November 29, 2024

Welcome to TFCA Friday, a weekly round-up of film reviews and articles by TFCA members.

In Release this Week

All the Lost Ones (dir. Mackenzie Donaldson 🇨🇦)

“What follows is a tense game of cat-and-mouse, with brutal consequences. Between the sheer amount of bloodletting and its psychological repercussions, All the Lost Ones is not for the squeamish, but neither is the violence gratuitous; the film earns every splatter. Mathews and Smith in particular are excellent at selling us on the emotional stakes of their predicament, in several powerful scenes that lift this film above mere didacticism,” writes Chris Knight at Original Cin. “The fact that the radio gives the weather not in Celsius but Fahrenheit provides an instant cue that things are not as they used to be in Canada. And it’s equally instructive when a quick image of an abandoned store shows its windows covered not with yellowed copies of the North Bay Nugget but political treatises and revolutionary pamphlets.”

Beatles ’64 (dir. David Tedeschi)

“The fans awaited the Fab Four at the airports to greet the ‘mop tops’ with frenzied screams and adoration at every stop.  Fascinating interviews with fans who waited at the airports, with tour PR and logisticians, and those who felt changed,” writes Anne Brodie at What She Said. “One woman said that fans screamed ‘because the love came out of a non-verbal place’ citing primitive eroticism. Interviews with Smokey Robinson, Ronnie Spector and photographer Harry Benson and David Lynch offer their insights. One man says, ‘Music stops the bleeding. My father never recovered from (the recent) JFK assassination but we kids did… (because of the Beatles).’ Wow. Pure joy.”

“The film casts a pretty wide net to look for answers to Beatlemania, starting with the fact that those young, offbeat lighthearted young men landed in America three months after the assassination of President John F, Kennedy, and perhaps were a salve for the deep psychic wound that his death inflicted on the country,” says Karen Gordon at Original Cin. “The film gives us a glimpse into the band’s attitude (relaxed and casual) and their easygoing dynamics and relationships, and their very British sense of humour with its slightly satirical flavour. Their press conferences were lively and charming, and created a madcap image that the band would continue to foster as their career grew.”

“Beatles ’64 won’t astonish any longtime fans of the band. Although it boasts 17 minutes of unseen archival footage, plus newly restored performances from the group’s Washington concert and new interviews with surviving Beatles McCartney and Starr, much of this material has been seen before in innumerable news reports, documentaries and anthologies,” writes Peter Howell at the Toronto Star. “Beatles ’64 is short on narrative clarity and long on context and cultural connections — it even invokes communications guru Marshall McLuhan to explain the band — as it seeks to answer its own questions, many of them prompted by ancient news headlines that flash across the screen.

“This doc adds to the growing body of restored and remixed Beatles’ lore: nothing really tops the rooftop concert of Get Back, but the restored Maysles’ footage combined with Scorsese and Tedeschi’s hands merits a look, even for audiences feeling music doc fatigue,” says Pat Mullen at POV Magazine. “Non-fiction fans tiring of music docs might get a second wind here as the 16mm footage reminds a viewer why the genre continues to prove as popular as the Beatles. Nobody shot history in the making quite like the Maysles, and their Beatles’ footage ranks among the best material captured of the group.”

Flow (dir. Gints Zilbalodis)

“Flow is an adventure thriller, which keeps audiences engaged through its scary but compulsively watchable throughline,” notes Marc Glassman at Classical FM. “As the story takes place, it’s hard to anticipate what will happen next to the boat and the animals, but you know it will be entertaining and anxiety making. It has its ‘hero,’ the black cat, and a compelling narrative with so many ‘orphans’ being allowed into the motley crew on the boat. There’s something immensely likeable about the odd group which becomes part of the sailboat’s society.”

“There is not much narrative and hardly any dialogue in Flow, which makes the film universal to any English or non-english speaking country,” says Gilbert Seah at Afro Toronto. “But the lack of a strong narrative and story does have a toll on this otherwise magnificent animated feature.  Flow has to rely completely on the animation to tell its story of cat and his antics.”

The G (dir. Karl R. Hearne 🇨🇦)

“Character actor phenom Dale Dickey does her finest work yet in an electrifying performance as Ann, a woman fighting for her life and her granddaughter’s. The G is a twisted biblical fable that opens on someone’s mouth, gasping for air, buried under desert sand as two men keep shoveling,” notes Anne Brodie at What She Said. “It bears repeating that Dickey, a masterful artist, is superb, an ageing warrior protecting her loved one at any cost with one of the most expressive faces onscreen these days…wow.”

