Daniel Garber talks with Alan Zweig about Love, Harold (+Tubby)
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Some people’s biggest fear is of a late-night call from a hospital that someone close to them —a child, a parent, a lover or a friend — has suddenly died in an unexpected accident, something you can’t predict. It’s devastating. But what if that death was by suicide? How do you deal with news like that? Why did they choose to do it? Was it somehow your own fault or something you could have prevented? Well, a new film looks at survivors of suicide loss and the effect it has on their lives.
The film’s called Love, Harold, and it’s a sympathetic and very moving look at how the aftermath of a suicide by talking with the friends, partner or family member of the ones who died. This NFB film is written, and directed by renowned Toronto-based filmmaker Alan Zweig, whose deeply- personal and 
intimate documentaries look at people — including himself — facing crises, both major and mundane, in everyday life. His films have won numerous awards including the prestigious Platform prize at TIFF, a Genie and a Canadian Screen Award.
I’ve covered many of his docs and interviewed him at this station, including Fifteen Reasons to Live (2013). And I know Alan off mic, through work, mutual friends… and he used to be my next-door neighbour! Alan is also currently hosting a self-help podcast called TUBBY about weight issues.
I spoke with Alan in Toronto via ZOOM.
Love Harold is the centrepiece film at Rendezvous with Madness on October 24.
This film contains discussions of suicide, and the effects on survivors of suicide loss. If you need support services, please call your local Distress Centre. If you need immediate help, please call or text 9-8-8.
You can listen to Tubby on Left of Dial Media.
Not always pretty. Films reviewed: I Really Love my Husband, Orwell: 2+2=5, Roofman
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
TIFF is over but Fall Film Festival Season continues in Toronto. FeFF or Female Eye Film Festival is entering its 23rd year, showcasing features, shorts and docs directed by women. This year’s theme is Always Honest, Not Always Pretty, so you can expect some challenging and surprising work from women around the world. Expect innovative screenings, many with the directors present, as well as pitches, workshops and tributes.The festival runs from October 14-19, at the TIFF Lightbox, the Women’s Art Associations of Canada and the City Playhouse Theatre in Vaughan.
So this week, I’m looking at three movies, one from FeFF and two from TIFF. There’s honeymooners in the Caribbean, a famous writer on a tiny Scottish isle, and an ingenious thief, who lives, undetected, in a big box store.
I Really Love my Husband
Co-Wri/Dir: G.G. Hawkins
Teresa (Madison Lanesey) lives in LA with her husband Drew (Travis Quentin Young). They’ve been married for a year but have yet to go on a real honeymoon. They both work at unfulfilling professions with little time for amorous interludes. But that’s about to change: Theresa and Drew are heading south for a week, to relax and spend time with each other on the sandy beaches of Bocas del Toro, Panama. It’s a chain of Caribbean islands known for their blue skies and warm waves. And even when the airline lose their baggage and the promised welcome meal is nowhere to be seen, they are still happy with the place. The manager, a boyish, non-binary beach bum named Paz (Arta Gee), is ready to help make their stay more comfortable, however they can. For Theresa, that means thinking outside the marital envelope. She urges Drew to join with her in seducing Paz. Though hesitant at first, Drew dives into the three-way, head first, and their marriage feels stronger than ever. And Paz promises to take them to 
their secret island for one final fling.
But the mood starts to shift when jealousy rears its ugly head. A fourth wheel joins the group to make things even more confusing. Kiki (Lisa Jacqueline Starrett) a ginger-haired influencer with a venomous tongue, is a reality-show reject voted off the island. But she stays on, planting bad ideas in the couples’ heads, Can Teresa and Drew’s marriage endure all these complications? Can the insecure Teresa keep her anger in check?
I Really Love my Husband is a funny, bittersweet rom-com about the doubts plaguing a couple of millennials on a belated honeymoon. It pokes fun at a whole generation — from breakfast fasting to mushroom edibles to friendship stones — exposing some of the worst and silliest trends and fads. The characters are as worried about ratings and social networks as they are about actual love and affection. For a first-time feature by a new director with a largely unknown cast, this is a fun slice of life. Madison Lanesey is nicely sardonic, Arta Gee appropriately chill, and Travis Quentin Young always sweet strumming his guitar. Though not totally original, I Really Love my Husband does seem to capture the zeitgeist of LA’s millennials.
Orwell: 2+2=5
Dir: Raoul Peck
It’s the late 1940s in Scotland’s Inner Hebrides on a tiny, inaccessible island called Jura. George Orwell is there to write a novel in an isolated home, inaccessible by cars. His young son, his sister and their housekeeper keep him company as he sits by his typewriter. He’s dying of tuberculosis but wants to make sure his last book is completed and published. The novel is called 1984 and becomes a crucial part of contemporary culture, even today. You’ve probably heard of Big Brother; or at least the surveillance based reality show it inspired. It has been made into many films and TV shows and is referenced everywhere, Words like sexcrime and concepts like doublethink are firmly imbedded in our culture. The book is about the perpetual war between competing totalitarian nations. But more than that, it’s about the propaganda, mass surveillance and thought- control ordinary people are subject to. The hero, Winston Smith, works for the Ministry of Truth propagandizing Newspeak to the nation. But eventually he too falls victim to the machinations of the government of Oceania, ruled by Big Brother. He is tortured because, although he accepts their ludicrous proposition that 2+2=5, and espouses their slogans (War is Peace!, Ignorance is Strength! Freedom 
is Slavery!), he doesn’t really believe them. This story shows that the contents and concepts of 1984 are as relevant today as when Orwell wrote them.
