A New World? Films reviewed: Going In, Poor Things
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
December is supposed to be a time for fun and relaxation, so this week, I’m looking at two new movies that you might find fun to watch. There’s a comedy/action movie set 40 years ago in Toronto, and a wild comedic fable set a century ago in Europe.
Going In
Wri/Dir: Evan Rissi
It’s the late 1980s in Toronto. Leslie Booth (Evan Rissi) is a young lecturer who waxes eloquent about Hegelian dialectics to bored college students. He doesn’t smoke, drink or cuss and stays away from drugs. He even goes to bed early if his on-again, off-again girlfriend isn’t spending the night. But everything changes when a strange man, all dressed in black, starts showing up everywhere he goes. Reuben (Ira Goldman) is a Jamaican-Canadian who wears a huge Star of David around his neck. He used to be Leslie’s best friend, going out on the town every night, but haven’t seen each other for five years. And Leslie has been on the straight and narrow ever since.
But Reuben needs his help, and is calling in a favour. His brother has disappeared, and he suspects it’s the work of a Toronto drug kingpin named Feng (Victor D.S. Man). Feng has cornered the market on a highly-addictive pill hitting the streets known as Pearl. Users love the experience, but addicts end up looking like zombies with solid white eyes. Reuben wants to penetrate this Triad and save his brother’s life, but the only way to do it is to get hold of a pair of tickets to Feng’s annual tournament. So Leslie joins with Reuben 
and finds himself falling into old habits, snorting coke and frequenting sleazy bars to get more information. But the closer they get to their target the more dangerous it all looks. What is that tournament about? And can they rescue Reuben’s and get out unscathed?
Going In is a Toronto action/comedy movie set in — and in the style of — the 1980s. It’s also a buddy movie with a black guy and a white guy, like Lethal Weapon, Beverley Hills Cop or Silver Streak. But unlike those Hollywood hits, Going In is a micro- budget movie — we’re talking tens of thousands not hundreds of millions — with unknown actors and minimal special effects. Evan Rissi 
wrote, directed and stars as Leslie, while Ira Goldman who plays Reuben also produced it. And Victor D.S. Man as the villain looks like he walked straight out of an old Hong Kong flick.
Surprisingly, this movie works. It’s clearly low-budget but it doesn’t seem slapdash. While it plays into a lot of film conventions and stereotypes, there are some very original scenes that I’ve never seen before — like the tournament they’re trying so hard to get into (no spoilers) It also has a good soundtrack, a b-ball match, some fight scenes and even a psychedelic out-of-body experience. And it’s not afraid to have the CN Tower constantly popping up in the background, to remind us that it’s Toronto, not NY, Detroit, Boston, Phillie or any of the other cities Toronto usually pretends to be in movies shot here. Keep in mind that this is a DIY movie, not from a big studio, and you might get a kick out of it.
Poor Things
Dir: Yorgos Lanthimos
Max McCandles (Ramy Youssef) is a medical student in Victorian England. He regularly attends surgical demonstrations by Dr Godwin Baxter (an unrecognizable Willem Dafoe) a controversial scientist with outrageous ideas. Baxter’s face is grotesque, like something that was cut into pieces and sewn back together. But the doctor takes a liking to shy Max, and hires him to live in his home and look after his daughter Bella (Emma Stone). Bella is a beautiful woman in her late 20s, but who behaves like a recently-hatched duckling just learning to walk. She has a vocabulary of just six words, and is given to stabbing, tearing or biting anything put in front of her. But with Max’s help, she quickly learns to speak and think, and is full of questions about the world. She is not allowed out of her home — it’s too dangerous, they say. You see, Bella is an adult woman with a baby’s brain implanted in her skull, one of the mad scientist’s latest experiments. As she matures, she and Max fall in love and plan their wedding — though still in a strictly patriarchal relationship (she refers to her father/creator Godwin Baxter as God for short.) But before they can marry, a scoundrel named Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo) shows up on the scene. He sweeps Bella off her feet with the introduction of something new into her vocabulary — sexual pleasure — which she greatly enjoys. He 
promises endless sexual satisfaction and rollicking new adventures if she follows him on his trip. Bella realizes Duncan is a cad and a rake but agrees to go with him anyway, postponing her marriage to Max indefinitely or at least until after she sees the world.
