2016 FILM RATINGS-REVIEWS =
HERE
2015 FILM RATINGS-REVIEWS =
HERE
2014 FILM RATINGS-REVIEWS =
HERE
2013
FILM RATINGS-REVIEWS =
HERE
2012 FILM RATINGS-REVIEWS =
HERE
2011
FILM RATINGS-REVIEWS =
HERE
2010 FILM RATINGS-REVIEWS =
HERE
2009
FILM RATINGS-REVIEWS =
HERE
RATING
SCALE
2.5 or more for a noteworthy film
3.5 for an exceptional film
4 for a classic.
2.8
-- SUBURBICON,
George Clooney
[reviewed
by Oslavi Linares]
Co-written with the Cohen brothers and frequent collaborator
Grant Heslov, George Clooney's sixth film is a typical loss
of innocence thriller but also a political response to American
racial tensions. The plot is relatively simple and predictable:
a home invasion leads to the gradual disarray of an iconic
1950's family in an equally iconic dysfunctional suburbia.
Despite the collection of 50's types portrayed by celebrities
--Matt Damon as Gardner Lodge the corporate executive, Julian
Moore as aunt Margaret the lovely housewife, Oscar Isaac
as the clever insurance agent, and others -- the real protagonist
of the film is Gardner's son, the boy named Nicky (Noah
Jupe). In the wake of his mother's death, Nicky's loss of
innocence serves as a metaphorical vehicle for the nostalgic
50's image that many contemporary right-wing Americans cling
to. Perhaps the child's unmasking of this false memory would
have sufficed but the addition of racism and segregation
as subplots, however well-intended, does not convincingly
integrate with the film. The story of racist neighbours
against a middle class black family runs parallel to that
of the Lodge's, but it serves more as a counterpoint to
the main story. That said, certain elements of the film
are skilfully integrated as performative or visual allegories:
Gardner's blood-stained shirt, the recurrent use of poisons
in the plot, Margaret's died hair, the skeletal structures
of houses under construction, or the confederate flag. In
one scene, the camera comfortably follows one of the characters,
withdraws to reveal the environment, lighting the episode
with soft golden tones that shift to starker white illumination,
and a treacherous chiaroscuro that suggests the film noir
genre. Indeed, in this regard, both stylistically and narratively,
Suburbicon
recalls other loss of suburban innocence films ( David
Lynch's Blue Velvet (1986), Alfred Hitchcock's
1943 Shadow of a Doubt), however, unlike these
precedents, Clooney uses the Cohen's script to address the
current swing towards racist ideologies in the US.
3.6
-- VISAGES,
VILLAGES (FACES, PLACES),
Agnès Varda & JR
[reviewed
by Oslavi Linares]
In Visages,
Villages, veteran filmmaker Agnès Varda joins renown
street muralist JR in a trip to portray the inhabitants
of France's villages and countryside, factories and docks,
ruins and beaches. As Varda puts it, "I'm always game to
go toward villages, toward landscapes, toward simple faces."
Akin to Varda's participatory filmmaking (like her 2000
The Gleaners and I) and JR's street art (like his
Palestine-Israel murals), the artists do not limit themselves
to exploring and documenting the different communities but
rather assemble their members to partake in the portraits
that Varda and JR plaster in places like an old miner's
house, a granary, cargo containers and other sites. The
result is the representation of the inhabitants in their
environments, an "outdoor exhibit" as JR describes it. But
the artists engagement with the film does not end there,
as they become characters in themselves and speak about
their lives and their art. Despite their age difference
(Varda 88, JR 33), we see Varda and JR tease each other,
provide feedback on their past projects but also their own
lives, including JR's obstinacy over removing his sunglasses.
This road-movie documentary is told humorously from its
opening sequences and with peaceful nostalgia. Although
relying on a chronological montage, Varda's editing affords
passage into previous or future events in the film, cuts
to her past work, like Cléo from 5 to 7, or a joyful
ride with JR in the Louvre. Her and JR's voice over narration
does not patronize the viewer but instead shares the filmmakers'
observations and commentaries with a conversational tone.
Ultimately, the effect is a heartwarming one, a film with
a sense of community and humanness that does not shy from
work or old age. Visages, Villages won the L'Œil
d'or (Golden Eye Prize) at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival
2.0
-- AMERICAN ASSASSIN, Michael
Cuesta
[reviewed
by Oslavi Linares]
USA! USA! Anymore patriotic and American
Assassin would feel like a parody. Based on the novel
series by the late Vince Flynn, the plot, in short, plays
with contemporary threats to the US (fundamentalist terrorists
and nuclear weapons) and downsizes them to a personal drama
of father and son figures. Set in Turkey, the East Coast
of the US, and Rome, the plot revolves around Mitch Rapp
(Dylan O'Brien), a US vigilante on a quest for revenge against
the Islamic terrorists who killed his girlfriend. Rapp is
recruited by a CIA black-ops unit and sent to train and
work as a counter-terrorism agent for cold-war veteran Stan
Hurley (Michael Keaton). With these protagonists, the film
plays as vehicle for the American myth of individualism;
as Rapp constantly disobeys orders but gets the job done,
and as Hurley tries to rein him in but concedes to Rapp's
patriotism and skill. The rest of the cast feels like props
for the pseudo father-son relation: rivals, enemies and
lovers appear and/or die to advance Rapp's 'hero's journey.'
