TIFF24! Films reviewed: The Substance, Anora PLUS curtain-raisers
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
TIFF, the Toronto International Film Festival is now in full swing, showing films from around the world — basically what you’ll be seeing in local theatres over the next year or so. Though tickets have gotten a bit pricey and are hard to get, there are still some free screenings, and you can also stand in line for rush tickets even if they’re sold out. Meanwhile King Street West between University and Spadina is closed to traffic this weekend, and worth checking out — lots of games, free samples, drinks, food, and endless fans looking for a glance at celebrities.
So this week I’ll talk briefly about some TIFF movies to look out for, as well as two TIFF reviews. There’s an exotic dancer who meets a young Russian in Coney Island, and a TV dancercise star who meets her better self in Hollywood.
Curtain raisers
Here are a few movies coming to TIFF that look good.
Triumph, set in post communist Bulgaria, is about some high-ranking military brass on a top-secret mission to find a powerful, secret chamber, with the help of a psychic.
The Brutalist starring Adrian Brody, Felicity Jones and Guy Pearce, is a drama about a post-WWII Hungarian architect brought to America by a powerful industrialist who will change his and his wife’s lives forever.
Diciannove, is a first feature about a 19 year old man leaving Sicily to satisfy his obsession with 19th century (and older) literature.
And We Live In Time, starring Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield as two people who meet at random and form a couple.
These are just a few of many movies premiering at TIFF.
Anora
Wri/Dir: Sean Baker (reviews: Tangerine, The Florida Project, Red Rocket)
Ani (Mikey Madison) is an exotic dancer in her early twenties. She lives with her sister in a small house in Brooklyn. When she’s not performing on stage or doing lap dances in private rooms, she’s probably talking to her friends in the green room. Her best friend works there, and so does rival frenemy. Her whole life is centred on this nightclub, until one night when she is requested to handle a client who specifically wants a Russian-speaking dancer. Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn)
is just a kid, barely legal. After they have fun in the back, he invites her to spend a weekend at his house. It’s a mammoth gated mansion with huge windows and designer furniture. His king sized bed has red silk sheets, and they make love all night long. She meets his coney island entourage and his moustached body guard. Ivan is infatuated with Anora and she likes him a lot, too. On a whim, he flies them all to Vegas on a private jet where he claims his own special suite at a casino. Ivan throws $1000 chips on the table like petty cash. Then this kid buys Ani a huge diamond ring and a sable coat before he proposes. They are married the same day. What she doesn’t realize is he’s the son of an immemsely rich and powerful Russian oligarch. All this money and possessions belong to his parents and they want him back in Russia. They’re flying back to NY to annul the wedding and three tough guys arrive to keep them 
company. Is this legal? And can Ivan and Ani escape from their clutches?
Anora is a fantastic, high-speed adventure, full of emotion, humour, thrills, a bit of violence and lots and lots of sex. Mikey Madison is amazing as the tough but tender Anora, and newcomer Mark Eydelshteyn bounces around like a bag of springs waiting to uncoil. All of Sean Baker’s movies — Tangerine, The Florida Project, Red Rocket — are about sex work, and are always told from the point of view of the sex workers themselves. But Anora goes far beyond his previous work in both depth and feelings.
Rarely do I walk out of a movie thinking I want to watch this one again. Anora is that good.
The Substance
Wri/Dir: Coralie Fargeat
Elisabeth Sparkle (Deni Moore) is a TV star. She’s the queen of primetime dancercise, and has millions of fans. She’s been pumping away at it for decades in her trademark lycra leotards. She wears brightly coloured designer fashion, drives a snazzy convertible, and lives in a luxurious penthouse suite facing an enormous rooftop billboard with her smiling face and fit body staring back at her. But one day she overhears her oleaginous producer Harvey (Dennis Quaid) talking about her behind her back. To hell with ratings, he says, she’s jumped the shark. We need someone younger and prettier. Is her time running out?
She gets so flustered that she crashes her beautiful sports car and 
ends up in hospital. Miraculously, she escaped without a scratch, but an unnaturally handsome young medic, slips her a note. It’s a secret clinic where scientists have concocted a substance that can develop a “better” version of yourself — prettier, younger, and with more sex appeal — to keep you on top of your game. And after some misgivings, she follows the instructions to a secret place where she picks up the stuff. What she doesn’t realize is, it doesn’t actually make you any younger looking or prettier. No, it creates a fully formed body double to take your place. Sue (Margaret Qualley) takes over in public and lands a TV show to replace Elisabeth Sparkle. But like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, they alternate, one sleeps while the other one plays. And if either of them disobey any of the rules around the substance… bad things happen to them both.
The Substance is a cautionary tale about Hollywood’s extreme infatuation toward youth and beauty. It is shocking, disgusting and amazing. Quaid and Qualley are both great but if anyone understands Hollywood’s obsession with youth and beauty it’s Demi Moore. In 1991, she appeared naked while pregnant on the cover of Vanity Fair under the headline More Demi Moore. In 2005, she married Ashton Kutcher, 15 years younger than her. In this movie she’s allowed to take it to extreme proportions — no spoilers — toward a totally over-the-top ending. Director Coralie Fargeat is French, and though the cast and topic are American, it uses a quintessentially French female gaze. There’s a grotesque obsession with food, and who but a French would imagine an American network TV show on New Year’s Eve featuring topless Folies Bergeres dancers?!
Don’t get me wrong, this is an extreme movie, but it is also like nothing you’ve ever seen.
