Twentieth century troubles. Films reviewed: White Bird, Hold Your Breath, Saturday Night
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Lots and lots of movies coming to Toronto. Opening this weekend is the monster comedy Frankie Freako by Toronto’s own Steven Kostanski; and next week, look out for the Goethe Films, Aftermath: Echoes of War series featuring classics by Fassbinder and Wim Wenders at the TIFF Lightbox.
But today, I’m looking at three new movies, all set in the 20th Century. There’s dustbowl horror in 1930s Oklahoma, Nazi occupation in 1940s France, and the opening night of a live TV show in 1970s New York City.
White Bird
Dir: Marc Forster
It’s 1943, during WWII, in a picturesque French village near the Swiss border. Sarah Blum (Ariella Glaser) is a happy middle class kid in her school with high marks and many friends. And she loves drawing pictures in the margins of her notebook. One young boy clearly has a crush on her. Julien (Orlando Schwerdt) is smart and kind, but also a victim of bullying. Not only does his father work in the sewers but Julien has a brace on one leg and uses a crutch to get around, making him a ready target for cruel bullies. But things change rapidly under the Nazi Occupation. Sarah and the other Jewish kids are pulled out of class one day to be deported to the camps. She alone manages to escape and hide in the woods. But the former class bullies are now classroom Nazis and they’re always on the look out for Sarah. Luckily she has a saviour — it’s Julien, of course, who lets her hide in the hayloft of his barn. As the months go by, he serves as her one-man classroom, relating the lessons she misses each day. And as they get to know each other better, they grow closer — is love at hand? And can they keep her hidden during the Nazi Occupation?
White Bird is an historical romantic drama. Adapted from a YA 
graphic novel by R. J. Palacio, it’s a sequel to an earlier book (also adapted into a film) called Wonder. The historical plot is framed by a kid named Julien in present-day New York, whose French Grand-mère (Helen Mirren) is telling him a story from her youth. I found the movie OK, with some real weepy moments. It does have odd details: why is the French resistance’s oath Vive l’Humanité!? But I like the graphic novel feel of the whole thing, with rapid story development and unexpected twists and turns. If you’re looking for a good, historical, teenaged tearjerker, check out White Bird.
Hold Your Breath
Co-Dir: Karrie Crouse, William Joines
It’s 1933 on the Oklahoma panhandle. Margaret Bellum (Sarah Paulson) lives with her two daughters on a farm. Life is miserable. Once their land was covered with acres of wheat, the cows and horses thriving in the barn. But years of drought has turned their land into a giant dustbowl. It’s so bad that you can choke to death in a dust storm. Her husband Henry is in Philadelphia looking for paid work, leaving the three women alone, waiting for his first paycheque to arrive so they can join him. Rose (Amiah Miller) the older daughter is yearning to see a big city, while little sister Ollie, who is deaf (Alona Jane Robbins) is shy and easily frightened. Especially so since Rose read her a scary book about The Gray Man, a mythical bogeyman who embodies the terror of a dust storm. The neighbours are nervous, too — rumours abound that a drifter made his way into someone’s home and killed all the women.
So Margaret is on high alert, her rifle cocked and ready to fire, 
when a drifter appears in their barn. Wallace Grady (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) calms her down, saying he knows her husband who told him to check up on his family. I’m a man of the cloth, he says, and a faith healer. But strange unexplained things start happening. Is he a killer or a pastor? Does he have supernatural powers? Or is he the mythical Gray Man?
Hold Your Breath is a psychological thriller in a gothic setting. It’s spooky and creepy, and a little bit scary, full of feelings of suspicion and psychosis. the acting, especially Sarah Paulson, is quite good. One thing I found interesting is, though it’s ostensibly set during the Great Depression, it feels like an allegory of the recent pandemic. The family puts on elaborate white face masks to protect from the lethal dust whenever they go outside, are afraid to leave their home, and they are terrified of an unknown invisible enemy who can “get inside their home and their bodies unnoticed, just by breathing”.
Nothing is very surprising here, and the story seemed less scary than tragic, but if you’re heavily into southern gothic horror, I think you’ll appreciate Hold your Breath.
Saturday Night
Co-Wri/Dir: Jason Reitman
It’s October 11, 1975 in New York City, and in a few hours a new show will be broadcast live across the United States. It’s a new concept; not the “live” part; that was a staple of TV programming from its earliest days. What’s new are the guests — Jim Henson and his muppets — the comedians — Andy Kaufman and George Carlin — the controversial topics, the live musicians, and the “not ready for prime time” players. The show is meant otherwise be produced on the fly with minimal rehearsals — they plan to read their lines from cue cards or just wing it. The show is Saturday Night Live, and up until the moment it airs, no one’s sure whether the show will be canceled even before it starts.
It’s up to the creators Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle) and Dick Ebersol to get the show ready in time. Lorne is working closely with his writer (and partner) Rosie Shuster (Rachel Sennot). But he’s badgered by network VPs who seem to be determined to make it fail. On top of this, John Belushi has passed out somewhere, the union crew refuse to put the set together, they can’t find a live 
audience to sit in a studio at midnight, snd all the local station bosses are there with their own gripes.
What can a guy do?
Saturday Night is an instantly forgettable but warmly nostalgic look at the start of an iconic TV show. More surprising is the movie is genuinely funny. A lot funnier, in fact, than the TV show it’s celebrating. This is not a documentary; it’s a comic dramatization of what might have been going on that first night, exactly 50 years ago next week. There’s an enormous cast, with every producer, writer and comic portrayed by people who weren’t even born when that show started.
I love the frenetic energy running through this film, as the camera flies around the set following a plethora of characters all talking at once as they try to get the show on the air. It has a cast of thousands, it’s fun to watch and never boring. Like I said, there’s nothing much to it, but I enjoyed Saturday Night.
Saturday Night and White Bird both open this weekend in Toronto; check your local listings. Hold Your Breath is now streaming on Disney+.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website culturalmining.com.
Good Euro at #TIFF24. Films reviewed: Miséricordia, Vermiglio, The Girl with the Needle
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
There was a dearth of European movies at TIFF this year with far fewer high-profile films from countries like France, Benelux, Scandinavia, Romania and Poland. But there were still some very good ones. So this week, I’m talking about three new European films that were featured at TIFF. There’s a mom with a baby in Copenhagen, an army deserter in Tyrol, and a funeral-goer in southeastern France.
Miséricordia
Dir: Alain Guiraudie (Review: Stranger by the Lake)
Jeremie (Félix Kysyl) is a boyish-looking man from Toulouse returning to the tiny village of L’Aveyron in southeastern France. He’s there for a funeral, the untimely death of the village’s baker. Jeremie knows the village and all its people very well, as he was the baker’s assistant for many years. He asks the baker’s widow, Martine (Catherine Frot), if he can stay there for a few days.
She puts him up in her adult son Vincent’s old room (Jean-Baptiste Durand) — which still look’s like it’s a kid’s room. Vincent, though, is a married adult, a tough guy known for his moodiness and sudden bursts of anger. Then there’s Walter (David Ayala), the town recluse, a large, droopy man with coarse features who seldom speaks with anyone other than his dog and Vincent. And an Abbey from an ancient monastery who always seems to turns up when anything significant happens.
So Jeremie’s presence upsets the local rhythm. Vincent treats Jeremie like they’re still kids, picking play-fights with him, grabbing and punching. He uses his key to barge in on Jeremie in bed at 4 am (on his way to work, he says). He suspects Jeremie is sleeping with his
mom. But in reality, Jeremie seems more attracted to the late baker than his wife. When Jeremie drops by Walter’s place for some chat and a few glass of the local pastis — Walter warns him not to let Vincent know he was there. With his tongue and inhibitions loosened Jeremie comes on to Walter sexually which shocks and confuses the much bigger man. By the next morning there’s a dead body buried in the woods, a witness, a killer trying to keep it a secret, and the gendarmes starting an investigation. Whodunnit, who will get caught, and what will happen to the rest of the characters?