Orwell 2+2=5 is a combination documentary, docudrama and diatribe about Orwell, his writing and its influence on popular culture. It covers not just 1984 but Orwell’s earlier books, including Burmese Days, Homage to Catalonia (he volunteered to fight fascism in the Spanish Civil War), and Animal Farm, his allegorical look at Stalinist Russia. It’s based on both his books and his private correspondence. The movie also uses clips from the many film adaptations of 1984 to tell that story. And finally, it includes a barrage of brand-new news footage of leaders like Trump, Putin, Orban and Xi Jinping. These are altered with Orwellian slogans superimposed in bright colours over the media images.
Raoul Peck is a well-known Haitian documentary filmmaker, and maybe it’s because I already know so much about Orwell and his writings, this movie — with the exception of his last days on Jura — wasn’t as mind blowing as it might have been if it were all new. And it can’t compare to other docs like Peck’s I Am Not Your Negro, his biography of James Baldwin. Even so, Orwell 2+2=5 does stand as a historical document with a good dose of agit-prop.
Roofman
Co-Wri/Dir: Derek Cianfrance
It’s the early 2000s in Charlotte, North Carolina. Jeffrey Manchester (Channing Tatum) is the happy father of a young daughter and twin infants. He’s smart, nimble and observant. But he is underpaid and overworked as his job, and can’t seem to keep the family afloat. When he has to resort to regifting his own childhood toys for his daughter’s birthday party, he realizes something must change. He resorts to a life of crime, involving no violence. He robs McDonalds restaurants by an ingenious method: cutting a hole in the roof after dark, and stealing the cash. After dozens of such robberies the press subs him “Roofman”. His family moves up the social ladder, living the american dream of life with a swank car and and a nicely decorated home. Alas, he is finally caught, and sent to prison. His wife cuts him off, and he can’t even talk to his own kids anymore.
Later, following an ingenious plan, he escapes from prison undetected and looks for a place to hide. Most surprisingly he discovers an unsurveilled corner of a Toys R Us big box store with enough hidden space to make set up a tiny apartment. He initially survives on peanut M&Ms pilfered from the shelves, but eventually moves on to pawning video games and DVDs. And he learns the layout of the cameras and computers, making him virtually invisible… though in plain site. He 
surveils the store management instead of vice versa. He has a crush on one employee Leigh (Kirsten Dunst) a single mom with two teenaged daughters. They eventually meet, unexpectedly, at an evangelical church toy drive (he “donates” toys stolen from his Toys R Us). Sparks fly and they become very close, but with Jeff still concealing his life of crime and his current home. Can he start a new life in his own home town without getting caught? Or should he just get the hell out of there?
Roofman is an exciting adventure / romance / comedy based entirely on a true storytelling. It’s funny, clever and constantly surprising. Channing Tatum is brilliant as Jeff, displaying an acrobatic sense of movement and timing, climbing walls, crawling through ceiling tiles or swooshing around cars on foot to avoid detection. The rest of the cast is also great: former teen actor Kirsten Dunst has eased comfortably into middle age and her character is very empathetic; Lakeith Stanfield is Steve, his sketchy war buddy; Aussie Ben Mendelsohn as guileless Pastor Ron, and Peter Dinklage appropriately dislikable as toy store manager Mitch. Filmmaker Derek Cianfrance (he directed the passionate Blue Valentine and the dark The Place Beyond the Pines) hasn’t made a movie in ages, but if he’s looking for a comeback, this is it.
I like Roofman a lot.
Roofman and premiered at TIFF and open in Toronto, this weekend; check your local listings; and I really love my husband is coming soon to FIFF.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website culturalmining.com.
More Cabins in the Woods. Films reviewed: Anemone, Queen of Bones, Bone Lake
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
From Goldilocks to Hansel and Gretel, we’ve all grown up with an innate fear and fascination of cabins in the woods. They’re isolated, mysterious and possibly dangerous. And that goes for movies, too, with cabins in the woods a common recurring theme, especially in horror movies. So this week, I’m looking at three such movies all opening this weekend.
There’s a fugitive in a house made of stone, a pair of twins looking for the Queen of Bones, and a young couple renting a place beside Bone Lake.
Anemone
Co-Wri/Dir: Ronan Day-Lewis
Jem and Nessa (Sean Bean, Samantha Morton) are a comfortably couple raising their 19 year old son Brian (Samuel Bottomley). So why is Brian at home in his room? He got in a fight and nearly beat the other guy to death. He’s depressed and frustrated, and desperately needs the help that they can’t provide. So Nessa asks Jem to do something he’s sworn never to do: find a man who disappeared 20 years ago. So Jem, armed with only a cryptic piece of paper with longitudinal measurements and a sealed letter from Nessa, sets out for a journey into a forest somewhere in the UK.
His clues lead him to a stone hut, literally in the middle of nowhere. As he approaches, a grizzled old man almost blows his head off with a rifle, but, just in time, he recognizes the sound of a clicking, childhood toy. It’s Ray (Daniel Day-Lewis) a fugitive from justice, who has been hidden away all this time. He is somehow connected to a killing that occurred during The Troubles in Northern Ireland. Not only that, he’s Jem’s big brother. What happened all those years back, what is Ray’s connection to Nessa and Brian, and will he agree to come out of hiding?