Anora and The Substance are both featured at TIFF this year — go to tiff.net for details.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website culturalmining.com.
Depression. Films reviewed: The Crow, Between the Temples
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Depression can lead to strange decisions. This week I’m looking at two new movies, a supernatural action thriller, and an unusual romantic comedy. There’s a lover who can’t live after his girlfriend dies; and a cantor who can’t sing after his wife dies.
The Crow
Dir: Rupert Sanders
It’s an unnamed big city somewhere in the world. Shelly (FKA twigs) is a piano prodigy, who, with help from her ambitious mom and some shady investors headed by the mysterious Mr Roeg (Danny Huston), has risen to the top. She is living the highlife in a swank apartment and hanging with beautiful people at exclusive nightclubs.
Eric (Bill Skarsgård: John Wick Chapter 4) is a ne’er-do-well who grew up on a rundown farm with neglectful parents. Now, he finds himself in the big city, his face and body covered in meaningful tattoos. He lives a precarious life with hoody friends, with a secret space to hide out in — a warehouse filled with plastic covered mannequins. His interests range from goth music to the pen and ink drawings he scratches on scraps of paper.
So how did they both end up locked in a juvie rehab centre? For Eric it’s a foregone conclusion, but Shelly is there for drug possession. But her life is in danger after discovering she has footage on her cel phone of a heinous crime, committed by the dark and powerful Mr Roeg. When Eric and Shelly meet in the rehab/prison it’s love at first sight. They escape and run away, to the big city where they make passionate love in haut couture fashions while spilling bottles of champagne over each others’ bodies. But Mr Roeg’s bad guys soon catch up, murdering them both. That’s when Eric has to decide: should he pass back into the world of the living to seek revenge and Shelly from hell? Or will he let himself die and pass on to heaven?
The Crow is a supernatural action/thriller about young lovers caught
between life and death. It has attractive stars, opulent sets, cool fashions and a good music playlist. Along with some extended fight scenes. The thing is, the movie doesn’t really make sense, it’s hard to sympathize with the hollow main characters, and it’s full of unexplained plot turns and dead ends. It feels like an unresolved two-hour music video. It begins in a city like Chicago, but where everyone has English accents. There are cobblestone streets and European opera houses. The movie is called the Crow, but aside from some black birds flying in the background, they don’t have much to do with it. Eric stains his face with black mascara to match the iconic Crow movie poster, but we never find out why.
I didn’t hate this movie, but it is a big pointless mess.
Between the Temples
Co-Wri/Dir: Nathan Silver
Ben (Jason Schwartzman: Asteroid City, My Entire Highschool Sinking into the Sea, The Overnight, Saving Mr Banks, A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III) is a middle aged guy in upstate New York. He’s been sad and withdrawn since his wife died. Now he lives with his two moms, Judith and Meira Gottlieb (Dolly De Leon, Caroline Aaron). They’re taking care of him in this time of need. They’re also constantly setting him up with new girlfriends to replace his dearly departed… in which he has no interest. He’s a cantor who works at the local synagogue but lost his ability to sing when his wife died. And what good is a cantor who can’t chant? Which drives him into a deeper depression in an ongoing cycle. He reaches rock-bottom one day when he lies down on a highway hoping the next truck will end it all. Instead the sympathetic driver helps him up and drops him off at a roadside bar. There, the teetotalling Ben gets totally sloshed on Mudslides (a white Russian with Irish cream). This leads to a drunken fistfight with a random stranger and a shiner on his face. But that’s where he meets a new friend, a sympathetic older woman, who looks somehow familiar. And then he remembers: it’s Mrs O’Connor (Carol Kane) his music teacher when he was a small child. And she’s a widow, too.
Gradually they spend more time together, sharing their stories. Mrs O’Connor (now reverting to her 
original name, Carla Kessler) explains she was a red-diaper baby, the child of American communists. As a teenager she liked listening to her friends singing at their bar mitzvahs but she didn’t understand and totally rejected any religious meaning. But now, 60 years later, she wants to have a Bat Mitzvah herself. Couldn’t Ben, a real cantor, teach her how to do it? He agrees, and they enter an intimate professional relationship focussed on singing. As it turns out she’s the only one who can make him laugh. But can this lead to something more serious? And can a 40 year old man hit it off with a 70 year old woman?
Between the Temples is a cute and clever romantic comedy. It’s all about the humour in uncomfortable situations and family misunderstandings, both his and hers. I have to mention the classic Harold and Maude, but aside from the intergenerational theme and the nice hippy-ish soundtrack, this one is original and stands on its own. Carole Kane is marvellous as Carla — she’s a comic genius who with her curly blonde hair and enormous eyes has kept her waifish, childlike look in her 70s. Jason Schwartzman is great for his dry delivery. And Dolly De Leon (Triangle of Silence) is excellent as Ben’s Filipina Jewish mother.
With an amazing cast, this small, subtle comedy is warm and effective.
The Crow and Between the Temples both open this weekend in Toronto; check your local listings. This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website culturalmining.com.
Daniel Garber talks with Eve Lindley and Luke Gilford about National Anthem
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Dylan is a dirt-poor young man who lives with his alcoholic mother and preteen brother in New Mexico. He earns a living as a day labourer doing construction work. His dream? To save enough money to buy an RV and explore the open roads. But everything changes when he is offered a few weeks’ work on an unusual ranch. All the cowboys and cowgirls who live there are LGBT and looking forward to their next queer rodeo. All of which is alien to Dylan. And that’s where he meets Sky, the woman of his dreams: could this be love? And can Dylan figure out where he fits in at this unusual ranch?