Miséricordia is a cross between dark comedy and film noir. Like a stage play, it’s full of dialogue overheard through half open doors, people disappearing behind curtains or hiding in someone else’s bed. It deals with lust and passion — and compassion, anger but also forgiveness (Misericordia is Latin for mercy). And a fair amount of unexpected erotic nudity. It’s shot on grainy colour film, among the ancient whitewashed houses, stone monastery, and the wilds of the nearby forests — it’s visually beautiful. Alain Guiraudie who directed the great Stranger by the Lake once again crafts an unusual mystery with a queer undercurrent.
This is a really good movie.
Vermiglio
Dir: Maura Delpero
It’s near the end of WWII in a mountainous village tucked away in Tyrolia, northern Italy. Two faces arrive in town one day, one familiar, one unknown. They are both deserters, Italian soldiers press-ganged into the German army, but the stranger, a Sicilian named Pietro (Giuseppe De Domenico), knows only this friend Attilio, he served with. He also saved his life and practically carried him all the way home. Pietro’s Italian is totally different to them so he seldom speaks. They put them up in a barn, just to be safe, and feed them.
The patriarch of this village is Cesare (Tommaso Ragno) a highly respected schoolteacher with ten kids of his own. Most of the kids sleep together, some three to a bed, and there’s a constant stream of patter and dialogue within the family. The oldest daughter is Lucia (Martina Scrinzi), named after the village’s patron saint. There’s also Flavia, the precocious daughter and Ada the religious one. Lucia knows nothing about sex, but does know she likes Pietro. They flirt, court, kiss, and marry. He signs up for the adult literacy lessons his new father-in-law teaches. And finally, as Lucia’s belly grows, he abruptly leaves the village for a short visit home in far-off Sicily. But when he fails to return after months away without even a postcard, Lucia begins to worry. What has happened to her Pietro?
Vermiglio gives a look at the consequences of ambition, rivalry, love and betrayal in an isolated village where everyone knows what everyone else is doing. It follows all the members of this family, though especially the daughters and their hard-working mother (10 kids!) over the course of one year.There’s a lovely ebb and flow, with 
characters appearing and disappearing, deftly interwoven throughout the film in dialogue and action. Though linear in structure there’s no clear explanation of much of what is going on — you have to figure that out yourself. Filmed under soft natural lighting, you’re as likely to see an extreme closeups of milking a cow’s udders, as you are a furtive kiss. I found Vermiglio fascinating and empathetic — you really care about what happens to all these characters.
I like this one.
The Girl with the Needle
Co-Wri/Dir: Magnus von Horn
It’s WWI in Copenhagen Denmark. Karoline (Vic Carmen Sonne) works in a sweatshop making uniforms. She hasn’t heard from her husband Peter since he enlisted with the Germans, and without his income she’s behind on her rent and faces eviction. In desperation she visits the factory owner Jørgen (Joachim Fjelstrup) and asks for her military widow’s pension. But without any proof of his death, there’s nothing he can do. But he does find her attractive and soon they are having furtive sex in back alleys. Inevitably she gets pregnant so he does the honourable thing and proposes… until his aristocratic mother stops him cold. Not only won’t he marry her, she must be 
fired from her job. Meanwhile, it seems her husband was not killed at the battlefront, but he’s unrecognizable. Peter (Besir Zeciri) now wears a mask to cover his face that had been blown off and them sewn back together. Peter now works at a carnival freak show revealing his face for a few krone.
In desperation, Karoline takes a knitting needle to a public bath and attempts to kill the foetus in her womb by jabbing it, but ends up injuring herself and nearly passing out. But she’s spotted by Dagmar (Trine Dyrholm) who runs a local candy store, and her pretty, blonde daughter Erena (Ava Knox Martin). She nurses her and tells her what to do if she starts bleeding again. And she gives her a bag of candy with the shop’s address on it. Dagmar is always there when there’s no one else to turn to. And when she finally gives birth, penniless and homeless, Caroline shows up at the candy store asking for help give away her baby. She can’t afford to pay her — this is a business, Dagmar reminds her — but agrees to let her stay there for now, as an 
on-call wet nurse. Many young women pass through there with their kids, so she’s always ready to lend a hand. But what really happens to those babies?
Based on a true story, The Girl with the Needle is a powerful movie about a horrifying case that shocked the world (no spoilers). It shows us a Copenhagen riddled with friction and sharp divisions between the haves and have-nots. It also repeats a theme of disturbing images of grotesquely deformed faces. It’s shot in glorious black and white by the Polish cinematographer Michal Dymek, who also filmed Jerzy Skolimowski’s EO two years ago. There’s some serious acting here, especially the three main women. This is one of those jaw-dropping movies where you go in expecting a conventional, scary-type horror movie, but you end up watching something much bigger than that. This is a fantastic and very disturbing movie, but with a touch of hope.
And it’s Denmark’s choice for the Oscar for best international Feature.
Keep your eyes peeled for Miséricordia, The Girl with the Needle, and Vermiglio, that all played at TIFF and should be opening theatrically over the next year.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website culturalmining.com.
“B” movies. Films reviewed: The Boy in the Woods, Blackwater Lane, The Bikeriders
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
In weather like this, don’t you want to be watching a movie in an air-conditioned theatre? I sure do. This week I’m looking at three new “B” movies, as in the letter B. There’s a biker gang in the 1960s; a serial killer on the loose on Blackwater Lane in an English town; and a boy trying to survive in the woods in WWII.
The Boy in the Woods
Wri/Dir: Rebecca Snow (Pandora’s box: Interview)
It’s 1943 in Nazi-occupied Poland. The city of Buczacz is home to Poles, Jews and Ukrainians who lived together in relative peace, until the German invasion. But by 1943 the Jews were in captivity, soon to be executed or deported. 12-year-old Max (Jett Klyne) wants to stay with his mother and younger sister, but when they are loaded onto trucks, she insists Max escape. His aunt has arranged for him to stay on a farm until the war is over. Joska (Richard Armitage) helps him out by burning his clothes, dressing him in peasant garb and hat, and giving him a new name and history: if you want to survive, he says, you must totally change your identity. But following a near-death experience when the police come knocking at his door looking for hidden Jews, Joska decides it’s too dangerous to keep him there any longer. He finds him a cave in the forest to hide in, and gives him lifesaving advice: where he can find running water, which mushrooms or berries are safe to eat, and how to snare a rabbit and light a fire.
Max has no possessions except the knife Joska gave him and a 
white feather he finds. After many close calls, he meets an even younger boy, Yanek (David Kohlsmith), who has lost his family. Now Max has someone else to look out for. Together they try to fight the elements and escape their many potential enemies. But how long can two children survive alone in the woods?
The Boy in the Woods is a moving dramatization based on the memoirs of Canadian artist and writer Maxwell Smart. It’s similar to Jerzy Kosinski’s The Painted Bird. I found it quite touching in parts; it’s a holocaust movie but with a different look — none of the expected ghettos or concentrations camps. It’s also a Canadian film, so, to me, the woods themselves — the trees and plants and streams — feel nice and familiar, not scary and alienating, despite the harrowing episodes he experiences there. I also don’t understand why everyone speaks English but put on heavy, generic European accents. But these are quibbles. In general I thought it works well as a gripping personal history about a 12-year-old kid trying to survive in wartime.
Blackwater Lane
Dir: Jeff Celentano
Cass (Minka Kelly) is a strikingly beautiful young woman who teaches theatre arts at a posh English private school. She likes G&Ts and tarot cards. She lives in an isolated but beautiful manor house — surrounded by a lush forest, a verdant pond and tall hedges — with her husband Matthew (Dermot Mulroney), a business executive. When there are problems with her home life, she can always turn to her best friend and confidant, Rachel (Maggie Grace). They’ve known each other since they were kids. And she enjoys flirting with the seductive John (Alan Calton), a fellow teacher at her school. But her peaceful life is disrupted when she sees a woman in a car on Blackwater Lane in a thunderstorm. Turns out the woman is dead, and her murderer — possibly a serial killer — is still on the loose. That’s when strange things start happening to her. Edward, (Judah Cousin) a student who seems to have a crush on her, keeps showing up unexpectedly. A sketchy builder knocks on her door saying she asked him to repair the alarm system — which she has no memory of. She starts hearing strange creaks and knocks all around the house, and strange shadows appear just out of sight calling her name. An inquisitive police detective (Natalie Simpson) comes around when she calls, but sees nothing. And her husband keeps reminding Cass of her frequent memory loss, and wild imagination, as he calls it. But when dead birds, a fox and a blood soaked knife keep appearing and disappearing, she realized something is going wrong. Is she encountering ghosts in the old haunted house? Is the serial killer out to get her? Is 
he someone she knowns? And is she being gaslit by a stranger, or losing her mind?
