More popcorn movies. Films reviewed: Together, The Naked Gun PLUS #TIFF25 films to look out for
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
There’s something new at Hot Docs Cinema that has nothing to do with documentaries. It’s called Pillow Fright!, which the programmers Emily Gagne and Danita Steinberg describe as “a sleepover-themed, creep-tastic series for fellow friendly freaks – the girls, gays, and theys who crave a good scare in a safe, inclusive space.” It starts next Friday with a screening of the original Final Destination. That’s Pillow Fright! at the Hot Docs Cinema.
So this week, I’m looking at two more summertime popcorn movies — one about a couple with a strange attraction, the other about a cop with a strange distraction — but first here’s a look at some of the movies coming to TIFF this Fall.
TIFF Movies
Tiff is more than a month away, but they’re already releasing many of the titles. Now, I haven’t seen any of them yet but here are some movies made by international directors whose past movies I really liked. (I’ll be looking at Canadian Directors soon).
Gus Van Sant — who made Good Will Hunting and Mala Noche — has a new film about a hostage taking called Dead Man’s Wire.
I loved Moroccan director Maryam Touzani’s Blue Caftan in 22. 
Calle Malaga is about an elderly Spanish woman in Tangiers.
Agnieszka Holland (In Darkness, The Burning Bush, Mr. Jones. Green Border)— the celebrated Polish director who studied film in Prague — has a biopic about Kafka titled Franz.
Jafar Panahi (No Bears) is that subtle and funny Iranian 
director whose film at TIFF will be It Was Just an Accident, about a small mishap that causes a chain reaction.
English director Ben Wheatley (A Field in England, In The Earth) makes weird and baffling movies, so, of course his movie at TIFF — called Normal — is sure to be anything but.
Mamoru Hosoda, whose Japanese anime (like Wolf Children and Mirai) are always fantastical and moving, is back with Scarlet about a princess who transcends time and space.
I’ve been watching director Joachim Trier’s 
(Oslo August 31st, Thelma, The Worst Person in The World) detailed, angsty Oslo dramas for a decade and half so I’m really looking forward to Sentimental Value, about family, memories, and the power of art.
Benny Safdie who, with his brother Josh, brought us outrageous films like Good Time and Uncut Gems, is going solo this round with The Smashing Machine, a biopic about a UFC fighter, played by The Rock.
Did you see The Brutalist last year? Co-writer Mona
Fastvold’s newest pic is The Testament of Ann Lee, a historical drama about the Shaker movement.
Wake Up Dead Man is Rian Johnson’s latest Knives Out Mystery (Glass Onion, Knives Out), which is sure to be highly entertaining.
These are just some of the movies slated for TIFF this year.
Together
Wri/Dir: Michael Shanks
Tim and Millie (Dave Franco and Alison Brie) are a couple in New York City, about to make a big change in their lives. They’re moving out of their cramped apartment into a spacious house in a remote village. She’s a lot more into it than he is. Tim is a professional musician in a band about to go on tour again, and it’s hard to rehearse or perform when you’re out in the woods. Their house is old and creepy, and Tim is spooked by a rats’ nest he finds in a light fixture. Millie, on the other hand, has an actual job as schoolteacher. It advances her career, and she likes it here, despite the eccentric staff at the school, including Jamie (Damon Herriman) who lives down the road.
One day, something unexpected happens. They’re going for a hike down a trail in the woods, and they fall into a pit, dug straight into the ground. No one comes to their rescue — they’ve heard about another young couple who disappeared — so they end up sleeping there overnight, drinking water from an underground source. And in the morning they’re both covered in some sticky fungus — they literally have to pull their legs apart from each other like ripping off a bandaid.
No biggie, right? But when Millie drives off to work, Tim gets tossed around inside his shower. Is this ghosts or spirits playing with them? When they ask for advice from Jamie He;’s says don’t worry it’s nothing. But as time passes, Tim
finds it virtually impossible to stay away from Millie. As he gets more and more clingy, their boundaries are ever more challenged. Is he stalking her or going nuts? Or is something bigger calling the shots?
Together is a romantic, body-horror thriller about a couple’s relationship — both attraction and repulsion — whose boundaries are challenged after a walk in the woods. No spoilers here, but the story is highly original and probably like nothing you’ve ever seen before. Dave Franco and Alison Brie have noticeable chemistry with impeccable timing in their interactions. It wasn’t till after seeing the movie that I realized Franco and Brie are a married couple in real life. That explains it. But they’re really good at it, including simulated sex scenes in unexpected locales. There is sex, nudity, violence and truly grotesque special effects, so if you don’t like being shocked and titillated, stay away.
Cause Together is probably the most exciting relationship movie you’re ever going to see.
The Naked Gun
Co-Wri/Dir: Akiva Schaffer
The LA Police Squad is a special unit formed to stop crime and catch criminals. Their most famous detective is Lt Frank Drebin Jr (Liam Neeson). Like his father before him, he’s known for his single-minded, relentless pursuits and gruff, hardboiled nature. He can thwart a bank robbery and take down a dozen thieves with his bare hands. Unfortunately, those robbers are complaining about Drebin’s brutality, so
the police chief (CCH Pounder) has re-assigned Frank to another case; an apparent suicide. It’s open and shut until Beth Davenport (Pamela Anderson) an elegant femme fatale, shows up at his office. It’s not suicide, she says… it’s murder. And the victim was my brother! That morning’s bank heist was masterminded by the evil industrialist Richard Cane (Danny Huston), who made his fortune selling self-driving, electric cars. He ordered the bank robbery to secure a device invented by the dead man. With it, Cane thinks he can wipe out the earths population and then rule the planet. It’s up to Drebin and Beth to solve the mystery and catch the criminals. But will it be too late?
The Naked Gun is a stupid-funny comedy, a reboot and 
update of the TV show and movie series from the 1980s and 90s. (With Liam Neeson taking over Leslie Nielsen’s role). The story is juvenile and simplistic, populated with exaggerated, comic-book caricatures. At the same time, it’s very funny. Most of the humour doesn’t come from witty dialogue, it’s mainly visual gags, with a new punchline appearing on the screen every three or four seconds. (The jokes continue non-stop, even during the closing credits: look for hidden puns among the names). The humour is bawdy and salacious, with more visual double entendres than you can shake a stick at. Pamela Anderson does a great film noir pastiche, even scat-singing at an LA nightclub. And Liam Neeson — after a career playing gruff action heroes fighting terrorists — is finally allowed to parody himself.
