Two Couples and a Single Mom. Films reviewed: The Wedding Banquet, The Courageous PLUS Hotdocs!
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Hot Docs Toronto’s International Documentary Film Festival, is back with a vengeance, next week after last year’s misadventure in potential ruin. The world breathes a sigh of relief! And there are tons of great films to see, many having their world premieres at the festival. And as aways, rush tickets for daytime shows are available for free for students and seniors. So this week, I’m talking about some of the docs I’m looking forward tov watching. And after that, two new movies, one from the US and another from France. There’s a romcom involving two couples and one fake marriage; and a drama about a struggling single mom and her three young kids.
New films at Hotdocs!
Here are some brief description of upcoming docs that look interesting:
Ai Weiwei’s Turandot is a record of the noted Chinese artist and activist’s production in Rome of Puccini’s opera set in a mythical China, and somehow combines ancient themes with modern politics.
Parade: Queer Acts of Love & Resistance by Winnipeg director Noam Gonick is a comprehensive look at the history of queer politics in Canada from the 1960s to the present, focusing on Pride parades as a catalyst for liberation movements.
Virginial Tangvald directs Ghosts of the Sea about a life spent aboard her famous father’s sailing boat, and the dark secrets her family keeps.
Life After is director Reid Davenport’s examination of Medically Assisted Dying from the point of view of devalued, disabled persons, unwillingly pushed toward death to relieve their very real suffering caused by the absence of necessary care.
Spare My Bones, Coyote! (Jonah Malak) is about a volunteer couple who for years have scouted the desert borderlands to rescue migrants lost and dying in the extreme heat and cold.
Deaf President Now! (Nyle DiMarco, Davis Guggenheim) is about a 1988 student strike at a DC University for the deaf when they hired a hearing president. The protests inspired a generation of disability rights activists.
Sasha Wortzel’s River of Grass looks at the unique ecosystem of the Everglades.
The Dating Game (Violet Du Feng) looks at the crazy lengths unmarried men in China are going through these days to try to land a wife.
Heightened Scrutiny (Sam Feder) looks at ACLU attorney Chase Strangio preparing his landmark case on trans rights before the Supreme Court.
Unwelcomed (Sebastián González and Amílcar Infante) a Chilean film about the violent reaction to migrants who fled Venezuela to seek refuge there.
Shifting Baselines (Julien Elie) is about a small Texan town dominated by gigantic, 50-storey tall rocket ships that are part of the new space race.
These are just a few of the films playing at Hotdocs.
The Wedding Banquet
Co-Wri/Dir: Andrew Ahn
It’s present-day Seattle. Min (Han Gi-Chan) is a man in his twenties from South Korea. He was raised by very rich grandparents, who now expect him to take over the family business. But he doesn’t want to. Min’s an artist who cuts up colourful silk kimonos as his medium. And he’s in love with a guy named Chris (Bowen Yang) and wants to marry him. If his grand-parents ever find out, he’ll be written out of the will. And he’s in the US on a limited visa — he needs a green card. Meanwhile, Angela (Kelly Marie Tran), a science geek who does experiments with worms is in love with Lee, a social worker (Lily Gladstone). They want kids, and artificial insemination is proving to be very expensive. What’s the connection? Chris is good friends with Angela and Min thinks he can pull the wool over his grandparents’s eyes if he “marries” Angela and sends them the video. He gets a green 
card, she gets a baby, it’s as easy as pie. Not so fast. Granny (Youn Yuh-jung) is already on a flight from Seoul sending the four of them on a frantic clean up. Can they de-gayify Min and Chris’s home? Can Angela pass as straight? And what will this new wrinkle do to both those couples’ relationships?
The Wedding Banquet is a cute, screwball social comedy. Not uproarious, roll-on-the-floor comedy, but lots of quirky characters and unexpected plot twists. It’s adapted from Ang Lee’s movie of the same name in 1993, but quickly veers on a different path from 30 years ago. The original focused on a clash pf cultures involving a White and Taiwanese couple and the prevailing anti-gay taboos of that generation. In this version, Homophobia is alluded to but kept off screen, and the multi-ethnic humour comes from clueless Asian Americans navigating their way through the vagaries of a traditional 
Korean Wedding.The main actors don’t just play gay, they are gay. The cast is very impressive. Lily Gladstone was nominated for an Oscar for Killers of the Flower Moon, Youn Yuh-jung who plays Min’s grandmother, won one for Minari, and the legendary Joan Chen has a great cameo as Angela’s mom. Bowen Yang plays against type, while Kelly Marie Tran of Star Wars fame is endearingly awkward as Angela.