Blackwater Lane is a psychological thriller, about a woman who can’t convince anyone else that her life is threatened. It’s loaded with classic suspense and mystery — almost gothic in story, but not in style. It’s based on a bestselling novel by B.A. Paris. Thing is, it has a movie-of-the-week feeling to it, good but not great, loaded with many clichés. The acting varies from OK to mediocre, and there are way too many scenes that end with slow fades. And the ending is a messy attempt to try to tie up all the loose ends. Even so, I always find it fun to watch this kind of psychological thriller late at night.
Bikeriders
Wri/Dir: Jeff Nichols
Kathy (Jodie Comer) is a working-class woman in the mid 1960s.She lives in the midwest near Chicago. One day she wanders into a tough local bar and is smitten by a young guy playing pool. Benny (Austin Butler) is the sort of bad boy she knows to stay away from. But when a tough, fatherly figure, Johnny (Tom Hardy) tells her she should feel safe, they’re just a bunch of guys in a motorcycle club, she lets her guard down a bit. Benny takes her for a ride on his hog, heads out on the highway… and they fall in love. Eventually Benny moves in with her and they start a normal happy life. Thing is, Benny is not the kind of guy who likes to be tied down — he’s a free spirit, never happier than when he’s on the road with his buds. He’s also a firecracker, and neither the threat of violence or jail will calm him down. 
Johnny, the leader of the Vandals, doesn’t look for trouble. But if anyone challenges his leadership, he’s always ready for a fight — fists or knives, your choice. But as the years go by, Kathy tells Benny he has to choose — keep riding with Johnny and the boys, or stay with her and their baby. But with teenagers who don’t know the rules trying to join the gang, its hierarchy starts to crumble. Which way will Benny turn?
The Bikeriders is an historical drama about the rise and file of the Vandals motorcycle club. Though it concentrates on those three characters — all very well acted — it’s really an ensemble piece with a dozen other characters: Zipco (Michael Shannon), Wahoo (Beau Knapp), Cockroach (Emory Cohen), Funny Sonny (Norman Reedus), Corky (Karl Glusman), The Kid (Toby Wallace) — each with their on quirks and personalities. It’s based on a famous collection of pics of motorcycle gangs in the 60s and 70s taken by photographer Danny Lyons. Naturally, the cinematography is of top quality, as are the clothes, hair, tats, and music. What it doesn’t have is much of a plot, just a series of linked vignettes. Instead, for reasons unknown, they bring the photographer (Mike Faist) into the story, thus alienating the viewers by keeping us at arms length from the characters. The thing is, Jeff Nichols is not just good, he’s a great director. And he redeems himself in the last third, where there are some really powerful scenes. With great acting and a huge talented cast — though far from perfect, the Bikeriders is a good movie to watch.
The Bikeriders and The Boy in the Woods both open this weekend in Toronto; check your local listings. And Blackwater Lane also opens, both theatrically and VOD.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website culturalmining.com.
Authoritarian. Films reviewed: Humane, Occupied City PLUS Hotdocs!
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
This is a busy weekend, with tons of new releases, so many that’s it’s hard to keep them straight. Like these two, I covered last fall at TIFF: a first feature about a man sexually assaulted on the streets of Toronto called I Don’t Know Who You Are; and a sharp social satire from Romania about a woman who takes on the offensive persona of Andrew Tate online, called Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World. I dare you to remember those two titles: I Don’t Know Who You Are, and Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World.
But this week, I’m looking at two new movies set in totalitarian regimes. There’s a city in the future where medically assisted death is mandatory, and a city in the past under Nazi occupation.
But first, some more news about the Hot Docs festival, on now.
Hot Docs
Films are showing now through next weekend in Toronto, with daytime screenings free for students and seniors, and many of the filmmakers and subjects on hand for a Q&A. Here are some I’m looking forward to seeing: The Ride Ahead is a coming-of-age look at a young disabled man navigating dating, love, and sex. Fly looks at the extremely dangerous sport of base jumping and the people who do it. And Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story about a Nashville-born soul singer who became a chart-topping trans entertainer in Toronto… before disappearing. All of these and many more are playing now at Hotdocs… and students and seniors can see daytime screenings for free.
Humane
Dir: Caitlin Cronenberg
It’s the near future, in a huge mansion in a city like Toronto. Charles York (Peter Gallagher) is a famous TV anchorman, someone everyone looks up to and trusts. Tonight he’s having his dysfunctional family — four adult children — in his home for a special announcement: Rachel (Emily Hampshire), the selfish oldest child, who works for big pharma; Jared (Jay Baruchel) an arrogant professor, known for his right-wing cable news punditry; Noah (Sebastian Chacon) a neurotic piano prodigy turned drug addict, now in a 12-step program; and the youngest, Ashley (Alanna Bale), an insecure and unsuccessful aspiring actress. Charles’s second wife, Dawn, a restauranteur, who is there too, has prepared an exquisite meal. But why are they all there? Charles and Dawn have agreed to “enlist” in a heavily promoted government program to serve as role models. Enlist is a euphemism for voluntary death. After an ecological disaster, the worlds’ governments have declared there are too many people, so 20% of the population is expect to die to save the planet — voluntarily of course (the government sends a cheque to families that enlist).
The York family is shocked they’re planning to die right after dinner. But when Charles goes through with it, Dawn is nowhere to be seen — she got cold feet and ran away. And that’s when armed guards appear at the door. Bob (Enrico Colantoni), a former prison guard now working for a private agency that enforces these laws, says he’s there to claim two cadavers. And if Dawn isn’t there, it has to be another body from the family — and he doesn’t care whether it’s Rachel, Jared, Noah, or Ashley. It’s up to them to decide who dies. What will happen
to the York family?
Humane is a dark, drawing-room horror-thriller about a futuristic, dystopian world. It deals with class issues, kinship, racism and authoritarian laws. It’s told in a creepy, tongue-in-cheek manner, reminiscent of movies like Robocop, and never loses its dark, ironic humour. It is horror, though, so be be prepared for a fair amount of violence and blood. It’s Caitlin Cronenberg (David Cronenberg’s daughter)’s first feature and it’s surprisingly good. Well paced, low-budget, with a good, largely Canadian cast, it neatly captures the widespread helplessness, suspicion and fear spawned during the Covid years.
I’m impressed.
Occupied City
Dir: Steve McQueen
What happens to a city after a major event by an occupying power wipes out a large portion of its population? A new documentary looks at the city of Amsterdam under the Nazi occupation from 1940-1945. It’s a geographical look at various places and addresses during that period, but without any footage, photographs or recordings from that era. Instead, it films exactly what Amsterdam is today with a narrator’s voice describing what happened to the people who lived there under the Nazis. So we see things like people dancing or doing yoga, kids at school, an art museum, and the elderly at a musical performance. But we hear about how that location was once a prison, or a site used for deportation. Children hid — like Anne Frank — in one home; in another, a collaborator sent them to their deaths in a concentration camp. Each segment ends with a simple description of the building today, like “demolished”. The building no longer stands but the history remains.
Occupied City is a meticulously precise journey through that city, 
played against a history of occupation and genocide.
The unseen camera spins its way through Amsterdam, from the red light district to public squares, along streetcar tracks and up to rooftops looking down at the peopler below. It covers all types of current demonstrations, including angry anti-vaxers, and anarchists pursued by swarms of police drones. Did you know the Germans melted down most of Amsterdam’s church bells to make munitions? It’s filled with obscure historical facts like that. 
Amsterdam-born Bianca Stigter wrote the script based on her book, Atlas of an Occupied City: Amsterdam 1940-1945. It’s directed by the great UK filmmaker Steve McQueen. The two are a couple and frequent collaborators, which gives this a highly personal feel. One thing you should know, though: the film is over four hours long! Four hours!!
Even so, it wasn’t a strain to watch, I found it warm and enveloping, offering a constant, soothing contrast between horrific words and mundane images.
I liked this film, but be sure to dress comfortably and bring lots of water.