She sets off on this journey with Duncan aboard an ocean liner docking in various ports which she naively explores and learns from what she sees. She’s the ultimate fish out pf water, a novelty to all she meets, because she speaks so frankly and forthrightly. Bella has yet to learn basic societal rules about class, money, capitalism, sex, nudity and modesty. She explores this strange world scientifically and logically, much to Duncan’s dismay. Who is she really and where did she come from? Is sex a market commodity or something more personal? Will her naivety lead to disaster? Or will she return, 
triumphant, to London with her innocence intact?
Poor Things is a brilliant social satire about sex, class, feminism, and society. It incorporates elements of 18th century novels like Fanny Hill, Tom Jones and Candide. It’s surreal, absurdist and psychedelic, but ultimately comes across as a fable or a morality play. It’s all filmed on an elaborate set (shot in Hungary), in a weird, steampunk Europe that never existed beneath a sky filled with blimps and zeppelins. (It looks like Terry Gilliam’s movie Brazil.) The costumes are outrageous — Bella has enormous shoulder pads bigger than her head. Emma Stone is amazing as Bella, though Mark Ruffalo overdoes it as Duncan — teetering between funny and ridiculous.
I’ve been following Yorgos Lanthimos’s films since Dogtooth in 2009, and this one revisits many of his earliest themes: absurdist humour; adults who speak awkwardly like small children, and who grow up isolated, never 
allowed to leave their home, by a dictatorial, god-like father figure. It feels like Dogtooth Part Two: The Outside World. But now he commands a big enough budget to build ornate sets, costumes and wigs, with dozens of fascinating characters. I’m sure some of you will hate this movie, or be offended by it, but I think it’s absolutely brilliant.
Poor Things opens this weekend in Toronto; check your local listings. Going In is available digitally online across North America, from December 19th.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website culturalmining.
Daniel Garber talks with Jamie Kastner about Charlotte’s Castle
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Photo by Jeff Harris.
Spadina Gardens is a legendary apartment building in the Annex, of downtown Toronto. Stratford actors, opera singers and robber barons have lived there, publishing houses were spawned there, and writers like Salman Rushdie and Patricia Highsmith passed through its doors. But when a dutch real estate conglomerate bought it, and words like renoviction started floating down its hallowed halls, the tenants decided to fight back. But can even an apartment as legendary as this one stop the rampant explosion of Toronto’s housing crisis?
Charlotte’s Castle is a new documentary that looks at one Toronto apartment building — its history, aesthetics, architecture — and the plight of its tenants: the people who live there. It’s the work of award-winning Toronto documentarian Jamie Kastner. I previously talked with Jamie about The Secret Disco Revolution in 2012, A Skyjacker’s Tale in 2016, and There are no Fakes in 2019.
Charlotte’s Castle is having its world premiere tomorrow, September 24th, at Toronto’s Hot Docs Cinema, and on TVO beginning on Tuesday, September 26th.
I spoke with Jamie in Toronto, via ZOOM.
Daniel Garber talks with MH Murray and Mark Clennon about I Don’t Know Who You Are at #TIFF23
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and
CIUT 89.5 FM.
Photographs by Jeff Harris
Benjamin is a talented artist, singer and musician in downtown Toronto. He has a new boyfriend after a messy break up, and is performing again after a long hiatus since his last tour. So why is he manic, frantic and at wits end? Because — after a night of drunken partying — he was sexually assaulted by a stranger, may have been exposed to the HIV virus, and has only 3 days to start taking PEP to stop a potential infection. And he doesn’t have enough money to pay for the prescription. And as the tension and panic grows, so does his sense of despair. Can he ever escape from this
spiral? And does he even know who he is anymore?
I Don’t Know Who You Are is a passionate drama about a gay black man in Toronto facing a seemingly unsurmountable obstacle. The film is M. H. Murray’s first feature, and stars Mark Clennon who also co-wrote the screenplay and performs his own music. MH Murray is a native Torontonian who graduated from York U with a degree in film studied, and created the web series Teenagers. Marc Clennon is a Jamaican-Canadian actor, musician and singer.
I spoke with MH and Mark at #TIFF23 at the Intercontinental Hotel.
I Don’t Know Who You Are had its World Premiere at TIFF23.
Daniel Garber talks with Rama Rau and Laura Hokstad about Coven at #HotDocs23
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Do witches have green skin, pointy hats and eat babies? Or were they outspoken innocent women burned at the stake for their beliefs? Do they only exist in fairy tales and history books? Well, according to a new film, witches are alive and well and living in Toronto.