Anemone is a passionate and personal story about brothers, fathers and family history. Along the way, there’s lots of whiskey spilt and dirty jokes told, along with hiking and camping, punch-outs and wrestling. Lots of guy stuff, a Man’s-Own story. And it’s filmed among spectacular scenery, a stone beach, a glowing moon, distant hills and mountains. Just 
gorgeous. Daniel Day- Lewis — who retires every 5-10 years, then makes another movie — puts a lot into his role, and Sean Bean is excellent as his foil. Samuel Bottomley seems like another Barry Keoghan. And there are some cool dreamlike sequences, and I even shed a tear near the end. But the movie as a whole just doesn’t seem quite right. It’s too contrived, too set up. I got a lot out of it aesthetically, but found it hard to connect emotionally. It’s directed by Daniel’s son Ronan and they wrote it together, but it’s just OK, not great.
Maybe it’s too weak a script and too strong an actor for a first-time directors to handle.
Queen of Bones
Dir: Robert Budreau
It’s the 1930s in a small house deep in the woods outside Portland, Oregon. Fraternal twins Lily and Sam are in their early teens. They were raised together by their single dad, a devout Christian (Martin Freeman). He’s a craftsman who makes exquisite violins to order. Lily (Julia Butters) takes after her mom, a violin virtuoso, while Sam (Jacob Tremblay) is more interested in trains and cars — he wants to be a mechanic, though his family still rides a horse and buggy. Their father has always said their mother died before they were born and it’s a miracle they came out alive, but they still wonder about what happened to her. And around this time, when they both reach puberty, Lily starts seeing strange cryptic signs carved into trees in the woods. What could they mean? She has dreams about wolves, and, if she concentrates hard enough, she thinks she can control the weather.
One day, Ida-May (Taylor Schilling) a local shopkeeper, drops by their home. She flirts with their dad, as they’re both widowed. But she also leaves behind a trunk of the twins’ mother’s possessions they inherited from their late grandfather. It’s full of shawls and dresses. But hidden at the bottom is a book of spells and incantations written by her mom. Lily hopes they can explain the mysteries surrounding her mother. But they have to keep it hidden from their dad, who abhors anything related to witchcraft, and keeps the 
twins separated from anyone but him. Who is the Queen of the Bones? Was their mom a witch?Did Lily inherit her powers? And is there someone out there who can answer all these questions?
The Queen of Bones is a fairytale about a pair of twins trying to find a witch while evading their over-protective father. It’s low-budget, and simple, but kinda neat. It’s told in a series of short chapters, leading inexorably toward a dramatic end. Though set in Oregon, the locations and some of the cast is Canadian, from Jacob Tremblay (he was the little boy in Room) to the great stage actor Clare Coulter. Julia Butters is excellent as Lily.
I like witches and fairytales and cabins in the woods so, while not a terrific movie, I enjoyed it anyway.
Bone Lake
Dir: Mercedes Bryce Morgan
Sage and Diego are a professional couple heading for a luxury weekend in the country. Diego (Marco Pigossi) teaches creative writing at a community college but wants to write a novel. Sage (Maddie Hasson) is a freelance journalist known for her provocative features about sex toys. They are at a turning point in their relationship. Sage has agreed to take a desk job — an editing position — so Diego can pursue his dream for a year. And unbeknownst to her, he plans to propose to her, with his late grandmother’s ring. But when they get there, The BnB they rented is far from the rustic cabin they expected. It’s an enormous, elegant mansion on a huge lot overlooking a lake. It seems way too fancy for what they payed, but they decide not to look a gift horse in the mouth. They settle quite nicely in their new digs. Until another couple shows up claiming they rented the house for the weekend, too!
Sage and Diego decide to go with the flow, and let them share the place — it’s a huge mansion, remember. And the other couple happens to be younger, better-looking and scantily dressed. The appropriately-named Cin, short for Cinnamon (Andra Nechita), looks like a model, and so does her boyfriend, Will (Alex Roe). While Sage and Diego are looking for some alone time, Can and Will prefer games, both sexual
and psychological. Together they explore the locked rooms in the house, one quite sexual, another occult. Cin and Will proceed to ingratiate themselves into Sage and Diego’s lives, splitting them apart for intimate talks… and possible seductions. But as the games turn serious, no one knows who to trust. Who is behind this weird house, and what do they want?
Bone Lake is a psychological thriller about the relations between two couples in an isolated house in the woods. What starts out as a sex comedy, gradually shifts into a violent thriller/horror. There are hints from the start — the opening scene involves a naked couple pursued by unknown assailants carrying crossbows — but it’s left ambiguous whether it’s just 
a scene from Diego’s novel or an actual event within the movie. While not entirely original, there’s more than enough enough sex and violence to keep you interested. The acting’s good and the tension is palpable.
All in all, Bone Lake is pretty good horror.
Anemone and Bone Lake both open this weekend in Toronto; check your local listings. And Queen of Bones is now available digitally and on demand.
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 Jeff Harris about #TIFF25!
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
TIFF is the most important film festival in this hemisphere, that gives us hints about the upcoming Awards season, what movies we should look out for, and where contemporary cinema is going. It ended three weeks ago, so it’s a good time to take a look at what TIFF brought us — the hits, flops, changes and sleepers, and just about the TIFF vibe itself. Jeff Harris is a professional photog who has covered TIFF for more than two decades, in photos and features for Macleans, The Walrus, and culturalmining.com among other outlets.