The movie is hilarious.
The Naked Gun and Together both open this weekend in Toronto; check your local listings.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies each Saturday morning on CIUT 89.5 FM, and on my website culturalmining.com.
Intrigue. Films reviewed: The Phoenician Scheme, The Ritual, Ballerina
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
imagineNative — Toronto’s own indigenous film and media arts festival — is on now through Sunday with docs, films, exhibitions and performances from around the world with both free and paid events. Check it out!
But this week I’m looking at three new movies: an art house comedy, a religious horror movie and an action thriller. There’s a devious mogul preparing his daughter to take over his busines, a priest attempting an exorcism, and a professional assassin fighting to avenge her dad.
The Phoenician Scheme
Co-Wri/Dir: Wes Anderson (Reviews: Fantastic Mr Fox, Isle of Dogs, The French Dispatch, Asteroid City)
Zsa-Zsa Korda (Benicia Del Toro) is the richest industrialist in the world. He amasses millions by embarking on huge projects in developing countries using virtual slave labour. He’s ruthless and cruel. He has sired a dozen kids whose names he can’t remember and whom he keeps locked up in a threadbare orphanage. Except, one. Liesl (Mia Threapleton) is a novice, brought up in a convent and dresses like a nun but who who has yet to take her vows. Korda is grooming her to take over his huge business interests after he dies. And attempts on his life — like poisons, bombs and sabotaged airplanes — are a routine part of his life. But he always seems to survive. And so he embarks on a grand scheme to involving interconnected tunnels, waterways and cornering global markets. But first he must raise the money from investors. He takes Liesly along with him as he carries out his complex plans. And accompanying them is Bjorn (Michael Cera) a Scandinavian tutor, ostensibly hired to educate his kids, but instead tags along on these journeys. But they face hostile business partners, revolutionaries, spies and assassins, quicksand, 
plane crashes and other symbols of disaster. Will his scheme be successful? Will Liesl learn to love him? And will he survive the final attempt on his life?
The Phoenician Scheme is an art-house comedy film, the latest in Wes Anderson’s collection. It’s stylized and formalistic, shot in almost two-dimensional geometric settings with precisely directed sequences. Combining social satire with silliness, it’s wacky and always surprising. It consists of a series of segments as he checks off the list of the projects he planned as he swindles repeated capitalists out of their investments. The story line is punctuated by repeated dreams fantasies of Korda — in his near-death experiences — as he faces judgement in Heaven, but always ending up back again on earth. Threapleton is fun to watch as she gradually transforms from an avowed zealot to a lover of luxury, as Korda replaces her rosary with semiprecious stones, and her simple corncob pipe with an inlayed treasure from Cartier. 
Cera is hilarious as the insect-loving tutor Bjorn, and Del Toro is sufficiently both grand and seedy to convey his anti-hero’s character. Like all of Wes Anderson’s films, many members of his stable of actors reappear in short, cute roles: Tom Hanks, Willem Defoe, Bryan Cranston, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Richard Ayoade, Scarlett Johansson, Ris Ahmet, Bill Murray, and Benedict Cumberbatch, to name just a few. Some people are put off by Anderson’s emphasis on style and form — which, admittedly, doesn’t always work — but in this case, I think he’s made a fine movie that’s a pleasure to watch.
The Ritual
Co-Wri/Dir: David Midell
It’s the late 1920s in a small town in Iowa and Father Joseph Steiger (Dan Stevens) is mourning the death of his only brother. But his grief is interrupted by a young woman in his parish. Emma Schmidt (Abigail Cowen) says she is possessed by a demon. For many years she has seen doctors and psychiatrists but no one can explain her strange condition. So she has turned to the Church to cure her, and says only an exorcism can free of from her very real torment. This is unheard of, but the ritual has been approved by the local Bishop, with an expert in demonic possession heading their way. Father Theophilus Riesinger (Al Pacino) is a shaggy-haired little monk who wears a cowl and talks like Tevye from Fiddler on the Roof. But he knows the practice of exorcisms inside and out. Along with a bevy of assorted nuns to help out, the ceremony begins. Emma is tied to the bed as her body writhes. She pukes pea soup and breaks out in weird rashes. The furniture flies around the room as she curses in five languages. But can they exorcise this demon before it consumes her?
The Ritual is a horror movie that (supposedly) reenacts an actual historical event: the performance of an exorcism in the US. The script is based on documents from that era. Thing is it is also the inspiration for William Friedkin’s iconic film The 
Exorcist, and the novel, by William Peter Blatty, it was based on. This version has atrocious writing, painful acting, and cheap-ass special effects. Fear and grief is conveyed by actors covering their faces with their hands, over and over. The whole movie is shot with in extreme close-ups using a hand-held camera that jiggle enough to make any viewer feel nauseous. Although the chapters of each ritual is documented, there’s minimal difference from one to the next. It isn’t even vaguely scary, more boring than anything else. It feels more like a Sunday school sermon than a horror movie. Al Pacino? Dan Stevens? These are famous actors! What are they doing in this dreadful movie? They must really be desperate.
The obvious question is, what possessed the filmmakers to attempt to retell a story that’s already been told so well?
What a clunker.
Ballerina
Dir: Len Wiseman
Eve (Ana de Armas) is a little girl raised by her father in a hidden palace somewhere in Eastern Europe. She is kept hidden from the rest of the world for her own safety. Until a man named The Chancellor (Garbiel Byrne) tracks her down, kills her father and takes her away. All she has left to remember her dad by is a music box snow globe with a dancing ballerina inside. She is immediately enrolled in a school run by The Director (Anjelica Huston), a cruel teacher in the tradition of the Ruska Roma who trains her girls to endure the pain of classical ballet dancing. They also learn how to kill their adversaries using fists, kicks, knives or any other dangerous object. Upon graduation, only those with true bloodlust are farmed out across the globe as killers to hire. And Eve is at the top of her class. She is highly successful as an assassin, but has another hidden motive: vengeance for the death of her father and sister.