Coven is a fascinating and eye-opening documentary that follows the everyday lives of three creative witches — a singer-songwriter, a multi-disciplinary artist, and an art director — both in Toronto and as they 
explore their spiritual roots in Scotland, Romania, the US and the Caribbean, both now and deep in history. It’s written and directed by the noted documentarian Rama Rau, famous for her work both on TV and on the big screen. I last spoke to her on this show in 2015 about The League of Exotique Dancers. Coven’s subjects include Laura Hokstad a queer, Toronto-based Art Director and Tarot Card Reader, who is also the host of the YouTube series on Rue Morgue TV called Terror Tarot.
I spoke with Rama Rau and Laura Hokstad in Toronto via Zoom.
Coven is having its world premiere at the Hot Docs 30th Anniversary Documentary Film Festival on Friday, April 28 at the TIFF Bell Lightbox.
S Movies. Films reviewed: Soft, Simulant, The Super Mario Bros Movie
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: one realistic, one sci fi and one fantasy. We’ve got three kids exploring Toronto’s underworld; a futuristic world where androids compete with humans for dominance; and a cartoon universe where plumbers on mushrooms battle fire-breathing turtles.
Soft
Wri/Dir: Joseph Amenta
It’s summertime in Toronto and three kids are making the most of their time away from Junior High. Julian (Matteus Lunot) has pink hair and likes brightly coloured clothes. He lives with Dawn (Miyoko Anderson), a sex worker. She helps him dye his hair to match hers, and gives him clothing and makeup tips, acting as a surrogate mother ever since his mom kicked him out for being gay. Otis (Harlow Joy) has to sneak away to have fun — he plays it straight when he’s with his bible-thumping dad. Tony (Zion Matheson) has a loving mom who accepts the three kids’ shifting genders and sexualities. The three of them splash around public swimming pools and explore the Scarborough Bluffs.
Their big goal? To sneak into a gay dance club to listen to the music, explore the lights and shadows, and maybe make friends. Of the three, Julian is the most street-smart. Closed windows and high walls are no barrier to getting where he wants to go, and his nimble fingers help him “find” wallets and credit cards — his only source of income. But after a 
night on the town, they discover Dawn went out the night before and never came home. Is she in trouble? Or in danger? So they set out to find her or what happened to her. But as things get more serious, cracks start to appear in their friendship. What happened to Dawn? Where will Julian go without her? And can the three friends stay friends?
Soft is a free-form look at three kids feeling their way through a judgemental (and sometimes dangerous) city as they navigate their own identities, sexualities and genders. Soft is tender and exuberant. It shows a realistic Toronto — a mix of races, classes and languages — while exposing the soft underbelly of its counterculture. Though a coming-of-age story, it’s not about intimate sexual experiences, it’s about self identity and friendship.
Soft is both rough and sweet.
Simulant
Dir: April Mullen (Badsville)
It’s the near future in an industrialized city, and robots and androids are everywhere. A young couple, Evan (Robbie Amell: Resident Evil, Code 8) and Faye (Jordana Brewster: Random Acts of Violence) have slept in separate bedrooms since recovering from a terrible car accident. Evan often wakes up to nightmares about the crash, but his memories are still foggy. Faye is depressed and keeps him at arms distance. Luckily, they still have a plastic robot who cooks them perfect pancakes each morning. But Faye thinks there’s a problem with the android, so she calls an expert AI programmer named Casey (Simu Liu) for help. But there’s nothing wrong with their pancakes. It’s Evan 
with the problem: he’s actually a 7th generation humanoid, (known as a Simulant) who looks, talks and acts exactly like her husband who died in the car crash!
His brain contains all of his memories and thought patterns; more like a clone than a robot. And he had no idea till now that he’s not the real Evan. So Casey volunteers to take care of him at his apartment building, while Faye adjusts to the concept.
Evan is agreeable to the fact, as he wants to win back Faye’s affections. Even though he knows he’s an android now, he still feels like he’s the real thing — that he possesses Evan’s soul — and still loves Faye. Simulants have thoughts and feelings identical to humans, yet they are bought and sold like slaves, and their masters can shut them down whenever they please, just by saying “shut down”… is that fair? Casey thinks it’s not; it’s his goal to secretly reprogram people with seventh 
generation artificial intelligence to set them free. But Kessler (Sam Worthington: Kidnapping Mr Heineken, Clash of Titans) a Blade-Runner-like enforcement officer, is out there trying to stop any simulant gone rogue. Which side will win? And what will happen to Evan and Faye’s relationship if he gains free will?