I spoke with Jeff Harris in Toronto, in person.
TIFF 25 RECAP – PART 1
Films discussed include:
- I Swear
- Bad Apples
- Hamlet
- Hamnet
- Scarlet
- Orphan
- Dust Bunny
- The Last Viking
TIFF 25 RECAP – PART 2
Films discussed include:
- Degrassi: Whatever It Takes
- Lilith Fair: Building A Mystery
- You Had to Be There: How the Toronto Godspell Ignited the Comedy Revolution…
- John Candy: I Like Me
- Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie
- EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert
- Orwell: 2+2=5
- The Smashing Machine
- Peak Everything
TIFF 25 RECAP – PART 3
Films discussed include:
- Mile End Kicks
- Lovely Day
- Little Lorraine
- A Useful Ghost
- Rental Family
- No Other Choice
- Renoir
Outstanding, great… or just ugly? Films reviewed: Eleanor the Great, Out Standing, The Ugly
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Toronto Palestine Film Festival is on right now, with movies, shorts and docs by and about Palestinians, as well music, cuisine and art to share with other Canadians. This is it’s 17th year and it’s never been more relevant, so check it out.
But this week, I’m looking at three new movies that premiered at TIFF and are all opening theatrically this weekend. There’s an elderly woman who tells a lie, a woman with an “ugly” face who disappears without a trace, and a female officer in the Canadian Army who wishes a certain photo would just go away.
Eleanor the Great
Dir: Scarlett Johansson
Eleanor Morganstein (June Squibb) is a grandmother in her 90s. Since her husband died ten years back, she has shared her Florida condo with her best friend Bessie whom she’s known for 70 years. They do everything together, and work well as a team. Where Bessie is timid, Eleanor is brash and outspoken. If there’s something Bessie wants, Eleanor knows how to get it, even if it involves telling a few fibs. She has chutzpah to spare. But when Bessie suddenly dies, she realizes there’s no reason to stick around, so she packs up her stuff and flies back to New York for the first time in decades. She’s staying with her daughter Lisa (Jessica Hecht) and her grandson Max (Will Price). She’s hoping for some quality time but Lisa’s a worrywart and Max is always busy at school. So she takes up her daughter’s offer to attend some classes at the JCC she signed her up for; maybe she’ll make some friends. The first class is a washout — broadway musicals — so she wanders into another group almost by accident. It’s a support group for Holocaust survivors, and the members urge Eleanor — as a newcomer — to tell her story. She’s not a holocaust survivor, but her best friend Bessie was… and she knows all her memories, especially the death of her brother. So, in deference to Bessie, she tells them to the group as if they’re her own. Why not, right? It goes over well… a bit too well, actually. A teenaged college student Nina (Erin Kellyman) is auditing the group and soon bonds with Eleanor (her mom recently died and her dad is distant and 
withdrawn.) The two women bond and start sharing intimate stories.
Nina is in a journalism class, and wants to make a video of her telling her holocaust memories as part of an assignment. Then things get really out of hand: Nina’s dad (Chiwetel Ejiofor) happens to be a popular TV news journalist… and he wants to make Eleanor his next feature. But what will happen to her friendship with Nina — never mind her own family — once the truth inevitably comes out?
Eleanor the Great is a nice, light movie-of-the-week-type drama about death, mourning, and inter-generational relations. It’s a very simple and easy movie, part comedy, part weeper. What’s good about it is the acting. June Squibb — who really is in her 90s — is great as the energetic, down-home Eleanor. (She played another rebellious granny in last year’s hit Thelma.) This is Scarlett Johansson’s first time as a director, and luckily she doesn’t bite off more than she can chew. She concentrates on characters — Squibb and Kellyman are both great in their roles — more than the basic story. And you know what? That’s good enough.
I wouldn’t call Eleanor the Great great, but it’s worth the watch.
Out Standing
Co-Wri/Dir: Mélanie Charbonneau
It’s the 1990s, and Captain Perron is leading a troop of UN peacekeeping forces in the former Yugoslavia. Why is this unusual? Sandra Perron (Nina Kiri) is a Canadian woman, the first to lead a squad of infantry soldiers in combat, and the first female to serve in the prestigious 22nd division, known as the Van Doos. Raised as an army brat in bases across Canada, she comes from a long line of soldiers, so it makes sense that she is following in her father’s vocation. She trained as a cadet and received commendations while still a teenager. And she’s the first woman to survive the brutal training that squadron demands. But there’s a photo circulating from her past that’s threatening to derail her military career. It’s a picture of her tied to a tree, barefoot, in the snow and semiconscious.
It was part of her training in a Prisoner of War exercise that went far beyond the normal treatment soldiers are forced to endure. A Canadian woman facing treatment tantamount to torture at CFB Gagetown in New Brunswick. But Captain Perron isn’t the one who released the photo, one fact she didn’t want the photo circulated. She had endured years of hazing bullying, harassment, obscene phone calls, sabotage to her kit, and a hidden campaign by certain officers to get rid of her. They detest the idea of serving alongside or under the command of a woman. And unlike the other women who 
attempted to to join the Van Doos, she alone managed to survive and not quit.
Out Standing is a biopic about a trailblazing woman in the Canadian Armed Forces. It’s both moving and disturbing. The title, based on her memoirs, refers both to her achievements and to the notorious photo of her standing tied to a tree. (That pic was eventually published by the press, triggering a wave of shock and disgust across the country, and, one hopes, an improvement in how women are treated in the military.) Nina Kiri gives an excellent performance, totally believable as Perron.