Hotdocs is on now, Humane and Occupied City both open this weekend at the TIFF Lightbox and elsewhere; 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.
Pot o’ Gold. Films reviewed: French Girl, One Life, Love Lies Bleeding
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Tomorrow is St Paddy’s day so this week I’m looking at three new movies, from Canada, England and the US, about people looking for their own pot o’ gold. There’s a New Yorker in Quebec looking for love, an Englishman in wartime Prague searching for orphans to rescue, and a young woman in New Mexico looking to flee to Vegas with her bodybuilder girlfriend.
French Girl
Wri/Dir: James A. Woods, Nicolas Wright
Sophie and Gordon are an unmarried couple in New York in their late 30s. Gordon Kinski (Zach Braff) is an eighth grade English teacher in a public school in Brooklyn. He loves donning 16th century tunics to teach Shakespeare to 14 year olds. Sophie Tremblay (Evelyne Brochu) is a wizard in the kitchen — professional kitchens that is. She’s the chef at a popular restaurant. They’re getting ready for a long-planned vacation in upstate New York, far away from their jobs. But their plans are changed when a strange woman appears. Ruby (Vanessa Hudgens) is a celebrity chef with cooking shows and restaurants all around the world. She wants Sophie to audition for executive chef at her newest branch. The restaurant is in the Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City, Sophie’s home town. For Gordon, who has rarely left NY City, Quebec is terra incognito. But he agrees to come with her, thinking it’s the perfect time to propose marriage. He also will offer moral support and meet her family. And what a family it is.
The Tremblays live on their sheep farm near Quebec City. There’s an angry Dad, a doting mom, a gossipy older sister, and Junior
(Antoine Olivier Pilon) an intimidating cage boxer who collects samurai swords. And then there’s their elderly grandma who has a tendency to pop up beside their bed when they’re having sex. Gordon, who speaks no French, feels very out of place, but still tries desperately to fit in. What he doesn’t know, but the 
family does, is that Ruby, Sophie’s potential future boss, is also her former lover. Will Sophie get the job? Will her family accept Gordon? And is the rich and glamorous Ruby competing with him for Sophie’s hand?
French Girl is a funny and cute romcom about a culture clash between an eccentric family and a fish out of water. It’s also bilingual — the Tremblays speak French while Gordon and Ruby speak English. While French Girl follows many of the cliches and conventions of a romantic comedy, it still seems sweet, fresh and delightful.
I liked it despite myself.
One Life
Dir: James Hawes
It’s the late 1980s in a small city in England. Nicky Winton (Anthony Hopkins) is a retired stockbroker who lives with his wife Greta (Lena Olin). They’re expecting a visit soon from their expecting daughter, so she tells him to throw out all his junk to make way for baby. He has tons of files and papers from the 1930s he hasn’t looked at in years. Plus a treasured leather briefcase with a photo album in it. Everything in the album happened in 1938. That was when Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia to annex the “Sudetenland”, sending thousands of refugees — including Jews, intellectuals, leftists, Socialists, and Communists — to Prague to stay out of Nazi hands.
A much younger Nicky (Johnny Flynn) visits Prague and is overwhelmed by all the refugees, including countless children, many orphans, living in the streets. He wonders, how many children could he transport by train to England before Germany invades Prague? There were similar programs for kids in Austria and Germany, but not Czechoslovakia. His German-born mom (Helena Bonham-Carter) says she’ll do whatever she can to help. And a team in Prague is recording names of kids 
who can be saved. Can Nicky convince the British government to issue visas, raise the needed funds, and find foster parents to take care of them? Will he get them out before the Nazis march in? Or is it a fools game?
One Life is an historical drama — based on a true story — about an unsung hero and what he accomplished in 1938. The story jumps back and forth between the 30s and the 80s, half about the daring mission of a young man, and half about the old Nicky telling his story. I wanted to see this film for two reasons: because of the story — who doesn’t want to see children rescued from the Nazis? — and because it’s directed by James Hawes, who brought us that excellent TV spy thriller series Slow Horses. Sadly, One Life couldn’t possibly be less thrilling. While there are a few touching moments near the end, most of this film is as slow as molasses. Hopkins sleepwalks through his part while the audience nods off.
Sad to say, One Life is a snooze fest.
Love Lies Bleeding
Co-Wri/Dir: Rose Glass
It’s 30 years ago in a small town in New Mexico. Lou (Kristen Stewart) works at her estranged father’s hardcore gym, a rusty warehouse filled with muscleheads spouting No Pain No Gain slogans. Most of her time is spent unclogging toilets with her bare hands or fending off the amorous advances of a crackhead named Daisy (Anna Baryshnikov). It’s a hell-hole. Until a breath of fresh air blows in through the door. Jackie (Katy O’Brian) is a competitive bodybuilder in pink and purple lycra with big hair and bigger muscles. She’s an Okie just passing though town on her way to a competition in Vegas. But when she decks two lugs who threaten Lou, it’s love at first punch. Soon they’re making passionate love in Lou’s lonely apartment. Soon enough, she’s supplying Jackie with steroids to reach body perfection before they head off to Vegas.
But all is not well in rural New Mexico. Lou’s brother in law, JJ (Dave Franco) is a mega-douche who works for her Dad, Lou Sr’s (Ed Harris). Lou Sr is a crime boss who runs the town from his gaudy mansion. When JJ’s not cheating on his wife (Lou’s sister), he’s beating her up. And he has hired Jackie to work at Lou Sr’s gun club, after she agreed to have sex with him. (She doesn’t yet know that Lou is related to all of them). But when the truth comes out, and Lou’s sister ends up in ER, Jackie is 
jacked. She slips into a manic ‘roid rage looking for revenge, while pulling Lou into a spiral of violence, death and retribution. Will Jackie make it to Vegas? Will someone pay for the murders? And where will the dead bodies go?
Love Lies Bleeding is a brilliantly dark film noir, about small-town crime in the southwest. It’s filled with distorted psychedelic fantasies within a tragic world. It’s also a love story filled with lots of hot lesbian sex. The production design is amazing. Most of the characters sport 80s mullets and the whole movie pulses with a driven soundtrack and neon colours. This is only Rose Glass’s second feature (after Saint Maud) but she once again incorporates real settings within a surreal plot. This one includes a behind-the-scenes look at professional bodybuilding, complete with spray-on suntans and their strangely contorted muscle-popping poses. But beware — the 
movie is filled with shocking, graphic violence. Dave Franco is great as a sleaze ball, a grizzled Ed Harris is suitably sinister as a crime boss with foot long greasy blond hair spouting beneath a completely bald tonsure. Anna Baryshnikov (the dancer’s daughter!) is perfect as a hippy girl long past her prime. And Kristen Stewart and newcomer Katy O’Brian absolutely sizzle together.
If you’re looking for a crime-thriller that’s gripping, shocking and aesthetically stunning, don’t miss Love Lies Bleeding.
One Life, French Girl, and Love Lies Bleeding 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.
Current cinema. Films reviewed: Destroy All Neighbours, Freud’s Last Session, T.I.M.
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
It’s “award season” when prizes are handed out to the best — or most widely publicized — movies. But not every film is prestigious or a blockbuster. So this week, I’m looking at three new movies — one each from the US, Ireland and England — that might otherwise fall through the cracks. There’s a robot with human traits, a music producer turned serial killer, and a psychoanalyst talking about God.
Destroy All Neighbours
Wri/Dir: Jonah Ray Rodrigues
William (Jonah Ray Rodrigues) lives in a rundown apartment with his girlfriend Emily (Kiran Deol) a lawyer. He’s tall, skinny, and wears unfashionable clothes and nerd glasses. He works in a studio at the soundboard, helping bands record their music. But sometimes he feels like he’s just a knob- turner, going through the motions. His real passion is recording the ultimate prog-rock album, and is constantly coming up with new ideas, but never finishing it. Emily encourages him to give up and move on, but he feels he has to do it. But he’s getting more and more tired and frustrated by the people around him. At work, his boss is constantly ragging him for being late. And the latest client, Caleb Bang Jansen is insufferable. Even the panhandler where he parks his car is getting on his nerves. At home, Eleanor, the elderly pothead superintendent (Randee Heller) is constantly calling him for help with the fuses. Another neighbour, Phillip, lets his pet pig roam the halls. But worst of all is the new tenant next door. Vlad (Alex Winter) is hideously ugly, aggressive and incredibly loud, playing non-stop euro disco all night long. Vlad lifts weights using buckets of cement attached to his barbell. He’s a scary guy, William is passive aggressive and terrified of face to face confrontations.