Simulant is a Canadian science fiction movie that plays with an interesting topic, especially now, with AI at the front of everyone’s mind. It’s the latest in a slew of films about almost-human humanoids — I’m Your Man, After Yang, Ex Machina, to name just a few — and I gobble this stuff up. So I like the concept. The problem with Simulant is it feels disjointed, and, for a thriller, it tends to drag. The aerial drone shots of industrial Hamilton are cool, and I like the rich art direction, but as a whole it doesn’t quite work. Like many science fiction movies, it’s hard to connect with the characters; we can watch them but don’t feel a part of them. Simulant isn’t bad, but, aside from a couple of genuine surprises, it just didn’t grab me.
The Super Mario Bros Movie
Dir: Aaron Horvath, Michael Jelenic
It’s 1985 in Brooklyn, New York.
Mario and Luigi are plumbers and business partners. They just opened their new company called Super Mario Bros, and they say they can fix any leaky pipe, anywhere. But business is bad. So to show their mettle they decide to tackle a huge explosion beneath the street that no one can fix. But deep in the sewer they both get sucked down a pipe, separated and ejected into two separate worlds. Luigi is locked up in a bird cage suspended over molten lava with only a nihilistic blue star to keep him company. They’re captive of cruel king Bowser, a giant, dragon-like monster in the land of turtles. Mario ends up in a much nice place filled with talking mushrooms. It’s ruled by Princess Peach, a human, just like Mario and 
Luigi. She decides to work with Mario and Donkey Kong (a gorilla in a nearby kingdom) to rescue Luigi and fight off Bowser’s invading army. But can anyone beat that scary turtle? And will Mario or Luigi ever make it back to Brooklyn?
Super Mario Bros: The Movie is exactly what the title promises: an animated reenactment of various classic Nintendo games, held together by a threadbare plot, wicked graphics and frequent jokes. I really love psychedelic images in this movie and its fidelity to the original games, both for its nostalgia value and its all-around coolness. I’m less crazy about the fact that much of the movie feels like a well-
produced infomercial, plugging an assortment of Nintendo products, from the original to Mario Kart. A significant portion of screen time is devoted to these characters actually playing their games! Is that why we go to movies now — to watch characters play video games? Don’t get me wrong, the images, music, sound effects and jokes were enough to keep me interested and happy; there’s just not much there, there.
Soft, Super Mario Bros, and Simulant 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.
Canadians coming of age. Films reviewed: Riceboy Sleeps, Golden Delicious, Brother
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Spring Film Festival season is revving up in Toronto, with Cinefranco, Human Rights Watch, The Canadian Film Fest and Tiff’s Next Wave rounding out March into April.
This week, I’m looking at three new Canadian coming-of-age dramas about sons or grandsons of immigrants. There’s a young man in Scarborough who worships his big brother, one in Vancouver who only has eyes for his new neighbour, and another kid in Vancouver who wonders why he doesn’t have a father.
Rice Boy Sleeps
Wri/Dir: Anthony Shim
It’s the early 1990s in British Columbia. So-young (Choi Seung-yoon) is a recent immigrant from Korea who packs and seals cardboard boxes in a factory. Her son, Dong-hyun (Dohyun Noel Hwang) is shy, nervous and wears thick glasses. She taught him to read and write Korean but he’s starting public school for the first time. The other kids — all white — are merciless, say his kimbap smells like farts, and mock everything from his face to his name. His teacher calls her in to change her boy’s name to something more “Canadian” — she gives her a list of approved choices. He asks his mother, why don’t I have a father? Ask me later, she says. But the next time anyone bullies you, say you know taekwando and punch them, hard. He follows her directions and gets suspended for violence.