Her relentless search leads her to a picturesque alpine village 
filled with jolly bakers and wood carvers. The women have blond braids and rosy cheeks while the men happily quaff steins of pilsener. Unfortunately, everyone in the village, I mean everyone, is a trained killer. And they happen to belong to a criminal outfit in an uneasy truce with the clan works for. Can she find her father’s killer and escape the village alive?
Ballerina is an action/thriller about a young, female assassin out for revenge. Its a spin-off of the John Wick franchise with many of the same recurring characters, including cameos by Keanu Reeves as John Wick himself. The plot is simple, and the script has relatively few lines. What it does have is fighting and lots of it, which it does really well, whether hand to hand or using enormous lethal weapons. The fight choreography is skillful and creative — it’s ballet. And I liked Ana de Armas as the protagonist… enough that if there were another Ballerina movie, I’d watch that one too. This is good action feature.
Ballerina and The Ritual both open this weekend in Toronto and The Phoenecian Scheme expands 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.com.
More drive-in movies. Films reviewed: Shadow Force, Rust, Clown in a Cornfield
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
It’s finally getting warm outside and you’re probably unpacking your shorts and slides. Don’t you want to watch a movie outdoors? Well, this week, I’m looking at three drive-in type movies: a western, a slasher and an action movie. There’s a pair of super-spy-assassins… and their cute little son; a notorious outlaw… and his little grandson; and a small-town doctor whose rebellious daughter is being chased by a killer clown!
Shadow Force
Co-Wri/Dir: Joe Carnahan
It’s present day in the USA. Isaac (Omar Sy) is a defacto single Dad (his wife has disappeared) taking care of his young son, Ky (Jahleel Kamara). He likes driving around in his car with his son and singing along to middle-of-the-road R&B classics He keeps a low profile and avoids all cameras. He’s also hearing impaired, his eardrums shattered in an explosion. But when a random gang of robbers attacks a bank he’s in and threaten his son’s life, his years of training kick into action. He manages to disarm or kill all his attackers in just a few seconds. The footage goes viral and his identity is blown. You see, Isaac was once a member of an elite international paramilitary troupe known as Shadow Force. Their job? To keep G7 nations safe by assassinating anybody their boss wants them to. And who is this boss?Jack Cinder (Mark Strong) a ruthless killer. But when Isaac and another Shadow Force agent Kyrah (Kerry Washington) started dating and fell in love they both went AWOL. Fraternization is strictly verboten (except between Cinder and female members). And no one ever leaves the shadow force. The remaining members have orders to eliminate them both, and the one who kills them first gets a huge reward. But now Kyra and Isaac are back together and their son is in danger. With the help of their longtime CIA agents Auntie and Unc (Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Method Man) maybe they can rescue him, But with the Shadow Force closing in, what are their chances of survival?
Shadow Force is an extremely light and vapid action/thriller
with a bit of humour. The premise — a secret kill team run by the G7 — is totally ridiculous. What’s different about this one? It’s a husband-and-wife kill-team taking care of an innocent kid as they try to live a normal life. Also, they’re both Black, quite unusual in action movies. So there are lots of parenting jokes, and mundane husband/wife patter. The flight scenes are blurry or too close up, not great. The shooting scenes are only a bit better while some of the chases — like in a motorboat — are not that bad. I wanted to see this one because I like French star Omar Sy, and he was not disappointing. Nor was the rest of the cast; Washington, Strong, Randolph, and Method Man are all good (though much better actors than the crap material they’re forced to work with.)
Shadow Force is a passable action film and instantly forgettable.
Rust
Co-Wri/Dir: Joel Souza
It’s the 1880s in the old west. Lucas Hollister (Patrick Scott McDermott) is an orphan who lives with his little brother Jacob in the family homestead. Their Ma died of the fever and their Pa shot himself afterwards. Now it’s Lucas who provides for and protect Jacob — cook his food, buy the supplies and protect him from any dangers. But when an errant shot aimed at a wolf, accidentally killed a townsman, Lucas is arrested, tried and, though still a young boy, os sentenced to death by hanging. A local matriarch, Evelyn Basset (Frances Fisher) a great aunt, pleads for his release, but to no avail. But that night, an outlaw breaks into the prison, and after a shootout escapes on horseback with Jacob. The man is a gruff, grizzled and mean old cuss. But Harland Rust (Alec Baldwin) is also Lucas’s grandpa. He promises to find his brother, and take Lucas somewhere the law can’t reach him. The boy doesn’t like him but doesn’t want to die. So they start on a long journey southbound from Montana. But what they don’t realize is they’re being pursued by a large number of people. Wood Helm (Josh Hopkins) is a rare, honest lawman, who wants to bring them both back alive so he can hang ‘em. He’s got a posse to back him up. Then there’s ‘Preacher’ Lang a notorious, black-hat bounty hunter (Travis Fimmel), who had his start murdering escaped slaves for cash. Rust and Lucas are way ahead, but their pursuers are catching up. Will Rust fulfil his promise? Will Lucas ever get to know 
his newfound grandpa? Or will they both be caught and killed by the bounty hunters?
Rust is a classic, bittersweet western about an outlaw and his grandson being tracked by bounty hunters. It has everything you expect — an outlaw and a sheriff, shootouts, showdowns… the usual. The acting is OK and there’s a credible narrative, but much of the movie is a muddled mess, with lots of people shouting and shooting but you’re never really sure why and at whom. In case you haven’t heard, Rust is that notorious western where the cinematographer was accidentally shot and killed on set by Alec Baldwin due to a firearms mixup… The director was wounded, too. Three years later, they managed to reshoot missing scenes, recast some roles and cobble it all together. This is the result, released as a tribute to Halyna Hutchins, the woman who Baldwin killed, including some of the many incredible scenes she shot — all on film — against magnificent western skies. The lighting alone is exceptional.
Rust is not a great movie, but if you are curious like I was, now might be your only chance to see it on the big screen.
