Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.

Picture this: you’re watching a big-screen movie with your friends, but you’re sitting on the grass, not in a theatre. Huh? The Toronto Outdoor Picture Show (TOPS) lets you watch really great movies for free under the stars in parks across the city, in Fort York, the Corktown Commons, The Christie Pits and Bell Manor Park. Featured movies include Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days, Boots Riley’s Sorry to Bother You, and Stephen Soderbergh’s Out of Sight, to name just three. And there’s the Toronto Palestine Film Fest, showing a free film on August 9th at the Christie Pits — with music, food and items for sale by local artisans followed by an outdoor screening of Alam, The Flag, directed by Firas Khoury.

But this week, I’m looking at three new movies about journeys. We’ve got four old college friends heading to Key West for a wedding, a Trinidadian flying to Toronto in search of his long-gone father; and a retired woman with a teenaged boy in Georgia going to Istanbul in search of a missing girl.

The Fabulous Four

Dir: Jocelyn Moorhouse

Marilyn, Lou, Alice and Kitty, are friends from university, who have stayed close — though separate — for over half a century. Now they are back together again, face to face in quaint Key West, Florida. Marilyn (Bette Midler) a flamboyant homemaker, is getting remarried there;  her long-time husband died just a few months earlier. Her adult daughter is opting out; she thinks it’s too soon. Lou (Susan Sarandon), never married, who has devoted her life instead to her career as an accomplished surgeon. She’s earnest, stubborn and moralistic. When she’s not at the hospital, she’s probably playing with her beloved cats or reading a novel by Hemingway. Kitty (Sheryl Lee Ralph) is a successful cannabis grower and manufacturer, known for her powerful edibles. But she’s had a falling out with her daughter who joined a religious sect that strictly forbids sex, drugs and rock’n’roll. She wants Kitty to move into an old-age home. Finally, Alice (Megan Mullally), a successful recording artist, is an unapologetically free spirit. Like Lou, she never married, but unlike the uptight surgeon, Alice will bed any man she fancies — or as her friends describe her, she’s a postmenopausal wolf in heat. But there is tension among the four. Marilyn and Lou have been feuding since they were roommates in a Manhattan apartment after graduating. Kitty and Alice had to trick Lou into coming — she doesn’t even know about Marilyn’s wedding. 

But things get better after a few days in Key West. The formerly sullen Lou is glowing now after a random encounter with a local bar owner named Ted (Bruce Greenwood). And the four of them have fun on boat rides, paragliding and exploring the restaurants and bars. But tension still remains between Marilyn and Lou, that threaten the wedding itself. What is their fight about? Why has it lasted so long? And can it be resolved?

The Fabulous Four is a comedy about a reunion of four aging women who get together for their last big blast. It’s goofy and a bit campy. The plot is paint-by-numbers with very few surprises. The drunk or stoned jokes are tired, but there are a few funny bits: like Lou taking down a bicycle thief using a sex toy. But it gets bogged down with predictable, age-related gags about incontinence and old people not knowing what TikTok is. So lots of eyerolling and a bit of cringiness, but luckily no  extreme humiliation. And I was never bored — how could I be, with Susan Sarandon and Bette Midler in the same movie? It’s written and directed by women, which might explain why there was more niceness and less outrageousness than your average teen comedy.

Doubles

Wri/Dir: Ian Harnarine 

Dhani (Sanjiv Boodhu) operates a doubles stand with his mother in Trinidad. (Doubles are snacks made of curried chana between two pieces of soft yellow fried bread.) Times are hard, and they really need more money. But their property is all in his dad’s name. He moved to Canada many years ago to advance his career, and never came back. Now he’s a rich man, a successful chef who owns a fancy restaurant and a big house, while his family back home is still struggling to get by. So Dhani buys a ticket and flies to Toronto for a week to work out the financials. But his mother stresses, don’t be like your father — he’s probably living with some other woman. Come right back.

But when he arrives on a cold winter day, he discovers it’s nothing like he expected. He visits his father, Ragbir (Errol Sitahal) at his Caribbean restaurant.  Turns out he’s not the chef, he’s the dishwasher. He lives in a small house without any luxuries. And he meets Anita (Rashaana Cumberbatch) a greeter at the restaurant. She calls him her brother from another mother — a half sister he never knew about. And the biggest surprise: Ragbir is dying of cancer and needs a bone-marrow donor to save his life. Can Dhani accept his father’s unexpected condition? And is he willing to donate the needed bone marrow?

Doubles is a poignant drama about father-son relationships and the immigrant experience. It’s a rough story, harrowing at parts, especially as the father’s health declines (in a great portrayal by Errol Sitahal.) Visually, I found the movie very drab and plain looking — the locations, people, places — in both Trinidad and Toronto. I assume that’s intentional, but it amounts to the opposite of eye candy. At the same time, the characters and story seem sad but real, and it’s the first time I’ve seen Trinidadians explicitly portrayed in a Canadian movie before. And — no spoilers — despite the heavy topics, the film does close on a happier note. And it’s being released theatrically just in time for Caribana!

Crossing

Wri/Dir: Levan Akin

Achi (Lucas Kankava) is a young layabout in a beachside house by the Black Sea in Georgia, not far from the Turkish border. He lives with his abusive brother, his sister-in-law and their crying baby. He wants to move somewhere far away but he’s unemployed and flat broke. Ms. Lia (Mzia Arabuli) is a dignified, retired school teacher from the same village. She’s looking for her beloved niece, Tekla. She hasn’t seen her in many years, but is knocking on doors to find her, and apologize for something she did way back when. His brother claims he’s never heard of her, but Achi jumps at the chance to talk with Ms Lia. He says he remembers Tekla, a transwoman who lived in the place a few doors down. But she moved to Istanbul and gave him her address before she left. He offers to take her there and even do a bit of translating. With some reservations, she agrees, and buys their tickets. When they arrive they are both impressed by the city’s grandeur and beauty. And with the help of two street urchins, he finds the place in the red light district she’s supposed to be working at. But she’s not there, and no one has heard of her. Lia becomes increasingly anxious about locating Tekla, even as friction builds between Lia and Achi as he looks for ways to live in the new city and earn a living.

At the same time all this is going on, Evrim, a young woman (Deniz Dumanli) is following her own path. She works at a social welfare NGO called Pink Life, where she helps needy LGBT and other people in that area. She’s also passing through the byzantine legal process of transitioning her gender. As a transwoman, she is often harassed as a sex worker, but she’s actually an accredited lawyer, one of the few people who know how to confront the police when they overstep their bounds. 

Lia and Achi eventually meet up with Evrim to try to locate Tekla. What will Lia do if she finds her? Will Achi stay in Istanbul if Lia returns to Georgia? And what about Evrim?

Crossing is an amazing adventure and drama following the lives of an unusual group of people navigating their way through the underbelly of of Istanbul’s culture. It’s a coming of age film about kinship and discovery. Great acting, beautiful cinematography and an excellent script. We get to see their encounters with the people they meet — Evrim on the street, Achi in a nightclub, and Lia in the night market. The characters are fascinating and multifaceted, revealing their hidden histories as the story progresses. At the same time, it’s a total tearjerker, with a number of deeply-moving scenes. 

Interestingly, Crossing is only the second Georgian movie I’ve ever seen, and — surprise! — its by the same filmmaker, Swedish-born Georgian director Levan Akin (And Then We Danced).

I strongly recommend this movie.

The Fabulous Four and Doubles open in Toronto this weekend with Crossing playing at the TIFF Lightbox; check your local listings. This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website www.culturalmining.com.