Movies with celebrated origins: a popular franchise, a star classical conductor and a Canadian novel

It's a week to get Canadian at the movies. Scarborough, the big winner at the Canadian Screen Awards last week, is back theaters today. That's six weeks after it originally started. It's playing in Toronto (2 theaters), Halifax and Ottawa and coming soon to London, Victoria and Vancouver.

And at some theaters, like the VIFF Centre in Vancouver, it's playing one time for free, on Wednesday. That's Canada Film Day an annual celebration sponsored by Reel Canada. There'll be more than 1,000 film screenings across Canada, as far north as the Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum in Iqaluit, where they're showing Portraits from a Fire and as downtown as the new Alanis Obomsawin Theatre in Montreal. She and another indigenous filmmaker, Jeff Barnaby, will be there to talk about their work.

To find out what's showing anywhere in Canada, including your town, check out this: https://canfilmday.ca/see-a-film/events-listing/

Coincidentally another Canadian film, All My Puny Sorrows, is also opening this week. It had eight CSA nominations. My review is below, along with these …

Fantastic Beasts The Secrets of Dumbledore: 2 ½ stars

Viva Maestro! 4 stars

All My Puny Sorrows: 3½

Sundown: 3½

Paris, 13^th District: 4

FANTASTIC BEASTS: THE SECRETS OF DUMBLEDORE: Number three in this attempt to revive the magic of the Harry Potter movies doesn't manage to do much of that at all. They're all pre-quels and while this one isn't as uninterestring as the second, it's not much of an improvement either. The plot meanders; there are too many characters and too few fantastic beasts, or even secrets. The problem may be encapsulated by this in the credits: “Screenplay by J. K. Rowling and Steve Kloves, based on a screenplay by J. K. Rowling.” A studio-ordered re-write with add-ons? I wouldn't be surprised. But for knowledgeable Potter fans there's compensation in the many references back which they can identify. Many are small but at least one is big; an actual visit to Hogwarts.

The story that gets us there is muddled, starting with a meeting over lunch between Dumbledore (Jude Law) and Grindelwald (now, with Johnny Depp sidelined by scandal, played by Mads Mikkelsen). He's intent on taking over the world of wizards and Dumbledore must stop him. He recruits the magic and zoology specialist Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) and all the wizards and witches he can round up to help out (including Alison Sudol as the good witch Queenie Goldstein and Dan Fogler as the non-wizard baker, Jacob Kowalski.

Last film Grindewald said he'd start a wizard uprising. He doesn't mention that again but runs in an election to be president of the Confederation of Magic. That brings dirty politics and even hints of fascism into the series and fighting against it involves a gimmick that further clutters up this story. Grindewald can see the future. To foil him create a series of random events which he won't be able to make sense of. We can't either. Technically, the film sparkles. The narrative does not. (Theaters all over) 2 ½ out of 5

VIVA MAESTRO!: Here's a rousing documentary about a star orchestra conductor that comes as a tasty mix of music and personal drive and a tinge of political smarts. The maestro is Gustavo Dudamel, the music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, originally from Venezuela and often a guest conductor with major orchestras worldwide. We see him in Berlin, Vienna and Chile among other places and also in rehearsals, which is where we really get the lively, cheerful personality he is. For instance, there's a terrific section where he calls the opening of Beethoven's 5^th the most important four notes in the history of music and demands repeat plays until he gets exactly what he wants.

He explains his personal conducting style. The hand has to be like a bird, he says. Music contains tension and he must get that from the players. He wants the 9^th Symphony to be “more sparkling.” He exudes exuberant energy as he does it and in the film also clearly explains his philosophy. Number one: music can unite us. He left Venezuela after he criticised the government for shutting down the youth orchestra where he got his start. He's one of the youngest conductors to become world famous, and though the film doesn't get into this, has made ocassional forays into popular music too, conducting for movie sountracks or accompanying artists like Coldplay and Beyonce. His personal life is also missing, his two marriages for instance. But his drive to play, teach and extol music are there and strong. (Theaters in Toronto and Vancouver, Ottawa next week) 4 out of 5

ALL MY PUNY SORROWS: The celebrated novel by Miriam Toews gets a handsome movie treatment but get ready for the dour tone. Grief and one person's wish to die are here right from the start and the brief flashes of humor that come along don't lighten it up very much. The close relationship between two sisters does somewhat but they spend all their time talking about death too.

Sarah Gadon is the sister who wants to die. She's Elfrieda, a successful concert pianist who suffers from depression and is delaying a tour she has planned. Alison Pill is her sister Yoli who isn't having much success as a writer but has no wish to end it all. Their father comitted suicide by standing in front of a train and both women fear the tendency might run in the family. A psychiatrist can't help . He has to give Frieda the benefit of the doubt that she's OK. She's not. She asks her sister to take her to Switzerland where assisted suicde is legal. Yoli won't, of course, but there are lengthy conversations in which she tries to change her mind. She has memory flashes to their youth when they were happy sisters. Toews own father was hit by a train and much of this is very personal to her. The film directed by Michael McGowan gets across the poignant ambience and sisterly love but there's no way to lighten the gloom. The title is from a Coleridge poem. (In Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal and Winnipeg theaters now and in more cities next week) 3½ out of 5

SUNDOWN: Here's a puzzle of a movie for you to figure out. You'll be highly involved in doing that because there are revelations and twists along the way that make you re-set what you think you know about the story. And only very late do you get the full answer. It'll seems an easy way out but makes for a satisfying conclusion anyway. I'm not saying much more because you don't want to know before you see it.

Tim Roth and Charlotte Gainsbourg are couple from England who arrive with two teenagers for a Mexican holiday. Before they can get much sun though a call comes through saying her mother is dying and they must come home. She and and the teens do; he's forgotten his passport and goes back to the hotel to find it and promises to take the next plane. Actually he drinks and has sex with a woman he meets (Iazua Larios) and won't answer his phone. What a heel, eh? Well, not so fast. He's a lost soul, but not as selfish as you think. The real story opens up carefully and naturally as written and directed by the Mexican filmmaker, Michel Franco. As a movie, this is a pleasing diversion. (In theaters, including VanCity in Vancouver). 3½ out of 5

PARIS, 13TH DISTRICT or as its original French title has it, Les Olympiades, is a very modern and truthful film about young urbanites and their love lives. That means there's a lot of sex here and some of it quite, ah, intimate. But the life of these people is so accurately conveyed it's absolutely believable and never feels made up. It's from three graphic novels, was directed by Jacques Audiard and co-scripted by Céline Sciamma who has been making a name for herself with contemporary films about modern young people.

The 13th District, or arrondissement, is a lively, mixed neighbourhood on the left bank in Paris. We watch several stories criss-cross, starting with a phone and internet telemarketer (Lucie Zhang) answering the door to see a man named Camille (Makita Samba) respond to an ad for a roomate. She thought Camille would be a woman. But he's a nice guy, a teacher, and therefore cultured, and she agrees he can move in. That kind of light, casual tone continues throughout this film. They becomes lovers but Camille brings in another, a woman teacher he works with, and that's doesn't end happily. Meanwhile a woman who is on the internet as a porn star named Amber Sweet does what she does and a young woman named Nora (Noémie Merlant) is mistaken for her at a dance club and hounded for selfies. When they get online; she's in bad at university, drops out and meets Camille. It keeps going like that. Coincidences roll on, real life intrudes when somebody is fired and another's grandmother dies. But life and bright dialogue goes on at a zippy pace. Not quite a comedy, but quite enjoyable. (In theaters now April 15 in Vancouver, Waterloo, Hamilton, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec) 4 out of 5