Still, it is worth mentioning that the Iranian government
is presented as both potential enemy and unlikely ally,
and allusions to the Iran nuclear deal refer to those in
Iran that are for or against such deal. But even the attempted
complexity of the story's geopolitics falls prey to personal
drama of family grudges (the Iranian femme fatal avenging
her family, the former agent resentful of Hurley). Besides
these thematic elements, the film includes the regular dosage
of action sequences, gun fights and last minute salvation.
It is more restrained in its gimmicks than the Bond franchise
and aims for the realism of the Bourne ones, but its camera
work and locations resemble those of videogames like Metal
Gear Solid or Call of Duty Black Ops. Perhaps more interesting
is the film's release date (September 15), just a few days
after 9-11, with a US president calling the Iran deal "the
worst in history," and North Korea threatening nuclear war.
Thus, while as a movie it is as cookie-cut as they come,
it is representative of current American anxiety.
2.8
-- GOOD
TIME, Benny and Josh Safdie
[reviewed by Oslavi Linares] Good
Time offers the standard adrenaline
crime drama with a twist in its plot and a cinematic emphasis.
The story's premise is a simple one: low-life Constantine
'Connie' Nikas (Robert Pattinson) and his autistic brother
Nick (played by co-director and co-writer, Benny Safdie),
try to rob a New York bank and fail. After Nick is captured
in the heist, Connie tries to rescue his brother through
every means at his disposal; manipulating, stealing, impersonating
and evading the police, and in the process encountering
the outcasts under and at the margins of society as the
night goes on and wrong. Connie's quest is shown through
personal close-ups, moving shots following his escapes,
and aerial shots of the sprawling metropolis at night. He
and the environment are illuminated in a manner suggesting
the tension of the moment or the nature of the place, employing
the diegetic sources of light (or colour) to give oneiric
dimensions to fast food joints, low-income housing, empty
amusement parks, and even Connie himself. While this combo
of artistic takes and Nick's autism takes the film out of
the usual boundaries of crime films, at times the characters
feel like social types or genre archetypes. Perhaps this
also makes it interesting to see Pattinson portray such
a rogue as Connie, especially because of his teenage idol
status for the Twilight film
series). Nevertheless, the film made was nominated for Cannes'
Palm d'Or and premiered with great acclaim at this year's
Fantasia. With Good Time,
directors Benny Safdie and Josh Safdie continue their tradition
of modern day social dramas (Daddy
Longlegs, 2009, Heaven
Knows What, 2014), featuring fringe
characters and situations.
3.5
-- THE GIRL
WITHOUT HANDS, Sébastian
Laudenbach
[reviewed by Oslavi Linares]
In
The Girl Without Hands director Sébastien
Laudenbach uses a fragmentary drawing style to animate an
adult version of the well-known Brothers Grimm tale. The
story centers on a young girl whose father makes a deal
with the devil and loses her hands on its account; while
she escapes; the devil is far from letting her go, and her
perilous voyage leads her to loneliness, love and her own
self-determination. Although a fairy tale, Laudenbach's
treatment of the story deals with themes of female emancipation
and embodiment, as well as the girl's sexuality and bodily
functions. The protagonist's misadventures put her at odds
with her father and later with her prince, however she ultimately
learns to overcome her handicap through self-reliance. But
the most notable aspect of this feature is the style chosen
to tell this tale. Described by its maker as a style that
is "light and strewn with holes, that is often not coherent
except when moving . . . " Laudenbach relied on his personal
style to convey an open and fragmentary animation. Minimalist
yet figurative, at times very elaborate and at others abstract,
it reminds one of Jankovics Marcell's Sisyphus
(1974) or Frederic Back's The
Man Who Planted Trees (1987) for their
craft and subject matter. Moreover, Laudenbach's use of
space is also evocative, as he often composes through several
layers to create forests and palaces, but most often relies
on the blank page to convey a sense of incompletion that
invites the viewer to fill in. Add to this the polymorphic
character of his traces and the image becomes a canvas for
movement of and movement through space, and thus it becomes
a canvas for the mental states and moods of the characters.
Laudenbach has developed this style through his 19 years
as an animator of shorts. An auteur, he animated this tale
in its entirety with little planning and limited budget,
rendering his ink drawings on paper with only the original
tale as guidance. With this, his feature debut, he offers
an alternative to modern techniques of computer graphics
and big budget features, reminding us of animation's basis
in drawing and concretion in movement and narrative. The
Girl Without Hands will be screened
Aug. 18th in Montral at the Cinematheque Quebecois.
2.5
-- THE GLASS
CASTLE, Destin Daniel
Cretto
[reviewed by Oslavi Linares]
Based on the autobiographical book by Jeanette Walls,
The Glass Castle is a somewhat predictable
nostalgic family melodrama. Well constructed but with few
surprises, the plot alternates between Jeanette's present-day
life as an engaged gossip columnist (played by Brie Larson)
and her poverty-stricken childhood with her siblings and
their free-spirited parents, Rose Mary (Naomi Watts) and
Rex (Woody Harrelson). It is largely through Rex that most
of the drama unfolds, as he is both an anti-establishment
dreamer and an alcoholic constantly moving his family to
flee bill collectors or the authorities. During Jeanette's
adult life he still holds up to his ideals, squatting with
Rose Mary in New York, and posing a disruption to Jeanette's
wedding plans to a well-off financial analyst (Max Greenfield).
This disruption parallels the highs and lows of her upbringing,
using conventional but well-placed match cuts, dissolves
to illustrate the passage of time or the act of remembering.
This editing highlights the similarities between Jeanette's
past and present life, evoking a sense of nostalgia into
what would otherwise be just examples of parental neglect.