When he finally visits Vlad to ask him to turn down the music, they get in a fight and somehow Vlad ends up impaled on a stake, and — accidentally — decapitated! 
William doesn’t know what to do, but finally realizes he has to dispose of the body. But things have changed since Vlad — new bodies keep piling up — always killed unintentionally by him, by strange coincidences. He becomes a serial killer by default, or a serial manslaughterer, as he likes to say.
But when the all the people he killed come back to life, he realizes something really strange is going on. Can William keep his boss and girlfriend happy, record his prog rock album, stop killing people, and living a normal life? Is he destined for a very dark future? Or is he just losing his marbles?
Destroy all Neighbours (the title says it all) is a comedy/horror movie, with an emphasis on in-your-face, gross-out humour. So there’s lots of disgusting blood and 
gore, but it’s always so exaggerated it’s funny, not scary, in the manner of Monte Python or Army of Darkness. Jonah Ray Rodrigues is the writer/ director/star and the current host of Mystery Science Theatre 3000. I admit it’s an acquired taste, and some of the gags and schtick fall flat, but I was laughing more than not. I happen to like that kind of humour (in moderation) but, admittedly, it’s not for everyone. So if you’re into bloody horror-comedy set in L.A.s skid row, or even if you’ve ever had annoying neighbours, I think you’ll love Destroy all Neighbours.
Freud’s Last Session
Co-Wri/Dir: Matt Brown
It’s September, 1939. Germany has invaded Poland and Great Britain is about to go to war. Sigmund Freud (Anthony Hopkins) and his daughter Anna (Liv Lisa Fries) left their homes and vocations in Vienna after the Anschluss — the unification of Austria and the Third Reich, and moved to London. His office is decorated with the art and bric-a-brac of home: Persian rugs, African fertility statues and Catholic saints. Anna continues to research and give lectures on psychoanalysis and child psychology, but Sigmund, due to his age (he’s 83) and poor health (he’s dying of cancer) rarely leaves his home now. But on this day he has an unusual visitor: CS Lewis (Matthew Goode). Lewis is a don at Oxford where he teaches English and has written a book about Pilgrims Progress. (He later goes on to write The Chronicles of Narnia.) And he’s still suffering from shell shock from WWI. But why are they meeting? Lewis wants to talk with Freud about God and religion. He once was an atheist but now has adopted theism and Christianity as his guiding light. Freud, on the other hand, is a committed atheist and finds all religions equally fascinating and equally false. Still, they have a spirited discussion on a wide range of issues. But certain topics are taboo. For example, Freud refuses to talk about the fact that Anna has a female lover. And Lewis considers his own sexual relationship with his late best friend’s mother as something too private to share. Meanwhile, air raid sirens are going off, Freud is struggling with the oral prosthetic he calls his “Monster” and nobody knows what the future will bring. Will this be Freud’s very last session?
Freud’s Last Session is a fictional historical drama adapted from the successful stage play. There’s no evidence that an elderly Freud and a younger Lewis ever actually met; the story functions more as an intellectual exercise than a theatrical drama. So it’s not captivating, but it did keep my attention. They try to perk it up a bit with flashbacks — Lewis in the trenches in WWI; Freud as a small child — but I found them lacklustre at
best. There are some clever touches, where Freud ends up reclining on the settee while Lewis takes on the analysts role. Of course it has nice period costumes and sets, but the main reasons to see this film is first the topics and second the acting. The topics range from sex to psychoanalysis to theology. Devotees of Freud and/or Lewis may get a kick out of it, but no major revelations here. The acting, though is delightful. Hopkins walks through his usual role — along with a few artfully-placed wunderbars and ja ja ja and das ist gut! so we don’t forget he’s Austrian. Goode is more passionate, fearful and sad. Best of all is German actress Liv Lisa Fries (from Babylon Berlin) as Anna Freud, who gets to rush around London looking for meds for her Dad.
Freud’s Last Session is not bad, but not noteworthy, either.
T.I.M.
Co-Wri/Dir: Spencer Brown
Abi and Paul Granger (Georgina Campbell, Mark Rowley) are married, professionals, double-income, no kids, moving into a beautiful, modern home in rural England. It’s at the end of a long country road, with open staircases, glass walls and a huge garden, all paid for and arranged by Abi’s employer. She’s an engineer who specializes in AI robotic prostheses. She designs the human-looking hands of robots. Paul is currently unemployed, but is in line for a corporate position in London. They’re both looking forward to their first child, and are working hard at it each night.
Now this house is completely on the grid. Everything’s smart — smart windows, locks, heating, computers, lighting — all controlled through a central console, and co-ordinated with their smart watches and phones. The central console, though, is something her company invented. It’s a Technologically Integrated Manservant, T.I.M. for short, or just Tim. Tim (Eamon Farren) is a humanoid robot with perfect male features, blond hair, and artificial intelligence; he’s constantly learning. He’s a prototype: he can cook gourmet foods, do heavy lifting, play the piano, send and answer emails. Abi’s boss is adamant that all his employees have a T.I.M., so they can get rid of the bugs in the system before the upcoming release. Abi, loves her new toy, but Paul is less enthusiastic. Why did T.I.M. barge into their bedroom while they were making love? T.I.M. says Abi’s blood pressure and temperature had risen, he just wanted to make sure she was OK. But Paul suspects T.I.M. of spying on him. He thinks TIM sends messages to Abi whenever Paul visits Rose their only neighbour (Amara Karan), feeding Abi’s suspicious jealousies. And when he catches T.I.M. perving through Abi’s clothes, he knows something is very wrong. Is T.I.M. morphing into something bad? Can a robot even have feelings? And if things go wrong, who will Abi trust: Paul, the fallible human, or T.I.M., the perfect machine?
T.I.M. is a sci-fi thriller about the potential dire consequences of AI given a human form. This isn’t the first humanoid movie — there have been at least a dozen in the past few years — and some of the plot is predictable. And it does have that “pandemic movie feel” to it, with a tiny cast (just four main characters) located in an isolated country setting, but, in this case, it really works. It’s scary, it’s creepy, it’s interesting. It feeds on your worst fears about electronic devices communicating without your knowledge, and the possibility of the singularity, when humans will no longer be essential. I’m not familiar with any of the actors but the cast is good. The storyline is compelling, and most of all, the movie feels believable. So if you ever feel like your smart phone is a bit too smart, you’ll like this scary, sci-fi thriller. It’s a good one.
Freud’s Last Session opens this weekend in Toronto; check your local listings. Destroy All Neighbours is streaming exclusively on shudder.com, starting today; and T.I.M. is now available digitally and on V.O.D.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website culturalmining.com.
Family movies worth watching. Films reviewed: The Boy and the Heron, The Three Musketeers: d’Artagnan
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
With the holidays upon us and lots of families getting together, it’s hard to find movies that interest kids without boring adults. But this week, I’m looking at two new movies — from Japan and France — that families can actually enjoy together, and without any product placement whatsoever. There’s a boy in 1940s Japan searching for his mother, and a young swordsman in 1620s France looking for adventure.
The Boy and the Heron
Wri/Dir: Hayao Miyazaki
It’s 1943 in Japan, during WWII. Mahito is a teenaged schoolboy who recently moved away from Tokyo with his dad after his mother died, into a huge country house where his aunt Natsuko (his mom’s younger sister) lives. He is troubled by the fact his father has married Natsuko — who looks very much like his mother — and treats her almost as if they’re the same person . The house sits near a placid pond by a crumbling stone tower. Aside from his aunt, there is a bevy of old biddies who work on the estate. Mahito feels lost and abandoned and is bullied at school. One day on the way home he hits himself in the head with a rock, to make it look like he was attacked at school. Now bedridden, he 
recovers in his new home, disturbed only by an enormous heron who taps at the glass of his window. But things take a strange turn when he is lured on a journey to the old tower by the heron, who it turns out… can talk! The Heron says if Mahito is looking for his mother, the he knows where to look. Chased by Kiriko, one of the elderly maids, he decides to enter the tower to see what’s what.