While Hollywood churns out dozens of war movies each year, showcasing the latest weapons and fighter planes, you rarely see a Canadian one. This one is full of details carefully chosen to distinguish how soldiers behave here. The military culture is quite different. Unlike in the US there’s no Sir-yes-sir! And instead of saluting a Canadian soldier stand sharply at attention. I never knew this because you never see it in movies. For this alone it’s a eye-opener. The film is not perfect — there’s a particularly clumsy scene near the end — but altogether it’s a compelling and disturbing look at a Canadian woman’s life in the military.
The Ugly
Wri/Dir: Yeon Sang-ho (Peninsula, Train to Busan)
Lim Yeon-gyu (Kwon Hae-hyo) is a well-known carver of dojang, the name stamps used in Korea like a signature on official documents. He built up his business from scratch while raising his son as a single parent. (His wife ran away soon after the baby was born.) He trained his son Lim Dong-hwan (Park Jeong-min) in every aspect of the craft. Now an adult he is taking over the family business. At this moment, a documentary filmmaker (HAN Ji-hyeon) is celebrating this dad’s life as a national treasure. Why did she choose this man for her documentary? He’s been blind since birth, which makes his many accomplishments even more impressive. But filming is put on hold when a surprise announcement arrives. They’ve found Dong-hwan’s mother decades after she disappeared. Turns out she’s been dead all that time and only her bones remain. This comes as a total shock to Dong-hwan, and it just gets worse.
First his mother’s long lost relatives arrive for the funeral but they’re despicable people who just want to make sure he doesn’t claim any family inheritance.They bullied and beat his mother, a veritable Cinderella raised by this cruel family. It’s also the first time he hears his mother described as ugly. Ugly how? He longs to see a photo of her, something to display at the funeral, but there are no photos anywhere. Of course his blind father doesn’t have one. While Dong-hwan is trying to process all this new information, the filmmaker leaps on it as a great story and insists on continuing the documentary but with a new twist: who killed his mom and why? Together, over a series of interviews with hidden cameras, they uncover 
events and people from her past as the tragic puzzle gradually falls into place.
The Ugly is a mystery about a kind-hearted woman — the main character’s mother — and how she is horribly treated because of her looks. It’s a heart wrenching story, a dark, bleak view of humanity with only Dong-hwan (and his mother) as redeeming characters. The story is told as a series of interviews with the various characters and extended flashbacks to what actually happened (The actor who plays Dong-hwa also plays his blind father as a young man in the flashbacks, while Jung Young-hee plays his mother, but always from behind or from the side, without ever revealing her face). In Yeon Sang-ho’s previous movies (Peninsula, Train to Busan) the action hero is surrounded by mutants or zombies or killers. The Ugly is about normal people but they’re just as hideous.
The Ugly is a powerful and dark look at human cruelty and physical beauty.
Eleanor the Great, Out Standing and the Ugly 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.
Video Highlights from #TIFF25!
Videos and text by Jeff Harris
EPiC: Elvis Presley In Concert
Director Baz Luhrmann explains about the years it took to piece together various pieces of rare Elvis footage, even resorting to lip-reading footage that lacked audio. Fortunately for fans he plans to share everything once the film is released.
Ballad Of A Small Player
Actor Colin Ferrel explains how difficult it is to get over your vices. A memorable scene in the film involves him gorging out on an incredible spread of food.
You Had to Be There: How the Toronto Godspell Ignited the Comedy Revolution…
Actors Eugene Levy and Victor Garber, along with musician Paul Shaffer revisit the stage that they once performed on fifty years earlier.
Blue Moon
A rare sighting of Ethan Hawke walking on Festival Street without a mob of people hounding for selfies.
Christy
Sydney Sweeney explains her training regimen to prepare for her boxing role… including the fast food and other sweets that helped get her up to fighting weight.
The Fence
Tom Blyth (far right) explains the real reason he thinks Claire Denis (far left) hired him for The Fence… the fact that he comes from Nottingham, the same place as her favorite band Tindersticks. (Actors Matt Dillion and Mia McKenna-Bruce sit in between).
Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie
Actor/Director Matt Johnson explains how Taylor Swift played a role in getting a complicated scene completed for their film, without interference from the police.
Easy’s Waltz
Having grown up in the rougher 1970s decade, Vince Vaughan secretly wishes to be part of the softer millennial generation.
Sentimental Value
Director Joachim Trier (far right) explains about casting the house in his film… The house is essentially a character that bears witness to all the lives that live within it. (Actors Elle Fanning, Stellan Skarsgård, and Renate Reinsve sit to his left)
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
Actress Rose Byrne explains how Conan O’Brien ranks as a therapist.
Maddie’s Secret
Actor/Director John Early’s retro 80’s inspired film is peppered with plenty of modern anachronisms, like “Hulu” and “Chili Oil”.
Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie
Actor / director Matt Johnson and co-star / screenwriter Jay McCarrol explain the challenges filming at the CN Tower with a prop that looks suspiciously like a giant pipe bomb.
Easy’s Waltz
Director Nic Pizzolatto (far right) explains the challenging task of getting Shania Twain in his movie. (with Actors Vince Vaughan and Simon Rex)
Christy
Despite Sydney Sweeney’s presence on stage, Champ – the dog of real life boxer Christy Martin, stole the show at the premiere of Christy.