At times, this feels too emotional, as we are reminded multiple
times (not just through the parallel cuts but also through
the close-ups, music, acting) of the difficulty of Jeanette's
relation with her father. Because of the plot's foreseeable
resolution, The Glass Castle's
narrative turns its story of soul searching into a feel-good
movie.
3.2
-- DJANGO,
Etienne Comar
[reviewed
by Oslavi Linares]
An
apt opening act for this year’s Montreal International Jazz
Festival, Django is as much a biopic of guitar
legend Django Reinhardt (Reda Kateb) as it is about music
in times of conflict. The plot can be summed in the dichotomy
of the persecuted gypsies playing music for their Nazi oppressors
and surviving thanks to their talent. This reality leads
Django to try to escape to Switzerland aided by a duplicitous
former lover (Cécile De France), while relying on his talent
to safeguard his family and fellow gypsies, or, in the words
of his wife (Bea Palya), "make crowds dance and enchant
snakes." And the snakes dance to the tune of swing, blues
and jazz.
Indeed, music plays a large part of the film; from the opening
scenes of persecution to the closing memorial, it weaves
through Django's and the audience's worlds, borrowing from
the musician's power to at times speak for him, illuminate
the scene, or simply induce clapping.
Django's technique is so brilliant that the movie barely
mentions the fact that at the age of 18, after suffering
extensive first and second degree burns over his body and
left hand, the doctors not only wanted to amputate one of
his legs, but his fourth and fifth string plucking fingers
were paralyzed. Django rejected the surgery, left the hospital
shortly thereafter, and was able to walk with the aid of
a cane after a year. Although the doctors were convinced
he would never play guitar again, through sheer will and
talent, he learned to play with his thumb and two fingers
- and the rest is history.
But the film, thanks to its up-close cinematography, is
also an effective portrayal of the artist and the gypsy
community. The camera purposely closes in on its subject,
marking in a series of vivid portraits Django's change in
attitude from a care-free self-centred spirit to a concerned
member of the Roma community, and an aid to the Resistance,
while never loosing his sense of humour. To better render
the stages of Django's journey and the many confrontational
scenes, eye level shots are preferred over the more conventional
aerial perspective, while the highs and lows of the artist's
life are effectively evoked through creative lighting. The
atmospheric shots of the different cities and locales (from
gypsy camps to concert halls) breathe life to a period that
does not seem so distant in today's world of rising xenophobia
and ethnic violence.
Director Etienne Comar is no newcomer to ethnic conflict,
having co-written with Xavier Beauvois the tale of two religions
in Of Gods and Men (2010), winner of the Grand
Prix at Cannes. For the occasion of his directorial debut,
Django, the very first biopic of the legendary
guitarist, was chosen to open the 67th Berlin International
Film Festival.
The film and its spot-on script effectively and seamlessly
blend fact with fiction, altering the outcomes of his (second)
attempt of escape, mixing the concert at Amphion-les-Bains
with the French Resistance, or completely creating new characters,
as in the case of his fictional lover, Louise de Klerk.
Comar's film joins the ranks of World War II films like
La Vita è Bella (1997, Benigni) and Train
of Life (1988, Mihaileanu), while touching on the lesser
known facts of the Roma genocide where it is estimated that
a half a million gypsies were slaughtered by the Nazis.
But in contrast to these films, or even The Pianist
(Polanski, 2002), Django is not just a story about
survival but about the artist's power and responsibility.
The film reminds us of what stands behind music and what
it can endure.
3.0
-- THE
BEEKEEPER AND HIS SON, Diedie
Weng
[reviewed
by Oslavi Linares]
It would be tempting to describe the The
Beekeeper and His Son as an allegory of generational
change in China. After all, Diedie Weng's documentary offers
the expected contrasts: old versus young, countryside versus
city, traditional versus modern life. However, the mostly
observational documentary is also a fable on soul searching
through filmmaking. Weng's feature debut captures the poetry
of the seasons and the love for traditional labour, but
her focus is in the tension between father, Lao Yu, and
son, Mafou Yu (humorously commented by the farm's animals).
While Lao expects his son to learn the trade, Mafou seeks
to become a honey salesman, and from here Weng's chronicle
unfolds. At times Weng is not only witness but confidant;
in her director's statement, she describes how both men
preferred to share their thoughts with her and her camera.
Situations like this exemplify Errol Morris' praise for
the camera's revelatory power and speak of the merits of
the filmmaker's active, if limited, presence. Nevertheless,
Weng's film not only portrays the family's conflict but
also Weng's filming as an act of self-reflection. As part
of a growing group of national and diasporic Chinese filmmakers,
Weng's visit to the farm is part of a trend to elucidate
through film the country of her parents. "This film has
brought me closer to the perspectives of both generations
and helped me better understand the dynamics of the relationships
within my own family."
3.0
-- THE
WALL, Doug Liman
[reviewed
by Oslavi Linares]
Perhaps not the best name for anything US-related right
now. What appears to be another glorification of the US
military is in fact a revisionist thriller with a minimalist
narrative. Set in a patch of Iraqi wasteland, two American
soldiers, Isaac (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Mathews (John
Cena) are ambushed by an unseen sniper, Juba (played by
Laith Nakli, who is not credited in the trailer or promotional
material). While Juba injures both men, Isaac manages to
hide behind a crumbling wall. From here the plot zig-zags
but avoids clichés, providing a refreshing perspective on
war, survival films as well as the US occupation of Iraq.
