Halloween-y. Films reviewed: Sew Torn, Kryptic
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Rarely have I seen two movies by the same director playing simultaneously, but that’s what’s happening right now. Richard Linklater (known for classics like Dazed and Confused, Boyhood, and Before Sunrise) is releasing two pictures. Blue Moon is a theatrical-style drama about the night when Rogers & Hart are replaced by Rogers & Hammerstein as the ruling 
Broadway musical pair (starring Ethan Hawke, Andrew Scott and Margaret Qualley). And Nouvelle Vague is a tribute to the French New Wave, and in particular, the filming of Jean-Luc Godard’s seminal film Breathless (À bout de souffle) in 1960. The movie’s in French, shot in beautiful B&W, and stars Guillaume Marbeck as Godard, Adrien Rouyard as Truffaut, and Zoey Deutch as Jean Seberg.
Together they make a perfect double-feature.
But it is Hallowe’en, so this week, I’m looking at two first-time features, a couple of Hallowe’en-y movies to watch at home this weekend. There’s a seamstress who witnesses a crime, and a zoologist who thinks she’s seen a mythical beast.
Sew Torn
Co-Wri/Dir: Freddy Macdonald
Barbara (Eve Connolly) is depressed. Up till now, she’s led a simple life. She lives in a remote village in the Swiss alps — a land of schnitzels and yodels — sleeps above her mom’s sewing shop. Barbara lives a cartoonish life carrying a flip phone, and driving a tiny, blue putt-putt car with a giant spool of thread and needle mounted on the back. She calls herself the Travelling Seamstress, and makes house-calls even for the tiniest job. Problem is her mom died recently, and she doesn’t know what to do now. Her work and life seem meaningless without her mother’s guidance. Though technically a grown up, she still feels and acts like a child. But life goes on.
Today’s appointment? Sewing a single button onto a wedding dress worn by a strident, middle-aged woman on her way to the ceremony (Caroline Goodall). But on the road she interrupts a shocking accident involving two armed criminals. Both men — a young guy (Calum Worthy) and a motorcyclist 
— lie bleeding on the tarmac, surrounded by plastic packages of white powder, and a suitcase full of Swiss francs. A drug deal gone wrong. But the criminals are strangers, and with all that money up for grabs… should she commit a perfect crime? Or call the police? Or just drive away, like it never happened? Each choice holds potential pitfalls. And what she doesn’t realize is the crime boss behind the whole operation (John Lynch) is cruel, ruthless and headed her way. Which path should Barbara take, and how will they change her future?
Sew Torn is an ingenious, crime/thriller, about a clever seamstress confronting dangerous killers. It’s also a mother- 
daughter / father- son coming of age story, with each of the young characters dealing with the legacy of their parents. The story is told and retold, as Barbara experience her various choices. The characters are cute, and the scenery appropriately incongruous. What’s really great are the intricate Rube Goldberg devices Barbara creates to fight off the criminals. All her schemes involve spools of thread, sharp needles and the ubiquitous sewing machines… adding still more surprises to this delightfully violent crime thriller.
Sew Torn is so good.
Kryptic
Dir: Kourtney Roy
Kay Hall (Chloe Pirrie) is a tall, gaunt woman with lanky hair and an intense gaze. She’s part of an afternoon hiking club walking through the hills and mountains of southern BC. Their tour guide tells them they’re in an area teeming with mythical creatures: The Ogopogos, the Sasquatch, the Windigo. In fact, a woman named Barbara Valentine disappeared a few years ago, so it’s important to stick together. Hearing this, Kay promptly veers away from the group into a nearby ravine in the hopes of catching a photo of the local monster. You see, she’s a veterinarian but also a cryptozoologist, in search of the unknown. And then she sees him, on a nearby hill: tall, hairy, stinky and dangerous… and headed her way. She wakes up dazed and confused, covered with a viscous white fluid… and no idea who she is. She has to use her driver’s license to find her name, her car and her home. And she’s haunted by sexually violent visions of her encounter with the creature.
The next day, she sets out on a journey through southwestern BC, in search of the beast… by tracing the steps of the missing Barbara Valentine. She follows the clues through rustic 
motels, sleazy roadhouses and trailer parks teeming with drug-fuelled swinger parties. And as she gets closer to finding out the truth, she discovers her own crucial role in all this. What dangerous secrets will her search reveal? Who is she…and what is her attraction to the cryptic beast?
Kryptic is a low-budget, monster/body horror flick set in rural BC, about a woman’s memory, identity and sexual attraction. There’s a fair amount of nudity, pervy sex and gory violence within a haze of alcohol and cannabis smoke. The story is OK (occasionally verging on the ridiculous) but it really takes off 
with all the strange characters — mainly women — she meets along the way. Like a faded glamour star running a motel, a die-hard monster hunter dressed like the beast, a barfly with crucial info, and a woman who claims to have had carnal encounters with the monster. Chloe Pirrie is great as Kay, wavering between naive and brazen, whenever her eyes glow green. Kamantha Naidoo is tough but sympathetic. Also notable are Pam Kearns, Jennifer Copping and Patti Allan. I also like the softly threatening and surreal feel of much of the film.
Though far from perfect, Kryptic still has lots of unexpected images to look at on a cold Hallowe’en night.
Sew Torn is now streaming on Shudder while Kryptic is available on Hollywood Suite. And the two Linklater movies — Blue Moon and Nouvelle Vague — are both playing at the TIFF Lightbox 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.
Disappeared. Films reviewed: Dark Match, I’m Still Here
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
You may have heard about Sook-Yin Lee’s indie movie Paying For It, starring Dan Beirne as graphic novelist Chester Brown, and Emily Le as Sunny, modelled on Sook-yin herself as a TV VJ in the 1990s. It’s about their relationship after they broke up, when Chester decides only to sleep with paid sex workers. I interviewed Sook-yin and Dan way back in August on this show, and later ranked the movie on my Best-of-the-Year list. Well, good news: you can finally see Paying for It on the big screen starting this weekend. Check it out, it’s very cool, very indie and very local.