Maddie’s Secret
Actor/Director John Early shares his obsession for the 1986 made-for-TV movie Kate’s Secret (starring Meredith Baster Birney as a seemingly perfect suburban housewife secretly suffering from bulimia).
IMDB
IMDB Founder Col Needham explains his role (actually six roles) in 28 Years Later, and reveals the everyday camera that director Danny Boyle used to make the film.
Hamnet
Hamnet, Chloé Zhao’s beautiful film about Shakespeare’s family tragedy, won TIFF’s prestigious People’s Choice Award. The Director’s acceptance speech appeared to be beamed in from Down Under, much to the embarrassment of TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey.
Daniel Garber talks with László Nemes about Orphan at #TIFF50
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Photos by Jeff Harris.
It’s Spring, 1957, in Budapest, after the failed Hungarian uprising. Though young Andor Hirsch looks like an angelic Oliver Twist, he’s actually a tough kid, given to smoking, jumping onto streetcars and squeezing in and out of small places. He knows every loose fence, every crumbling building in his part of Budapest. He likes collecting ticket stubs and returning old bottles. He lives with his mother Klara (who survived the Holocaust in hiding) while his father was sent to the camps. But he still talks to his Dad each day, patiently waiting for his return. Until one day, an enormous thuggish 
man, a heavy drinking pork butcher who speaks like an oaf and rides a motorcycle, enters his life. He knows his mom, and seems to like Andor, too, for some reason. But he refuses to accept that this creature could possibly be his biological father. He’d rather be called an orphan.
Orphan is the name of a new film that premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. It is a lavishly detailed and deeply moving coming-of-age drama about the family history of a boy trying to survive in a ruined, Soviet-occupied Budapest. It’s co-written and directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Laszlo Nemes (Son of Saul). I last interviewed him on this show in 2016, about Sunset.
I spoke with Laszlo Nemes in person during #TIFF50.
Orphan will open in North America next year.
Men, music and sports. Films reviewed: The History of Sound, Him, EPIC: Elvis Presley in Concert
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
TIFF is over but the movies keep coming. So this week, I’m looking at three new American movies, two about music and one about sports. There are two men recording folk songs in the forest, an ambitious quarterback at a training camp in the desert, and a former teen idol wowing audiences on a Vegas stage.
The History of Sound
Dir: Oliver Hermanus
It’s the early 20th Century in rural Kentucky. Lionel (Paul Mescal) likes listening to his father sing while he plays the fiddle. Music for him is different from most folks: he has synesthesia. This means each musical note has a distinct colour, flavour and meaning. Eventually his love of music and beautiful voice wins him a full scholarship to the New England Conservatory of Music. At a Boston pub one night, he recognizes a song his father used to play, coming from a young man at the piano. David (Josh O’Connor) knows every word. As an ethnomusicologist, he wants to collect as many distinct folk songs and ballads as he can, before they are lost forever. David has perfect pitch and a photographic memory. The two trade songs they know, and somehow, end up in bed together that night. That chance encounter turns into regular trysts at David’s apartment.
Later he invites Lionel to join him in a fieldwork project. They roam across the state of Maine, recording songs everywhere from logging camps to schoolhouses, And they record it all on wax cylinders (this is before flat discs are invented) carefully 
stored in a leather satchel. And each night they sleep together in a tiny tent. Is this true love? And what will happen to their relationship after the project is finished?
The History of Sound is a touching, bittersweet gay romance — before the word gay existed — set within the larger context of war and music. It’s directed by South African filmmaker Oliver Hermanus (Moffie) and its based on a short story by Ben Shattuck. I wonder if the characters are modelled on Alan Lomax, the ethnomusicologist who recorded thousands of songs and started the folk music revival in the 1950s. Paul Mescal is spot-on as the sensitive kid in a clapboard shack who grows up to be a cosmopolitan musician; as is Josh O’Connor’s portrayal of an enigmatic musical genius with hidden secrets. The images are as lovely as the music in this tender and moving film.
I really liked it.
Him
Co-Wri/Dir: Justin Tipping
It’s San Antonio, Texas, and their NFL team, the Saviours, is looking for a new quarterback to replace their MVP Isaiah White (Marlon Wayans), due to retire in a year. Cameron Cade (Tyriq Withers) is a young quarterback who lives for football — his father trained him for this since he was a little kid. When he’s offered the position if he agrees to an intense one-on-one, bootcamp with his idol Isaiah White, of course he says yes; this is the fulfillment of all his dream. Thing is, he recently had a serious injury that left him with a bad concussion and a track of staples in his head. If he aggravates his brain, it might end his football career before it starts. But as his father always told him, No Pain, No Gain. Cameron heads out to the training camp in the desert.
There he encounters absolute luxury: gourmet food and priceless art in a spacious brutalist palace. There are saunas and ice baths, and daily blood transfusions for Isaiah. Cameron too tastes this luxury — and sexual temptations — offered by Isaiah’s entourage, especially the grotesquely made-up wife Elsie White (Julia Fox), an influencer who sells her own line of sex toys. Isaiah is the GOAT — the Greatest of All Time — and his virulent fans wear goat horns on their 
heads. Cameron, on the other hand, holds onto silver cross. He’s given a series of Squid-Game-like ordeals he must endure before Isaiah gives him the nod. And as the tasks grow increasingly horrific, his morals are severely challenged. Can he pass the tests? And is he ready to give up his innate morality and embrace pro-sports and all it offers?