Heavier Trip (dir. Jukka Vidgren & Juuso Laatio)

“The film aims at being a relentless odyssey of sound, fury, and the unbreakable spirit of true heavy metal in this sequel to cult classic Heavy Trip,” notes Gilbert Seah at Afro Toronto. “But the film is an acquired taste.  To others, the film, which is no Aki Kaurimaki’s Leningrad Cowboys Go America is a boring one-joke film that fails to impress or entertain, while managing just a few laughs.”

The Heirloom (dir. Ben Petrie 🇨🇦)

“Much of the action in The Heirloom takes place in Allie and Eric’s house, which gives the film an uncommon intimacy. Their interactions with each other and with Milly feel familiar, scanning entirely convincingly as they casually bicker or trade notes on Milly’s progress. The film’s Toronto setting — specifically, the Riverdale area — also brings it home for local viewers, but the reality the couple faces as their desires for the future diverge are universal,” says Kim Hughes at Original Cin. “In the end, what the couple and their crew achieved is a palpable, amusing, and entertaining study in human-to-human — and human-to-canine — interactions at a fraught moment in time.”

Maria (dir. Pablo Larraín)

“[A] superb dramatic canvas for Angelina Jolie, excellent here, whose thousand-yard stares and obstruse pronouncements about opera and life capture the apparent melancholy swaddling Callas at the end of her life as she popped pills, mourned dead lovers, and witnessed her once magnificent voice decline. ,” notes Kim Hughes at Original Cin. “I’d rank Maria behind Jackie and ahead of the narratively woozy Spencer. In each, powerful lead performances and attention to period detail are enormously entertaining. But I can’t say I walked away with new knowledge or a fresh perspective of an immensely well-covered subject. Here as elsewhere in Larraín’s depictions, closely guarded secrets remain just that.”

“Like the other two in this unofficial trilogy, Maria offers a great role to a brilliant actress. We’re given a stunning tale of a beauty whose life has gone wrong. And we can’t help but be moved,” says Marc Glassman at Classical FM. “Any lover of opera or Callas or fine acting must see Maria. But why is this film, like the others, so joyless? Can’t we experience some pleasure with these wonderful women? Yes, their lives were tragic, but can’t we find some grace and validation in Larraín’s trilogy?”

“Jolie certainly fits her leading role, even if her resemblance to Callas is less visual than it is emotional and aural. Months of vocal lessons for the Oscar winner paid off; she impressively handles the singing, which is supplemented in some scenes by Callas’s own voice,” observes Peter Howell at the Toronto Star. “It doesn’t make literal sense, but Maria isn’t meant to. It’s a story of art over intellect, of raging against the dying of the light, even if the reason for the rage isn’t entirely clear.”

“Maria is pretty much the same as Larraín’s other two films of his trilogy Jackie and Spencer, with elaborate and meticulously orchestrated production set pieces but empty vehicles on the whole where the sum of the parts do not really add up to a strong narrative or purpose,” admits Gilbert Seah at Afro Toronto.

“It’s a testament to Jolie that she tackles a part that many cinephiles, this one included, long waited for Meryl Streep to play in what was reported to be the actor’s most coveted roles,” writes Pat Mullen at That Shelf. “And as a critic who considers Streep the finest screen actor, I must extend the highest compliment possible: it’s hard to imagine any actor exceeding the feat that Jolie performs here.”

Moana 2 (dir. David Derrick Jr., Jason Hand and Dana Ledoux Miller)

“If it’s good enough to entertain a five-year-old, what does it matter how interesting the songs, story or sentiments are? Do we give the corporate product — slick but soulless, serviceable for kids but depressingly empty — a pass because it does what it says on the tin?” asks Jackson Weaver at CBC. “Are empty displays of representation in big-budget media overvalued? Or is it still worthwhile to make purposeless rehashes just because they include non-European-influenced music traditions, buried beneath pop instrumentation of otherwise average songs? Does this deserve critical thought at all? And how far above forgettable is the bar for inoffensive sequels?”

“Moana 2 is totally formulaic as are most of the Disney movies, not that it is a bad thing as it serves no purpose of changing a formula that makes money,” admits Gilbert Seah at Afro Toronto. “But there is nothing really fresh or exciting in this feature though Moana 2 is entertaining enough (good voice characterizations, excellent animation, a few catchy songs and a fairy tale-like mystical story) that it should not disappoint families that go for Disney entertainment.”