Among the script's highlights are Isaac's attempts to turn
the situation in his favour as he engages with the enemy
in a dialogue that more than meets the eye. Through his
conversations with Isaac, Juba is given more depth of character
than usually allotted to Iraqi insurgents. In some respects,
The
Wall is an antidote to films like American Sniper
(2014) or Zero Dark Thirty (2013); instead of feats
of skill or decisive victories, the story plays out like
yet another 'casualty of war.' The accumulative effect of
ground level shots, close ups and alternating sniper viewpoints
lend a certain everydayness to the war. Despite the savagery
and pyrotechnics, the film's drama unfolds through the symbolism
of the wall. As a whole, The Wall will disappoint
those expecting a war epic, but may recruit skeptics of
war films and the US intervention in Iraq.
2.4
-- THE CIRCLE,
James Ponsoldt
[reviewed
by Oslavi Linares]
A modern day fable on the perils of software giants, social
media and online privacy. Based on the Dave Eggers novel
by the same title, the story follows Mae Holland (Emma Watson),
a customer service employee, as she lands her dream job
at The Circle, a Google alter-ego company headed by Eamon
Bailey (Tom Hanks). As Mae goes from fascinated novice to
the Circle's poster child, the audience visits an exaggerated
version of the present or a dystopia of the near future,
or utopia: it, depends who one asks. Privacy invasion, mandatory
social media, omnipresent cameras, constant video streaming
all play as elements of a cautionary tale that nevertheless,
like Mae's character, is morally ambiguous about data collection.
While the plot is driven by the hazards of information technology,
Mae and The Circle present them as their own solution, casting
doubt even on the status of the would-be villains. Yet,
the way the film tells this is more straightforward. Crisp
editing moves quickly through the story's events accompanied
by dynamic camera shots circling Mae and her world; this
is slightly hampered by the motion graphics representing
online interactivity but which frequently clutter the screen
with trivialities. The acting is not always convincing,
in part because the characters are asked to sacrifice depth
for message. Watson's character presents a balanced view
of the different issues (currently) at stake, even though
the film ultimately takes the position that social media
is more emancipatory than oppressive.
2.4
-- COLOSSAL,
Nacho Vigalondo
[reviewed
by Jordan Adler]
Colossal,
a new science fiction-comedy, is an elaborate metaphor in
search of more multifaceted characters. Anne Hathaway plays
Gloria, a less prickly variation of her best performance
to date, in Jonathan Demme’s Rachel Getting Married.
Gloria is an unemployed journalist whose troubles with alcohol
and money send her boyfriend (Dan Stevens) fleeing. She
then leaves New York for her childhood home in a nondescript
American town and bumps into an old school friend, Oscar
(Jason Sudeikis, using smarm to his advantage). What begins
as a low-key romantic comedy quickly turns into an absurd
monster movie, when a kaiju-like creature begins attacking
Seoul. How does this unexpected phenomenon play into the
story? Well, for some unexplained reason, the monster is
a manifested extension of Gloria, mimicking her behaviour
and nervous tics every time the protagonist enters a playground
space. Colossal is a movie that requires its audience
to suspend its disbelief for an extensive period. For a
while, the balance of grounded characters and wacky scenarios
offers some delights. The transference of a self-destructive
thirty-something into a monster has a metaphorical appeal,
but only until a point. With thinly conceived characters,
it is too easy to see how the dynamics will play out – especially
when the spark of romance between Oscar and Gloria disappears
and becomes something darker. The brief references to Gloria’s
past as a freelance writer gives one room to imagine that
the film’s central metaphor is related to Internet misogyny
– especially when one considers the monster-like term designated
for belligerent people online. Interpret the madness as
you will, but one wishes there was more to the dim and directionless
characters, often reduced to about as much complexity as
an online avatar thumbprint.
2.3
-- THE
LOST CITY OF Z, James Gray
[reviewed
by Jordan Adler]
A common critical refrain around The
Lost City of Z, a new adventure based off a David Grann
book inspired by true events, is that it’s a kind of film
we rarely see any more. Some commentators are referring
to epics shot in the jungle with big casts on 35mm film.
But the drama also harkens back to a time when stories about
white explorers conquering a land of 'primitives,' as several
characters put it, were more common. Considering that the
hero, Percy Fawcett (Charlie Hunnam), makes an effort to
alter his opinions of the Other – in this case, indigenous
Bolivian tribes along the Amazon river – it is a shame that
director James Gray abandons progressive politics and adheres
strictly to the perspective of the white hero. Fawcett’s
expeditions to the Amazon in the early 20th century with
Henry Costin (Robert Pattinson) show how the men often risked
their lives, dodging spears and starvation, to find the
source of the river and the coveted city alluded in the
title. Meanwhile, wife Nina (Sienna Miller, a standout as
usual) gets little to do but raise Percy’s children back
in Britain, even as she expresses her own urge to work in
the same field. A tense scene between Nina and Percy, where
she outlines her case, is the drama’s most impactful moment.
Hunnam is commanding as the cocksure protagonist, but Gray’s
screenplay allows little room for psychological depth, even
when Fawcett encounters treachery, bigotry, and his own
pride in the jungle. However, the humanity of the character,
to help bring awareness of the sustainable indigenous societies
to the public, matters less than his obsession to return
to the river. Still, even when the story sags, Darius Khondji’s
gorgeous cinematography of the sweaty Amazon flora is something
to behold.
2.2--
SONG TO SONG, Terrence
Malick
[reviewed
by Jordan Adler]
One shouldn’t buy a ticket to a Terrence Malick film unless
he or she is willing to submit to his unorthodox style.