Him is a psychological thriller about a young man confronting his hero (who is also his nemesis) even as he uncovers the dark underbelly of pro football. It’s produced by Jordan Peele, so you might expect a suspense/thriller with mind-blowing surprises. If so, you’ll be sorely disappointed. What you’ll get instead is more like a highly-stylized, extended music video than a horror film. There’s lots of dazzle and flash — and an equal amount of blood — but it’s never scary or surprising. And director Tipping uses film techniques like a kid playing with toys. Why are people shown in in infrared X-rays? Why a long fashion shot sequence in what’s supposed to be a scary scene? Why do cowboy-hatted cheerleaders continue dancing in the face of horrific deaths? There are some great visual cues — like the aluminium stitches in his skull evoking the side of a football — but it’s all show, no substance in this cheap morality play.
Him is fun to look at, but there’s nothing there.
EPIC: Elvis Presley in Concert
Dir: Baz Luhrmann
It’s the 1950s. Elvis is the King of Rock and Roll with a series of hits and the nation goes wild over his thrusting pelvis and his soulful voice. Later, he is drafted into the army where he serves two years. Afterwards he turns to Hollywood where hue churns out a series of hits alongside sex goddesses like Ann-Margaret. And late in the 1960s he signs a multi-year contract to perform before sold-out audiences at a Las Vegas Casino. He’s up there every day, dressed in eggshell blue jumpsuits, covered in silver studs, sequins and spangles, joking with the crowds, and sweating buckets. He is accompanied by a retinue of back up singers, musicians and elaborate lighting. And that is basically how Elvis spends the rest of his life, until he collapses and dies in Graceland, age 42.
EPIC: Elvis Presley in Concert is a combination documentary and musical performance. Just two years ago, we had both Baz Lurhmann’s biopic Elvis and Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla, two similar stories told from different points of view, neither of which were particularly good. And now, out of nowhere comes this third one. I’m not an Elvis fan, nor do I like the kitschy
Buzz Luhrmann at EPIC’s world premiere at TIFF50: Photo (c) Jeff Harris
and gaudy films of Baz Luhrmann. Which is why I’m shocked at how much I enjoyed this movie (I saw it on an IMAX screen at TIFF last week, almost by accident.) Ostensibly just a musical record it’s actually a succinct and tight history of the man, so much better than those bloated biopics.
It’s fantastic, a masterpiece of creative editing, colour restoration and music mixing. It’s absolutely stunning. The songs he sings are mainly hits from the 1960s cover-versions of Bridge Over Troubled Water, You’ve lost that Loving Feeling, and even gospel songs. And over the course of a single song, we see him on stage, in rehearsal, or in the recording studio, shot over many years, but without a break in the music. And despite Luhrmann’s gaudy excess, somehow his capture of Elvis in a psychedelic shirt or sparkling gold belt buckles just looks right.
EPIC is the perfect concert film.
Him and The History of Music both open this weekend in Toronto; check your local listings; EPIC: Elvis Presley In Concert played at TIFF and will be released soon.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website culturalmining.com.
TIFF gems. Films reviewed: Girl, I Swear, Cover-Up
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
TIFF, Toronto’s International Film Festival is winding down after a busy week, but there is still a lot to see, including the People’s Choice awards offering free screenings of the winning films tomorrow. So this week I’m looking at three terrific movies that premiered at TIFF but aren’t getting the degree of coverage I think they deserve. There’s a coming-of-age story about a girl in Taiwan, a biopic about a man in Scotland, and a documentary about a legendary American journalist.
Girl
Wri/Dir: Shu Qi
Lin Xiaoli (Bai Xiao-Ying) is a working class tween in middle school in Taiwan. She lives with her mom, and her domineering stepdad who terrorizes her mother and her. Xiaoli hides inside a zip-up wardrobe in her bedroom as protection from his violent outbursts. He works as a mechanic in his Uncle’s garage, and usually comes home drunk to the gills. Her Mom works in a hair salon and makes artificial flowers at home to earn extra money, but takes out her anger on her much smaller daughter. Xiaoli takes care of her younger sister, who is favoured by both her parents. At school she tries to stay unnoticed to avoid more of the violence and anxiety he gets at home.
Until she meets a vivacious girl named Li Lily (Lin Pin-Tung). Lily lived in the States for a few years but now she’s back and living with her grandparents who let her do whatever she 
wants. Though the too are complete opposites, Lily is helping Xiaoli climb out of her shell. And one day they cut class, wear makeup, smoke a cigarette, go to a video cafe, sing songs, and eventually meet a bunch teenaged boys riding motor scooters. But will this day change her life in a good way… or in a bad way?
Girl is a realistic coming-of- age drama set in the previous millennium (with no computers or cel phones) and full of poignant details. It’s a very moving story about parental abuse passed down through generations, but it’s also full of hope. It follows the points of view of all the main characters, not just 
Xiaoli. Now, I have a rule, I avoid first films at TIFF directed by actors. Why? They’re usually crap. Vanity pics, Oscar bate, self-serving vehicles or relentless navel gazing. Shu Qi is a very famous Taiwanese actress, and Girl is her first try at directing. Luckily, it’s really good. She has acted in three movies by Hou Hsiao Hsien and Girl resembles his films in both style and content, though a totally original take. It’s rough and violent in parts, which is hard to handle in a realistic movie, but there’s lots of sweet stuff, too.