From there, he finds himself in a new universe, completely unlike anything he’s seen before. It’s a place where people and ghosts, the living and the dead, coexist. There are talking animals, including giant, fascistic parakeets marching under the sway of a military dictator. He joins forces with a brave and strong sailor, a young woman who looks somehow familiar to him. And tiny, floating bubble-creatures known as warawara, who 
can cross to the real world from this other world. Can Mahito survive the dangers that await him? Can he rescue his mother and take her back home? Or will he be trapped there forever?
The Boy and the Heron is a brilliant animated story about a boy who visits a strange otherworld. It’s surreal and psychedelic. It deals with concepts like birth and death, reincarnation, souls, spirits, ghosts and gods, all situated within an authoritarian wartime Japan. It’s the work of Hayao Miyazaki’s Ghibli Studios, and is partially based on his own childhood. A master animated filmmaker, Miyazaki supposedly retired about a decade ago, but apparently never stopped drawing, and this is the result: an amazing burst of creativity and imagination. The Boy and The Heron is a beautiful — and sometimes heartbreaking — movie.
I recommend this one.
© 2023 CHAPTER 2/PATHE FILMS/M6 FILMS
LES TROIS MOUSQUETAIRES : D’ARTAGNAN
réal. : Martin Bourboulon. int. : François Civil, Vincent Cassel, Romain Duris, Pio Marmaï, Eva Green, Louis Garrel, Vicky Krieps, Lhyna Khoudri, Jacob Fortune-Lloyd, Marc Barbé, Patrick Mille, Julien Frison (de la Comédie-Française), Raph Amoussou.
pays : France. durée : 2 h 02. dist. : Pathé
Sortie en salle le 5 avril 2023
The Three Musketeers: D’Artagnan
Dir: Martin Bourboulon
It’s the 1620s in France. Charles d’Artagnan (François Civil) is a brash young man from Gascony travelling on horseback to Paris. He wants to join the famed musketeers, an elite force serving under Louis XIII (Louis Garrel). On the way he witnesses a crime involving a stage coach, a sealed letter, and a mysterious woman in a black-hooded cape. When he comes to the rescue of a besieged woman in the coach, she shoots him! He is buried alive, but that doesn’t stop him. He makes his way to the palace, looking worse for the wear, and manages to sneak in to present his credentials. However, though a fine fighter, he can be both clumsy and arrogant and somehow offends three separate men, each of whom challenges him to a duel. He shows up at the assigned hour, prepared to die. Turns out the three men all know each other: Athos (Vincent Cassel) Porthos (Pio Marmaï) and Aramis (Romain Duris) all widely known for their sword skills and lusty habits. But before the duels can begin they are accosted by a small army of soldiers, working for Cardinal Richelieu. All for one they say, and d’Artagnan joins them in the fight, soon proving his 
mettle. The three men are of course, the Three Musketeers.
Now, having been invited to join the cadets, but not the elite musketeer corps, d’Artagnan moves into an apartment near Constance (Lyna Khoudri) — a personal confident of the queen— whom he fell in love with at first sight. But trouble is brewing. The King’s brother (along with Cardinal Richelieu) is plotting to send the country to war with the Protestants — meaning, England. The Queen (Vicky Krieps) is romantically involved with the Duke of Buckingham. Athos is accused of murder but says he has no recollection of the night’s events (he was drunk, as usual). And the Queen — who rashly gave a diamond necklace to Buckingham as a keepsake — is ordered by the king to wear it at an upcoming ball. And of course there’s the mysterious Milady (Eva Green) who seems to be involved in all the intrigue swirling around the palace. Can they rescue the necklace, stop Athos’s execution, uncover a secret plot and prevent an upcoming war? And will d’Artagnan ever be accepted by the Three Musketeers?
The Three Musketeers is, of course, the latest version of the classic swashbuckler based on the novel by Alexandre Dumas. It’s a Hollywood perennial; they release countless versions of this film, usually once a decade, stretching back to silent movies, featuring stars like Douglas Fairbanks and Adolph Menjou, Gene Kelly and Lana Turner, Raquel Welch and 
Oliver Reed, Charlie Sheen and Keifer Sutherland. And these are just the Hollywood ones; there also have been many French versions, like this one, plus Mexican, Japanese, Italian… you name it. The story has action, intrigue, adventures, romance and comedy. So how does this one stand up?
I found it very enjoyable, sticking close to the original book, but with enough new or unfamiliar parts to keep you guessing. Less “bodice-ripping,” more fighting. In this version, the musketeers actually use their muskets — so there are gun fights, not just sword fights. Porthos is polysexual — he’ll sleep with anyone that movies. And this d’Artagnan is dirtier, poorer and scruffier than usual, but the actor (François Civil) does have electric appeal. There are horseback chase scenes, masked balls, overheard plot turns and daring escapes — I love this stuff. It’s shot among lush forests, cliff-side beaches, in crowded marketplaces or dark palace corridors. Warning: this is part one of two films, and leaves you with a bit of a cliff-hanger.
Personally, I think Richard Lester’s 1973 version is the best, but this one definitely holds its own.
The Boy and the Heron and The Three Musketeers, Part 1: D’Artagnan are both playing now at select theatres across Canada; check your local listings.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website, culturalmining.
Movies, big and small. Films reviewed: Theater Camp, Afire, Oppenheimer
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Running out of things to do? I’m looking at three good movies this week, both big and small. There’s an historical drama about a scientists confronting the atom bomb he created, a comedy drama set on the Baltic Sea about vacationers facing a potential forest fire, and a comic mockumentary about summer campers whose beloved camp might close down permanently.
Theater Camp
Dir: Molly Gordon, Nick Lieberman
It’s July at a theatre camp in the Adirondacks, simply called “Adirond-acts”. It’s where kids, 5-15, come to learnt the craft of acting, dancing and singing. And they put on actual plays at the end of the summer. The kids love it and so do their counsellors, many of whom used to be campers there. Glenn (Noah Galvin) is the techie stage manager, while others function as costume, voice, and dance masters as well. Most sought after though are the team of Amos and
Rebecca-Diane (Ben Platt, Molly Gordon), who write and direct an entirely new production each summer. And heading it all is the much beloved Joan (Amy Sedaris) the camp’s founder. But when an unexpected accident leaves Joan in a coma, her dumb-as-a-post son Troy (Jamie Tatro) is forced to take over, thus putting the
The cast of THEATER CAMP. Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2023 20th Century Studios All Rights Reserved.
whole camp at risk. He fires some long-time teachers operating on austerity mode. And when the financial vultures start circling the camp, trying for a cheap buy-out, things look dire. Even Amos and Rebecca-Diane’s show looks like it might not make it through the summer. Is this the end of Theatre Camp?
Theatre Camp is a delightfully squirmy, clever and hilarious mockumentary about acting. It’s suitably diverse, reflecting the actual live New York theatre scene. The fake doc follows the young players through auditions, casting, rehearsals, and behind-the-scenes action, through to the final production. Obviously these kids have talent — and so do the grownup kids. They manage to act as if they are actors who are acting… which isn’t as easy as it sounds. It’s full of surprises and unexpected oddities — like, this is a musical where Ben Platt doesn’t sing a note. I was laughing through most of it, and if a moviegoer like me can appreciate it, avid playgoers will go wild. The Toronto cast of HadesTown was sitting in my row at the advanced screening on Monday night, and they were whooping it up the entire time. If you like “Theatre”, you’ll love Theatre Camp.
Afire
Dir: Christian Petzold
It’s summertime in northern Germany. Felix (Langston Uibel) and Leon (Thomas Schubert) are best friends in their twenties spending a few weeks at Felix’s family’s summer home on the Baltic sea. It’s a beautiful place with a thatched roof, just a quick hike away from a sandy beach. Felix is friendly, fit and personable; he’s working on his photo portfolio to get into an arts program. Leon is a published author, trying to finish his second novel. He’s also a chunky, self loathing schlump, both brooding and frustrated. His inappropriately named novel — Club Sandwich —
is not coming together. And his publisher, Helmut (Matthias Brandt), is dropping by in a few days — what does Leon have to show him? Things get worse when they realize they’re sharing the house with an unknown visitor. Nadja (Paula Beer) is the daughter of a friend of Felix’s mother. She’s working at the ice cream stand in a nearby quaint village. Leon is smitten by her carefree beauty, but tongue-tied whenever he talks with her. Worse still he is kept awake each night by the sounds of Nadja and Devid (Enno Trebs) — the hunky lifeguard at the nearby beach — having loud sex in the 
next room. And all of this is taking place as wildfires in the forests that surrounds the beach are igniting all around them, as prop planes futilely drop water bombs on the flames. Will Leon’s love be forever unrequited? Can he survive his wonderfully miserable summer vacation?