Collections of evocative, non sequitur images and hushed
voice-over narration often coalesce for those willing to
give his fragmented journeys a try. However, unlike the
more thematically and structurally coherent (by Malick’s
standards) Knight
of Cups from 2016, Song to Song is a disjointed
and derivative slog, rescued intermittently by the efforts
of a strong ensemble. Set in and around Austin’s music scene,
the film follows freelance guitarist Faye (Rooney Mara),
charming country crooner BV (Ryan Gosling), and the rich,
flirtatious producer (Michael Fassbender) who falls for
Faye and then a teacher played by Natalie Portman. Other
notable actors, including Cate Blanchett and Holly Hunter,
float in and out of the story when needed, as do musicians
like Iggy Pop and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The drama hardly
focuses on Faye and BV’s artistic struggles; instead, it
follows their fluctuating but hardly interesting love story.
The patterns of lust and romance were captured with more
intimacy and insight in Malick’s other films. Meanwhile,
unlike the dreamy, colourful views of Los Angeles from Knight
of Cups, Austin and its sticky music festivals (shot
again by Emmanuel Lubezki) are not as visually arresting.
Regardless, even without a firm structure to work with,
the actors are a joy to watch. The plain-faced Mara, who
can drift between a pained grimace and an uninhibited free-style
dance with ease, mines a wide range of emotions. She gets
the most mileage from Malick’s improvisational methods.
Otherwise, Song to Song feels like an overlong
and undercooked concept album, reiterating its maker’s usual
themes although lacking any notable bursts of romantic or
spiritual grandeur.
3.0
-- WINDOW
HORSES, Ann Marie Fleming
[reviewed
by Jordan Adler]
Rosie Ming (voiced by Sandra Oh) is a B.C. fast-food clerk
with a secret passion of writing poetry. She has even self-published
a small collection of works, having penned them while strumming
a guitar, alone, in her bedroom. When Rosie is invited to
a poetry festival in Iran, the young adult dons a black
chador and jets off to a country she barely understands.
An innocent arrival in a foreign land has much to learn
about cultural differences and the soulfulness that goes
into making art in Ann Marie Fleming’s whimsical and often
dazzling animated feature. Fleming and her team of animators
have imaginatively rendered the homes, museums and clubs
of Iran. (When Rosie hears a voice chanting through the
city speakers, streamers of many colours fly through the
town, as if carrying those vibrations). Sandra Oh, meanwhile,
brings an intelligence and innocence to the curious Rosie,
and grounds the story during animated interpretations of
the poetry recitations. The middle hour of the film, where
we meet the other poets and realize the inspirations for
their work through back-story, contains a rich tapestry
of viewpoints for the spirited protagonist to absorb. However,
in the final third, a subplot about finding the father Rosie
hardly knew – a man that once lived in Iran before emigrating
to Canada – becomes the story’s driving force. Here, Window
Horses regresses into plot-heavy exposition, at odds
with the rest of the film’s dreamy imagery and contemplative
themes. Rosie’s creative epiphany, toward which Fleming’s
screenplay had been building, feels too rushed. Regardless
of these flaws, Window Horses is still a vivid,
colourful adventure, accompanied by Taymaz Saba’s stirring
music and a fine voice cast, including Ellen Page, Shohreh
Aghdashloo and Payman Maadi.
1.6
-- GOON:
LAST OF THE ENFORCERS, Jay
Baruchel
[reviewed
by Jordan Adler]
Jay Baruchel steps into the director’s chair for the sequel
to the 2012 Canadian hockey hit Goon,
but his juvenile, virtually laugh-free screenplay (co-written
with Jesse Chabot) completely misses. Meanwhile, with its
lax stance on concussion prevention -- a large step back
from its predecessor, which rarely glorified the on-ice
violence -- the comedy isn’t just cheap and full of stereotypes,
but irresponsible. The film begins with big-hearted if dim
enforcer Doug Glatt (Sean William Scott) getting a brutal
beat-down from rival Anders Cain (Wyatt Russell). Doug is
told he can never play again, a significant plot point the
film will later ignore to unite the hero with his Halifax
Highlander team-mates as they try to conquer a post-season
berth. Elsewhere, the storytelling is even less inspired.
Allison Pill, who brought brio and passion to the 2012 film
as Doug’s girlfriend Eva, is left on the bench for a tired
subplot involving her pregnancy, wasting the actor’s charm.
One also wishes that Liev Schreiber, delightfully intense
as Ross Rhea in the previous film, hadn’t receded into playing
a mentor type for the beleaguered Doug. Baruchel shows signs
of being a competent filmmaker: the hockey sequences benefit
from swift camerawork and a disarming amount of fake blood.
(An early tussle on the ice, with its character positioning
and excess of gore, recalls a pivotal scene from Martin
Scorsese’s Raging Bull.) But the jokes are embarrassingly
limp and too often rely on a word that rhymes with 'puck.'
A committed ensemble, including Callum Keith Rennie as the
stubborn team owner, can only carry the material so far.
2.9
-- BEFORE
I FALL, Ry Russo-Young
[reviewed
by Jordan Adler]
The simple way to explain the premise for Ry Russo-Young’s
new film is “Groundhog Day for high-schoolers.” However,
that synopsis undercuts some of the sharper insights of
the drama, based on Lauren Oliver’s young adult best-seller.