But this week I’m looking at two other new movies: a family drama set in Rio de Janeiro in the 1970s, during the military dictatorship; and a horror movie about pro-wrestlers in the sticks of northern Alberta in the 1980s.
Dark Match
Wri/Dir: Lowell Dean
It’s 1988, and a team of pro-wrestlers are getting ready for a big match in a small town somewhere north of Edmonton, Alberta. They’re there under the direction of a sleazy promoter named Rusty Beans (Jonathan Cherry). The wrestlers have worked together for years and know all the rules: the good guys win and the heels lose. This goes for men and women alike. And Nick — aka Miss Behave (Ayisha Issa) — doesn’t like it. She’s a damn good wrestler and wants some wins… along with a raise. But it’s always Kate the Great (Sara Canning) who gets the cheers while she gets the boos. The only ones she can complain to are the enigmatic Enigma (Mo Jabari) who never speaks or takes off his lucha libre mask… and Joe. She spends most of her off-time with Mean Joe Lean (Steven Ogg) a veteran wrestler, and a heel like her. It’s ambiguous whether they’re a couple or “friends with benefits”. Either way, they keep it on the down low. But (back to the story) everything went wrong when she lost her temper in the ring, which left her facing a pay cut and maybe losing her job altogether. Until, out of the blue, Rusty comes by with some good news for a change. They’ve all been offered a gig in a village they’ve never heard of somewhere up north. It pays really well, maybe even a cut of the door. It’s for a dark match — a special wrestling show, for their eyes only, with no cameras present. So they all pile into Rusty’s old rusty van and head into the sticks. When they get there, things seem a bit fishy. Joe think’s they’re all 
rednecks or Jesus freaks, led by a mysterious leader in a cowboy hat (Chris Jericho).
But hey, a gig’s a gig. Things get stranger the night before the big event. They stumble into some kind of weird orgy involving handcuffs, a hot tub, a threesome, a suckling pig, and some glowing green plonk. They wake up the next morning with aches and pains all over. But that’s just the beginning. The match is not what they’re used to. There are armed guards with AK47s standing outside the locked door of their green room. And the wrestlers aren’t coming back after their match! What’s going on… and why? Miss Behavin’, Mean Joe Lean and Enigma realize they have to do something… but can they stand up to a crowd of bloodthirsty satanic fans?
Dark Match is a horror movie about a wrestling match gone wild at the headquarters of a bizarre religious cult on the Canadian prairies. It’s bloody and gory with a hint of the 
supernatural at work. The cast is composed of both professional actors and pro-wrestlers (who, as we all know, do their own fair share of acting). It’s loaded with 80s music, big hair and grainy video footage with lurid red lighting. I was surprised how much I liked this sleazy, gritty B-movie, and I’m not even a wrestling fan. Of course you have to be comfortable with extreme violence, blood and death — it’s that kind of horror — but it’s also quite funny and goofy, too. So if you’re jonesing for some western-Canadian gore, Dark Match is it.
I’m Still Here
Dir: Walter Salles
It’s the early 1970s in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The Paivas are an upper middle class family who live so close to Leblon beach they can walk there barefoot. Eunice, their mom (Fernanda Torres) loves to float in the waves; she finds it relaxing. With five kids to take care of, she needs a bit of down time. Rubens Paiva (Selton Mello), the dad, is an engineer and former congressman for the Labour Party. He loves whisky, cigars and playing foosball with the kids. His firm is working on a huge project, an underground tunnel. But they still find time to get together with their close circle of friends and families: intellectuals, journalists, artists and activists, all on the left. Then there are the five kids: four girls: Veroca, Eliana, Babiu, and Ana, and one boy, Marcello. They love beach volleyball, soccer, pop music and a fluffy dog they find on the beach. Rubens names him Pimpão, after Verona’s shaggy friend.
But a dark cloud hangs over their otherwise idyllic lives. Brazil is ruled by a right-wing military dictatorship and they’re using a series of kidnappings of European diplomats to question and harass anyone vaguely on the ‘left”. Vera is sent off to London for her own safety. Then one day, five sketchy men invade 
their home draw the curtains, and without a warrant drive Rubens away to an unnamed location. When Eunice tries to free him, the government denies they ever took him. It’s up to Eunice to take care of the kids as she tries to find him. Has he been disappeared?
I’m Still Here is the incredibly moving, true story of a Brazilian family, based on the bestselling memoirs of their son, Marcello. While it covers the secret arrest of Rubens Paiva by the military dictatorship it’s also about the repercussions it had on the lives of Eunice, their entire family, their friends, and the country of Brazil as a whole. And that’s where it hits you — the intimate details of a remarkable family’s everyday lives: the super-8 movies they record, the records they listen to. I though it was going to be just an historical retelling of an important event. But it’s actually about everything, good and bad, that the family goes through. Now I’m not Brazilian, I don’t live on a beach in Rio, but for some reason I totally identified with this family, I felt a real connection.
Walter Salles directs an epic movie like this every decade or so, films like The Motorcycle Diaries and Central Station. 
Apparently he had personal ties to the Paiva family as a young man. Fernanda Torres gives an amazingly nuanced performance as Eunice, that had my eyes tearing up. I’m Still Here has been nominated for three oscars — best actress, best picture and best foreign film — and rightly so. I can’t say enough good things about this movie.
Dark Match and I’m Still Here 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.
Latin America? Films reviewed: Autumn and the Black Jaguar, Satanic Hispanics PLUS #Hotdocs24!
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Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
Spring is here, and so is Toronto’s Spring film festival season. And its crowning glory is Hot Docs the world’s biggest International Documentary Film Festival. It’s a month away — it runs from April 25 to May 5 — but now’s a good time to start booking tickets. As usual there are over 100 docs from more than 60 countries, with many international premieres. And, as always, students and seniors (over 60) can go to daytime screenings for free.