Afire is a comic drama about a self-centred writer and the people all around him. Like all of Petzold’s films, Afire is spare, precise and minimalist — he never includes a scene — not even a single line — that’s not crucial to the story he’s telling. I love that about him. He deals with very real issues and their potentially tragic consequences, but told almost like a fable. At the same time, he not afraid to make firm moral judgements but always in a humorous way. The tiny cast is excellent, as is the music and cinematography. I like this one a lot.
Openheimer
Wri/Dir: Christopher Nolan
It’s the 1930s. J Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) known as “Oppie” to his friends, is a researcher and scientist at Berkeley. With a distinguished background — he studied at Harvard, Cambridge and Göttingen — he has published crucial papers on physics and quantum mechanics that have changed scientific practices. He hangs out with activists at the University who are trying to unionize the teachers, and lend support to the Republicans in the Spanish Civil war, as fascism creeps across Europe. He also sympathizes with the plight of Jewish scientists in Nazi Germany (not only because his parents are German-Jewish immigrants). Originally from Manhattan, Oppie much prefers the wide- open spaces of New Mexico where his brother lives. His ultimate dream? To somehow combine his two great loves: science and the American southwest. His dream comes true during WWII when he is approached by Groves, a hard-ass army officer (Matt Damon), who wants to set up a top-secret lab. It’s goal? To create an atomic bomb before Germany does. Where? In Los Alamos, New Mexico. Oppenheimer brings in the top scientists to work on it: Feynman, Teller, Fermi, Bohr and many others, living in a jerry-built town in the middle of the desert. But as the prototype nears completion, theory turns to reality. By 1945, Germany has already surrendered, but the US government 
needs to drop it somewhere to prove they have the ultimate weapon of mass destruction. How can Oppenheimer both create an atomic bomb and oppose the enormity its use would bring to the world?
Oppenheimer is an sweeping historical drama about the life of a conflicted scientific genius, his lovers, his accomplishments, and a government that turns against him. It covers three parts of his life: as a student and academic, at Los Alamos, and in the cold war/ McCarthy era that follows WWII. The first part concentrates on his life and work — the parties he attends, the women he sleeps with (Frances Pugh, Emily Blunt), and the leftist political meetings he goes to not as a communist but as a “fellow traveller”. The second part captures the tension, stress and claustrophobia of the Manhattan Project, culminating in the devastating atomic test at Trinity. The third part concentrates on his rivalry with Lewis Strauss a right- wing bureaucrat on the AEC, the Atomic Energy Commission (Robert Downey Jr) and a series of congressional appearances and secret trials Oppenheimer is subjected to. But as a Christopher Nolan film, it is expertly edited to include all three stages simultaneously, bouncing back and forth, while proceeding chronologically, throughout the picture. And punctuated, from the beginning, with incredible animated images of the devastating fireball an atomic weapon brings.
I’m not a fan of Christopher Nolan’s movies. They’re often overly complicated for no apparent reason, and clumsily including things like time travel dreams and memory. Dunkirk, another historical drama, was exciting but overly nationalistic in its slant. This one avoids almost all of these potential pitfalls, and manages to tell a three-hour, historical drama about science without boring the hell out of the audience. On the negative side, there are so many characters — 40-50 at my count — it’s hard to keep track of who’s 
who. These are mainly cameos about famous people (Einstein, Niels Bohr, Truman) played by equally famous actors — Tom Conti, Kenneth Branagh, Gary Oldman, Casey Affleck, Rami Malek, to name just a few — who pop up for a few minutes then go away. And aside from the women Oppenheimer sleeps with, virtually everyone else in the movie (much like Dunkirk) is male. Even so, I think Oppenheimer is Nolan’s best film since Memento — it’s exciting, politically intriguing and visually stunning, from the vistas of horseback riding in a western desert, to the terrifying flames of the atomic weapon. It’s three hours long, but well worth the effort.
Afire is playing now; check your local listings. And Oppenheimer and Theatre Camp both open this weekend.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website, culturalmining.com.
Wrong place, wrong time. Films reviewed: The Blackening, Persian Lessons, Asteroid City
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Some movies make you think: that’s where I want to be, I wish that were me on the screen. But other movies have the opposite effect. This week, I’m looking at three new movies in the second category, about people who find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. There are friends at a reunion stranded in a cabin in the woods; a man in a disguise imprisoned in a Nazi internment camp; and some space cadets quarantined in a New Mexican desert town.
The Blackening
Dir: Tim Story
It’s Juneteenth, and a group of friends are getting together for a reunion ten years after graduating from college. They’re meeting at an Air BNB to iron out old rivalries and past love affairs, catch up, drink, take drugs, and have fun. But little do they know what awaits them in this cabin in the woods. They’re deep in redneck country, and they all happen to be Black. And somehow, the doors are locking and unlocking, the power is being turned on and off, and their cars are all disabled. And when they discover one of their group is already dead, they realize something is very, very wrong. The only way to save themselves is to correctly answer a series of questions about Black culture and history, as dictated by a creepy, racist board game called The Blackening. The game centres on a hideous plastic head which talks directly to them. If they 
make a mistake, someone scary is lurking in the shadows with a crossbow loaded with arrows. Can they escape or defeat the deranged killer? Or will they all end up dead?
The Blackening is a thriller/ horror/comedy that pokes fun at both slasher movies and Black pop culture. It’s meta-horror, like Scream, so everyone knows not to split up, but also that in slasher movies the “sole survivor” is never Black. This allows it to challenge a lot of horror conventions. I had my doubts about his movie — the director, Tim 
Story, made The Fantastic 4, one of the worst superhero movies ever (Correction: Fantastic 4, 2015, was dreadful, but was made by Josh Trank; I have never seen Story’s 2005 version) and while I’m always up for another cabin-in-the-woods story, the last few I’ve seen (like Knock at the Cabin) have been less than stellar. Luckily, The Blackening is funny, strange, surprising and very entertaining. It’s an ensemble piece, starring Antoinette Robertson, Dewayne Perkins, Sinqua Walls, Grace Byers, X Mayo, Melvin Gregg and Jermaine Fowler. It’s also more funny than violent — with an emphasis on characters, humour and clever dialogue over blood and guts (but there are some scary parts, too.)
I like this movie.
Persian Lessons
Dir: Vadim Perelman
It’s WWII in German-occupied France. The Nazis are arresting Jews across western Europe detaining them in a French transit camp before they are sent to the Poland for extermination. Gilles (Nahuel Pérez Biscayart: BPM, Deep in the Woods) is a Belgian from Antwerp, a prisoner on a transport truck heading for the camp, when another man trades a book of Persian stories for Gilles’ sandwich. A few minutes later, the guards park the truck and start gunning down all the prisoners by the side of the road… but the book saves his life just before he is executed. He claims to be a Persian, named Reza — a name inscribed in the book — and not a Jew. Soon he’s working in the camp’s kitchen under the supervision of Klaus (Lars Eidinger). He keeps Gilles alive — and away from hard labour splitting rocks in the quarry — because he wants to learn Farsi. Of course Gilles doesn’t speak a word of it, and the book is incomprehensible to him, but to stay alive he has to invent a language and remember all the words, without the Commandant figuring out his ruse. But how long can he keep it up before his deception is exposed?
Persian Lessons is an ingenious and moving dramatic thriller set within WWII and the Holocaust. Strangely, most of the dialogue is in German, because, aside from Gilles and a few others, it’s mainly about the Nazi guards and officers, not the prisoners. Not sure why so much of the movie is about petty rivalries, love affairs and cruelties among the guards, rather than the lives of the prisoners. Even so, it’s still an 
interesting story with a surprising twist. Argentinian-French actor Nahuel Pérez Biscayart beautiful plays Gilles as a frail, doe-eyed waif, always on the brink of angsty collapse. While Lars Eidinger, as Klaus — I’ve seen him in at least a dozen movies — is good as always, this time as a cruel but conflicted man with dark hidden secrets.