Girl is an excellent first feature.
I Swear
Wri/Dir: Kirk Jones
It’s the late 1990s. John Davidson (Scott Ellis Watson) is a popular teenager in Galashiels, Scotland He’s starting at a new school, getting friendly with a girl he fancies, and is the prized goalie on the local boys’ football team. His Dad has even arranged for a scout to the next match. But then something unexpected happens. He starts twitching in class, just a little at first, like a nervous tic. But it soon turns to rapid movements, facial contortions, and barking sounds. Followed by spitting, random punching and the uttering of the most offensive words. He gets caned by the headmaster for acting the ckown, his mother makes him eat his meals on the floor facing the fireplace. HIs father abandons his family. His onetime girlfriend slaps his face and other kids bully him at school, But none of it is intentional; he has Tourette’s syndrome.
Decades later, John (Robert Aramayo) still lives with his mother, heavily sedated, not allowed to speak with anyone for fear of an incident. A miserable existence indeed. Until he runs into an old school friend who invites him for dinner at home. He repeatedly declines — for good reason — until his friend’s mom Dottie (Maxine Peake), a psychiatric nurse 
diagnosed with cancer, insist he come in for spaghetti dinner. The first thing he says to her is You’re dying of cancer, haha! before skulking away, mortified. But Dottie brushes it off as the most honest thing she’s heard in years. She invites him back, and tells him to stop apologizing for things that aren’t his fault. Eventually he moves in to try to live a normal life. But is that possible with Tourettes?
I Swear is a comedy/drama, based on a true story, about one man’s life with Tourette’s. The title refers to the profane and deeply offensive words that spew forth from his moth at the worst possible times. It’s mortifying but also excruciatingly funny, and the two actors who play him, Watson and Aramayo, exude sympathy and humour in every scene, despite their seemingly insurmountable problems. I laughed my ass off for most of this film (whenever I wasn’t crying out of sympathy). I Swear tells a heart-warming story, even as it educates — without lecturing — about Tourette’s.
I strongly recommend this feel-good movie.
Cover-Up
Wri/Dir: Laura Poitras (All The Beauty and the Bloodshed)
and Mark Obenhaus
It’s the 1960s and America is at war. Sy Hersh, a freelance reporter, hears a rumour of mass murder in Vietnam by American troops. He speaks with GIs on base and the soldiers accused of these crimes. He also got a hold of a secret military investigation the massacre. And the facts he finds are horrifying. There include synchronized sexual assaults and murders of hundreds of women, men and children, and even babies, by American soldiers. Hersh blames My Lai on General Westmoreland and others who ordered the mass killings — which happened in a number of places on the same day — solely for the purpose of raising the body count. They needed more dead bodies to prove they were winning the war. The story has major repercussions all the way to the top — Nixon and Kissinger were recorded calling Hersh a son of a bitch — and played a role in turning public sentiment away from the war. For Hersh, My Lai is the first of many crucial stories he breaks in the decades to come. He becomes the NY Times daily reporter on the Watergate scandal. He uncovers US involvement in Pinochet’s bloody coup in Chile and the assassination of 
Allende; illegal CIA infiltration of anti-war groups, the secret bombing of Cambodia, the invasion of Gaza (ongoing), and the abuse and torture of Iraqis by American soldiers during the Gulf War at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison.
Cover-Up is a journalistic documentary about journalism itself. It features historical documents and period photos and film — many very disturbing — new interviews with people involved in the stories, and extended talks with Sy Hersh, who at the age of 88 is still a full-time journalist. You get to see 
him see at work talking to anonymous sources and vetting incoming photos and leaks. He’s a bit prickly about protecting his sources even from the documentary makers (who take care never to reveal anyone still alive), because it’s that core of consciences bureaucrats, soldiers, and spies who still uphold the constitution and flout illegal coverups. They’re the sources who keep freedom of the press alive.
After the TIFF screening, Hersh said that American journalism is in a bad state with reporters running scared. How many important stories are being gagged or stifled now — or in the past — under White House pressure? It shows how badly we need more adversarial journalists who question the powers that be and uncover what they’re hiding.
And that’s what Cover-Up is all about.
I Swear, Girl and Cover-Up all played at TIFF and should be released over the next few months. 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 Min Sook Lee about There are No Words at TIFF
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Photos by Jeff Harris.
It’s the 1970s, and the Lee family — Dad, Mom and three daughters — are experiencing the typical immigrant life in Toronto. A brash dad and a soft-spoken mom spend all their time in the family convenience store so the girls can study for school in their high-rise apartment tower. But everything
changes when, seemingly out of nowhere, their mom dies by suicide, leaving only a few photos and silent memories. Now, decades later, one of those sisters has made a documentary about their hidden past… but there are no words to describe the shocking family history and generational trauma she unveils.
The film’s called There are no Words, and is written and directed by multiple award-winning Toronto-based documentary filmmaker Min Sook Lee. She is known for her moving documentaries that bring crucial global political issues down to a personal scale, as in 
her doc Migrant Dreams in 2016, the last time I spoke with her on this show.
Incorporating period news footage and photos with new interviews with her family’s relatives and friends in Canada and Korea, as well as a shocking and revelatory talk with her father, There are No Words is a highly personal heart-wrenching look at the filmmaker’s own hidden family history.
I spoke with Min Sook Lee via Zoom.
There are No Words had its world premiere at TIFF, played at ReelAsian and will be released theatrically.
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