They just released the whole festival slate, so here are a few docs that I haven’t seen yet, but look interesting to me. Black Box Diaries is about a young Japanese journalist who was raped, and is taking her case to court in a demand for justice. Grand Theft Hamlet shows some UK actors attempting to mount a production of Shakespeare entirely within the notorious game Grand Theft Auto. Norwegian Democrazy is about extreme street level politics in that country, and Stray Bodies takes a similar look at how people handle bodily restrictions within their own countries can be resisted by crossing national borders within the EU. Pelikan Blue is an animated film about what young Hungarians did to leave the country when the Iron Curtain fell. There are also video diaries: The Here Now Project about how climate change effects people around the world; and XiXi, an intimate look at the innermost thoughts and beliefs of a Chinese improvisation artist living in Europe. Curl Power is a funny and tender examination of five teenage girls over three years on a curling team. And for those interested in musical celebs, there are features about Toronto’s own Peaches, called Teaches of Peaches, and Disco’s Revenge about the legendary musical producer Nile Rogers.
Like I said, Hotdocs is a full month away, but now’s the time to start thinking about it.
This week, though, I’m looking at two movies, one for children and one for definitely for grownups. There’s a girl looking for a wild beast in the jungle, and a man in an El Paso jail trying to explain why he’s the only one to survive a mass killing.
Autumn and the Black Jaguar
Dir: Gilles de Maistre
Autumn Edison (Lumi Pollack) is a young girl in middle school in New York City. She grew up in a rainforest somewhere in Latin America with her environmentalist parents. Her Dad is from the North, her Mom a member of the local indigenous nation. So Autumn treats the jungle as her backyard. As a small child she befriended a baby black jaguar who was left parentless when poachers shot the mother jaguar. So they grew up together. Developers and animal traffickers, led by the evil Poacher, Doria Dargan (Kelly Hope Taylor) wanted to evict her people from their land. They also hunted rare species to sell on the black market. But when Autumn’s mother is killed, her Dad takes her back to North America, where it’s safe. Seven years later, she’s almost a teen, but still hates it up there. No one seems to care about our animal friends or the environment. Especially her biology teacher Anja (Emily Bett Rickards). She wants the class to dissect frogs — can you believe it? — and Autumn refuses to participate in such cruelty. She stages a one-person protest. So she’s suspended from school, and not the first time. Stuck at home, she finds a letter from her uncle in the rain forest, a veritable cry for help. Our lives are teetering on the brink, he writes. They want to build a dam, flooding where we have lived for millennia. And they’re after Hope, the beloved black jaguar!
Autumn takes this as a beacon, calling her back to her ancestral home.
She lies to her father that everything’s fine, and secretly rushes off to the airport. What she doesn’t realize is her teacher — notable for her fear of germs, insecurity and agoraphobia — is somehow following her; she’s afraid Autumn is in danger, and wants to bring her back home. She’s risking her worst phobias to rescue the little girl. But they both end up in the rainforest, alone, with Autumn the one who is confident and at home. Will she find Hope the Jaguar? Will Hope still recognize her? And can they somehow stop the destruction of her culture, and the kidnapping of the last black jaguar?
Autumn and the Black Jaguar is a heart-warming kids’ movie. By kids, I mean little kids. As a grown-up, I found the dialogue klunky at best and cringy at worst, as if written by Chat GBT and edited by Google Translate. The teacher talks like a cartoon character. comically overreacting to everything she sees (as in most kids’ TV shows). But there are also some very cool adventures, like when they climb a tall tree and walk around on top of the forest’s canopy. I think little kids will really like this.
Watching the movie, I was impressed by the CGI version of a Jaguar playing with Autumn — it looked real. Could it be a CGI head superimposed on a friendly dog’s body? But after I did a bit of research, I found out the actress, Lumi Pollack, spent 10 months learning to bond with two actual jaguars. That wild cat is real! Impressive. Which moved it up quite a few notches on my mental score card.
Satanic Hispanics
Dir: Alejandro Brugués, Mike Mendez, Gigi Saul Guerrero, Eduardo Sánchez, Demián Rugna
It’s El Paso, Texas, just across the border from Juarez, Chihuahua. The police discover dozens of dead bodies in an old, abandoned building, with only one man still alive, unarmed, and handcuffed to a metal table. So they arrest him. He calls himself the Traveler (Efren Ramirez) and says he was born here — meaning in the US — and speaks at least 5 languages. But he’s undocumented, with no papers to prove his existence. Still, he pleads for the police to let him go. If they don’t, in 90 minutes they’ll all end up dead, just like the others they found. You see, he says he’s being followed by the Saint of Death, a terrifying, mystical being who wants to kill him. That’s why he’s the traveller: he always has to keep a step ahead of the Saint, to avoid massive bloodshed like this one.
But the cops don’t believe him — they accuse him of drug trafficking. They bring out his cache of strange paraphernalia and ask for an explanation. So, like Scheherazade, he embarks on a series of stories that tell where each item comes from. One of his strangest stories is called Tambien Lo Vi. It’s about a mathematical genius named Gustavo (Demián Salomón) a Rubik’s cube champ who somehow transfers his mental algorithms into light patterns projected on a wall using the light from his cel phone. He flaps his arms wildly flashing… that seems to bridge the gap between the living and the dead.
Other stories deal with a voracious vampire having a night on the town on Halloween — the only time of year when he can dress as a blood sucker in public — and a very bizarre take of a man fighting off a demon using a prodigious weapon known as the Hammer of 
Zanzibar that I cannot describe on daytime radio. But back to the main plot: can The Traveller finish his stories before the evil entity arrives to kill us all?
