Women at work. Films reviewed: I.S.S., Memory, The Teachers’ Lounge
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
In traditional movies (and even contemporary ones) men are typically portrayed at work with women at home. But that’s not real life for most people. So this week I’m looking at three new movies about women around the world at work. There’s a social worker in New York who meets a man with dementia; a teacher in Germany with a rebellious student; and an astronaut in space interacting with cosmonauts.
I.S.S.
Dir: Gabriela Cowperthwaite (review: Our Friend)
It’s present day in the thermosphere. Kira (Ariana DeBose) is a biologist on board the international space station, manned equally by Russians and Americans, an example of world peace, scientific cooperation and mutual respect. It’s her first day in space, and she feels weird and queazy living without gravity. She does love the cake and vodka, though. The space station has a ramshackle feel to it, with exposed wires and old video screens, but gets used to it pretty soon.
She’s there to conduct experiments on mice, alongside her Russian counterpart Alexey (Pilou Asbæk). Also on board are Gordon (Chris Messina) a moustached astronaut, and Christian (John Gallagher Jr.) a US Air Force officer; and on the other team, the beautiful and glamorous cosmonaut Weronika (Masha Mashkova) and Nicolai (Costa Ronin), representing the Russian military. Gordon and Weronica — who seem especially close — are impressively bilingual, while the rest get by with broken English and Russian.
In honour of her first day in space, Kira’s teammates show her something very few people have ever seen: a view of the peaceful, blue planet without conflict or national boundaries. But everything changes a few days into her voyage, when communication breaks with earth and secret messages arrive to both teams: Since the US and Russia are in conflict on earth, they’re ordered to seize control of the space station…by any means necessary. What is really happening down there? Can international friendship override their planetary orders? Or is the space station doomed?
I.S.S. is a classic, smart, sci-fi space opera with a contemporary twist. The acting is not bad, though I had trouble distinguishing between the two Russian men who have similar builds, faces and brown beards. And at the beginning of this movie, the non-gravity scenes looked very fake. But after a few minutes everything looked normal again. I liked the taut structure of the film, the constant tension, and the shifting if alliances among the six players. The film also takes you out of the ship, into an unplanned and untethered journey in space. There’s even a guest appearance by the famed Canadarm, but this one was clunky and concrete and a little bit dangerous. With geopolitics as fragile as they are these days, this film’s themes seem especially appropriate. While there is some violence, ISS kept me interested the whole time.
Memory
Wri/Dir: Michel Franco
(review: New Order)
Sylvia (Jessica Chastain) is a social worker in New York at a home for adults with mental disabilities. Sylvia goes to AA meetings regularly; she’s stayed totally dry since the year before her 13-year-old daughter Anna (Brooke Timber) was born. They occasionally spends time with Sylvia’s sister Olivia’s family (Merritt Wever), but she’s very protective; she doesn’t want Anna to start drinking, smoking or taking drugs with her cousins. One evening, heading home after a high school reunion, she notices a man looking at her. He follows her home from a distance and spends the night outside her door in the pouring rain. Who is he and what is their connection? His name is Saul (Peter Sarsgaard) and — according to the card he wears around his neck — his emergency contact is his brother Isaac (Josh Charles).
Sylvia painfully remembers Saul as part of a group of older boys who sexual abused her when she was still in Junior High. It was one of a number of incidents that drove her to the alcoholism and depression she still carries with her. She agrees to meet him in the park so she can make him answer for his crimes. But to her chagrin she learns he has severe memory loss caused by early-onset dementia. She also 
discovers — through a third party — that he could’t have attacked her; he hadn’t even moved to that area yet when the incidents she remembers took place.
Later, Isaac hires her as a part-time caregiver — he says Saul never stops talking about her. She’s just supposed to keep him company in his home and make sure he doesn’t wander away. This puts them in a strange situation. He clearly likes her… but does she have feelings for him? And what will happen if their relationship changes from caregiver/patient to lovers?
Memory is a terrific drama about two troubled adults learning to understand each other despite their own deficits. It’s filled with shocking plot turns and secret revelations that totally change your perception as it goes. But through it all, the heart and warmth of the main characters always comes through. I wanted to see this because it’s by the fantastic Mexican filmmaker Michel Franco (the stunning New Order in 2020), but this one is totally different. While it also deals with issues of class, crime and family, it is as thoughtful and complex as New Order is hair-raising and revolting. Memory comes through as an unexpectedly powerful film while retaining a lightly playful and always unpredictable core.
Really interesting movie.