Before
I Fall follows Samantha (Zoey Deutch, from Everybody
Wants Some!!), a privileged and popular senior who,
through an unexplained time loop, experiences the same Friday
over and over again. On the initial version of this day,
Samantha gossips with her pack of mean girls (led by Halston
Sage’s Lindsay), heads to a party hosted by a childhood
friend with a crush (Logan Miller), and plans to lose her
virginity to doltish boyfriend Rob (Kian Lawley). Oh, and
she also humiliates social outcast Juliet (Elena Kampouris,
a standout) mere minutes before a sudden car crash. While
the eventfulness of Samantha’s day is too much to accept,
Deutch capably anchors some of the more unwieldy material,
expressing an innocence and empathy that hints at the character’s
discomfort with popularity. The more Samantha observes the
moods and anxieties of teenage life from a distance, the
more adequately Before I Fall seems to understand
that, for too many youths, high-school is just living the
same day over and over. Russo-Young makes a couple of fine
directorial choices, letting airy pop music make way for
a pounding, horror-centric soundtrack as the trapped protagonist
comes to terms with the wreckage she has helped spring on
her peers. The director also makes good use of an inordinately
talented young cast and lets several scenes unfold in long
takes. If anything, Before I Fall needed more time:
supporting characters like Samantha’s mom (Jennifer Beals)
and queer student Anna (Liv Hewson) barely find room to
co-exist with the rest of the subplots.
3.8
-- PATERSON,
Jim Jarmusch
[reviewed
by Jordan Adler]
Jim Jarmusch’s new drama centers on two different Patersons.
The first is the protagonist, played by Adam Driver. The
second is the tranquil New Jersey town where the character
resides, working as a bus driver and jotting down poems
in a secret notebook as a hobby. Paterson’s wife Laura (Golshifteh
Farahani) wants him to publish these thoughts for a wider
audience, but the introvert isn’t sure that’s a good idea.
The small conflicts between the two rarely come to a boil,
keeping with the film’s leisurely pace and gentle rhythms.
Told over an ordinary week in Paterson’s life, we observe
his daily routines, which always contain some pre-work quiet
to gather his thoughts into words and a post-dinner stroll
to the neighbourhood bar (with cranky English bulldog Martin)
to indulge in small talk with others between frothy sips.
The drama is hardly there, but that is part of the film’s
lovely appeal. Its humanism and genial beauty is progressively
foreign to the divisiveness of contemporary America. Driver,
with his angular, shaggy-dog face and curled smile, is superb
in the title role, encompassing a man of curiosity and immense
quiet. He is mostly a blank slate, whose personality fills
out the more he scribes on empty pages. The spurts of backstory
we get of Paterson’s time as a Marine emerges organically.
With an assured sense of character, place and tone, Jarmusch’s
latest is as good as anything he has made in a decade or
two. Paterson is an accomplished slice of life, wrapping
its audience in its comforts like the binding of a small
notebook of poetry.
3.3
-- I AM
NOT YOUR NEGRO, Raoul Peck
[reviewed
by Jordan Adler]
“The story of the Negro in America is the story of America.”
These are the words of black author and intellectual James
Baldwin, the prophetic 20th century voice whose luminous
thoughts on race, culture, and the collisions between the
two remain essential in the 21st century. A month into the
Trump regime, Raoul Peck’s Oscar-nominated tribute to Baldwin
feels palpably urgent, if also a bit unfocused. The documentary
excavates part of the manuscript from Baldwin’s unpublished
novel Remember
This House, which would have examined the author’s relationships
with three civil rights activists: Medgar Evers, Malcolm
X and Martin Luther King, Jr. From there, Peck’s film conquers
a lot of time and space; the former, in the way Baldwin’s
comments echo across footage from Ferguson riots, while
the latter in how Peck juggles many of Baldwin’s blistering
essays and equally thought-provoking public speeches and
interviews. The filmmaker also moves between capturing the
intellectual’s gentle voice as he articulates tough ideas
in simple prose with the equally silky tones of Samuel L.
Jackson (who narrates much of the film). Baldwin’s interests
and insights were boundless, such as takedowns of religion
in America and Hollywood caricaturing of black men and women
onscreen. His searing takes on Sidney Poitier’s controlled
studio characters still remain useful as cultural criticisms
today, as does, sadly, much of what Baldwin says emphatically
about race relations in the United States. With such a wealth
of material to attach to a singular voice, I Am Not
Your Negro sometimes moves haphazardly between subjects.
Peck tries to fit too much into a brief 94 minutes. This
doc could have been an hour or two longer, and lost none
of its stark, stunning power.
2.4
-- A CURE
FOR WELLNESS, Gore Verbinski
[reviewed
by Jordan Adler]
It is a rarity to see a major studio, especially in today’s
risk-averse cinematic landscape, release an R-rated thriller
clocking in at 146 minutes that has no prior source material.
The sometimes-unnerving new film from Gore Verbinski looks
and feels unlike any recent title that has entered the marketplace
(aside from Martin Scorsese’s adaptation of Shutter
Island, which also takes place at a psychiatric facility).
A Cure for Wellness follows Lockhart (Dane DeHaan),
a young executive at a vague New York firm who travels to
the Swiss Alps to retrieve his CEO, Pembroke (Harry Groener),
from a wellness centre. The task seems simple, until Pembroke
refuses to leave the sanitarium, run by Dr. Volmer (a slick
Jason Isaacs), and Lockhart has to prolong his stay after
suffering an injury. Then, odd things begin happening. Lockhart,
and the film’s audience, will spend much of the first hour
gaping at the estate’s gothic oddities, such as the hydrotherapeutic
events and the seemingly endless number of secret doorways
and corridors. (An early hallucinatory sequence inside a
steam room is a highlight). Without a constrained running
time, screenwriter Justin Haythe (who co-scribed Verbinski’s
The Lone Ranger) can bask in macabre visions, slowly
creeping suspense and even some character development, such
as Mia Goth’s innocent yet cryptic patient Hannah. She is
a standout, and DeHaan gives a capably horrified performance.