10 years later, he’s a teenager (Ethan Hwang) who wears contact lenses and dyes his hair blond. His teacher tells all the kids to draw a family tree, but Dong-hyun has no one to include but his mother… and she was an orphan. Again, he asks his mom who 
his father was. She brushes his question off. While his mother is at work, he tries soft drugs alcohol and porn with a friend (Hunter Dillon — who also plays a best friend in Golden Delicious). But he still feels listless and unmoored. Meanwhile So-young has met a boyfriend (played by the director) and is considering marriage, until some shocking news makes her rethink her entire life… and Dong-hyun’s, too
Riceboy Sleeps is a lovely and poetic tale of a boy and his mother trying to fit in, while grasping at whatever’s left of their history. It’s a story of immigrants living in a blatantly racist society but one that also looks at the patriarchal cruelty of the place they came from. It’s minimalist and concise, showing only what is absolutely necessary for maximal emotional impact. That — with good acting, beautiful cinematography, and scenic opening and closing shots — makes Riceboy Sleeps seem almost like a work of art.
Winner of the TIFF 2022 Platform Prize.
Golden Delicious
Dir: Jason Karman
It’s present-day Vancouver. Jake — nicknamed J-Pop (Cardi Wong) is starting his last year of high school. He likes taking photographs and watching basketball. His sister Janet (Claudia Kai) is going to culinary school, while his Mom and Dad (Leeah Wong, Ryan Mah) work 12-hour-days at their upscale Chinese restaurant, passed down from the grandparents.
Jake’s looking forward to spending time with his best buds Sam and Gary, and his childhood sweetheart Vee (Parmiss Sehat). She wants sex and lots of it, while Jake thinks they should wait till marriage before doing the big one. And he’s under lots of pressure to make the basketball team. I was MVP when I was in high school, and I’d be a pro if it weren’t for my knee injury, says dad. But everything changes when a new neighbour Aleks (Chris Carson) appears on the scene. He’s a terrific player and is outspokenly gay. He’s a ringer who moved to the school from 
down east specifically to play on this team. And Jake can’t stop staring at him and snapping pics through his bedroom window. Once they meet, Aleks is willing to help improve Jake’s skills… both on and off the court. Jake is torn between family pressure and personal identity, long-term love vs short term lust. Will Jake make the team? Will Aleks make Jake? And what will his girlfriend, family, and friends do if they ever find out?
Golden Delicious is a coming-of-age and coming-out drama set within a Chinese-Canadian Vancouver family. It deals with current issues like bullying, the lack of privacy (due to social networks), and how parental expectations interfere with their kids’ own wants and needs. I found the high school rom-com aspects cliched, everything from two people bumping into each other and dropping their books in their first meetings, to confrontations in the locker room, to who will ask whom to the 
prom. Much more interesting are the family plot turns, from Janet reverse engineering her grandmother’s recipes, to Jake’s own subtle subterfuge to get out of playing basketball, as well as the very real grinding pressures of running a restaurant (the restaurant is called Golden Delicious). That’s what makes this film worth watching.
Brother
Wri/Dir: Clement Virgo
It’s the 1990s in a working class neighbourhood in Scarborough (Toronto). Michael (Lamar Johnson) is a high school student who lives in an apartment tower with his hard-working mother (Marsha Stephanie Blake). He idolizes his big-brother Frances (Aaron Pierre) who serves as a father figure in his life. Frances is bigger, tougher and better connected than Michael. The gangs know enough to stay away from him, and not to harass Michael, either. Michael hopes he can tap some of Frances’s aura to meet a girl who he really likes. Aisha (Kiana Madeira) is the smartest girl in school and he wants to really meet her. Michael and his friends hope to take hiphop to a new level. There’s a place to hang, a barber shop, where DJs — like Frances’ best bud — spins tracks after closing. But their big break, an audition with high-profile record producers 
downtown, doesn’t pan out. And tensions rise when the twin forces of gangsters on one side and the police force on the other are encroaching on their safe space and tearing their lives apart. Can the sons of Jamaican immigrants survive in the mean streets of Scarborough?
Brother is a fully-imagined, coming-of-age story by two brothers in the 90s. It deals with masculinity, violence sexuality, and black identity. It deftly contrasts between the claustrophobic highrise housing where they live and the nearby idyllic Rouge 
River where they seek refuge. Based on the book by Toronto writer David Chariandy, Brother has a novelistic feel to it, and its use of widescreen cinematic scenes, as in a showdown in the courtyard outside their apartment, gives it an epic sweep. Brother is a powerful and moving drama.
Nominated for 12 Canadian Screen Awards, including Best Picture.
Brother and Riceboy Sleeps open in Toronto this weekend, and at the TIFF Bell Lightbox this and next week; check you local listings. Golden Delicious is premiering at the Canadian Film Festival, which runs from March 28th through April 1. Go to canfilmfest.ca for details.