The Teachers Lounge
Co-Wri/Dir: Ilker Çatak
A public school in present-day Germany. Frau Nowak (Leonie Benesch) is a new, Grade 4 teacher, and her kids just love her. She has them instantly clapping twice when noise gets out of hand, and chanting answers to her when she poses daily questions. She does trust games, physical exercises and is always positive, but doesn’t let cheaters get away with it. She also encourages the kids to be creative in problem solving, especially, Oskar (Leonard Stettnisch), clearly the smartest kid in the class.
Between classes, she rests in the teachers’ lounge. But there’s trouble brewing. Someone is stealing cash from other kids’ wallets, and her students are forced — not by Frau Nowak — to point out potential suspects, who are pulled out of class by the admin. This leads to a feeling of distrust and tension. She thinks the problem isn’t with the kids, it’s with grownups — she sees teachers pilfering money from the coffee fund piggy bank. So one day she deliberately leaves her wallet in her jacket and steps out with her laptop set up to tape everything while she’s gone.
Sure enough, she notices some of her money is missing, and an arm (though no face) in a distinctive blouse is recorded reaching into her pocket. She privately confronts a woman wearing the same blouse that day and demands her money back. The woman Frau Kuhn (Eva Löbau) vehemently denies it. She’s a longtime staff who manages the school office, while Frau Nowak is a newcomer. The case goes to the principal’s office and Frau Kuhn is put on leave. The problem is, Oskar — the top student — is Frau Kuhn’s son. And he demands Frau Nowak publicly apologize for lying about her mom — or she’ll
regret it. The news goes viral among the students, staff and even the parents, till it spirals out of control. Can this problem ever be resolved? Who, if anyone needs to apologize? And what will happen if they don’t?
The Teachers’ Lounge is a fantastic drama that explores school life from a dozen angles. While the story is told from Frau Nowak’s point of view, it brings in tons of distinct characters, from the kids in her class, to the journalists at the school paper, to the complaining parents, the gossipy teachers, the bullies, the teachers pets, and the ordinary students just trying to fit in. Leonie Benesch is amazing as Frau Nowak, as she struggles to maintain control while doing the right thing as she sees it, even as she sees her students’ trust crumbling around here. This is a realy great movie, deep, realistic, moving and really well-acted. It’s Germany’s entry as best foreign language film at the Oscars, and I can see why.
Excellent movie.
Memory, I.S.S., and The Teachers’ Lounge all open this weekend in Toronto; check your local listings. And for some great new Canadian films, shorts and docs, be sure to check out the Milton Film Festival next weekend, January 26-28 at the FirstOntario Arts Center, in Milton.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website culturalmining.com.
Class divide. Films reviewed: Sundown, Ambulance, Mothering Sunday
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 — from the UK, Hollywood and Mexico — about the class divide. There’s a penniless orphan having a passionate affair with an upper-class Englishman; a London billionaire who intentionally disappears in Acapulco; and a bank robber who commandeers an ambulance on the streets of LA to protect 16 million dollars.
Sundown
Wri/Dir: Michel Franco
Neil (Tim Roth) is an Englishman on holiday in Acapulco with his sister Alice (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and her two teenaged kids. They’re staying at a luxury resort , the kind of place where you never have to leave your private infinity pool, as waiters will bring martinis directly to your suite. They can watch locals diving off the cliffs in exchange for small tips — let them eat cake! Neil and Alice are the heirs to a vast fortune worth billions. But a shocking telephone call upsets their plans, forcing them to fly back to London immediately. But Neil, claiming he left his passport at the hotel, doesn’t get on the plane. Instead, he disappears, checking into a cheap local guesthouse. His days are spent drinking beer on Mexican beaches, and he soon hooks up with a beautiful woman named Berenice (Iazua Larios). But all is not well. Acapulco is a dangerous city with drive-by killings invading even his beachfront. His hotel room is robbed and he finds himself surrounded by petty criminals. Meanwhile his sister is frantic with worry. Why has he not returned to London? What sort of a game is he playing? Is he 
trying to bilk her out of her share of the family fortune? Or, as he says, he has no interest in money at all? And why is he withdrawing from life?
Sundown is a disturbing Mexican film about the class divide and how one man deals with it in his own way. Tim Roth plays Neil as an introverted trying to escape from everything. He barely speaks or makes decisions as his world collapses all around him. He endures crime, violence, and even jail with barely a reaction. But internally he is plagued with bizarre hallucinations, with giant hogs invading his mind-space. While not nearly as upsetting as his previous film, New Order, in Sundown Michel Franco once again probes the fear, corruption and violence permeating the class divide in contemporary Mexico.