Clown in a Cornfield
Dir: Eli Craig
It’s Kettle Falls, a small town in corn country, middle-America. Quinn (Katie Douglas) is a city girl from Philly, who has just arrived with her dad (Aaron Abrams), the town’s new MD. He had a nervous breakdown when Quinn’s mom (his wife) died, so they’re relocating to somewhere less stressful. It may be more relaxing for him, but it sure isn’t for Quinn. Their house smells like dead bodies, and, most frightening of all, they’re in a no-signal zone! Luckily, their gigantic neighbour Rust (Vincent Muller) who likes huntin’ and fishin’ offers to walk her to school.
But things just get worse. She falls in a with the bad kids — who happen to throw the best parties — and is immediately given detention. Her new friends are Janet the snob, Ronnie the regular girl, Tucker the class clown, and Matt the dumb jock. And their undeclared leader, Cole (Carson MacCormac). He’s a self-described son of an oligarch; his family founded this one-horse town and own the only business — a corn syrup factory represented by the logo of a clown. But, Cole, like his friends, just want it tear it all down, and get out of this place. So Tucker and Matt have been creating short videos portraying Frendo as a evil serial killer, acting out gory scenes that go viral on the socials. But things take a drastic turn for the worse when the actual Frendo embarks on a murderous 
rampage… and the bad kids — including Quinn — are on his hit list. Is Frendo a ghost or is he a person? Why is he killing the teens? And who — if anyone — will survive?
Clown in a Cornfield is a classic slasher/horror pic about a killer in a small town. It’s bloody, scary and funny. The killer-clown — who appears after anyone uses a Frendo jack-in-the-box — uses a butcher’s hook, a bow an arrows and a chainsaw to decapitate and disembowel his various victims. It follows many of the typical slasher plot turns but with enough new twists to make it very enjoyable. I especially liked the generation-gap gags, like where the teens are trapped in a house but don’t know how to use a dial phone. The entire movie was filmed in Winnipeg with an all-Canadian cast… which makes me wonder: is Frendo an evil-twin version of the Nutty Club’s Can-D-Man clown?
I pre-judged this movie by its title as something derivative and stupid, but you know what? Clown in a Cornfield is a whole bunch of fun.
Shadow Force, Rust, and Clown in a Cornfield all open this weekend; check your local listings.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website culturalmining.com.
Daniel Garber talks with Jason Buxton about Sharp Corner
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Josh McCall is a mild-mannered, middle-aged man who works at a middle management job in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He loves golf, fine wine and his family. He lives with his wife Rachel, a marriage counsellor, and their young son Max. They’re excited about moving into their new home on a peaceful country road far from the bright city lights. But from their first night, they discover their dream home is actually a nightmare. It’s parked between two hairpin turns on a badly lit road, where cars are constantly crashing. Their front lawn is a danger zone and the death toll of drivers keeps rising. Max is terrified, Rachel says they must move out, but Josh discovers his new mission — to save as many of the inevitable crash victims he can. And his new obsession 
overrides his career, his marriage and even his young son. The question is, how far will he go to rescue dying motorists on that sharp corner?
Sharp Corner is a new psychological drama about a man’s altruistic obsession taken to a horrifying level. It’s funny, shocking and more than a bit creepy. The film premiered at TIFF last year and stars Ben Foster and Cobie Smulders as the McCalls. Sharp Corner is co-written and directed by Halifax-based, award-winning filmmaker Jason Buxton. His first film, Blackbird (Review), opened at TIFF in 2012, and was on my “best of” list that year. Blackbird went on to win the Canadian Screen Award for Best First Feature, and Sharp Corner is also gathering awards and high ratings.
I spoke with Jason Buxton in Toronto via Zoom.
Sharp Corner opens across Canada on May 9, 2025.
All Canadian. Films reviewed: Seven Veils, Night of the Zoopocalypse, Shepherds
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Most of the movies we see come out of Hollywood, but now that the US government has declared (economic) war, I figure why not look at more Canadian movies, instead.
So for this week, I’m talking about three new Canadian movies all opening this weekend. There’s a Montreal PR exec who wants to become a shepherd, a wolf in a theme park who doesn’t want to become a zombie, and an opera director in Toronto who says the show must go on.
Seven Veils
Wri/Dir: Atom Egoyan
It’s winter in Toronto. Jeanine (Amanda Seyfried) has flown in for a new project: she has been selected (by the late director) to remount his production of the opera Salome. She knows this version inside and out, as she was his assistant on it while still a student. But by taking on this role, she has opened a pandora’s box of hidden secrets: The male lead, Johann (Michael Kupfer-Radecky), is notorious for his roving hands. Ambur (Ambur Braid) sings the part of Salome but her past misgivings with Johann threaten to erupt. Then there are the understudies. Johann’s second knew Jeanine from their student days, and follows her with puppy dog eyes and long-held hurt. Rachel, Ambur’s understudy, is dating the same woman Ambur used to be with, before she was a superstar.
Jeanine is requested to add personal changes to the remount, but whenever she tries something outrageous, the management swoops in to stop her. And then there’s her home life: She left their young daughter with her husband, but her mother whispers her pretty and young caregiver is sleeping with Jeanine’s husband.All of these pressure-points seem ready to burst at any time. Can Jeanine survive this trouble-filled production? Or is it headed for disaster?
Seven Veils is a dramatic, behind-the scenes look of the remounting of an opera. It has some good acting and lovely cinematography, but it’s laden down by a messy, overly-complicated plot. It feels like a full season of a reality show condensed into 1 hour and 50 minutes. Atom Egoyan filmed this movie even as he was directing a live performance off the same opera with the same singers on the same set. Is this 
creative brilliance, or just double-dipping? Egoyan has long been known as a pioneer in incorporating video footage within his films and stage productions. But he went whole hog with this one, including more mixed media than you can shake a stick at: Zoom calls, a snarky podcast recording, a making-of doc filmed on the prop director’s cel phone, and even creepy childhood home videos by Jeanine’s dad. Some of these fall flat — Jeanine’s voiceover narration is embarrassingly clunky. Others examples are brilliant: like a giant projection of Johann’s mouth on a scrim on stage objecting haughtily with any directions Jeanine tries to give him. The film also covers myriad diverse topics, including intersectionality, sexual harassment, women fighting the patriarchy, a severed head, backstabbing, entrapment and revenge.