Satanic Hispanics is a compilation horror movie told by 5 directors and countless writers, producers, cast and crew. Each story is told as discrete, complete short film, within the whole movie, but with all sharing a similar look. The directors themselves are originally from Argentina, the US, Mexico and Cuba, with dialogue shifting from English to Spanish to pre-Columbian languages. Being a horror movie, there’s lots of gratuitous violence, blood and guts, some shocks and chills, and some horrible-looking evil entities.
Does it work? Oh yes! Not every segment is perfect, but altogether they tell us some very original and scary stories.
Autumn and the Black Jaguar opens this weekend in Toronto: check your local listings; Satanic Hispanics is currently streaming on Shudder.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website culturalmining.com.
Religious horror. Films reviewed: Knock at the Cabin, Attachment
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
While some people find solace in religion, others avoid it like the plague. But what happens when religion intrudes on non-believers’ lives? This week, I’m looking at two such horror movies. There’s a dybbuk in Denmark, and an apocalypse in Pennsylvania.
Knock at the Cabin
Co-Wri/Dir: M. Night Shyamalan
Eric (Jonathan Groff) and Andrew (Ben Aldridge) are a happily-married couple on vacation in rural Pennsylvania with their beloved adopted daughter Wen (Kristen Cui). They are renting a luxury cabin in the woods to spend some quality time away from their big-city careers. Wen quickly finds her place there, climbing in a treehouse, and catching grasshoppers to put in her terrarium. But her peaceful day is disturbed by an enormous man who approaches her, uninvited. Stranger danger! So when he tells her that he and some friends have some important news to tell them, Wen rushes back to the cabin to warn her dads. But soon there’s a Knock Knock Knock-ing at the cabin door, by a formidable foursome.
The huge man Wen met is Leonard (Dave Bautista), a school teacher; Sabrina (Nikki Amuka-Bird) is a registered nurse; 
Ardiane (Abby Quinn) is a short-order cook; and Redmond (Rupert Grint) is a bartender. Though dressed like normal people, they carry frightening weapons made of pitchforks, axe heads and scythes, all welded to long poles. And they’ll break door the door if they don’t let them in. Though the two dads fight back, they’re outnumbered, and soon they’re tied to chairs so they can’t escape.
The Four tell them they must choose one member of their family — Eric, Andrew, or Wen — to die. Why? To avoid an apocalypse. They say God will destroy all creation if this random family doesn’t obey an unexplained order. And they know this is true because of visions of the future they all received. Who are these crazies and why are they here on this day? Why was this family chosen? What does it mean? And should they be believed?
Knock at the Cabin is a high-concept thriller-horror with a pseudo-religious theme. It’s also a simplistic and pointless exercise in absolute stupidity. It’s both laboriously sentimental, and predictable, without M Night Shyamalan’s usual surprises and twists. The movie is ridden with plot holes which I’m going to try to mention a few without spoiling the story. Why should the fate of the entire world be decided by seven Americans in a cabin in Pennsylvania? Why would God make their visions identical to one channel’s TV footage rather than actual events? Shyamalan has made one great movie — The Sixth Sense — a few good ones, and a whole lot of clunkers. I’d place this one near the bottom of the pile.
Attachment
Wri/Dir: Gabriel Bier Gislason
Leah (Ellie Kendrick) is a PhD candidate from North London. She’s on a short visit to Copenhagen to do some research. That’s where she runs into one of Santa’s elves, all dressed in red. Well not really an elf; Maja (Josephine Park) is actually a former actress in costume for a book reading for little kids. But sparks fly, they wind up in bed together, and realize they were meant for each other. And when Leah breaks her leg (after an unexpected epileptic seizure) Maja helps her travel back to London. But Leah’s flat is not what she expected.
She lives directly above her mother, Channa (Sofie Gråbøl), a doting woman with superstitious beliefs. (Though born into a non-religious Jewish family in Denmark, Channa’s husband is ultra-orthodox, and kept her acquired beliefs even after he left the family years ago.) But what is disturbing to Maja are all the weird talismans scattered around the apartment: candles that light up mysteriously late at night; bowls with fertility goddess paintings placed face-down beneath furniture; and strange creaking noises that interrupt Maja and Leah’s love-making. And Channa is less than welcoming to her daughter’s 
new lover.
So in an effort to fit in, she ventures around the chassidic neighbourhood looking for advice. She stumbles on a bookstore run by a man named
Lev (David Dencik), an expert in Jewish mysticism. He tells her about the Kabbalah, and supernatural entities like golems and dybbuks, and how the dark arts can summon them. Turns out he has a closer connection than she thought: Lev is Maja’s uncle, and not on good terms with his sister-in-law Channa. Soon there’s a three-way struggle for Leah’s love, even while unexplained supernatural events start happening with increasing frequency. Maja decides it’s time to do something drastic to rescue Leah from this hell-hole… but who can she trust? Channa or Lev? And what is happening to her lover?
is a haunting look at a same-sex romance ensorcelled by folk religion, mysticism and black magic. Using relatively few special effects it manages to maintain a good level of tension. Dialogue shifts among English, Danish and Yiddish, depending on who is speaking and whom they wish to exclude. The characters are fascinating, especially Sofie Gråbøl’s Channa, a secretive, neurotic alcoholic trying in vain to influence her daughter’s future. Josephine Park is fun as the innocent fish out of water, and Ellie Kendrick — who from certain angles bears an uncanny resemblance to Anne Frank! — deftly handles her transition from normal young woman to something very different. By blending various genres, Attachment manages to add an unexpected twist to the conventional horror movie.
I like this movie.
Knock at the Cabin opens theatrically this weekend, and Attachment begins streaming later this week on Shudder; 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.
On the media. Films reviewed: A Wounded Fawn, Spoiler Alert, Empire of Light
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
It’s December, but not everything is about Christmas. This week I’m looking at three new movies with themes set in the arts: there’s a woman who works at a cinema but never watches movies; a serial killer who finds himself part of an ancient greek play, and a writer for TV Guide who thinks his life is like a sitcom.