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 Enuka Okuma about Woman Meets Girl at #TBFF!
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
It’s present-day Toronto. Annabelle is a bookkeeper in her forties who lives alone and keeps a neat and tidy home. She is single, reserved and has never has been in love. Tessie is an 18-year-old sex worker who has lived on the streets for many years. She exudes sexuality from every pore. So what are they doing together? Annabelle rescued Tessie from an abusive boyfriend and invited her into her home, and now they’re sharing alcohol in a drinking game. But as they get to know each other, and their secrets are revealed, it’s hard to tell who is rescuing whom.
Woman Meets Girl is a sizzling short film about two black 
women during one night in Toronto. The film was written, directed and produced by Murry Peeters, and co-stars Chelsea Russell as Tessie and Enuka Okuma as Annabelle. Enuka is an award-winning actress, known for her extensive work on TV shows like Rookie Blue, Working Moms, Madison and Sue Thomas, FBEye, as well as guest roles on 24, Grey’s Anatomy, and NCIS: Los Angeles.
I spoke with Enuka Okuma in L.A. via Zoom from Toronto.
Woman Meets Girl has its world premiere on February 18th, 2023 at the Toronto Black Film Festival and at Queer Screen’s 30th Mardi Gras Film Festival in Sydney, Australia.
January movies. Films reviewed: Plane, Adult Adoption
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
This week, I’m looking at two new movies opening this weekend: an action/thriller and a dramedy. There’s an airline pilot trying to escape from a tropical island; and an adult orphan trying to find new parents.
Plane
Dir: Jean-François Richet
Brodie (Gerard Butler) is an airline pilot based in Singapore. With two decades of experience you’d think he’d be helming jumbo jets by now, but ever since his wife died, his uncontrollable anger has relegated him to shorter flights for a cut-rate airline. Today he’s heading to Honolulu to visit his daughter, working with a rookie co-pilot, Dele (Boson An) and his usual crew, headed by Bonnie (Daniella Pineda).
There are supposed to be only 14 passengers on board but two surprise guests show up at the last moment: an armed policeman and a man in handcuffs. Louis Gaspare (Mike Colter) is being extradited to Toronto to stand trial for an unknown crime. He looks very strong… is he dangerous? But Brodie has bigger fish to fry– they’re heading into an electrical storm because the cheap-ass airline won’t buy enough jetfuel 
to keep them above the clouds.
Then comes the turbulence. Wires blow and all communication is lost. He’s forced to make an emergency landing on the only visible island in the vast Pacific Ocean, without a runway or ground crew to help him out. The good news is Brodie manages to land safely. The bad news is the cop guarding the alleged criminal was killed in the turbulence. The worse news is they landed in Mindanao on an island held by Moro rebels, a place where the Philippine government dare not go. And even worse the local warlords plan to hold them for ransom and kill them, one by one. Can Brodie get them out of this mess? And who can he turn to for help?
Plane is a credible, international action thriller , filled with disaster scenes, fist fights, and last-minute escapes. Butler plays his usual grizzled action hero in the mold of Bruce Willis in the Die Hard movies — he takes the hits but keeps on fighting. Blood seems to be dripping down his unshaven face at every possible opportunity. Pure cheese. And who ever heard of an airline pilot with stubble? Butler is teamed with the other 
big star in this movie Mike Colter, who you may have seen as Luke Cage. Two action heroes vs the bad guys.
Despite the cheese, Plane is fast-moving and generally fun to watch. It’s made by a credible French director who proved his chops with some real crime flics, like Mesrine, Public Enemy No. 1. This one shares its rough-hewn quality. And, with its international cast and setting, it manages to avoid the one of the worst Hollywood afflictions; I’m talking about obligatory “patriotism”. You’ll find no flag-waving here.
Yes, Plane is a B-movie, nothing deep, but still enjoyable to watch.