National Anthem is a beautiful coming-of-age romantic drama 
about a young man discovering himself in Southwestern US. It premiered at SXSW and played at TIFF. The film co-stars Charlie Plummer as Dylan and Eve Lindley as Sky along with a diverse, ensemble cast. It’s based on the photo book National Anthem: America’s Queer Rodeo, by Luke Gilford, who also directed the film. Gilford has shot fashion for Prada and music videos for Troye Sivan and Kesha, but this is his first feature film. Co-star Eve Lindley is a noted model and TV and film actress appearing in Bros, After Yang and Dispatches from Elsewhere.
I spoke with Eve and Luke from Toronto via ZOOM.
National Anthem is now playing in Toronto.
Odd relationships. Films reviewed: Touch, Katie’s Mom, Longlegs
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
The 22nd annual Female Eye Film Festival starts on Wednesday and runs through the weekend, showing short films, docs and features all directed by women. Films come from as far away as Kyrgyzstan and as close as right here, with CIUT’s own Christian Hamilton’s short film “Just Grand” in the Thrills & Chills program.
But this week, I’m looking at three new movies — a romantic comedy, a drama and a thriller horror — all about unexpected relationships. There’s an Icelander in London with a crush on his boss’s daughter; a divorcee in Pasadena who has a fling with her daughter’s lover; and an FBI agent with a mysterious connection to a serial killer.
Touch
Co-Wri/Dir: Baltasar Kormákur
It’s early 2020 in Iceland. Kristófer (Egill Ólafsson) is a restauranteur and a choir singer approaching retirement. He is awaiting the results of a brain scan. And with rumours of an upcoming pandemic his late wife’s daughter warns him to shelter at home. But he is driven by a quest he has thought about for half a century.
50 years ago, the younger Kristófer (Palmi Kormákur, the director’s son) is an earnest student at the London School of Economics. He is tall and skinny with blonde hair and a wispy beard. He is disgusted by the political indifference of his classmates. So he drops out and applies at the first help wanted sign he sees — a small Japanese restaurant called Nippon, run by a plain-spoken man named Takahashi (Masahiro Motoki, a.k.a. モックン). And as he walks through the door he catches sight of a beautiful young woman with pale skin and long black hair. Is it love at first sight? Her name is Miko, (Kôki) she’s 
Takahashi’s daughter, and she’s dating a Japanese man. Beneath his gruff exterior Takahashi is a nice guy — he appreciates the fact Kristofer grew up beside the sea and worked on a fishing boat. But he is extremely protective of his daughter, for unspoken reasons. When Kristofer and Miko fall in love they keep it a secret from Takahashi… until the restaurant suddenly closes down and Miko disappears without a trace. Is she still alive and in London? Can he find her during a pandemic? And would she even remember who he is?
Touch is an extremely moving, bittersweet drama that spans half a century. It alternately follows both the young Kristófer’s first love in London in 1970 and the elderly Kristófer’s search for Miko in 2020. It’s based on an Icelandic bestseller, and has novelistic feel to it. It also deals with prejudice, exclusion, biracial families and historical wrongs. Touch is directed by Baltasar Kormákur, an underrated director if there ever was one, who has made a series of successful mainstream action thrillers (Reviews: Beast, 2 Guns and Contraband, but this heartfelt drama is a cut above. And by the end, tears were pouring down both sides of my face.
Katie’s Mom
Co-Wri/Dir: Tyrrell Shaffner
It’s present-day Pasadena. Nancy (Dina Meyer), is bored, lonely and angry. Bored because she’s in her 40s and single again, through no fault of her own. Sex is a distant memory. She thinks autoerotic stimulation means driving through a carwash… twice. Lonely because her two adult kids, Katie (Julia Tolchin) and Eli (Colin Bates) have moved out and she only sees them on holidays. And she’s much too embarrassed to spend any time with friends, now that she’s divorced. And angry because her ex-husband Morty, a plastic surgeon, dumped her for his much younger secretary and now they’re going to get married. So when both her kids show up for the Chrismukkah dinner (that’s Christmas and Chanukah on the same day) she finally feels things are getting better. But Katie has a surprise: she brought her new boyfriend Alex (Aaron Dominguez) with her and he needs a place to stay.
Things become even more frustrating when she hears Katie and Alex having sex each night. She’s ready to kick him out… but it turns out Alex is a really nice guy. He cooks and does the dishes without being asked. He’s an architecture student and actually listens to what Nancy has to say. Most important, she finds him very attractive. And the feelings seem mutual. But of course she could never sleep with her daughter’s boyfriend, could she? Or could she? And when her fantasies turn into reality, she doesn’t know which way to turn. Who can she tell? Is this a one time fling? And what will happen if Katie ever finds out?
Katie’s Mom is a light romantic comedy that’s funny and cute. It’s 
about a middle-aged woman’s sexual awakening held back by familial obligations and social norms. It features a solid comic performance by Julia Tolchin and a charming Aaron Dominguez. But Dina Meyer — known for her smoking-hot performance in Starship Troopers in 1997 — is still on fire 30 years later. The filmmaker compares it to The Graduate, but from Mrs Robinson’s point of view. I wouldn’t go that far — and it’s no spoiler to say Dustin Hoffman ain’t storming no wedding doors here. But it’s a fun, inter-generational romcom told from a much-needed female point of view.