A Wounded Fawn
Co-Wri/Dir:Travis Stevens
It’s a fine art auction in NY City, and the collectors and dealers are in fighting mode tonight. The prized item is a small bronze sculpture from ancient Greece showing the Furies seeking revenge on a prone man. Kate (Malin Barr) gets the high bid and returns home triumphant with the piece in hand. So she’s surprised to see Bruce (Josh Ruben) a rival bidder, show up at her door. His boss still covets the statue and is willing pay double. Doubling her money in 24 hours seems like a good deal. She invites him in for a glass of champagne. But before long, she is dead on 
the floor in a pool of blood, and the sculpture — and Bruce — are long gone.
Later, Meredith, another beautiful young woman (Sarah Lind) is excited over an upcoming weekend in the country with her latest paramour. Her last boyfriend was abusive, but her new one seems nice, generous and attractive. And he’s into fine art just like Mer (she works in a museum).They set off for a fun filled adventure at his isolated cottage in the woods. She is thrilled to see the cabin is actually a finished home overlooking a dense forest, and decorated with modern art. But something is strange: she hears a woman’s voice in her ear warning her to leave. And she recognizes the Greek sculpture of the Furies on his coffee table — she authenticated it for an auction just a few weeks ago. (It’s just a copy, says Bruce) What she doesn’t know is that Bruce is a 
serial killer… and she might be his next victim. (Bruce is waiting for directions from a gigantic man-owl with blood red feathers who tells him who he should kill). Can Mer fight him off? And where do those strange voices come from?
A Wounded Fawn is a low budget, exquisitely-crafted art-house thriller horror. What starts as a simple slasher, soon turns into a revenge pic about halfway through, where Meredith, Kate and a third victim return as the Furies to visit punishment upon Bruce. What’s really remarkable is how it incorporates greco-roman aesthetics, mythology and theatre into what could have been a simple scary horror movie, to turn it into something totally original. While it’s not always clear whether something happens for real, or just inside Bruce’s damaged brain, it doesn’t matter. A Wounded Fawn is weird and fascinating, either way.
Spoiler Alert
Dir: Michael Showalter
It’s the 1990s. Michael Ausiello (Jim Parsons) is a nerdy gay guy who lives in NJ but works in Manhattan. He grew up obsessed by TV, living his life as if he were a character on an 80s sitcom. Now he’s a writer for TV Guide, where he devotes himself to work and remains perpetually single. Until he meets Kit Cowan (Ben Aldridge) at a dance club — he’s handsome, fit and popular and says Michael is just his type —a tall geek. Kit’s also in the media — he’s a professional photographer. They hit it off, but keep certain secrets to themselves. Kit lives a free-wheeling sex life — he’s not one to settle down. And Michael never came out to his small-town parents (Sally Field and Bill Irwin); he’s afraid they won’t accept him. And he’s afraid to show Kit his apartment. What is he hiding there? His Smurf collection; a veritable fuzzy blue tsunami filling every nook and cranny. But after settling their deferences, they eventually move in together. Most of the Smurfs are packed away, Michael comes out to his parents (they still love him) and they settle into domestic bliss.
Flash forward 15 years, and their relationship is on the rocks; the spark has died and they’ve grown a bit distant toward each other. But everything changes when — spoiler alert! — Kit discovers he has terminal cancer. Can they handle his 
imminent death? Will their love be rekindled? And how will they spend what might be their last year together?
Spoiler Alert is a touching dramady about love and loss, based on a true story — Michael Ausiello’s own memoir of his life with Kit. Like the book, the movie begins with the death of Kit in Michael’s arms, hence “spoiler alert”. The director Michael Showalter, previously made The Big Sick, also about a couple and their family facing a serious illness. So is this the gay Big Sick? Not exactly — it’s a new story with a different style, like his version of Michael’s childhood as a sitcom, complete with laugh-track. And there are lots of funny parts. The bigger question is, is Jim Parsons up to playing a dramatic role, or is he forever stuck in peoples’ minds as Sheldon on the Big Bang? In this case, I think he pulls it off. He fits the role and manages to make him quirkily sympathetic. So if you’re into terminal illness comedies, here’s a good one to try on for size.
Empire of Light
Wri/Dir: Sam Mendes
Its the winter of 1981 in a sea-side city in southern England. Hilary (Olivia Coleman) is a middle-aged woman who works at the Empire Theatre as the front of house manager. It’s an art-deco movie palace, but like the town, it’s long past its prime. Half the screens are closed and the third floor ballroom has been taken over by pigeons. Hilary is lonely and depressed, on meds, recovering from a hospital stay. Her social life consists of ballroom dancing with old men, and her sex life is furtive encounters with her sleazy, married boss (Colin Firth) in his darkened office.
But her life changes when a young man, Stephen (Michael Ward) is hired to work there. She finds him attractive, ambitious (he wants to study architecture at university)` and compassionate: he nurses a wounded pigeon back to health. He’s mom’s a nurse, from the Windrush generation, but he wants more. Hillary may be his mom’s age but there’s something there. After a few intimate moments they start a clandestine relationship. But Michael’s real ambition is to leave this town — to escape increasingly racist street violence (he’s black), and to become more than just an usher. Can their 
relationship last? And if they break up, can the fragile Hilary handle it?
Empire of Light is a romantic time capsule of life in Thatcher’s England. It’s also about the joy and troubles of an intergenerational, mixed-race love affair. And it’s also about sexual harassment and anti-black racism in everyday life. And it’s also about Hillary’s mental illness, including her sudden, manic episodes. And it’s also about the rise of skinheads and the National Front, and the concurrent anti-racist ska revival. And it’s also about the collective friendship that develops among the people working at the Empire theatre. (Maybe too many ands for one movie?)
