is a successful American novelist, bald-headed with a sharp tongue. He loves staring at the night sky and thinking about distant galaxies. Sam (Colin Firth) is an English concert pianist who likes wooly sweaters and old friends. Together they used to travel the world on long trips exploring Paris, Italy, and Kyushu, Japan. Now they’re on a drive in an old rundown camper through the rocky hills and steep green ravines of the Lake District. They’re heading for a concert hall where Sam is giving a recital after a long hiatus. Tusker is working on his latest novel. On the way, they stop to celebrate a birthday in Sam’s childhood home. Surrounded by closest friends and family, driving on a scenic highway, snuggling up together in their camper with their shaggy dog… what could be bad?
The bad is Tusker’s early-onset Alzheimers. He was diagnosed a 
while back and it’s starting to reveal itself. Everything still works normally but he dreads the day when he can no longer control himself. I’ll always be there for you, says Sam. But Tusker doesn’t want that to happen. He wants to be the driver, not Sam’s passenger. Will
Supernova is a tender and loving drama about dying and loss. It’s full of profundities about destiny and memory, picturesque stone houses, and music on the car radio. It’s nicely acted and subtly carried out. But maybe too subtle, by half. It didn’t really move me. There’s a single idea — Tusker doesn’t want to lose control, Sam doesn’t want to lose Tusker — but it feels repetitive, exploring the same conflict over and over. I like the intimacy and familiarity of the characters, but the movie is too simple and Tucci’s portrayal of someone with dementia didn’t quite ring true.
Can’t Get You Out of My Head
Wri/Dir: Adam Curtis
What do Jiang Qing, Lee Harvey Oswald, the Red Army Faction, a London slumlord, the Mau Mau Rebellion in Kenya, Petrodollars, and Appallachian coal miners,all have in common? They’re all part of the documentary series directed by Adam Curtis, on the history, economy, psychology and politics of the twentieth century. He explores the fall of empires, but also the failure of revolutions. He also looks at the origins of false conspiracy theories, as well as actual conspiracies, like the CIA’s use of LSD on unsuspecting patients. Basically, he looks at what movements, schools of thought, and major changes going on today, and what inspired them.
If you’ve never seen his documentaries before, now — with all the recent confusion and strangeness and unprecedented changes — is a perfect time to start. Curtis has a unique filmmaking style, that manages to 
tell its story without ever shooting any new footage. Virtually all his visuals are taken from meticulously researched material from the BBC’s archives. They’re edited together in a constantly changing, almost convoluted way but that all makes sense in the end. And all his docs are narrated, relentlessly, by the filmmaker’s own distinctive voice. And they have such an unusual look, as if they are made of long-forgotten, dusty film spools he dug up in someone’s basement but that also somehow explains what you heard on the news news three days ago. You may or may not like his style, but I guarantee he will tell you things you never knew before.
Nomadland opens today, Supernova is playing at the Digital TIFF Bell Lightbox and you can find episodes of Can’t Get You Out of My Head for free on YouTube.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Friday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website, culturalmining.com
More coming of age movies. Films reviewed: Kajillionaire, Summerland, Nadia, Butterfly
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
TIFF is over but Toronto’s fall film festival Season has just begun, but with a difference this year. Many of the festivals, here and abroad, that were cancelled in the spring are now popping up in the fall. Look out for Inside Out, The Cannes film fest, SXSW, Toronto’s Japanese film fest, Toronto Jewish Film Festival, Planet in Focus, Rendezvous with Madness, ReelAsian, ImagineNative, Toronto Palestine Film Fest – which is on right now – and many more.
This week, though, I’m looking at three new indie coming-of-age movies. There’s an Olympic athlete who swims the butterfly; a gay virgin playing catfish with a guy he meets online; and a young woman born under the net of a family of grifters.
Kajillionaire
Wri/Dir: Miranda July
Old Dolio (Evan Rachel Wood) is a young woman born into a family of scammers. With her mom and dad (Debra Winger, Richard Jenkins) they plan low-level cons and split the proceeds three ways. Most of it goes to pay for food and rent: they live in an office located directly beneath a bubble factory that extrudes pink foam into their home twice a day. They’re always working; no time wasted on frivolities like holidays, presents or birthday dinners. No phoney-baloney words like “dear” or “hon”. Even her name is a scam: they called her Old Dolio after an elderly homeless guy who won a lottery, in the hope that he would leave her all his money when he died. (He didn’t.)