So while not terribly challenging, The Wedding Banquet presents a modern take on gay-asian relationships that is both endearing and gently funny.
The Courageous
Co-Wri/Dir: Jasmin Gordon
It’s a small town in northeastern France. Jule (Ophélia Kolb) is a single mom with three young kids in public school. Claire (Jasmine Kalisz Saurer) is the take-charge older sister. Loïc (Paul Besnier) is friendly, shy, and possibly on the spectrum; and Sami (Arthur Devaux) the youngest is prone to running around and getting in trouble. But one day the kids find themselves in a roadside diner with no mom. Their car is still in the parking lot, but she’s nowhere to be seen. So they take a long walk beside a highway back to their apartment. She shows up the next morning, but with no explanation. Instead she drives them to see what she says is their new home. It’s out of the way, and a bit run down, but much more spacious than their cramped apartment. But mom forces the kids to take cover and climb out the back door when strangers appear at the front.
You see, Mom isn’t completely honest with her kids. She has very little income, is way behind rent, and can barely find enough money to buy then basic food and clothes. And yet she struggles to provide them with normal kid lives: toys, sports and going to birthday parties. But her ventures with petty theft and shoplifting haven’t worked out well. She has an 
ankle bracelet to prove it. But their dream home is still up for sale. Can Jule come up with the down payment in time? Or will the law and the system catch up with her?
The Courageous is an amazing family drama about a mother who goes to great lengths to keep her family together. It’s told as a slice of life — starting in the middle and finishing before an obvious end. If you’re looking for an easy-to-watch, crowd-pleaser, you won’t find it here, but the bittersweet story-telling, endearing characters and shocking incidents make it much more satisfying.
Beautiful movie!
The Courageous and The Wedding Banquet opens this weekend in Toronto; check your local listings. Hotdocs runs from Thursday Apr 24, 2025 – Sun, May 4.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website culturalmining.com.
Big. Films reviewed: The Ballad of Wallis Island, Freaky Tales, The Friend
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Holiday Creep. People have been complaining about it for decades: Christmas lights appearing in September, chocolate Easter Eggs on sale in January… but have you ever heard of ‘Halfway to Halloween’ ? Well that’s what they’re calling a new series of films streaming on Shudder in April, marking six months since the last creepy holiday. I haven’t seen them yet, but some of these look really 
good. Like the Irish folk-horror FRÉWAKA, and Shadow of God, a Vatican exorcism thriller described as a “cataclysm of biblical proportions”.
But this week I’m looking at three new movies, two dramadies and one found-footage compilation. There are big egos on a remote island, big crime on the streets of Oakland, and a Great Dane in a tiny New York apartment.
The Ballad of Wallis Island
Dir: James Griffiths
Herb McGwyer (Tom Basden) is an irritable English musician who has fallen on hard times. He once was half of McGwyer/Mortimer, a folk-rock duo that dominated the charts of the early 2010s. But they broke up when McGwyer went solo, dumping his partner and lover. While still a name, he has lost any credibility he once had. So he agrees to do a private concert before a small crowd on a remote island… for half a million pounds. He is greeted on the stony beach by an enthusiastic ginger-bearded fellow named Charles Heath (Tim Key). Charles likes bad jokes, bulky sweaters and McGwyer/Mortimer. He’s a super fan, and talks non-stop.
McGuire wishes he’d shut up and leave him alone in his hotel room before the concert. What he doesn’t know is, there is no hotel, just Charles’s rustic stone cottage, the small audience will be just Charles… and it’s not a solo performance, but a double bill. Nell Mortimer (Carey Mulligan) his former partner is on her way from Oregon, and the two haven’t seen each other in more than a decade. Will 
McGwyer/Mortimer get back together again? Will the two fall in love again? Or is McGwyer taking the next boat back to the mainland? And where did Charles get all his money?