Like many of Sam Mendes films (which I generally don’t like), it’s pandering and emotionally manipulative and has a meandering storyline, that keeps you watching while it’s on, but 
leaves you feeling vaguely unsatisfied afterwards. But the acting is really good, especially Olivia Coleman and Michael Ward, who rise above the movie’s many flaws. Maybe even good enough to make Empire of Light worth a watch, despite all its problems.
Empire of Light and Spoiler Alert both open this weekend in Toronto; check your local listings. And A Wounded Fawn is now streaming on Shudder.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website, culturalmining.com.
Lost Souls. Films reviewed: Apples, Moloch, Passengers of the Night
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
It’s Nunavut day, so what better time is there to catch up on Inuit movies. Slash/Back, a brand-new movie about aliens in a small arctic town, is playing right now. The Grizzlies is a feel-good film about a high school lacrosse team. And if you’ve never seen Zacharias Kunuk’s movies — including The Journals of Knud Rasmussen and Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner — well… you’d better.
But this week I’m looking at three new European movies — from Greece, the Netherlands and France — about lost souls. There’s a lonely guy in Athens who loses his memory in a pandemic; a divorced mom in Paris who seeks solace in late night talk radio; and a widowed mom in the Netherlands who is haunted by the lost souls… in a peat-moss bog.
Apples
Wri/Dir: Christos Nikou
Aris (Aris Servetalis) lives by himself in Athens, Greece. One day while going for a walk he forgets where he lives. Also his family, his identity, even his first name. He has acute amnesia, the symptom of a strange pandemic, sweeping across the planet. He’s taken to hospital, with the hope a family member will arrive to identify him. But no one comes. About the only thing he knows is he likes apples. The hospital arranges for him to move into an apartment, where they hope he can regain his memory, or at least achieve some level of self worth and identity. To achieve this they put him into an experimental program. He’s given a series of mundane tasks, all of which he is expected to record, using a polaroid camera. Ride a bike, go to a movie, attend a party, drink alcohol, meet a new friend. It also includes things like picking up a woman in a bar (he accidentally goes to a strip bar with embarrassing consequences) But during his recovery, while viewing the Texas Chainsaw 
Massacre, he encounters another alienated, memory-deficient person.
Anna (Sofia Georgovasili) is clearly on the same program. Two is better than one, so they begin to see one another, if in a detached, alienated way. But as time progresses, Aris begins to remember things, including sad memories he wants to suppress. Will Anna be his soul mate? Will he ever find his original home? And is there any meaning to his life?
Apples is a satirical look at modern urban alienation in a time of pandemic. Interestingly, this film was completed in 2019 BC, (before Covid). But 
somehow it captures the mundane, seemingly meaningless medical obsessions, the injections, the tests, the isolation, loneliness and self-doubt that we all experienced over the past two years.
Writer-director Christos Nikou worked with the now famous Yorgos Lanthimos, on his earliest film, Dogtooth, and like that movie, it’s funny, weird and extremely awkward, with adults behaving like children, and people blindly obeying seemingly nonsensical rules. It takes place in the present day but it’s filled with obsolete gadgets like polaroid cameras, and cassette tape players not a cel phone or a laptop in sight. Aris Servetalis is excellent as the main character, who fits perfectly within the film’s minimalist feel.
I like this one.
Moloch
Co-Wri/Dir: Nico van den Brink
Betriek (Sallie Harmsen) is a woman in her thirties who lives in an isolated home with her parents and her young daughter, in northern Netherlands. Her home is in a forest, surrounded by peat moss bogs. Her daughter goes to public school but Betriek likes the isolation — she thinks her family is cursed so it’s best to keep to herself. Easier said than done. Especially when a strange man appears in her living room! He can’t stop it, he says, they won’t let him! And his voice seems to be an unworldly chorus of a thousand souls. And then he tries to kill them all. Turns out he worked at a nearby archaeological dig, headed by Jonas (Alexandre Willaume) a Danish man.
Peat moss is a natural preservative and they’re digging up mummified bodies from ancient times. And when they examine them, they discover they are all victims of the same sort of ancient ritual sacrifice to some primeval god. By disturbing the graves they may have let loose ancient demons, 
possessing her friends and family. Meanwhile, her mother is going through another difficult period with her brain — is it related? Her father says they’d better leave the place and never come back. And when Betriek encounters strange visions of a little girl sending her a message, she realizes things are very wrong. Will Jonas ever believe there’s something evil going on? Can Betriek break her family’s curse? Will they fall in love? And together can they fight off an ancient evil god?
Moloch is an excellent Dutch horror movie about life in a remote village built over secrets that never should have been disturbed. It sounds like a simple story, but actually it’s a multi-layered drama. The film even incorporates a school Christmas pageant where small children innocently reenact an ancient pagan tribute even while mayhem is happening outside. The movie’s in Dutch, but because of the multiplicity of languages, much of the dialogue is in English. And remarkable for a horror movie, the cinematography is gorgeous, as warm and grainy as any 70s Hollywood movie. I liked this one, too.
Passengers of the Night
Dir: Mikhaël Hers
It’s the mid-1980s in Paris. Elisabeth (Charlotte Gainsbourg) lives with her two teenaged kids high up in an apartment tower. Her daughter Judith, is outspoken and into politics, while her son Matthias (Quito Rayon- Richter) is more introspective — he gets in trouble for writing poems in history class. The dad, though, is nowhere to be seen. He moved in with his girlfriend and pays no child support. So Elisabeth is forced to search for a job to keep her family afloat. She finds solace listening to a late-night radio talk show, and applies to work there. She lands a job at the switchboard vetting callers and guests for the host, Vanda (Emmanuelle Béart). She invites a young woman to the show based on a touching letter she wrote. Tallulah (Noée Abita) is 18 but has lived on the streets of Paris for years, sleeping under bridges and in squats. She has raven hair, pale skin and doe eyes.