Ambulance
Dir: Michael Bay
Danny and Will Sharpe are best friends and brothers (Will was adopted). They group up together on the streets of LA, but took different paths as adults. Will (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) stuck to the straight and narrow, joining the military and is now married with a small child. Danny (Jake Gyllenhaal) took after their dad, a notorious bank robber who left many dead bodies in his wake. But good guys seem to finish last. Will’s wife needs complex surgery something he can’t afford — he van barely feed his family. So he goes to Danny, cap in hand, asking for help. Danny agrees as long as he participates in what he calls a simple bank robbery that’ll leave them both rich beyond their wildest dreams. But the robbery goes south, and they are forced to flee in an ambulance with a wounded cop and a paramedic named Cam (Eliza González) trying to keep him alive. Can they escape with the money without killing the cop?
Ambulance is a two hour chase scene disguised as a movie. As they race through the streets of LA they 
are pursued by helicopters, police cars and the FBI, trying to kill the bank robbers without killing the cop. Michael Bay is known for his trademark enormous explosions and spectacular car crashes, and he doesn’t disappoint. There are also some cool new camera tricks, like a drone camera hugging the side of a police station as it plunges many storeys straight down to the sidewalk (it almost made me carsick!). But fancy camerawork and lots of crashes does not a movie make. And with cookie-cutter characters and ultra-simplistic storylines like this, why go to a movie when you can find the same thing on a game like GTO?
Ambulance is not boring, it’s just totally pointless.
Mothering Sunday
Dir: Eva Husson
It’s England between the wars. Jane Fairchild (Odessa Young) is a teen orphan who earns her living as a maid. As her name shows, she was abandoned by her mother as a child. Her upper-class employer (Colin Firth and Olivia Coleman) give her a a holiday on Sundays every so often when they go for a picnic with their friends. This gives Jane the chance to sneak away to spend time with her secret boyfriend Paul (Josh O’Connor) whose maid is also given the day off. It’s a passionate relationship full of unbridled sex all around the family mansion. Is this love or infatuation? Either way it’s no coincidence Jane and Paul both have free time on the same day. Paul’s parents and Jane’s employers are meeting at the same picnic, where Paul is heading too, to make an important announcement. But something shocking happens on the way.
Mothering Sunday is a beautiful film about a woman whose status gradually rises as she makes her way 
from house servant to independent writer. It’s also about the lovers and partners she meets along her way. Although it starts slowly the film becomes more and more interesting as details and secrets of her life are gradually revealed. Odessa Young is amazing as Jane Fairchild, someone you can really identify with. Eva Husson is French director and this is the first thing I’ve seen by her, but she’s really good — she knows how to subtly set up a scene, and then turn it on its head with a shocking revelation. This is a relatively simple, low-budget movie, but something about it out really grabbed me, and left me thinking about months after I saw it.
I really like this one.
Ambulance and Mothering Sunday both open this weekend; check your local listings. Sundown is now playing at the TIFF Bell Lightbox.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website, culturalmining.com.
Questioning Authority. Films reviewed: Beans, Quo Vadis Aïda?, Shorta, New Order, Night of the Kings at #TIFF20!
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
The Toronto International Film Festival has come to a close, and to tell you the truth – considering it was touch and go since the pandemic hit – I’m especiallly impressed by the 50 movies that made it into the festival. There’s a particular appropriateness to the movies they chose, films that capture the current feelings of uncertainty, impending doom, and a general mistrust of authority. So this week I’m, looking at five fantastic TIFF films about the current malaise. And so as not to end on too bleak a note, I’m throwing in a nicer story at the end.
There’s a blockade in Quebec genocide in Bosnia, police violence in Denmark, a class war in Mexico… and story-telling in a prison in Cote’d’Ivoire.
Beans
Dir: Tracey Deer
It’s 1990. Beans (Kiawentiio) is an innocent 12-year-old girl who lives in suburban Québec with her Dad, her ambitious mom, and her little sister. She’s into stuffed animals and hair ribbons – her biggest worry is getting into a posh private school. But when the town of Oka tries to grab Mohawk burial grounds to expand a golf course, protests erupt. Beans and her family leave their cushy life to join the Kanehsatà:ke and Kahnawá:ke community in the 
increasingly tense stand-off. They are blockaded and local stores refuse to sell them food, and police and military stand by when her family is attacked by racist locals throwing rocks and breaking windows. Beans, meanwhile feels rejected by the local kids as too soft, so she asks April (Paulina Alexis) an older girl to toughen her up. With the crisis raging all around her, Beans starts to change – but is it for the better?
Based on true events, Beans is a marvelous coming-of-age story of a girl learning about heritage, identity and sexuality, as she gradually gains self-confidence in a frightening time.
Quo Vadis, Aïda?
Wri/Dir: Jasmila Žbanic
It’s 1995 in Srebrenica, Bosnia.