The Ballad of Wallis Island is a poignant musical- comedy about the big plans of an ordinary fan. It’s done with a faux retro feel, as if the group split up 50 years ago, not 10. Somehow, all of McGwire/Mortimer’s music was released on vintage vinyl, with all their concerts on VHS. And they really do sing: Tom Basden is a actual musician and Carey Mulligan has a lovely voice. Basden wrote the screenplay with the comedic Tom Key, and they’re a hilarious odd couple. But it’s the tender humour of this story that leaves you feeling warm and fuzzy inside.
I liked this movie a lot.
Freaky Tales
Wri/Dir: Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck
It’s 1987 in Oakland California, and trouble is brewing. A gang of neo-nazi skinheads is terrorizing punks (Jack Champion, Ji-young Yoo), by raiding their home base, 924 Gilman, to ruin a concert and smash up some heads. A debt collector (Pablo Pascal) is sent on his last job, to extort some money from a clandestine poker player. A corrupt kingpin (Ben Mendelssohn) is sponsoring a criminal raid on the home of a celebrated basketball player named Sleepy Floyd (Jay Ellis). And Danger Zone (Normani, Dominique Thorne), a pair of wannabe rappers who work at an ice cream parlour, find themselves in a rap battle against a noted misogynist. All these events are happening simultaneously to people leaving the celebrated Grand Lake Cinema after a show. But who will triumph at these battles royales — the good guys or the nazis?
Freaky Tales is an entertaining slice of nostalgia from the 1980s, told in the form of four, vaguely-linked chapters. Apparently they’re based on events that actually happened in Oakland in the 1980s. I love the 
look of this movie; it’s littered with 80s colour combos like pale green with lavender. And it liberally plunders images from old films, including The Warriors and David Cronenberg’s Scanners. The soundtrack is terrific, featuring hardcore, metal and hiphop all in one movie. And it’s got big stars like Pedro Pascal, Ben Mendelssohn and even a cameo by Tom Hanks. What’s missing though, is a real story, not just a hodgepodge of battles, fights, and massacres. I get it, it’s a tribute to an era and the city of Oakland, but where are the surprises, twists or experimentation? Not here.
Like I said, I enjoyed watching it, but there’s very little going on beneath its comic-book surface.
The Friend
Wri/Dir: Scott McGehee, David Siegel
Iris (Naomi Watts) is a writer and editor who lives in a sunny, rent controlled apartment in New York City. She teaches creative writing at a local college, but isn’t doing much writing herself. Instead she’s editing the work of her best friend Walter (Bill Murray), her mentor, one-time professor and even once a lover. Problem is, Walter’s dead and besides his unfinished manuscripts, he also left behind three former wives and an adult daughter Val (Sarah Pidgeon) he barely knew.
Iris is dealing with writers’ block, and pressure from his publisher to finish editing his work (“dead Walter is much hotter than living Walter”). Most of all she’s coping with her unexpressed mourning over Walter’s unexpected death. And then, suddenly, she finds herself in charge of Apollo, an enormous and stately Great Dane. For some reason, Walter had decided that Iris, not any of his three widows, would be the one best suited to handle his other best friend. But Iris doesn’t like animals and doesn’t know how to treat them. And it’s not like Walter left her any instructions. Apollo is petulant and bossy, pushing her out of her bed and lording it over her home. He won’t eat his food, he won’t drink his water. Iris is at loose ends. But just as she starts learning how to co-exist with the dog, she faces a bigger 
dilemma. It would be devastating to the dog to be torn away from his home yet again. But to discretely keep a Great Dane in a pet-free, rent-controlled apartment is insane… and grounds for eviction. IS there anyway she can save them both? And will Iris and Apollo ever come to terms with Walter’s suicide?
The Friend is a touching comedy about friendship, loss and mourning. For Iris, the friend of the title is both Walter and Apollo. It’s based on a novel by Sigrid Nunez, and it’s told using a literary narrative voice. We listen to Iris the writer, as she deconstructs and rewrites parts of the story we’re watching, even as they happen, with input from the dead writer Walter. Sounds stuffy and academic, right? But although it exists in an world of writing and publishing, this film is funny, sad and deeply moving. Naomi Watts carries the show as the introverted but empathetic writer Iris. And the monumental Great Dane is presented with amazing dignity. Apollo is never comical, nor does he talk, but he manages to convey emotions as deep as any of the human characters.
A very touching film.
The Ballad of Wallis Island, Freaky Tales and The Friend 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.
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