This week brings a long list of new movies plus many available from two major documentary festivals:. Both Hot Docs in Toronto and DOXA which starts in Vancouver May 5 are streaming many of their titles to anywhere in Canada. To find out what and how check out these links: https://www.doxafestival.ca/ and https://hotdocs.ca/
I review a few more of their titles today as well as the film version of Judy Blume's best-known work, Disney's re-imagining of Peter Pan, a comedy about defying immigrant elders and a Canadian miscarriage of justice.
Here's the menu:
Are You There God? It's me Margaret: 4 stars
Peter Pan & Wendy: 4
Big Fight in Chinatown: 3 ½
Cynara: 3
Coven: 3
2 Documentaries on Ukraine
Polite Society: 3 ½
Big George Foreman: 3
ARE YOU THERE GOD? IT'S ME MARGARET: The classic of young people's literature gets a loving adaptation in this film, though with a few changes. Judy Blume's most famous novel has been read by millions of young girls delighted that it dealt directly with what they were going through. Puberty. And that rarely spoken-about part of it called menstruation. Plus a thorny extra issue that wouldn't directly relate to everyone--mixed religious connections--but did add to the reality the book confronted. No wonder the novel was both celebrated and attacked. Young girls will probably take to the film just as much.
Margaret is like a real kid as played by Abby Ryder Fortson, under Kelly Fremon Craig's direction. She's new in town and school, joins a "secret club" with three other girls and they navigate the demands of growing up. The rules say whether they need it or not, they have to wear a bra and tell when they get their first period. They do exercises to grow their bust and look at a medical book and Playboy magazine to study anatomy. It's entirely possible, and the innocence is charming.
Margaret is also dealing with split demands from the fact that her dad (Benny Safdie) and grandmother (Kathy Bates) are Jewish and her mom (Rachel McAdams) and the gandparents on that side are Christians. What is she? She's free to choose herself, another issue that made the book a target. But again, it reflects real life for many kids. The film also added something: the mother's role is filled out. She more than a suburban, PTA woman, which gives McAdams more to do. That and much else here is worth watching. (In theaters) 4 out of 5
PETER PAN & WENDY: This is the latest of Disney's re-makings of their animated hits into live-action features. (The Little Mermaid is next). I didn't imagine Peter Pan had to be re-done but now that I've seen it, my thoughts have changed. Why is this one on TV (Disney+) and not in theaters? It's big and colorful and exciting and would be a natural for the big screen.
The story we all know, though there are two important changes in this version. Wendy (Ever Anderson) and her siblings are taken by Peter Pan (Alexander Molony) to Neverland where children never have to grow up. They have to face pirates though, led by Captain Hook. He has a long-standing hate for Peter, the boy who cut off his hand in a battle. The fairy Tinkerbell is along as are the Lost Boys, who in this version include girls. Hook is played with great and pompous menace by Jude Law, though it takes a long time to recognize that it's him. And the changes, which might annoy literary purists, are this: there's almost no explanation of the Lost Boys (a detail that's quite important in the book) and too much backstory for Captain Hook. I won't elaborate just now. Overall the film is a grand and thrilling adventure. (Disney+) 4 out of 5
Documentaries ...
BIG FIGHT IN LITTLE CHINATOWN: This one opens DOXA, Vancouver's documentary festival on Thursday but it will surely be of interest in many cities across North America. That's because, the film says, Chinatowns are under threat everywhere, from development or gentrification. People huddled there when they first arrived and formed thriving neighborhood and businesses. These days the richer ones have moved to the suburbs or higher-priced neighborhoods. Developers and city administrations are pushing rebuilding projects. The grossest one the film shows is a high-rise prison in New York City. There are smaller proposals but the same renewal-momentum in Vancouver, where years ago a freeway project was fought off, Toronto. San Francisco and director Karen Cho's hometown Montreal.
She also finds resistence. Groups want to keep the character of the neighborhoods, the traditions they say can only survive in the long-occupied buildings and social clubs. It's not the same in the new semi-chinatowns out in the suburbs. "We need living communities downtown" says one observer. As one operator of a dim sum restaurant says you need "love in your dumplings." There are parades, lion dances and other mainstays of the old Chinatowns and you'll probably agree. (DOXA May 4 and May 9, and streaming after May 15) 3½ out of 5
CYNARA: Here's another World Premiere from Hot Docs but I think the characterization that it puts the Canadian legal system on trial is a bit of an overstatement. The case is so complex and unprovable that it leaves you without a real decision. Suspicions, sure. But hard proof? Well, watch the film. It plays Sunday and Thursday and is available by streaming.
It starts in 2011 when Cindy Ali phoned 911 because her home had been invaded and her daughter Cynara was in shock. The girl died, Cindy was convicted of murder and her story of four masked invaders wasn't believed. But there were doubts. Demonstrators supported here and lawyers with Innocence Canada took up her case. They search out wrongful convictions and argued for an appeal.