Way too much stuff to fit in one film, but with enough good parts to keep it going.
Night of the Zoopocalypse
Co-Dir: Ricardo Curtis, Rodrigo Perez-Castro
Gracie is a young wolf who likes hunting on his own. He ignores his Alpha grandma’s warnings to always stay with the pack. After all, what does it matter; they live in a theme park (the Colepepper Zoo) with no predators! But Gracie has spoken too soon. That night, a radioactive meteor crashes through the sky and lands smack-dab into their collective home. Anyone who touches the glowing rock is instantly transformed into a hideous version of their former self with glowing eyes and zombie-like behaviour. The infection spreads across the zoo, with ever more animals being zombified. Luckily Gracie finds safety in the zoo hospital, along with Ash the ostrich, Xavier the lemur, Felix, a self-centred proboscis monkey, Frida a capybara, and a dangerous-looking mountain lion called Dan. If they work together maybe they can fend off this otherworldly ailment; or they could split up and see who can make it out of the park. 
Can these creatures find a common aim? Or will they all be zombified before dawn? And what will happen to the outside world once the park’s gates reopen?
Night of the Zoopocalypse is a cute, animated kids movie about animals infected by an alien disease, featuring the voices of David Harbour, Scott Thompson, and Paul Sun-
Hyung Lee. The unoriginal dialogue seems aimed at very young children, not adults, but perhaps zombies are too scary for the youngest ones. But I do like a lot of things in Zoopocalypse, from the obnoxious theme songs, to the eerie Kenny Scharf-like cut-out designs of grotesquely smiling figures. And who couldn’t like Poot, the baby pygmy hippo! If your kids don’t scare easily, I think they’ll like Night of the Zoopocalypse.
Shepherds (Bergers)
Co-Wri/Dir: Sophie Deraspe (Interview: Antigone)
Mathyas (Félix-Antoine Duval) is a young man who works as a copywriter at a Montreal PR firm. He’s creative, sensitive and ambitious. So what is he doing sipping yellow Pastis in a small town cafe in Provence? To change his life from pointless and unfulfilling to a simpler one, entirely off the grid. He’s in Provence because he wants to become a shepherd. You heard me: someone who herds sheep. And he wants to write a book about his experiences afterwards. He has already bought a requisite black hat and leather satchel, and he’s been boning up on all the books on how to herd sheep. But he’s having trouble finding a sheep breeder willing to take him on. His try is a total wash-out: he’s never stood in a flock of sheep in his life.
So he pays a visit to the local government office, in hopes of getting a work visa. No such luck, but he does meet the cute bureaucrat behind the counter. Elise (Solène Rigot) is smart, pretty and bored with her job, too. She’s impressed by Mathyas’ convictions, but is sorry to tell him you can’t apply from within the country. But he keeps up his correspondence 
with her via handwritten snail mail, and her simple responses keep him sane.
He eventually finds under-the-counter work as an apprentice shepherd for a retired, childless couple looking for someone to take over. But he finds the environment hostile and violent, full of cruelty and insanity… nothing like what he was looking for. So when Elise shows up suddenly, he decides to quit. Surprisingly, the two of them are hired almost immediately as a team, to work through the summer tending sheep in a stone cottage way up in the Alps. Can two non-shepherds learn the lay of the land and how to take care of hundreds of pregnant sheep? And will their friendship develop into something more?
Shepherds is a wonderful movie about going back to the land. The story is based on the novel D’où viens tu, berger? by the real Mathyas Lefebure who actually did leave Quebec to seek his fortune as a shepherd in Provence. I’ve always liked Sophie Deraspe’s brilliant films. And while Shepherds is very different from her past work, it’s just as good. Félix-Antoine Duval is amazing as Mathyas with just the right blend of vulnerability and sincerity, like a gawky teenager trapped in an adult’s body. French actress Solène Rigot conveys such warmth she’s totally loveable.
Shepherds is a gorgeous movie with unforgettable images, like rivers of sheep pouring across a valley and through alpine city streets. Absolutely breathtaking. One warning: After watching Bergers, you might consider becoming a shepherd, too.
Night of the Zoopocalypse, Shepherds, and Seven Veils 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.
Broken. Films reviewed: Parthenope, The Unbreakable Boy, The Monkey
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
This week, I’m looking at three new movies: there’s a boy with breakable bones, a toy monkey who could break your bones, and a woman whose beauty breaks every man’s heart.
Parthenope
Wri/Dir: Paolo Sorrentino (Reviews: Youth, Hand of God, The Great Beauty)
It’s Naples, 1950 and a woman gives birth in the waters of the Tyrrhenian Sea. The baby is called Parthenope, named for both the city and the Greek myth. She grows up to be a young woman of epic beauty and legendary intellect (Celeste Dalla Porta). Men who try to seduce her, find their own words silenced by her pithy comebacks. Her days are filed with a search for beauty, happiness and meaning. She absorbs everything she reads, from John Cheever to Claude Levi-Strauss. Her closest friends are her brother Sandrino (Dario Aita) and Raimondo (Daniele Rienzo) the son of a maid. Together they form sort of a quasi menage a trois.
Parthenope aces her orals and is accepted into the prestigious anthropology department at the local university. From there she follows three very different paths: Academia — a professor takes her under his wing; Love, deciding which of her countless suitors should she consent to sleep with; and the 
city of Naples, itself. Along the way she encounters a corrupt and carnal bishop, a depressed superstar diva, a millionaire with a private helicopter, and many others. But will any of these people provide her with the answers she seeks?
Parthenope is a gorgeous and sumptuous look at post-war Naples as seen through the eyes of a beautiful woman as she lives her life. Celeste Dalla Porta is appealing to watch, but she is opaque and impenetrable: she merely observes without ever doing anything. Paolo Sorrentino is known for his his beautiful images, especially women as objects of desire. But he doesn’t seem to know what to do with a woman as his subject. Instead we get a hollow simulacrum of a main character, who drifts aimlessly but happily through her life as she encounters quirky strangers. I love the photography, the scenery, the people and the music — a collection of bright and shiny colours — but watching Parthenope leaves you feeling like you just flipped the glossy pages of a fashion magazine: superficially attractive but pointless.