Elisabeth can’t stand the thought of her sleeping in the rough, so she invites Tallulah to stay, temporarily, in a spare room tucked away far above their apartment. She wants to keep her separate from her kids, but they soon meet up. She’s street smart, and teaches them how to live on nothing and tricks like how to get into a movie theatre without a ticket. Matthias is smitten by her and longs to take it further. But after a late night tryst, she flees
the apartment and disappears, leaving the family shocked and saddened. Four years later, things have changed. The kids are growing up, Elisabeth has gained self-confidence and she has a day job and a much younger boyfriend named Hugo. But when her ex says he’s selling the home, it’s time for major changes. That’s when Tallulah reappears again at their door in a bad state. Can Elisabeth save Tallulah from her spiral into darkness? And what will the future bring?
Passengers of the Night is a beautiful and heartfelt look at a Parisian family navigating its way through unexpected shifts in their lives, and how a visitor can change everything. The film is set in the 80s (from 1981 through 1988), not just the costumes, music, and Talulah’s big hair but also the tumultuous political and social changes from that era. And it’s punctuated by views of Paris from that era — high-rises, sunsets and views through commuter train windows — shot on a narrower bias, to give it a realistic feel. While more gentle than a sob story, it still brings tears to your eyes.
Passengers of the Night and Apples are both playing at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. And Moloch is now streaming on Shudder.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website, culturalmining.com
In the shadows. Films reviewed: Hellbender, Cyrano
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
February, always the worst moth of the year, is finally coming to an end, and the theatres are all opening up again. This week, I’m looking at two new movies, a musical and a horror story. There’s a French wordsmith who hides in the shadows, and an American hellbender who never leaves her home.
Hellbender
Wri/Dir:John Adams, Zelda Adams and Toby Poser
Izzy (Zelda Adams) is a typical teenaged girl. She’s
a vegetarian, wears hoodies and converse sneakers, and is in a goth rock band called Hellbender (she plays the drums). She lives with her mom (Toby Poser) in a big wooden house on top of a small mountain surrounded by lush forests and a bubbling brook. So what’s so special about Izzy? She’s never seen or spoken to anyone except her mom since she was five years old. She suffers from a rare disease and outside contact could kill her.
But one day she wanders to the edge of their property and sees another young woman in a backyard swimming pool.
Amber (Lulu Adams) who is brash and outspoken, invites Izzy to join her. Why, Amber wants to know, have they never met before (Izzy says it’s because she’s home schooled.) She returns the next week for a swimming party, where she meets a guy who says her disease doesn’t match her symptoms (he’s a pre-med student). So she won’t die from getting to close. Then he dares her to drink a shot of tequila and swallow the worm — but he puts a live worm into her glass. The results are 
surprising. Everything starts to blur, voices whisper in her ear, and she’s filled with lust, anger and a strange new power. She wakes up at home, and has lots of questions.
Her mom apologizes. There is no illness, she says. You’re not in danger, other people are. We are Hellbenders, people with great power. When you ate that worm, you gained power from its fear of death. And the bigger the animal you consume, the more power you have, and the more dangerous you become. That’s why I’ve been keeping you isolated she says. So you can 
live like a human. But now that she knows who she is, what will become of Izzy?
Hellbender is a cool low-budget supernatural horror movie. It has a very small cast and I think (just going by names) they’re all related and maybe all in the band Hellbender. It has a good “look” to it, too: there are jagged black rocks on the mountainside, and nice leafy woods. The trippy, psychedelic dream sequences are short but very well done. One part I didn’t like was the opening sequence — a Salem village-type hanging of a witch — it felt unnecessary, but, other than that, this is a tight mother-daughter, drama that combines horror with a coming-of-age of a young woman discovering her power.
Cyrano
Dir: Joe Wright
It’s 17th century France. Cyrano de Bergerac (Peter Dinklage) is a decorated soldier, a champion fencer in the King’s guard, as well as an exceptionally eloquent poet. He wows the crowds at a theatrical performance where he takes down the awful lead actor through the use of verbal barbs and comical swordsmanship. There he catches the eye of a woman named Roxanne (Haley Bennet). She’s a beautiful aristocrat but also a penniless orphan, destined to marry an aristocrat. They get to know each other and she comes to adore and admires him. Likewise, Cyrano swears he’ll be her lifelong protector. He’s actually in love with her…but never expresses that love because of his appearance. You see, he is a little person. And he is resigned to failure when she tells him she’s in love, but not with him, with a handsome, but inarticulate musketeer named Christian (Kelvin Harrison Jr). Cyrano is forced to support Roxanne by helping his rival, to the extent where he 
expresses his love for her in letters that are sent by Christian. Later he even hides in the shadows feeding lines to Christian wooing Roxanne on her balcony. Will she ever discover his true love for her? And that the love letters are from Cyrano, not Christian? Can she escape the wicked aristocrat she is meant to marry? And who will survive the coming wars?
Cyrano is a new musical version of the classic French play. In the original, Cyrano has such a big nose that he thinks his true love will never desire him. This time it’s that he’s too short. Does this new version work? Sadly no. Dinklage was fantastic in Game of Thrones and various movies; and Kelvin Harrison Jr is one of the best young actors around (in movies like Waves, Luce, and It Comes at Night). But this is a musical, and there’s an old theatrical term called a “triple threat” — an actor who can also sing and dance. Dinklage and Harrison are single threats. Great actors but not so great as singers and dancers. (Haley Bennet as 
Roxanne does have a good voice) And the music is terrible. Fans of the band The National might like these songs but I found them tedious, repetitive, and totally uninspiring. Not a catchy tune anywhere. The dance scenes have the lead characters standing still surrounded by weirdly dressed dancers who twist all around them, so you don’t notice. The sad parts aren’t really sad, the funny parts aren’t that funny, and the story is so famous that there are no surprises anywhere. It’s based on an earlier stage version but they didn’t do much to make it cinematic — it was almost like watching a filmed play. I wanted it to be good, but sad to say, this Cyrano sucked.