However, by the time the first hour has gone by, many filmgoers
will have pieced together many of the second-half surprises.
There is only so much arresting imagery one can take – from
dreamy mountain views to icky pools full of eels – before
the creaks in the narrative make one restless. One wishes
A Cure for Wellness had sustained its madness beyond
the 90-minute mark, when it becomes an increasingly rote
psycho-thriller.
3.0
-- JOHN
WICK: CHAPTER 2, Chad Stahelski
[reviewed
by Jordan Adler]
The lean and nasty (if repetitive) action hit John
Wick gets a sequel that improves on its predecessor.
Keanu Reeves has made the most of a role that uses his steely
blankness to its advantage. Wick has a reputation among
crime syndicates but is also an enigma, a silent and deadly
contract killer who first appears in shadow and shot from
low angles. Trying to settle into retirement, the well-tailored
shooter gets one last gig from Santino D’Antonio (Riccardo
Scamarcio). Wick must murder D’Antonio’s sister, so that
the crime lord can take her chair at some hazy organization.
The details of the vast, interconnected criminal underworld
that populates the film – one that Wick wants to evade and
live in peace – is somewhat scattered. (Despite his shadowy
persona, people in all corners of Rome and New York seem
to know his name and grant him security). But even though
Chapter 2 is more plot-heavy than the linear 2014
film, the thrills are grander and the challenges more compelling.
(The original has some inventive action sequences, but almost
all of Wick’s kills there are brusque headshots). Stahelski,
a former stunt double of Reeves, is the rare action filmmaker
who shoots much of the mayhem in long shots, giving the
audience a chance to observe the rhythms of the combat and
orient us with spaces such as Roman catacombs and an American
chop shop. The clarity of robust action and the cutlery
of weapons that Wick uses on various baddies will more than
suffice for action movie fans that have been panting for
a sequel. Meanwhile, Montreal moviegoers will not have to
look too hard to notice how frequently the city doubles
as New York. Co-starring Laurence Fishburne, Peter Stormare
and Ian McShane in grand, scenery-chewing supporting roles.
3.1
-- GULISTAN,
LAND OF ROSES, Zayne Akyol
[reviewed
by Jordan Adler]
As ISIS militants approach the mountains of Kurdistan, the
PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) guerilla fighters keep a
close watch on the nearby warring factions. This new documentary,
from Zayne Akyol and co-produced by the National Film Board
of Canada, gives intimate access to a small but tough brigade
of female fighters in the PKK. Akyol follows these soldiers
through rigorous training sessions, as they prepare for
the possibility of a sudden incursion near their communities.
The fighters are risking much, as women and girls are considered
the spoils of war for ISIS. But, there is a greater danger
if Kurdish land is not protected. As one of the women interviewed,
Rojen, tells the filmmaker, “I take up this struggle not
just for my mother, but for all mothers.” This empowering
glimpse of women prepping for combat reveals their camaraderie
and quiet courage. Akyol keeps her camera trained on a number
of soldiers, but mostly comes back to Sozdar, a woman of
deep calm and tactical brilliance. Near the start of the
film, Sozdar shows off the bumps and bruises that have come
from training, before exclaiming how a scar on her face
during battle would “make me more beautiful.” Gulistan,
Land of Roses may have benefitted from a post-text,
as the film cuts away before the PKK head out to fight.
But there is value in spending time with these fighters
during the wandering and waiting period, as they accumulate
intelligence, bond with comrades and boast of their weapons’
might. Their defiance and dignity is a gift Akyol is more
than willing to share.
2.4
- THE FOUNDER,
John Lee Hancock
[reviewed
by Jordan Adler]
The story of an American charlatan grifting small business
owners is coming out in theatres on the same day as Donald
Trump’s inauguration. Mere coincidence? The
Founder could be, thanks to distribution choices, the
appropriate first film of this presidential era, although
one would wish for more daring or incisive commentary. John
Lee Hancock’s film focuses on the true story of Ray Kroc
(Michael Keaton), a travelling salesman circa 1954 who quickly
sees dollar signs when he visits a restaurant called McDonald’s.
Brothers Dick (Nick Offerman) and Mac (John Carroll Lynch),
who own the thriving, original San Bernardino location,
have an efficient system to get burgers and soda to customers
30 seconds after they order. Scribe Robert D. Siegel lets
the brothers recount their early history and approach to
food service with the same speediness and thrall of that
busy kitchen. Ray eats up this slice of business acumen,
and proposes to franchise the restaurant (and its golden
arches) across the Midwest. Hulky character actor Lynch,
given a role of gentle gravitas, is the beating heart of
The Founder. However, Kroc’s journey from an idealistic
businessman who listens to inspirational mantras on his
record player to a shortsighted schemer needed more nuance.
Keaton, alongside Siegel’s script, piles on Kroc’s sleazy
charm from the first scene – a sales pitch directly to the
camera – and too rarely finds notes of grace, conflict or
vulnerability to create a more dimensional anti-hero. We’re
rarely rooting for Kroc to succeed, ensuring the drama wilts
when the McDonald brothers are offscreen. As product placement
goes, the calorie-high options look savoury, to the point
that audiences could leave both angry (about sponsoring
the fast food empire) and hungry for a Big Mac. Co-starring
Laura Dern in a neglected role as Kroc’s neglected wife.