The Unbreakable Boy
Co-Wri/Dir: Jon Gunn (Reviews: Ordinary Angels, I Still Believe, American Underdog, Jesus Revolution)
Scott (Zachary Levi) is a young salesman with big ambitions: he plans to move to Manhattan someday and make it big. But in the meantime, he likes golf, fine wine and travelling. He spends most of his time with his best friend Joe, a burley bearded man who is always giving him advice (Drew Powell). One day he meets a pretty and charming woman named Teresa (Meghann Fahy). Sparks fly, and nine months later, she gives birth to Austin (Jacob Laval). They’re not married but decide to bring him up together. But there’s a catch: he requires special care. Like his mom, Austin has Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI), a genetic condition that makes your bones very brittle. He suffers his first fracture in the birth canal, with many more breakages to follow. Eventually he is joined by a younger brother, Logan, who doesn’t share his breakability.
13 years later, Austin — aka the Aus-man — is now a happy school kid with a vivid imagination. He’s also on the autistic spectrum, but contrary to stereotypes, he’s outgoing, talkative and attends normal classes. He talks constantly, just like his dad. (I forgot to mention: Scott’s best friend Joe is imaginary) But all is not well. The family is deeply in debt. Austin is bullied at school. And Scott is drinking way too much, especially since he lost his job. Can the family pull itself back together? Or are they headed for ruin?
The Unbreakable Boy is a very cute, true story about an ordinary family working together to overcome their problems. As narrated by Jacob Laval as the Aus Man, it’s simple, touching and funny. I like the way it demystifies kids with
medical conditions and autism. And unlike most medical dramas, it’s not a weeper, though perhaps overly earnest. One warning: it is a faith-based movie, generally a red flag for cringe. Not my thing. Thankfully this one avoids most of the problems of that genre; preachiness and finger wagging and in-your-face prayers. If you’re in the mood for a light, informative, feel-good Christian movie that won’t make you squirm, check this one out.
The Monkey
Wri/Dir: Osgood Perkins (Reviews: Longlegs, Gretel and Hansel)
Hal and Bill (Christian Convery) are identical twins, but they couldn’t be more different. Bill, who was born a few minutes earlier, is self confident, athletic and aggressive. Hal is withdrawn and wears glasses as he tries to keep out of Bill’s way. But his brother is a bully, humiliating and hurting Hal on a daily basis, using a posse of popular girls as his private army. The two live with their single Mom (Tatiana Maslany) ever since their Dad, an airline pilot, walked away one day and never came back. When the boys go through the many souvenirs he brought home from around the world, they uncover something very unusual. It’s a mechanical automaton that’s an organ-grinder monkey. You wind him up and he plays a drum to the sound of carnival music. A harmless toy, right? Not exactly. When the drumstick comes down something terrible happens. Like when their babysitter is accidentally decapitated at a Benihana restaurant. But when it kills their beloved mother, the boys decided to hide the monkey somewhere that it can do no more harm. They are adopted by their aunt and uncle, a pair of swingers in small-town Maine. But they too are eventually killed in gruesome accidents. Was the money to blame?
Flash-forward 25 years. Hal (Theo James) still lives in Maine close to his teenaged son Petey (Colin O’Brien). He visits him only once a year, to lesson the chances of the cursed monkey in harming him. But then two cataclysmic events threaten Hal’s normal 
life. First, Petey’s stepfather Ted (Elijah Wood) announces his plans to adopt him, making this the last time Hal will see him. Second, a series of terrible events are killing countless people in and around the town he grew up in. Can Hal find that damned Monkey and stop it from killing someone else? And can he simultaneously spend his last days with his son while keeping him out of danger?
The Monkey is a shocking and disgustingly hilarious movie about an evil toy and the people it affects. It’s done in a retro style, like Mad Magazine meets the Twilight Zone. It’s directed by Oz Perkins, known for his stylized movies that feel like fairytales (Gretel and Hansel) or nightmares (Longlegs). With this one, based on a short story by Stephen King, he seems to have found a happy medium. Simultaneously comical and grotesque, you watch the movie waiting with baited breath for the next disaster to happen. Theo James is perfect as the hapless Hal, but so is every other character in this weird movie, each given their own minute of ghastly glory: a pawn shop owner, a girl gang, a real estate agent, a pot dealer, a televangelist… it’s a limitless, mind-blowing romp. The Monkey is grotesque comedy/horror at its peak.
I love this movie.
Parthenope, The Unbreakable Boy, and The Monkey 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.
Freedom or death? Films reviewed: The Seed of the Sacred Fig, The Room Next Door PLUS Canada’s Top Ten!
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Mark your calendars, boys and girls, because the annual Canada’s Top Ten film series starts in just a few weeks. If you’re into highly original movies, you really gotta check this out. I’ve already reviewed many of them, or interviewed them already, but there’s lots left to discover. Things like David 
Cronenberg’s The Shrouds, a truly bizarre mystery about an entrepreneur who invents burial shrouds that allow you to see in real time the decaying buried body of your loved one. It stars Vincent Cassell, Diane Kruger and Guy Pearce. Or Kazik Radwanski (Interview: 2013) & Samantha Chater’s 
brilliant Matt & Mara, with an almost totally improvised script follows old friends (Matt Johnson, Deragh Campbell) who suddenly meet each other again, opening a real can of worms. There are also short films at this festival — I can’t wait to see NFB animator Torill Kove’s latest short Maybe Elephants; her films are just enchanting. And I’m 
curious what Canadian actor Connor Jessup is up to now with his short film Julian and the Wind. He starred in the movies Blackbird (2013) Closet Monster (2016) and the Netflix series Locke and Key (2021) but I have never seen his own work. These are just a few of the great movies in Canada’s Top Ten and they’re all showing at the TIFF Lightbox in Toronto.
But this week, I’m looking at two new movies, one from Iran (via Germany), and another one from Spain (via the US). There are three female activists looking for freedom in Tehran; and two female writers looking for peace in New York.