Longlegs
Wri/Dir: Oz Perkins
It’s the early 1990s. Lee Harker (Maika Monroe) is a rookie FBI agent, quiet and introspective somewhere pn the spectrum, the product of a bible-thumping mom (Alicia Witt). She is one of many agents working on an open case involving a serial killer. The killer has slaughtered a large number of families over two decades, but he is very hard to profile. No witnesses, no photos, no fingerprints.
The killer — nicknamed Longlegs (Nicolas Cage) has entered each of his murder sites unimpeded. And in every case, the killings— always involving a husband, a wife, and a young daughter — seem to have been done by the families themselves. And the killer always leaves a cryptic letter — written in code — behind. The Agency has reason to believe another killing is imminent, but of all the agents, only Lee, on a hunch, is able to interrupt one of these ghoulish killings as it takes place. She is subjected to a battery of psychological tests… How did she know where to go? Is she psychic? Lee and her boss, Agent Carter (Blair Underwood) take over the case. She spends countless nights poring over files, trying to connect the dots. And as she comes closer to tracking down Longlegs her own long-hidden memories start coming back. Has she ever seen him in person? And if so what did he look like? And can she stop the killings?
Longlegs is a creepy and shocking thriller horror. It shares themes with Silence of the Lambs (a female FBI agent looking for a 
deranged killer) and Zodiac (the killer leaves notes written in abstract characters). But it differs from conventional horror movies with its art-house production style. No typical jump scares or schlocky effects. The photography and lighting is soooo good, with jagged angles and sharp shapes. Many shots are lit by a single light source. She lives in a home that looks like a log cabin. Director Oz Perkins revisits his own past themes (review: Gretel and Hansel) with inverted triangles and odd illuminati. Maika Monroe is excellent as the scared agent as is Alicia Witt as her religion-obsessed mom. While a freakout scene by Nicholas Cage is nothing unusual, this one will stick in your mind for a long time. And though at times it verges on the ridiculous, I found Longlegs’ suspense and scariness completely satisfying.
Touch and Longlegs both open this weekend in Toronto; check your local listings. Katie’s Mom is the Gala Feature at the opening ceremony of FEFF at the TIFF Lightbox next Thursday.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website culturalmining.com.
Places. Films reviewed: The Burning Season, We Grown Now, Evil Does Not Exist
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
If you’re looking for a fun night out, check out a beautifully renovated movie palace known as The Paradise Theatre in Toronto. It’s now running Flurry of Filth, the aptly titled John Waters retrospective, including camp classics like Female Trouble, Hairspray, Polyester and Cry Baby, featuring Divine, Mink Stole, Tab Hunter and many more, on now through May 18th.
But this week, I’m looking at three new indie movies, from Canada, the US and Japan. There’s a jack-of-all-trades in a mountain village near Tokyo, a hotelier on a lake in Northern Ontario, and two kids in a housing project in Chicago.
The Burning Season
Dir: Sean Garrity (Interviews: 2013, 2016, 2022)
It’s summer at a resort on Luna Lake in northern Ontario. JB (Jonas Chernick) is preparing to marry his longtime girlfriend Poppy (Tanisha Thammavongsa). Guests at the lavish outdoor wedding include Alena (Sara Canning) and her husband Tom (Joe Pingue), a couple who make it a point to visit the resort each summer. This is where JB grew up — his family owned the place — and he knows every inch of the woods. But it turns into a wedding from hell when the groom-zilla starts snorting coke, improvising his vows, breaking dishes, and getting in a fistfight with Tom. What’s the cause of all this anger, confusion and mayhem? It seems JB and Alena have been having a secret affair at the park since they both were teenagers. This summertime relationship continued even after they both met their life partners. And it all stems back to a fire at the cottages the first time they met. What’s the attraction? What rules do they play by? And will they ever own up to their secret past?
The Burning Season is a bittersweet chronicle of a longtime furtive 
romance set in Algonquin Park. The very first scene shows the teenaged couple taking vows of secrecy in front of a big fire, but from there it jumps forward to the faulty marriage many years later. The rest of the movie fills in the blanks, summer by summer, going back in time in reverse chronological order. Winnipeg director Sean Garrity has a history of making identifiably Canadian movies — including location, story, actors and music — but often with a dark, twisted theme. This one is co-written by Garrity’s long-time collaborator Jonas Chernick (The Last Mark, James vs his Future Self, A Swingers Weekend) and carries on this tradition. What does that mean? It means you get a twisted plot, good acting, beautiful scenery, and a fair amount of sex.
What more do you need?
We Grown Now
Wri/Dir: Minhal Baig
It’s 1992 in Cabrini-Green, a vast, mainly black public housing project in Chicago’s north side. Malik (Blake Cameron James) and Eric (Gian Knight Ramirez) are best friends in elementary school. They study and hang together, often staying at Malik’s home with his mother Dolores (Jurnee Smollett) and his Grandma. Eric’s Dad works at a pizza place and his much older sister helps out at home. They don’t have much money but life is still good. Until everything changes when a classmate is killed by a stray bullet.
Mayor Daley declares war, and suddenly the kids all have to carry IDs, and their homes are broken into, without warrants, by swarms of police. Cabrini-Green is suddenly made a symbol of crime, and its days are numbered. Should Delores look for somewhere else to live? Even outside of Chicago? And what will happen to friends like Eric and Malik?