This is a good one, too.
Asteroid City
Co-Wri/Dir: Wes Anderson
It’s the 1950s in a tiny desert town in New Mexico named Asteroid City after a meteorite hit the earth there. The Space Race is gaining momentum, while the Cold War is chillier than ever. Augie Steenbeck (Jason Schwartzman) is a news photographer with his teenaged son Woodrow (Jake Ryan) and three little daughters. They’re there for Woodrow to reserve a national science prize. In a local diner he meets Midge Campbell (Scarlett Johansson) a famous Hollywood movie star, accompanying her teenaged daughter, also up for a prize. She’s divorced and he’s a widower. There are also tourists, military brass, scientists, astronomers and cowboys, as well local hucksters out to make a quick buck. But everything changes when — in front of everybody — a space ship lands there, and an alien steps out to grab the asteroid and fly away! The government declares emergency measures, and no one is allowed to leave Asteroid City. Will romance bloom in this time of isolation? And will they ever get out of this place?
Asteroid City is a meticulously-crafted, comic pastiche of American pop-culture in the 1950s. It’s filled with atomic bomb tests in the background, and a roadrunner saying beep-beep between scenes. And there are wonderful scenes shot through adjoining motel windows.x As in all Wes Andersen’s movies, there are dozens of characters and an equal number of tiny side-plots. It has cameos by Tom Hanks, Tilda Swinton, Liev Schreiber, Adrian Brody, Hong Chau and Matt Dillon, among countless others. The art direction is impeccable, as is the music, editing, costumes and sets. But for some reason, this time we also have actors breaking the 4th wall, taking off their makeup and talking about the making of this movie. And these actors are also appearing in a stage play about it. And the stage play is being performed on live TV, with a 
narrator — all set in the 1950s. While it’s fun to watch all this, it takes an interesting and funny plot and sadly turns it into just another example of Hollywood navel-gazing. For the life of me, I don’t know what all these meta dimensions add to the story.
That said, of course I enjoyed and appreciated this film. Wes Andersen’s movies are always a joy to watch… I just wasn’t as dazzled by this one.
The Blackening, Asteroid City and Persian Lessons all open this weekend in Toronto, with Asteroid City expanding nationwide 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.
With love, from Poland. Films reviewed: March’68, Norwegian Dream, Bones of Crows
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Spring film festival season continues in Toronto in June. The Inside Out festival which ushered in Pride Month, closes tonight with a jukebox musical called Glitter & Doom, a love story based on songs from the Indigo Girls. And TJFF, the Toronto Jewish Film Fest, is just starting up, with an excellent selection of comedies, dramas and documentaries from four continents, viewable online or in person with a number of special guests. And keep your eyes open for the other TJFF, Toronto Japanese Film Festival, beginning next week.
This week, I’m looking at three excellent new movies: two Polish romances, one each from Inside-out and TJFF, plus an epic indigenous drama made in Canada.
March’68
Co-Wri/Dir: Krzysztof Lang
It’s 1967 in Warsaw. Hania (Vanessa Aleksander) is a talented young actress studying theatre. She’s in a rush to view a controversial new play from backstage. It references Adam Mickiewicz, the 19th century Polish poet and playwright. But on the way she is bowled over by a young stranger. Janek (Ignacy Liss) is a student at the same university. She brushes him off but he doggedly follows her as far as the theatre. And — perhaps because of his relentless pursuit — Hania gradually begins to like him. Like turns to love, and soon they’re a couple.
But these are not ordinary times. Władysław Gomułka’s one-party state is cracking down on intellectuals and student dissidents. At the same time, it’s running a harsh purge of all Poles of Jewish descent within the Party’s apparatus. This repression soon spreads to University campuses and throughout the country at large. How does this affect the young couple? Hania’s dad is a neurosurgeon who has just lost his prestigious job in the anti-Jewish campaign. While Janek’s father is a Colonel in the Interior Ministry — basically a spy who holds everyone’s secret files, and is a major figure behind both the crackdown on student protesters and the anti-Jewish purge. Can this Romeo and Juliet couple stay together despite the purge? Or will politics cross generations?
March’68 is an excellent romantic drama set in Warsaw 
during that dark, tumultuous and repressive time. (The title refers to the month when the government imposed their harshest laws.) It deftly combines real historical events and figures — from Gomulka to Adam Michnik, a future intellectual and journalist — with the fictional heroes. Through the use of period footage and reenactments, it brings you right into the middle of riots, mass arrests and interrogations alongside Hania and Janek.
This is an excellent movie.
Norwegian Dream
Dir: Leiv Igor Devold
Robert (Hubert Milkowski) is a 19-year-old boy from Bialystok, Poland. He’s starting a new job in Norway at a remote salmon processing plant. He shares an apartment in a crowded, overpriced dormitory with Marek and the rest of the Polish workers at the plant. The foreman assigns Ivar (Karl Bekele Steinland) a young Norwegian man, to train him. He’s patient and thoughtful, and befriends Robert. He’s also Black. Knowing Robert is in need of income, he offers him a weekend job in Trondheim handling the lights for Ivar’s performance. But when Robert finds out what kind of performance it was, he quits in a panic and runs away. Ivar’s a flamboyant drag queen, and Robert is terrified at being seen with him. Is he repulsed by Ivar, or is there a mutual attraction? And could Robert handle a gay relationship within a racist and homophobic environment?
Norwegian Dream is a touching romantic drama set within 
the lives of migrant Polish workers in Norway. It’s made in a realistic style, with conversations happening while hundreds of dead salmon roll past on a conveyor belt. It also deals with the bigger issues of class, race, and sexuality. And while told in a simple and straightforward way, it also poses many paradoxes. Ivar may be black, but he’s also the adopted son of the owner of the fish plant and lives in a houseboat, while working-class Robert is just trying to keep his head above water. And though the casual behaviour of the Polish workers’ may be racist and anti-gay, they are also trying to form a union to get a decent wage from their exploitative employers. And while the dialogue — mainly in Polish and English — feels a bit stilted, it actually adds a further element of authenticity to the film.
I like this movie.
Bones of Crows
Wri/Dir: Marie Clements
It’s the early 20th century in Canada. Aline Spears (Grace Dove) is a girl from a Cree nation in Manitoba. She, her brother and sister are taken away from their parents and forcibly put into a residential school. It’s run by priests who feast on fine food and wine while the kids are left hungry. But Aline is given special privileges when Father Jacobs (Remy Girard) discovers she’s a prodigy on the piano. He nurtures her talent and assigns her a special tutor. But despite her new status, she is far from safe, and after suffering unspeakable acts, she and her siblings try to escape the school.
Much later, she joins the military in WWII and is assigned to London where she becomes part of a crucial team sending telegrams in Cree, this creating a code impossible for the Germans to crack. There she falls in love with and marries Adam (Phillip Lewitski) an indigenous member of the Canadian military. But despite their their bravery, they face a hard life back in Canada, their deeds forgotten. Much of her 
efforts are now spent caring for their family and trying to protect her little sister Perseverance (Alyssa Wapanatâhk) who has fallen by the wayside. Can Aline’s past violations and injustices ever be rectified?
Blood of Crows is an epic drama with a gripping story about one woman’s amazing life. Although its about Aline, it’s also a metaphor for the treatment of an entire people. It’s a 100+ year long story. Stretching back to confederation, it includes the wiping out of the buffalo, residential schools, the lack of status and Canadian citizenship, denial of services, and the widespread incarceration, death and disappearance suffered by indigenous women. But, don’t worry, this is not meant as a depressing story suffering, it’s actually inspiring, about her descendants who fight for rights and redress. This movie, with its large indigenous cast and crew from the director on down, is both convincing and compelling. I saw this one last fall at TIFF, and it was one of my favourite movies there; I’m so glad it’s finally hitting theatres.
Don’t miss it.
Bones of Crows opens this weekend in Toronto; check your local listings. Norwegian Dream played the Inside Out Film Festival, and March’68 is coming to the Toronto Jewish Film Festival.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website, culturalmining.com.
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