The three-year Bosnian civil war is coming to an end, and Aida (Jasna Djuričić) a former high school teacher, is worried. Her former students are fighting on all sides. Ratko Mladić’s soldiers have surrounded the town and the locals have fled to a safety zone run by UN Peace Keepers. Aida is now the official translator, a conduit between the locals, the invaders and the ineffectual, Dutch Blue Helmets. Be calm, they promise, there’s nothing to worry about. But she knows they’re not safe at all. It falls on her shoulders to save 
them, or at least save her husband and two sons. But can Aida save anyone, even herself?
Quo Vadis, Aida? is a fast, tense and deeply moving depiction of the fear, confusion and helplessness of the days leading up to the genocidal Srebrenica Massacre where over eight thousand Bosnians were murdered in cold blood. Though it doesn’t explicitly show the violent acts themselves, it still leaves the viewer drained and shocked by its enormity.
Shorta
Wri/Dir: Frederik Louis Hviid, Anders Ølholm
Tension is mounting in Svalegården, a highrise housing project in Denmark, after police choke a teenager to death. Two cops are called in to keep the peace. Mike Andersen (Jacob Lohmann) is the bad cop – foul-mouthed, corrupt, out of shape and blatantly racist. Jens Høyer (Simon Sears) is the good cop, fit, clean-cut and by the book. They arrest a local teen, Amos (Tarek Zayat) for a minor infraction. Amos was a promising soccer star but has lost hope after being harassed too often by police. But the three of them are forced to work together – or choose sides – when 
violence erupts leaving them stranded in a dangerous zone, without a car, and no way out. Can Mike and Jens escape, and can Amos get safely home, before something really bad happens?
Shorta is an action/thriller set within a climate of police violence and corruption. Though at first it seems to be full of anti-immigrant stereotypes, it turns expectations on their head in a series of unexpected and shocking plot turns. An intense thriller.
New Order
Wri/Dir: Michel Franco
Marianne (Naian González Norvind) is a woman in a red dress at her own wedding party. They’re waiting for the judge to arrive to start the ceremony, but she’s tied up. Streets are blocked by demonstrators throwing bright green paint at rich people all across Mexico City, though this exclusive neighbourhood remains untouched. Their faithful servant Marta (Mónica Del Carmen) is working hard to make sure everything’s perfect for the wedding. But when Marianne’s family – who are spending lavishly on the wedding – refuse to help a longtime servant pay an emergency medical bill, Marianne is fed up. She says she’ll drive him to the hospital and pay for it herself. So she sets off in a car with Marta’s brother Cristian (Fernando Cuautle). But while she’s 
away, mayhem breaks loose. Thieves have infiltrated the wedding party and begin killing people. There’s a military coup and the city is under martial law, shooting civilians at random. And when Marianne is “rescued” by soldiers, she is shocked to discover she’s actually their vicim, a captive held for ransom. Can anyone be trusted?
New Order is an extremely violent, dystopian look at class inequality and the deep corruption permeating Mexican society and government. Be warned, this is not an easy movie to watch.
Night of the Kings
Wri/Dir: Philippe Lacôte
It’s a special day in the huge MACA prison in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire in west Africa. A red moon is expected to rise that night, and with it a change of prison government. Not the warden or guards but the real leadership within the prison walls. Barbe Noire/Black Beard (Steve Tientcheu) rules them all. But he’s dying and needs to appoint a successor. First a ritual storytelling must take place. He appoints a new arrival (Koné Bakary) a young newbie arrested that day to be Roman, the 
storyteller. Roman is baffled – why him? He’s dressed in a shining blue shirt, and given a special potion to drink and a wooden box to stand on. He must tell a constant story, one that never ends or he will be killed and the whole prison will collapse into mayhem. So the story begins.
Night of the Kings is a fantastical prison drama that portrays both the amazing people who live there, and the story he tells. People like a beautiful transwoman who’s also a secret assassin, and wise man with a chicken on his shoulder who poses as a half- wit. That’s within MACA.
Then there’s the story Roman tells. He serves as an impromptu griot, passing on an oral history of a slain local gang leader named Zama King and his ancestors stretching way back in time. There are elephants and armies, queens and magical powers, elaborate costumes and hair styles. And as he tells his story, he’s surrounded by a greek chorus who spontaneously sing, dance and pantomime all around him. Night of the Kings is a fantastic drama, and one of the best films at TIFF this year.
Watch out for it.
Night of the Kings, New Order, Shorta, Quo Vadis Aida?, and Beans all screened at TIFF. Go to tiff.net for more information.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies each Friday morning on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website culturalmining.com.
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