This case relied on the testimony of one first-responder and exactly what the weather was that day. Lawyer James Lockyear argued the crown proved no motive at all, and assumed one for Cindy: that she wanted to euthenize her daughter who suffered from cerebral pawlsy. Caribbean occult ideas were cited and the proof for the home invasion was slim to non-existent. Fascinating stuff and the case is on-going. 3 out of 5
COVEN: It's trendy among some millenials these days to turn to mystical ways of thinking. That can include identifying as witches. I won't judge but here's what this film playing at Hot Docs shows us about three women exploring their connections to that part of the occult. They discover a lot. One is a singer who was raised in Toronto but has Jamaican and African roots. As a teen she was accused of being a sorceress and now she travels to New Orleans and gets reassuring advice from a black witches leader.
Another has roots in Romania, travels there to visit a woman known to be the most powerful witch in Eastern Europe and feels the energy in a magical forest. Of the three, she seems to have the most credible connection to the spirit of witchcraft.
The third's story is the most dramatic. She had ancestors who were persecuted as witches, both in Scotland and Salem, Massachussetts. That's a shocker but does bring out a key intention of this documentary, to say fervently that the bad and evil reputation that witches bear was caused by men pushing back against smart and strong women. There's a lot of history in this film by Rama Rau, and much about what contemporary witches are, but not much about what they actually do. (At Hot Docs tomorrow—the world premiere—and again May 5. Also available streaming) 3 out of 5
UKRAINE: If you do check out Hot Docs and DOXA look for the documentaries on the war in Ukraine. I've watched two and they're both excellent. 20 DAYS IN MARIUPOL is exactly that. A daily journal by a videographer who files to the Associated Press. The images are stark. He tells how he got them, what they mean and the frustrations of shooting them and trying to get them out among daily bombings, power failures and an erratic internet. (It's at Hot Docs Tomorrow and Doxa May 9) IRON BUTTERFLIES tracks a lead-up to the war. Remember the downing of the Malaysian Airliner MH17? The film tries to place blame? Butterfly is a distinctive shape found in the shrapnel and is linked to a particular Russian missile system. But who had it and who used it? Was it accidental? And for a chuckle, so rare in these stories, check out the Russian denial of what an international commission found. (It's at Hot Docs May 5)
Other films ...
POLITE SOCIETY: It's elite, genteel and proper but in this film more than a bit oppressive and controlling. So watch the fight-back in this lively comedy from England. A Muslim-Pakistani family in London is at the center, something like what we've seen in other films but with more rebellious action. And in the mash-up of styles and incidents, quite reminiscient of Everything, Everywhere, All At Once. Not as freewheeling but close. There's speedy editing, energetic stunt work, humor and witty commentary like one woman's observation: “Behind every great man is a very tired woman.”
Teenager Ria Khan (played by Priya Kansara) wants to be a struntwoman in films, which dad (i.e. the patriarchy) frowns upon. Better is her sister Lena, going to art school, he thinks. Except, she has dropped out but hasn't let it be known yet. She's helping her sister film videos to show off her stunt work and proclaim “I am Fury”. When she meets a handsome doctor at a soiree and since doctors are more than acceptable for a family moving up, dad pushes her to marry. She's willing, Ria disagrees, and with the help of two friends and some inconvenient evidence to back her up, resolves to sabotage the wedding. The film by Nida Manzoor gets wild, very funny and imaginatively entertaining. (In Theaters) 3 ½ out of 5
BIG GEORGE FOREMAN: Add this to the growing roster of movies about American blacks and their issues. It's something of a specialty for the director and co-writer George Tillman Jr. whose films include a bio of rapper the Notorious BIG. In boxing, Muhammad Ali would probably be the first we'd think of but he's a secondary character here taunting Big George as much as he can and snagging him with his Rope a Dope. But George, smartly played by Khris Davis has a wondrous history himself. The film's title adds this: The Miraculous Story of the Once and Future Heavyweight Champion of the World. Make that twice champion.
Foreman grew up poor in Texas, was taunted for it at school where one kid called him George Poorman, and became a good fighter to defend himself. He became a petty criminal, turned his life around by joining a government-sponsored job corps and a boxing program. Forest Whitaker plays the man in charge who shows him that boxing is more than fighting. You have to use your mind. From there he moves up. The win-loss numbers grow huge in his favor. He wins gold at the Olympics but got sneers from black activists. He went on to beat Joe Frazier and became world champion. The story is even more remarkable because 20 years later he won it again. Meanwhile he finds "Jesus is alive in me," becomes a preacher, forms a church and a community social club and loses all his money because his friend and "money guy" made bad investments. It's a great story, well-presented without a lot of preaching but the message coming through anyway. And the boxing scenes are vivid. (In theaters) 3 ½ out of 5
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