Adult Adoption
Dir: Karen Knox
Rosie (Ellie Moon) is a 25 year old woman who works in a bank office in Toronto’s financial district. She’s efficient, hardworking and diligent and never takes a day off. Her boss is like a mother to her and her coworkers are her family. In her spare time she tries to have sex with a guy she meets on an online dating site (Donald McClean, Jr). But her comfortable life is shaken when a new boss — a guy about her age — takes over. Her surrogate mother is gone and she doesn’t know what to do. Things get worse when Helen (Leah Doz), her workmate and closest friend, keeps telling her not to worry, just ask her real parents for advice. The thing is, Rosie doesn’t have any parents. She’s been an orphan since she was three and was never adopted. Now that she’s aged out of the foster program, she has no one left to turn to for help, or love or support. No one to ask about her day or just brush her hair. What’s an adult orphan supposed to do?
Rosie decides to take a different approach using an online site 
for adult kids seeking new parents. She meets two possibilities at the site, a middle aged man and a woman named Jane (Rebecca Northan) who has estranged relations with her daughter. While things seem to be going well, but will she ever find a new family that works? And by doing so, can she emerge as a normal person?
Adult Adoption is comedy drama about a neurotic woman trying to create the family she never had, and the indifferent or exploitative people she encounters along the way. It concentrates on the quirky main character Rosie as envisioned by Elie Moon who not only plays her but who also wrote the 
screenplay. She’s really great. She wears little-girl clothes with pink polkadots and knitted strawberries. And alternates between an independent, sexually-active woman with grown-up desires, and that of a clinging, naive child. While Adult Adoption deals with serious topics like loneliness and depression, it manages to stay funny enough never to become depressing itself.
I liked this one.
Plane and Adult Adoption 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 Jim Shedden about Moments of Perception: Experimental Film in Canada
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Photo of Jim Shedden by Brody White.
Since motion pictures took the world by storm, Canadian mainstream movies have been dominated by Hollywood. But avant-garde, independent and experimental films have a very different history. Pioneers like Norman MacLaren and Arthur Lipsett at the NFB, and artists like Michael Snow and Joyce Wieland established Canadian films on the world’s stage. And creativity exploded after 1967 in a surge of national expression. But what makes a film experimental, what makes it Canadian, and how have these criteria changed over the past century?
Moments of Perception: Experimental Film in Canada is a monumental, 
landmark book released this week, accompanied by a series of screenings at the TIFF Bell Lightbox in Toronto. The screenings are curated by — and the book edited by — Barbara Sternberg and Jim Shedden. It includes a meticulous history of experimental film by Mike Zryd, a series of filmographies and profiles of the major players by Stephen Broomer, shorter bios compiled by Jim and Barbara who also wrote the preface, and it’s beautifully illustrated with contemporary photos of the filmmakers and stills from the films themselves.
Jim Shedden is a curator of inter-disciplinary exhibitions and head of the publishing program at the Art Gallery of Ontario.
I spoke with Jim via Zoom in Toronto.
Moments of Perception: Experimental Film in Canada is now available from Goose Lane Editions.
Daniel Garber talks with filmmaker Shasha Nakhai about Scarborough
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
It’s typical day at a literacy clinic in eastern Toronto. Three new kids are there with their parents trying to find a place for them in the complex school system. Sylvie’s there with her mom — her dad is in hospital and her 4-year-old brother Johnny is hard to handle. Bing is bullied by other kids who questions his sexuality, even as his mom works all day in a mani-pedi and his dad’s in a mental hospital. And little Laura was abandoned by her abusive mom, forcing her dad to raise her — someone who knows nothing about taking care of kids. Luckily, a kindly teacher named Ms Hina is there to smooth out the bumps and care for the kids… even when it looks like nothing can help them. And Bing, Sylvie and Laura become good friends. But can they overcome the obstacles in their precarious lives at a public 
school in Scarborough?
Scarborough is a wonderful, new, feature-length drama that premiered last fall at TIFF and the ReelAsian film festivals to rave reviews and appreciative audiences. Using an ensemble cast and first-time actors, it explores life in a working class, multicultural neighbourhood in Scarborough, where people struggle with poverty, homelessness, racism, and a largely indifferent social system. Based on the award-winning book by Catherine Hernandez, it’s directed by Shasha Nakhai and Rich Williamson. Shasha Nakhai is a Toronto-based filmmaker whose work has aired on the BBC, CBC, ZDF and Arte and screened at the Museum of Modern Art. She has worked on documentaries like The World Before Her (2012), Driving with Selvi (2015), and League of Exotique Dancers (2015).
I spoke with Shasha Nakhai in Toronto via Zoom.
Scarborough is opening in Toronto on February 25th at the TIFF Bell Lightbox.
culturalmining.com 
2 comments