We Grown Now is a coming-of-age drama about two kids living in a long gone housing project (it was torn down a few years after the film takes place.) It’s well-acted and brings back to life an important place and its historical significance. The problem is it didn’t grab me. It’s missing something: the joys of childhood and friendship don’t seem real. The whole movie is drab and dreary, not fun. Where are the 
games they play, the comic books they read, the TV shows, the video games, the music they listen to? What are their favourite sports teams? Not in this movie. When they play hooky it’s to go to an art museum but back home do they start drawing and painting their own art? No. Aside from jumping on mattresses on the street these kids don’t ever seem to have fun, or do anything exceptional except being poor. The filmmaker says she talked to people who used to live there, but it translates into an earnest but lifeless movie set in aspic.
Evil Does Not Exist
Co-Wri/Dir: Hamaguchi Ryusuke
Takumi (Omika Hitoshi) is a jack-of-all-trades living in a tiny mountain village outside Tokyo. He chops wood, forages for wild vegetables, and carries water from a stream. (The villagers prize the delicious, clean taste of their well water.) And he devotes himself to his young daughter Hana (Nishikawa Ryo). Hana loves exploring the woods nearby, picking up things she finds along the way, like feathers. Everyone knows everyone in this village — the school kids, the retired folks, the local noodle shop owner — and Takumi is the de facto spokesman. So he takes the lead when rumours of a huge change strikes the town.
A Tokyo-based company apparently plans to open a “glamping” resort just outside the village. “Glamping” means glamorous camping, a luxury, outdoor encampment for city folk. And they set up an information meeting in the town hall. But there’s no one from the company — just a pair of friendly actors from a talent agency (Kosaka Ryuji, Shibutani Ayaka). After their glitzy presentation comes the Q&A, and the locals are not pleased. This glamping venture would 
ruin their idyllic, back-to-nature lifestyle and contaminate their water with a leaking septic tank upstream. Can the two sides find common ground?
Evil Does Not Exist is a stunning clash of cultures and the unexpected spinoff a seemingly-inoffensive idea can generate. It’s also a great character study, both of the stubborn NIMBY townsfolk and the affable talents who realize they’re actually the pawns of corporate treachery. It’s beautifully shot at a leisurely pace with amazing cinematography, and a jarring soundtrack that features lush romantic music that will stops suddenly, without warning. The film is written and directed by Hamaguchi Ryusuke, who brought us Drive My Car a couple years ago, which garnered four Oscar nominations. Evil Does Not Exist has a totally different theme but shares the same dark undercurrent.
This is a very good movie.
We Grown Now and Evil Does Not Exist open this weekend at the TIFF Lightbox; The Burning Season also opens 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.
Surprising fantasy lives. Films reviewed: Sometimes I Think about Dying, Argylle
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
February is Black History Month, which is the best time to celebrate black cinema from a historical perspective. The Toronto Black Film Festival is running from Feb 14-19th, showing new features, docs and shorts. This year they’re celebrating actress Pam Grier, with her 70s film Foxy Brown, and in a tribute to the late, great Charles Officer, they’re showing Akilla’s Escape, a thriller set in Toronto. And Sway, Emmanuel Kabongo’s new thriller is having its Canadian premiere at this same festival. Mubi, the streaming site for avant-garde, indie and festival films, is programming black cinema this month in their Cut to Black series. You should check out Samuel D. Pollard’s excellent documentary MLK/FBI about J Edgar Hoover’s wiretapping and execrable treatment of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, and his family.
This week, I’m looking at something completely different: two new movies about lonely women with surprising fantasy lives. There’s an office worker who dreams of dying, and a reclusive novelist who dreams of adventure.
Sometimes I Think about Dying
Dir: Rachel Lambert
Fran (Daisy Ridley) — best known as Rey in the Star Wars movies) is a young woman in a small coastal town in the pacific northwest. She works at a dull office job, in charge of supplies and flow charts. Fran likes beige sweaters and cottage cheese. She spends all day staring out the window at ships docking in the harbour, loading and unloading containers by crane. Basically, she’s depressed, bored and lonely; she lives alone and never goes out. The only unusual thing about her — something that she’ll never confess to anyone else — is the strange fantasies that bounce around her head. She pictures herself lying in a grassy forest… dead. She enjoys the calm and peacefulness of being a corpse. She isn’t suicidal, she isn’t a zombie, she just likes the concept.
Until one day, a stranger arrives at the office, taking the place of Fran’s recently retired coworker. Robert (Dave Merheje) comes directly from Montreal. He’s bald and bearded with a dry sense of humour. His big secret is he has never worked in an office job before, and is completely baffled by the culture. They bond through texting, and he eventually asks her out on a date. And suddenly Fran’s life changes for the better. Her fantasies shift from grassy knolls to funeral pyres! They go to an actual party and meet new friends. But will she ever open 
up to him? Can she reveal her secret? And will she ever smile?
Sometimes I Think about Dying is a tender social satire about the boredom of daily life and the bubbling cauldron of emotions lurking just beneath the surface. It feels like an Aki Kaurismaki movie transplanted to small-town USA. Daisy Ridley — the British actor best known as fighter-pilot Rey in the Star Wars franchise — is subtly funny as Fran. And Canadian actor and stand-up comic Dave Merheje is good as her “normal guy” foil Robert. It’s a simple movie, but with enough twisted humour to keep you interested.
It’s cute.