“Now everything is jammed into one frantic theatrical movie, helmed by three directors — Jason Hand, Dana Ledoux Miller and David G. Derrick Jr. — and the crowding doesn’t do the project any favours,” says Peter Howell at the Toronto Star. “Neither do the songs by Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear, which feel generic and patchy. The original Moana benefited greatly from songs by Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, which were more tuneful and heartfelt.”

Mononoke the Movie: Phantom in the Rain (dir. Kenji Nakamura)

“Mononoke the Movie: Phantom in the Rain is an excellent Japanese animation, a mix of animated manga and what would be seen in the Ghibli  Studio films,” says Gilbert Seah at Afro Toronto. “The word ‘kaleidoscope’ would be the best one to be used to describe the experience from the film’s animation. There are whirling colours that blend in and out, totally suited to the freaky psychedelic atmosphere of the period fantasy.  Though the story is a little plain, there is enough mystery and mystic to keep the audience satisfied.”

Nutcrackers (dir. David Gordon Green)

“With the one-off low-budget Nutcrackers, Green says he wants to pay tribute to the rough-edged adult-child comedies of his youth, films like The Bad News Bears and Uncle Buck,” says Liam Lacey at Original Cin. “The result is a film that often feels, beat by beat, like you’ve seen it somewhere before. From the moment Mike rolls up to the ramshackle farmhouse in his lemon-yellow Porsche, it’s one madcap prank and wacky event after another: Pigs and chickens in the kitchen, a snake in the toilet, farts at the table, and soon the boys are doing donuts in the barnyard with Michael’s precious car.”

Our Little Secret (dir. Stephen Harek)

“To the script’s credit, the comedy works as there are quite a few hilarious comedic set pieces,” says Gilbert Seah at Afro Toronto. “At the end of the movie Avery’s ex, now her new beau remarks how incredible a woman Avery had become.  In real life, the once troublesome Lindsay Lohan has also turned over a new leaf, becoming quite the rom-com queen, perhaps a slightly naughtier version of Doris Day.”

Reinas (dir. Klaudia Reynicke)

“Reinas is a culture-rich film with three intermingled stories wonderfully told within the country’s political unrest,” says Gilbert Seah at Afro Toronto.

The Snow Sister (dir. Cecilie A. Mosli)

“The film has all the elements of an endearing, sad and depressing film while also with uplifting moments – a Christmas joyous setting with a lot of sentimental music, love and loss and family values,” says Gilbert Seah at Afro Toronto.

File Under Miscellaneous: On the Campaign Trail

At That Shelf, Pat Mullen speaks with Conclave’s Isabella Rossellini about her scene-stealing performance and how far her career has come since Blue Velvet: ““The role was very controversial because I played, basically, a battered woman,” says Rossellini. “I don’t think there were many roles yet that talked about that. But if you want, Dorothy is the opposite of Sister Agnes. Dorothy is a night club singer, but she’s totally a victim of men. She’s totally under their power and she’s kind of terrified, while Sister Agnes, who has accepted to have a subservient role, has incredible authority. So, in a way, it is the opposite. The nightclub singer was suffering, being dominated, and the nun you expect that she’s dominated in a patriarchal society. She’s not at all. She has a lot of authority. I think the Cardinals were a little bit afraid of her.”

On the TFCA blog, Marriska Fernandes speaks with The Piano Lesson director Malcolm Washington and stars John David Washington and Danielle Deadwyler about bringing August Wilson’s play to the screen. “You can understand that from a very present tense point where history is and particularly Black American history is being withheld in a certain way in the American education systems in certain states,” says Deadwyler. “Attacking the residual effects of [Wilson’s] works that were created in past decades are that much more palpable right now for us to say we need to confront that. That’s the biggest thing, or one of the larger things, that I think about in this work. Berniece, because she’s not dealing with it, it comes to her in the form of dreams in this work. It comes to her in the form of spirit and apparition. It comes to her in the form of echoing in her own daily consciousness, right? You cannot evade what wants to have you. That’s heavy, heavy thoughts.”

TV Talk/Series Stuff

At What She Said, Anne Brodie busts out some pancakes and digs into the Great Maple Syrup Heist caper The Sticky: “a complete, looney joy lead by the incomparable Margo Martindale as Ruth Landry, the main conspirator,” says Brodie. Meanwhile, the anthology series Inside No. 9 is “satirical, dark and disturbing and yet hilarious, sinister, and oh so human.” And Netflix’s The Madness is “an adventure that reflects today’s culture divisions in a hair-raising, fable-esque eight parter.”