So Old Dolio grows up emotionally stunted and starved for 
affection. Now she’s in her early twenties living a loveless and strangely sheltered existence. She’s nervous and introverted. But everything changes when Melanie (Gina Rodriguez) – a voluptuous young woman her parents meet on a plane – says she wants to join their gang and pull off a big con. She’s Dolio’s exact opposite: self-confident, sexy and talkative. Someone she can spend time with. But is she a friend? A rival? A mark? Or something else entirely?
Kajillionaire is a weird and wonderful dark comedy, laden with odd, quirky characters. Evan Rachel Wood is fantastically deadpan as the awkward, stilted Dolio. It’s told in a series of linked tableaus about a strange family of socially inept, but inoffensive, criminals. It’s also a coming-of-age drama about a 26-year-old woman experiencing life away from her domineering parents for the first first time. Great film.
Summerland
Dir: Lankyboy
Bray (Chris Ball) is a naïve gay virgin in love. He met a guy named Shawn on an online, Christian dating site, and now they’re going to meet in person. The planned meeting is at a music festival called Summerland in a southwestern desert. Bray wants to go there with his best friend Oliver (Rory J Saper) – a young guy from London in America on a student visa. They share a house together. Oliver’s dating a beautiful young woman named Stacy (Maddie Phillips) who lives in a mansion but wants to leave it and move in with Oliver. She can’t stand her stepfather. There are three problems: Oliver’s visa has expired so he has to move back to England (but Stacy doesn’t know). Bray has been texting Shawn using Stacy’s selfies. Shawn thinks he’s been communicating with a girl, not a gay guy named Bray. And the car they plan to use has broken down. So Tracy decides to join their road trip to Summerland using her stepdad’s RV.
They set off on a journey down the west coast, passing through Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, and Las Vegas. Stacy wants to listen to audio books on an ancient Sony Walkman to 
improve her mind. But Oliver has other plans. He has a briefcase full of strange, new psychedelic drugs for them to sample on their way. Oliver and Stacy are constantly having noisy sex in the RV, while Bray is holding out for his one true love. Will they make it to Summerland? Will Oliver tell Stacy he’s moving back to England? Will Bray ever meet Shawn? And if he does will he admit he’s the one who’s been catfishing him – pretending he’s a woman online – all this time?
Summerland is a simple, endearing road comedy. It’s full of interesting characters they meet on the way, like Oliver’s honey-badger drug dealer, an existential new age philosopher, and a gay black wizard named Khephra who enters Bray’s brain.
Summerland is a funny movie, easy to watch.
Nadia, Butterfly
Wri/Dir: Pascale Plante (Fake Tattoos)
It’s the 2020 Summer Olympic games in Tokyo, Japan. Nadia (Katerine Savard) is an Olympic swimmer from Québec. She’s been training since the age of ten and now, in her early twenties, is one of the fastest butterfly swimmers in the world. She lives a highly regimented life: home schooling, intense training, and a restricted diet. She’s massaged, prodded, tested and poked all day long – her body is a communal effort. But this will be her last competition – she’s retiring from competitive swimming to go back to school. And she leaves on a high note, winning a bronze medal in medley with the other three on her team: bilingual Karen (back stroke), newby Jess (breast), and her best friend Marie Pierre (Ariane Mainville) on freestyle. The two have been training together for a decade; Marie — she’s in her early thirties — is like a big sister to Nadia. And now that their races – and drug tests – are finished, she vows to take Nadia on a blow-out weekend 
inside the Olympic Village and out and about on the streets of Tokyo. Nadia’s been around the world, but only seen its swimming pools. It’s her first chance to explore on her own, to buy junk food from vending machines, get drunk… and maybe have sex. She meets a Lebanese fencer at a dance party and takes MDMA for the first time. But will she really leave competitive sports in her prime?
Nadia, Butterfly is a coming-of-age drama about a young athlete on the verge of leaving the only life she’s ever known. It covers a three-day period as she struggles over her decision. The film is immersed in the world of competitive sports, both the public side – its anthems, mascots and medals – and its hidden life. The film is saturated with the four colours of flags and 
uniforms: red, aqua, black and white. It’s a realistic, behind-the-scenes look at the Olympics, from the athletes’ perspectives. While I’m not really an Olympic fan (the movie was shot in Tokyo last summer) it still kept me constantly interested, if not deeply moved. But it’s the great performances of Savard and Mainville (as Nadia and Marie-Pierre) that really make the movie work.
Nadia, Butterfly is now playing in Toronto; check your local listings. Kajillionaire and Summerland open today.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies each Friday morning on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website culturalmining.com.
culturalmining.com 
1 comment