Argylle
Dir: Matthew Vaughn
Elly Conway (Bryce Dallas Howard) is a frumpy middle-aged woman who lives with her cat Alfie in a log cabin between a picturesque mountain and a lake. She earns her living writing action novels about a dashing spy named Argylle, who roams the planet on daring missions. Elly, on the other hand, is a homebody who is deathly afraid of flying and will only leave her home to attend a book launch in a nearby city. Her books are bestsellers, with her devoted fans eagerly awaiting #5 in the series. But her mom (Catherine O’Hara) — who proffers advice on all her books before they’re published — says the ending just doesn’t do it.
So she sets off on a train ride to hash through the manuscript with her mother. But everything changes on that train ride, when a stranger — a bearded long-haired man in dirty clothes — aggressively takes the seat across from her and refuses to move. He’s a fan of her books, he says. Turns out the entire train knows exactly who she is… and for some reason, they think her books are the key to the secret world of espionage, and for that reason, want her dead!
This strange man (Sam Rockwell) turns out to be a spy 
himself, fighting for the good guys. He manages to fight off dozens of would be assassins and brings Elly to safety. She grabs her cat and they fly off to Europe. But this is just the first step in a whirlwind journey of international intrigue, where the CIA — the good guys?! — are fighting the bad guys (a sinister cabal known as The Division) for worldwide domination. Why does everyone think her fiction is prophetic? Can frumpy Elly solve these mysteries? And will she ever know the truth?
Argylle is a highly stylized roller-coaster ride of light comedy and high-speed action. The bright colours and extreme violence and mass murder — but with no blood — is fueled by a non-stop infectious disco soundtrack. The movie begins with scenes from her novels where Argylle (a plastic-looking Henry Cavill) and his teammates have unbelievable ridiculous shoot outs and chase scenes in exotic locales. But it soon resets to “real life” where things are slightly more believable. The thing is, it all starts to merge, to the point where “reality’ is even more extreme than “fiction”. In Elly’s mind, her fictional spy Argylle periodically takes the place of her less appealing cohort.
The story makes marginal sense, with so many U-turns and double crosses your head will spin. But that’s not what the movie is about. It’s there for sheer entertainment — a ride on planes, trains and ice skates — as the film chugs along its merry way. Visually, it’s one giant green screen, with endless CGI and special effects, to the point where it’s almost a cartoon. Is that Henry Cavill’s face and hair or a computer generated plastic figurine? Is that Bryce Howard’s breasts or a CGI simulacrum? Who knows? Who cares!
This is all about spectacle, with some truly spectacular scenes of mass murder muted by bright billows of pink and lavender smoke. There’s gun porn, with the camera caressing thousands of assault weapons lined up in a shiny-white tribute to machine guns. And major star power, including Dua Lipa, John Cena, Ariana DeBose, Bryan Cranston, and Samuel L Jackson.
Is Argylle a good movie?
No!! It’s ridiculous, high-budget schlock… but it’s also eye-candy perfection.
Argylle starts this weekend, and Sometimes I think about Dying opens next week; 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.
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.
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.
Same-sex couples. Films reviewed: Unicorns, Solo, Rotting in the Sun
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 ImagineNative — brilliant films and art by and about indigenous people in Canada and around the world from 17-22; and Planet in Focus, the International Environmental film festival, with features, docs and talks on nature, activism, and climate change, from the 12-22.
This week, I’m looking at three new movies about same-sex relationships, two of which played at #TIFF23. There’s a straight mechanic who unwittingly falls for a drag queen in a London pub; a Quebecois drag queen who falls for a French one in a Montreal bar; and a Chilean artist who meets an American influencer on a nude beach in Mexico.
Unicorns
Co-Dir: Sally El Hosaini, James Krishna Floyd
Luke (Ben Hardy) is a mechanic who lives in Essex, near London. He works at his father’s garage, and spends the rest of his time with his 5 year old son. His wife abandoned them when his kid was still a baby, but luckily his dad will babysit if he’s out on a date. For Luke dating usually means furtive sex and one-night stands with women he hooks with online. But one day, after leaving a London curry house, he stumbles into a nearby nightclub, and is riveted by the eyes of a beautiful woman performing an alluring dance on stage. Clearly, the feelings are mutual — Aysha seeks him out afterwards, for a snog and a grope at the stage door. Only afterwards does Luke realize the woman is actually a man in drag. He freaks and leaves. Aysha (Jason Patel) is disappointed — he thought Luke knew they were in a South Asian drag bar. But Luke is straight and almost sickened by what happened.
Still, there is something there. Luke agrees to act as a paid driver (and unpaid bodyguard) for Aysha and her fellow drag queens. They need transportation to get them safely to private “gaysian” (gay+asian) parties on the down low, in places like Manchester. 
The tips she gets at these parties pays her rent. Gradually, they get to know one another better. When Aysha really hits it off with his son, Luke starts thinking maybe she is just the woman he’s looking for. Problem is, he’s not trans, he’s a man named Afik. Aysha is just his drag name. Will the attraction still be there if Aysha goes away? And can a straight white man and a gay South Asian drag queen form a couple?
Unicorns is a poignant, romantic drama about two people from two sides of a deep divide. And while there is some shocking violence and unexpected plot turns, the filmmakers keep it real and subtle. This is co-director James Krishna Floyd’s (of mixed heritage) first feature, and does an excellent job of it. Ben Hardy is a well-known heart throb and soap star in the UK, while Jason Patel is a newcomer — this is his first role. Luckily, the two have amazing chemistry and are compelling to watch.