The Seed of the Sacred Fig
Co-Wri/Dir: Mohammad Rasoulof
Najmeh (Soheila Golestani) and Iman (Missagh Zareh) are a happily married couple in Tehran. They live out their two daughters, Rezvahn (Mahsa Rostami) and Sana (Setareh Maleki). The kids fight a lot, but the family is still close and trusting; no secrets here. But everything changes once their Dad — a government bureaucrat — gets a promotion. He is issued a gun for protection, due to the nature of his new position. You see, he is now sort of a judge within the Islamic Revolutionary Court. This means convicting and sentencing anyone accused of disobeying religious or political laws, ranging from women who expose their uncovered hair, to anyone caught insulting the Supreme Leader or the government itself. And especially anyone caught at a pro-democracy demonstration.
But when Rezvahn’s best friend Sadaf gets beaten up at a demo, and they hide her in the apartment they have to keep it from her Dad. Is he responsible for this crackdown? And when his gun disappears, Iman suspects everyone. Has his family turned on him? A wall of distrust divides the family, threatening its very existence. Can they reconcile or is it too late?
The Seed of the Sacred Fig is a powerful and harrowing drama about distrust and betrayal, within a family torn apart by the 
influence of an authoritarian government on all of their lives. It was shot entirely in Iran, on the sly, by noted director Mohammad Rasoulof who smuggled it out of the country. (It was edited in Germany.) He fled for obvious reasons: he was sentenced to 8 years in prison, and corporal punishment — that’s whipping — for his film work.
Two thirds of it was shot within a claustrophobic apartment in Tehran, two years ago, right when a women-led, pro-democracy movement was in full swing. The final third was shot outdoors in a spectacularly eerie lunar landscape, shifting in tone from tense psychological drama to a genuine action/thriller. This movie is neither short nor easy to watch, but it is amazing.
I recommend this one.
The Room Next Door
Co-Wri/Dir: Pedro Almodovar
Ingrid (Julianne Moore) is a successful novelist who lives in New York. At a book signing — her latest one is about her fear of dying — an old acquaintance approaches her. She tells Ingrid that Martha (Tilda Swinton), her old friend from University days, is dying of cancer. Can’t she visit her in hospital? Ingrid hasn’t seen her in decades, though they had been quite close. They even once had a boyfriend in common, Damian (John Turturro). And while Ingrid stayed close to home, Martha (Tilda Swinton) became a renowned war reporter for the NY Times. Her travels took her around the world covering frontline battles in West Africa and the Middle East. They are both happy to see each other again, and Ingrid loves keeping Martha company as she recounts some of her past adventures.
That is until Martha makes a big request. Her death is inevitable, but she hopes Ingrid will stay with her in the room next door (hence the title) so someone will be around when the inevitable happens. (Ingrid is estranged from her only 
daughter). And though deathly afraid of death, Ingrid agrees. They move to a gorgeous isolated wood-and-glass country home. But what will happen next?
The Room Next Door is a touhing, gentle story about two old friends reunited under bittersweet circumstances. Though clearly an Almodovar movie it differs in two ways. This is his first English language feature, and the dialogue seems stilted and clumsy, at least at the very beginning, but interestingly, I stopped noticing it after the first few minutes. Second, the passionate melodrama, the sex, the outrageous humour I expect to see in any Almodovar movie aren’t there. Any conflicts, secrets, betrayals or revelations are few and far 
between. Instead it is subtle, soft, and gentle. And yet it still clearly is Almodovar’s work. The set design, colour palette, camerawork, the structure and the music are instantly recognizable. I love the gorgeous, two-coloured wooden lounge chairs by the swimming pool, the clothes they wear, the soundtrack. Almodovar loves long, intricately told flashbacks, and stories within stories like The Arabian Nights. It satisfies your brain and your heart. And Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore are just right in their roles.
So in the end, though The Room Next Door was not the Almodovar film I expected to see, it was still satisfying to watch.
The Room Next Door and The Seed of the Sacred Fig are both opening this weekend in Toronto; check your local listings.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website culturalmining.com.
The thrill of uncertainty. Films reviewed: Harbin, Babygirl, The Brutalist
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
First let me wish you all a Happy New Year! With a new year comes renewal, hope… and potential dread. So this week, I’m looking at three new movies where people face potentially dreadful situations, partly of their own making. There’s an abused architect, a compromised CEO, and a sympathetic assassin.
Harbin
Co-Wri/Dir: Min-ho Woo
It’s 1909 in Korea. After defeating a European empire in the Russo-Japanese war, Japan is flush with imperial ambition. They want more colonies on the mainland and are looking hungrily at Korea, Manchuria, Mongolia, and China. But some independence-minded Koreans are regrouping to fight Japan. Their leader, Ahn Jung-geun (Hyun Bin), managed to defeat a Japanese battalion in a bloody battle. But when, following international laws, Anh released the disarmed POWs, their leader Mori (Park Hoon) shot a cannon at their base killing everyone except Anh. Now the survivors are meeting in Vladivostok to decide what to do next. This includes Kim (Jo Woo-jin) his closest ally, and Woo, (Park Jeong-min) his biggest rival. And some of them think Anh is a Japanese mole. To atone for his mistakes and to do something big, he vows to assassinate Ito
Hirobumi (Lilly Franky: Shoplifters, Like Father, Like Son) one of the top statesmen of Imperial Japan who is calling for the annexation of Korea.
To do this killing Anh must make his way to Harbin, a rail hub city right on the border of Russia and northeast China where Ito plans to give a public speech. But If he travels by train he will be caught. He must turn to a former comrade turned bandit, Ms Gong (Jeon Yeo-been) to try to secure explosives. But there is a traitor in their midsts, telling the Japanese all their plans. Can they make it to Harbin undetected, find the rat, fool their enemies, and carry out the assassination? Or are they fated to be erased from their country’s history?
Harbin is a vivid and gripping retelling of a famous historical event. It’s a classic cloak & dagger, full of action, thrills, drama, and deception. It’s done in the traditional style, with the name of each character appearing on the screen to help 
you keep track of which moustachioed fighter is which. But easier said than done, when everyone pulls down the brims of their fedoras to cover their faces. The locations are amazing: Anh crawling across the frozen waters of the Tumen River, horse caravans on the sands of Mongolia, ancient Russian train stations… very impressive! The sets and costumes are great too, with a drunken warlord festooned in animal furs or the ceiling lamps aboard a Russian train, swinging from side to side. If you have any interest in action-thrillers, spy stories or even NE Asian history, Harbin is the film for you.