Cyrano opens theatrically in Toronto this weekend; check your local listings. Hellbender is currently streaming on Shudder.
This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website, culturalmining.com
Northern Europe. Films reviewed: The Good Traitor, Boys from County Hell, About Endlessness
Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.
I don’t care what they tell you, movies are not the same without the whole movie experience — going out, choosing a movie, standing in line, eating popcorn… and sitting in a large space beside a crowd of strangers laughing, booing or screaming to the same things you are. You can’t get that watching a laptop or a flat screen TV.
Remember TimePlay? That movie trivia game you used to play before the film starts? Well, they’re about to launch a TimePlay app, replicating the movie experience, where you get to compete against other movie buffs in real time (The winner gets Cineplex Scene card points). I tried it out this week in a trial run for media, and it’s goofy but a lot of fun.
This week I’m looking at three very different movies, all from northern Europe; an existential arthouse film, a comedy/ horror, and an existential arthouse film, and an historical drama. There’s a Swedish storyteller, a Celtic vampire, and a Danish diplomat.
The Good Traitor
Dir: Christina Rosendahl
It’s 1939 in Washington DC, on the brink of WWII. Henrik Kauffmann (Ulrich Thomsen) is the Danish Ambassador, who lives with his brilliant wife Charlotte (Denise Gough) and their two young daughters. It’s a pleasant life, drinking champagne by the swimming pool or mingling at a cocktail party… but beneath the surface, everyone knows Hitler is going to invade Denmark. Should they just let it happen? Or should they do what they can to stop it? The Nazis march in and the Danish government declares nothing bad is happening here. But Henrik and an earnest young Danish lawyer (Mikkel Boe Følsgaard) decide to do something drastic. They declare themselves representatives of the Free Danish Government in exile. And they’re joined by a dozen other Danish Embassies around the world. But can they do for money? And will they get US government support them. (The US stayed out of the war until Pearl Harbour in late 1941).
This is where the real power comes to play. It’s Charlotte, his 
brilliant wife. Her family has been friends with the Roosevelts since long before she met Henrik. But can she convince FDR to side with her husband? But there’s a twist; Henrik had a fling with Zilla, Charlotte’s vivacious younger sister (Zoë Tapper) a decade earlier in Beijing. And now she’s sure they’re sleeping together again in Washington. Will Charlotte and Henrik’s troubled relationship influence the geopolitical fate of the world?
The Good Traitor is a fascinating WWII drama viewed from afar, within the safe confines of Washington’s diplomatic corps. It gives hints at the importance of diplomacy and politics in world events, and how much of it takes place behind closed doors. And so do their personal relationships. This is a very tame retelling of true events, with no battles, no death, no violence, except for a shocking twist (no spoilers). But I liked it.
Boys from County Hell
Dir: Chris Baugh
Eugene (Jack Rowan) is a youngish guy who lives in a small Irish town called Six Mile Hill. Its main claim to fame is its association with Dracula author Bram Stoker, and an ancient cairn (that’s a pile of stones) on a field. It’s said to be the burial place of a legendary vampire known as the Abhartach. When he’s not cleaning up an old house his mother left him, Eugene is probably hanging at the local pub with his best mates William (Fra Fee) his girl friend Claire (Louisa Harland) and SP (Michael Hough) the bearded maniac. They earn extra bucks as tour guides for gullible tourists. But one night, in the dark, William is brutally slaughtered near the cairn. Is there something to this vampire myth? Things are brought to a head when Eugene’s dad Francie, a hard-ass contractor, hires him to tear down the cairn, to make way for a development plan, damn the possible consequences. But someone, or something, doesn’t like that. Have they gone to far? And is the entire village in danger if the Abhartach returns?
Boys from County Hell is a horror comedy, with an emphasis on 
the horror, but told in a lighter style. That means lots of blood, in the most disgusting way possible (when a vampire gets close, blood starts to flow spontaneously from the eyes and noses of anyone nearby.) But there are also a lot of over-the-top violence of the dark humour type, and quite a few surprises — there’s a mystery element. This is a very Irish movie, meaning you may have to turn on the subtitles to understand what some of them are saying. I haven’t seen a good vampire movie in quite a while, and this one varies from a lot of the cliches. The cast is appealing and the pace never drags. I quite liked this one, too.
About Endlessness
Wri/Dir: Roy Andersson
A middle-aged man and woman are sitting on a park bench on a hillside overlooking a vast grey city. They tell each other interlocking stories, about men or women they saw — either in a dream, in a fantasy or in reality (it’s never made clear) People like an awkward virginal young man staring longingly at a busty hairdresser watering a dying potted palm. Or a man who gets increasingly frustrated by a stranger who ignores him passing by on an outdoor staircase, who he recognizes as someone he had bullied years ago in public school. And a catholic priest having a nervous breakdown because he lost his faith while preparing the communion — with a psychiatrist who refuses to see him because he doesn’t want to miss the bus home. Add to this Hitler in his 
bunker, a father killing his daughter in an honour killing, prisoners in a Siberia trudging toward a gulag, and an ethereal couple in their nightgowns floating far above a city.
If you’ve ever seen a Roy Andersson movie, you’ll understand that there’s no linear narrative, no main characters, or plot, per se. Rather it’s a series of vignettes that together share a theme. In this one this Ione the theme seems to be about the unrelenting melancholy, frustration and futility, passing from generation to generation. Everything is ordinary, sepia toned and middling in its regularity. People wear plain, dumpy clothes, with average bodies and faces, People rarely speak and the camera hardly moves.
It sounds like I hated this movie, but I actually loved it. About Endlessness avoids prettiness like the plague, and is never twee. And it somehow manages to imbue common, depressing thoughts with an ethereal majesty.
The Good Traitor is now playing in VOD, Boys from County Hell starts streaming today on Shudder, and Beyond Endlessness opens next Friday at the Digital TIFF Bell Lightbox. And Timeplay is now running online every Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday at 8:30 pm ET.
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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