3.2
-- LA LA
LAND, Damien Chazelle
[reviewed
by Jordan Adler]
Damien Chazelle’s new musical honours the Technicolor song-and-dance
classics of yesterday, although it ends up working better
as a pastiche than a narrative. La
La Land focuses on two striving artists, first shown
stuck in traffic, who later bond over their love for show
business. Mia (Emma Stone, perfectly cast) works as a barista
on the Warner Bros. studio lot and occasionally shuffles
off to movie auditions, with little success. Sebastian (Ryan
Gosling, too seasoned for the role) dreams of opening a
jazz club, but has to settle for lame side-jobs to pay the
rent. When the two find a kindred passion for the arts,
each tries to help boost the other’s languishing career.
While Chazelle’s previous film, Whiplash, made
music out of chaos, La La Land is a bit too seamless.
The director films many of the musical numbers with single
takes that, while technically impressive, feel controlled
to a fault. The sequences don’t pop with the explosive energy
as Whiplash star J.K. Simmons, who has an extended
cameo here. Still, Stone and Gosling, in their third film
together, have a finely tuned chemistry worth swooning over.
This is perhaps the reason why the film’s most dazzling
show-stoppers are the ones where both stars play naturally
off the other. Meanwhile, the musical has some finer points
to make about the paradoxes of Hollywood, a place that worships
everything and values nothing, as one character espouses.
Chazelle understands how much of Los Angeles consists of
shiny neon trying to sparkle up the facades of ragged, century-old
buildings, to the point that he’s made a film that works
as its own extended metaphor. Expect Academy voters, who
have indulged in other postmodern tributes to the power
of entertainment (Birdman, The Artist), to eat
it up.
2.7
-- LION,
Garth Davis
[reviewed
by Jordan Adler]
Eight years after an 18-year-old Dev Patel captured our
attention in Slumdog
Millionaire, Danny Boyle’s intoxicating and fantastical
lensing of India told through flashbacks of Patel’s winsome
protagonist as a boy, the British actor stars in a film
that could have worked better with that film’s jumpy temporal
structure. Instead, director Garth Davis, making his narrative
feature debut, and scribe Luke Davies tell the true story
of Saroo Brierley chronologically. In Lion’s superior
first half, we meet young Saroo (Sunny Pawar, who ably carries
the drama on his petit shoulders). One morning, the boy
awakens on a train travelling hundreds of miles away from
his mother and older brother in rural India, and ends up
stranded in Calcutta. Unable to speak the regional Bengali,
Saroo scavenges by the river and lands up in an orphanage.
Soon, an Australian couple, Sue (Nicole Kidman) and John
(David Wenham), adopt the beaming Indian boy. The drama’s
second half, with Patel as university-age Saroo, lacks the
energy and vivid specificity of the first. Here, Saroo,
haunted by feelings of abandonment toward the Indian family
he hasn’t seen in years, tries to track them down. Google
Earth becomes his tool of choice, although the filmmakers
don’t quite know how to dramatize Saroo’s scrolling and
searching. Patel’s deeply expressive face is left to do
much of the heavy lifting. After chronicling the boy’s riveting
adventures of adversity, Davis and Davies try too hard to
fit in subplots belonging to the film’s supporting characters,
and thus rely on telling more than showing. Kidman’s monologues
as the protective adoptive mom do little except acknowledge
her role as Saroo’s white savior. Co-starring Rooney Mara
in a thankless supporting role as Lucy, the protagonist’s
girlfriend.
3.6
-- MANCHESTER
BY THE SEA, Kenneth Lonergan
[reviewed
by Jordan Adler]
The third feature from playwright Kenneth Lonergan is a
drama about grief and family dysfunction that manages to
find enough stirring notes of levity and grace to become
a staggeringly rich experience. Casey Affleck is squirrelly
and often shattering as Lee Chandler, a Boston handyman
making a humble wage who returns to the titular town after
his older brother, Joe (Kyle Chandler), dies from a degenerative
heart condition. There, Lee is oddly reticent with his mourning
– one that we later learn stems from a numbing tragedy years
earlier. Lee also wants to help Joe’s son, 16-year-old Patrick
(Lucas Hedges), adjust to life without a father. Yet, the
boy seems more occupied with getting laid and replacing
the motor on the family boat than dealing with loss. The
repairman’s biggest challenge is figuring out a plan of
action, after he finds out that Joe left Patrick to his
custody. Lonergan’s screenplay shifts between delicate emotions
and tough language. The profane bickering between Lee and
Patrick, sometimes unspooling over one or two medium-long
shots, has a rhythm and cadence one finds more often on
the stage. The film dips into flashback naturally, giving
the audience just enough information to inform the intensity
of later scenes without interrupting the present-day story.
Affleck, with sunken eyes and a rascally voice, is arresting
as a man trying (and often failing) to be a vessel of compassion
for those in his life, while Hedges is a talent worth watching.
Manchester
By the Sea rarely sentimentalizes; however, an overbearing
score from composer Lesley Barber strains against the naturalism
of the performances, ruining some of the film’s more potent
scenes by drowning out the dialogue and melting the icy
mood. Co-starring Michelle Williams as Lee’s estranged ex-wife
and Gretchen Mol as Patrick’s mom, another estranged soul.