Babygirl
Co-Wri/Dir: Halina Reijn
Romy (Nicole Kidman) is the CEO of a large, successful corporation that makes automated parcel-sorting equipment — similar to what Amazon has in their warehouses. She lives with her husband Jason a play director (Antonio Banderas) and their two teenage daughters, Isabel and Nora. Her life is almost perfect, but is missing a certain…. je ne said quoi. She is not sexually satisfied. One day she is startled by a vicious dog running rampant outside her office tower. She witnesses a random young man calm the dog down and return it to its owner. Later, inside her office, she is introduced to her latest intern; it’s the same guy she saw outside. Samuel (Harris Dickinson) has an unusually forthright manner, almost rude and overbearing for someone so young. He makes her feel unhinged and yet… intrigued. Who is this twerp, and why is he like that? She finds him overconfident and almost ridiculous. And yet… eventually, to her great surprise, they kiss and sparks fly.
Soon she is secretly meeting him in seedy hotel rooms for furtive sex. But he wants more — total domination over her in an S&M relationship. Romy loves her husband and kids has never done anything like this before. Even though he takes the dominant role, in real life she holds all the cards: she’s older, richer and his boss. She has more to lose, though, and it’s that threat that excites her. And she can’t got enough of him. What will happen if word gets out? Has she bit off more than she can chew?
Babygirl is an erotic drama about an older woman’s fling with
a much younger man for the thrill of it all. It’s both highly sexualized and yet uncomfortable to watch in parts. It’s entirely told from Nicole Kidman’s (Before I go to Sleep, Genius, The Beguiled, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, Boy Erased, The Upside, Destroyer, The Goldfinch, Bombshell, The Northman) Romy’s point of view; we share her agony, her ecstasy, her cringing embarrassment (he treats her like a domesticated pet). As Samuel, Dickinson is opaque, functioning mainly as her erotic foil. He’s usually an excellent actor (Beach Rats, Triangle of Sadness, Scrapper, The Iron Claw) but in this movie he takes second all the way. Some people love this movie, others despise it. I’m somewhere in between. The plot is just a slight twist to the hoary old cliche of the powerful executive submitting to a dominatrix. I don’t need to watch a grown woman lick milk from a saucer. But other parts are quite exciting and altogether it’s worth it for Nicole Kidman’s performance.
The Brutalist
Co-Wri/Dir: Brady Corbet
It’s post-WWII. László Tóth (Adrian Brody: Splice, Predators, The French Dispatch, Asteroid City) is a holocaust survivor from Hungary who arrives in America as a displaced person. His wife Erzsébet (Felicity Jones) and niece Zsófia are nowhere to be seen. His cousin Attila (Alessandro Nivola) gives him a place to stay in his furniture store and puts him to work designing and building chairs. Things look up when the son of an oligarch offers him a job redesigning his father’s home library. Laszlo takes to it like a fish out of water, building a modernistic room with synchronized wooden panels and shelves beneath an open skylight. But when the industrialist Harrison Lee Van Buren Sr. (Guy Pearce) sees it, he goes ballistic and fires him without pay. Soon after his cousin falsely accuses him of sleeping with his wife Laszlo finds himself unemployed, homeless and addicted to drugs. He gets work doing manual labour at a ship yard with Gordon (Isaach De Bankolé) a man he 
befriended earlier until the industrialist who fired him seeks him out ago. Turns out Laszlo was a Bauhaus architect before the war, and the library was featured in modern architecture. Lee immediately rehires him, this time to build a monumental memorial on a hilltop in honour of his mother. But conflicts still trouble the two men’s relationship. Will Laszlo ever complete his masterpiece? Or will Lee crush him with his oppressive and egoistical nature?
The Brutalist is a moving drama about the American Dream and the class struggle between two men. (The title refers to the Brutalist style of architecture Laszlo favours). It’s a full-fledged four hour epic, compete with an overture, intermission and various story lines within the plot. I’m only giving you a taste of it here, a three-minute review of a four hour movie. It is visually and audibly stunning, both in design and execution, from the score to the crisp camera work, even the surprising credit roll. The acting is superb — I’m referring to Brody, Pierce, Jones and the rest of the large cast. This is a mature film made by a young director and former child actor. I’ve only seen one other movie by him, Vox Luxe, which, while visually interesting, didn’t have much to it. The Brutalist takes a quantum leap beyond that, filling in all the parts left out of his previous work. The movie is exciting, full of both hope and crushing devastation. It’s so well done that I left the theatre assuming it was a biopic, only later realizing it’s entirely fictional.
The Brutalist is a stupendous movie that must be seen to be appreciated.
The Brutalist and Babygirl are now playing in Toronto, with Harbin opening this weekend; check your local listings.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website culturalmining.com.
Daniel Garber talks with Joshua Oppenheimer about The End at #TIFF24
Photograph by Jeff Harris.
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
It’s some time in the not so distant future. A tight-knit family live in a mansion furnished with old masters and French impressionist paintings on their wall. Their stay-at-home mom is fastidious with keeping things in order. Dad is a retired powerhouse exec who made a killing in the Indonesian oil industry. And their beloved homeschooled 20-year-old son who is curious about the world and loves playing with his toy train set. This lovely, peaceful household is complemented by their faithful butler, Mom’s best friend, and a doctor who is always on call. But something is wrong here. Why is their skin so pallid, their lighting unnatural, and why don’t they ever go outside? It’s because they’re living in a bunker, hidden deep underground as the planet burns. These people may be the only survivors of the end of the world.
The End is also a new film, a musical drama about the last survivors of climate catastrophe. It’s fascinating and devastating, infused with dry, dark comedy. The End is directed and co-written by award-winning filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer, best known for his shocking documentaries The Act of Killing and the Look of Silence.
I spoke with Joshua Oppenheimer on-site at TIFF.
The End opens theatrically in Toronto on Dec 13, 2024.
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