This is a good first movie.
Solo
Wri/Dir: Sophie Dupuis
Simon (Theodore Pellerin) is the youngest drag artist at a Montreal bar. He’s naive, trusting and sexually inexperienced. He performs elaborate acts dressed in outfits his older sister helps design. And he always looks forward to visiting his Dad, stepmother and sister for Sunday brunch. His mother is an internationally famous opera star, who left the family for greener pastures when he was a teen. But everything changes when Olivier (Félix Maritaud) a charismatic older guy in his late twenties shows up at the drag bar direct from Paris. Simon is blown away by his sex-centred drag performances, and wants to learn from him. Soon they are an item, in and out of bed, and onstage. Simon will do 
anything Olivier wants: moving in together, staying away from his family, even how Simon should perform his own acts.
But the concessions all seem to be one-way. Olivier sleeps with other men, insults Simon’s judgement, and plays mental tricks on him. Around this time, Simon hears some shocking news: his mother is coming to Montreal, back from a triumphant tour off Europe. He hasn’t seen her in years, so this will be the crucial reunion Simon has been longing for and waiting for for so long. How will their meeting go? What role will Olivier play? And will she come to watch his Solo drag performance?
Solo is a moving and tender portrayal — set within Montreal’s drag community — of a young man forced to face his demons and figure out who are his friends and who are his enemies. I know very little about the drag scene (I’ve never seen Rupaul’s Drag Race, for example) but it doesn’t require outside knowledge to understand what the movie’s trying to say. Theodore Pellerin is amazing as Simon, and — though much less sympathetic — so is Félix Maritaud. And for a movie about drag it’s surprisingly devoid of camp. If you’re looking for a tear-jerker with lots of musical performances, you’ll enjoy Solo.
Rotting in the Sun
Dir: Sebastian Silva
Sebastian Silva (Sebastian Silva) is a jaded Chilean artist and filmmaker who lives in an apartment in Mexico. He enjoys reading books about suicide and depression. When he’s not dodging work deadlines or dealing with construction noise in his minimalist apartment, he’s likely walking his dog Chima, doing pop art paintings of giant cartoony penises, or snorting bumps of pentobarbital. His beleaguered housekeeper Señora Vero (Catalina Saavedra, in a great performance) takes it all in, but never comments.
On the recommendation of a colleague he takes some time off to relax at a gay nude beach in Zicatela, but is non-plussed by all the body parts on display. When he almost drowns there, he meets Jordan Firstman (Jordan Firstman) an instagram influencer. Jordan thinks it’s Kismet — he saw one of Sebastian’s films just the night before, and here they both are washing up on shore. They must collaborate on a production. Sebastian is less 
enthusiastic, but Jordan insists. But when he arrives at Sebastian’s door in the city, he is nowhere to be seen. Is he ghosting him? Or has something really bad happened to Sebastian? And will Jordan ever solve this mystery?
Rotting in the Sun is a contemporary indie film in the style of a highly-sexualized comedy. It’s equal parts mystery, screwball comedy, and scathing social satire, with a fair amount of 
nonchalant, explicit sex. Silva reimagines Mexico as an uber-gay paradise, where the local park fountain has a statue of Michelangelo’s David, the beaches are packed with nude men, and every room in his apartment reveals an orgy behind closed doors. This constant decadence is contrasted with the panicky and naive Señora Vero desperately trying to hide Sebastian’s whereabouts. Silva and Firstman play exaggerated versions of themselves, to hilarious effect.
You know the expression “a bag of dicks”? This movie is a dump truck of dicks. But if you don’t mind looking at lots and lots and lots of penises, you’ll get a kick out of this shockingly subversive comedy.
Unicorns had its world premiere at TIFF; Solo had its Toronto premiere there and opens this weekend in Toronto; check your local listings. And Rotting in the Sun — along with a selection of other films by Sebastian Silva — is now streaming on Mubi.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website, culturalmining.com.
60s, 70s, 80s. Films reviewed: Cocaine Bear, Jesus Revolution, Metronom
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
This week, I’m looking at three new movies. There are spiritual revolutionaries in California in the 1960s, teenaged dissidents in Bucharest in the 1970s, and a crazed animal in Georgia in the 1980s.
Cocaine Bear
Dir: Elizabeth Banks
It looks like a typical day in 1985 in the Chattahoochee National Forest in Georgia. Two little kids are playing hooky, three skateboard-riding teenage delinquents are looking for some petty crime to commit, a pair of Scandinavian backpackers are on a hike, and a middle-aged forest ranger is dressed to impress a guy she wants to date. But everything changes when a prop-plane pilot drops a dozen duffel bags of uncut cocaine into the woods… and then promptly dies. Suddenly the supply chain is broken, and out-of-state traffickers looking to retrieve their supply — and the cops who want to nab them — all descend on the park at once. And here’s where the 
actual movie starts: a huge black bear sticks its nose into the duffel bag and emerges as a frantic, delirious, coke head, forever on the lookout for more snow to blow. Who will find the drugs — the cops, the gangsters, the delinquents, or the children? And who will not be eaten by the bear?
Cocaine Bear is a low-brow, high-concept comedy that’s basically 90 minutes of extreme-gore violence. I was a bit dubious at the beginning, but about half an hour in it started to get really funny. I know it’s stupid-funny, but it still made me laugh. The all-CGI bear is one of the main characters, but there’s a great assortment of humans, too, played by an all-star cast: Margo Martindale as the forest ranger, the late Ray Liotta was the gangster, Alden Ehrenreich as his diffident son, O’Shea 
Jackson Jr as his henchman, and Keri Russell as a mom searching for the two missing children. It’s hilariously directed by TV actor Elizabeth Banks. Cocaine Bear easily beats Snakes on a Plane and Sharknado as best movie based solely on its title. Supposedly inspired by true events (yeah, right) it has lots of room for ridiculous 80s haircuts, music and other gags to good effect. Stoner movies are a dime a dozen and half of the movies coming out of Hollywood are clearly made by cokeheads, but this may be the first comedy about cocaine I’ve ever seen. If you’re comfortable laughing at blood, gore and gratuitous violence, along with lots of base humour, I think you’ll love this one.
Jesus Revolution
Dir: Jon Erwin, Brent McCorkle
It’’s the late 1960s in California, where young people everywhere are tuning in, turning on, and dropping out. One of these kids is Greg Laurie (Joel Courtney), who attends a military academy but would rather be drawing cartoons. He lives in a trailer with his Mom, a glamorous but alcoholic barfly. He meets a pretty girl named Kathe hanging with the hippies outside a public high school, and decides that’s where he’d rather be. But Kathe is from an upper-class family whose parents frown on Greg. Meanwhile, Chuck Smith (Kelsey Grammer), a local pastor, wonders why no one is coming to his Calvary Chapel anymore. It’s because your a square, his 
daughter tells him. So she introduces him to a unique man she met at a psychedelic Happening. Lonnie Frisbee (Jonathan Roumie) is a charismatic, touchy-feely type who talks like a hippie and looks like Jesus. He emerged from the sex-and-drug world of Haight Ashbury with a mission from God, and now wants to spread the gospel. Chuck Smith is less than impressed, but decides to give him a try.
Soon there are block-long lineups to hear what Lonnie — and Chuck — have to say. This includes Kathe and Greg, who barely survived a bad acid trip. Lonnie gives Greg a place to live and invites him to join the church. Calvary Chapel is attracting people from everywhere, 
culminating in mass baptisms in the Pacific ocean. But as their fame grows, so does the friction. The more moderate Chuck frowns on Lonnie’s in-your-face style — from faith-healing to his talk of being closer to God. Can Greg find a place in this world? Will Kathe’s family ever accept him? And is this a movement or just a flash in the pan?
Jesus Revolution is a retelling of the unexpected upsurge in grassroots Christianity among baby boomers in the 70s. The film is clearly aimed at evangelical church-goers, a subject in which I have absolutely no interest. Zero. Which is why I’m surprised how watchable this film is to a general audience. It’s not preachy — it shows, not tells. It’s well-acted with compelling characters and a surprisingly good story. No angels or miracles here, just regular — flawed but sympathetic — people. I think it’s because the Erwin Brothers (American Underdog, I Still Believe)have figured out how to make mainstream, faith-based movies that are actually good. The film is based on real people, so I was a bit surprised they never mention that Lonnie Frisbee was actually a gay man who later died of HIV AIDS. I guess it doesn’t fit the story they want to tell That said, if you’re involved in a church or a fan of spiritual films, this might be just what you’re looking for.
Metronom
Wri/Dir: Alexandru Belc
It’s 1972 in Bucharest, Romania. Ana and Sarin (Mara Bugarin, Serban Lazarovici) are a beautiful couple still in high school, and madly in love. They both come from “intellectual” families, who are given special privileges in Ceausescu’s communist regime. They go to an elite school together, and hope to pass their Baccalaureates to get into an equally good university. They meet in front of a WWII heroes monument dressed in stylish trench coats and school uniforms. So why is Ana crying? Sarin and his family are emigrating to Germany. That means they’re breaking up for good and will probably never see each other again. Ana is crushed — her world is broken. Which is why she has no interest in going to an afternoon party at a friend’s house, but changes her mind at the least minute. Her father, a law professor, is easy going, but her mother absolutely forbids it. So Ana sneaks out of the apartment and heads to the get-together. This is her last chance before he leaves to make out with Sarin and express her eternal love.
The party is centred around listening to music — Led Zepplin,
Hendrix, The Doors — as played on a radio show called Metronom on Radio Free Europe. Western music is underground, subversive and illicit. They decide to write a letter to the show and pass it on to a French journalist. But two bad things happened. When they make love behind a closed door, Sarin won’t say he loves her. And the party gets raided by the secret police and all the kids are arrested and forced to write confessions. But Ana is so caught up in her relationship she barely notices the interrogation she has landed up in. Who ratted them out to the authorities? And what will happen to Ana?
Metronom is a passionate story of young love in the 1970s under the omnipresent gaze of an authoritarian government. It’s a coming of age story, about heartbreak and the loss of innocence as the real world reveals its ugly face.
If you’ve never seen a Romanian film before (such as Întregalde, Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn, Poppy Field, The Whistlers, The Fixer, One Floor Below), this is a good place to start. They all have this feeling of tension, corruption, mistrust and unease, whether they’re set during Ceaucescu’s reign or long after his fall. This one also has hot sex, good music, stark cinematography, and terrific acting, especially Mara Bugarin as Ana. It manages to be a thriller, a romance and a coming-of-age story, all at once.
This is a good one.
Metronom is now playing a the TIFF Bell Lightbox; Cocaine Bear and Jesus Revolution open nationwide 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.
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