The Oscar nominations were the big movie story this week but I'd say the death of Norman Jewison was just as notable. He's probably the most important movie director Canada has produced. Surely the most successful. Among the many honors he won over the years were three Academy Award nominations. He didn't win one personally but his films gained 46 nominations and won 12. And think of the titles: Moonstruck, In the Heat of the Night, The Russians are Coming The Russians are Coming, Fiddler on the Roof. And many more.
For more on him, read the extensive obituaries and the I Remember features. And check out this site, just-watch.ca to see where films are streaming.
Also while you're there see where you can catch this year's Oscar nominees. A few are still in or back in theaters. Streamers are there to help with the rest.
And new this week, we have:
Origin: 3 ½ stars
Four Daughters: 4
RU: 4
Someone Lives Here: 3
The Underdoggs: 3
ORIGIN: It didn't get the Academy Award attention many were expecting but is highly engaging. Maybe it missed because it's too unusual and not for everyone. It's basically an essay, like an op ed piece perhaps, but combining drama and documentary techniques, on the subject of racism. Written and directed by Ava DuVernay (remember her film Selma?) it makes a strong case against seeing racism so easily and in as many situations as we do (certainly in the US) and start seeing a caste system. A dominant class dehumanizes and pushes some people down to the bottom. DuVernay argues that's a more accurate view. She draws on the ideas of Isabel Wilkerson who wrote the book 'Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents,' explains them and also dramatizes how she developed them.
In a moving performance Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor shows her overcoming doubts, researching and writing, while also suffering grief from the loss of her husband and mother. That personal story is parallel to the work of theorizing. The Trayvon Martin killing started it for her. A black youth killed by a Latino man who was guarding a white community didn't make sense to her as a simple case of racism. She thought about Nazis vs Jews. They were both white. And in India, where the untouchables, now called Dalits, are at the bottom, everybody is brown. Declaring some people as inferior is the common thread. We get scenes from the US, India and Germany, including the night of the book burning and the assertion that the Nazis were inspired by the US separation of the races. Provocative and intense. (It started in two Toronto theaters last week, and has now gone wider) 3 ½ out of 5
FOUR DAUGHTERS: This one is poignant and fascinating in equal measure. It's poignant for the true story it tells and interesting for how it tells it. It's a hybrid. We get the story as we watch a documentary being prepared to tell it. There are re-enactments; actors play some roles, including two daughters who aren't there, and even a mother, who is there and injects comments now and then. Well-known Tunisian actor actress Hind Sabri plays her. The real daughters, Eya and Tayssir play themselves.
It's unconventional in structure and won a big award at Cannes and, this week, an Academy Award nomination as best documentary. That's a second time for writer-director Kaouther Ben Hania. She's from Tunisia, where the story takes place. She got on to it when she saw a news clip of the mother appealing for the return of two daughters being held in a Libyan jail. We eventually get the facts. Mom says they were "devoured by the wolf." We see they reacted to her strict rules and came under the sway of extreme Muslim fundamentalists. For them, wearing a nijab was an act of rebellion, while in the background political turmoil and social changes enabled their strange journey. And gave us an intriguing film. (In theaters: Toronto and Vancouver now, Ottawa, Edmonton and Winnipeg next week, more to come) 4 out of 5
RU: People who sponsor refugees will be especially interested in this one. Ukrainians, Syrians and others are the recent arrivals and the situation was much the same when the Vietnamese boat people arrived years ago. People had to accept them, get them accustomed to their new country and make them feel welcome. All that is veraciously portrayed in the novel by Kim Thúy, herself a Vietnam refugee. It won the Governor General's Award and is now a film from Quebec, directed by Charles-Olivier Michaud. It's not only a very good representation of the quality of the films that come so regularly from there but also of the best sides of Canadians who are so willing to help.
The film focuses on a young girl named Tinh. When Saigon fell, her family had to flee because the father was a government employee. Their political alliegence is not the point here. Overcoming trauma is. Getting out by boat was scary; months in a Malaysian refugee camp added to a state of shock. When they got to Quebec it was cold with snow and felt alien. Tinh wasn't outgoing and kept the trauma inside, but we come to understand it through flashbacks that bring all they've been through back to her. It seems to be a very true representation of what people go through in such a situation. A young newcomer, Chloé Djandji, plays her very well and gets our sympathy for her and for the difficulties the whole family has in adjusting. They were upper middle class over there; they're struggling now. The film conveys their story, and maybe of all imigrants, sensitively and with a warm heart. (In theaters) 4 out of 5
SOMEONE LIVES HERE: It played both Toronto's and Vancouver's film festivals, was the audience favorite at Hot Docs and is now back in theaters in those two cities, and more soon. It deserves attention, maybe not for its specific solution for the homeless crisis that many big cities are suffering, but that it pushes for doing something. In Toronto a young carpenter named Khaleel Seivwright started building tiny shelters in 2021 for people who needed them. These are large enough for just one person, aren't heated (except by the body heat of the occupant) and yet are able to get people through the coldest nights. Also, it beats a sleeping bag or cardboard on the sidewalk.
He explains how they work and why they're needed and a woman named Taka tells off camera how much she likes them. The city isn't impressed though. Bureaucrats on the phone and Mayor John Tory state their objections. They don't want them in the public parks and the chief at the fire department warns they're dangerous. There is one tragedy and then a huge police effort to shut them down and get them out of the parks. It's like a military operation and will likely stir up your anger at them and to a woman who supports getting them out of the neighborhood. The documentary by Zack Russell (his first) has a potent message that's won awards and is worth getting. 3 out of 5
THE UNDERDOGGS: Snoop Dogg, the rapper and Martha Stewart pal, hasn't been in a movie for 20 years (except for a voice in an animation along the way). Too bad. He's got a natural screen presence, probably honed by his concert experience. Here he's a washed-up football player, 20 years past his prime, living in luxury but responsible for an accident with his high-powered car and sentenced to community service for it. Picking up dog waste in the park doesn't engage him. Watching a team of boys playing football very badly does. He takes on the job of coaching them or as he puts it: "share my greatness with the next generation".
He also re-connects with an old girlfriend (Tika Sumpter) whose son is on the team. We get a pleasant, loose and buoyant film much like The Mighty Ducks, if you can remember that one. But it's not for kids; the rough language is extreme and frequent. Everybody loves an underdog, is the main theme. Snoop gives another with this line: "When you reach the mountaintop everybody wants to see you fall." That's his situation. We see it discussed on TV by Terry Bradshaw, Howie Long and other former NFL players. We see a nasty coach of another boy's team (Andrew Schulz) malign him. Snoop makes a big speech about underdogs to inspire his players (just as you expect) but ... well, see it. In real life Snoop sponsors a youth football league and came up with the idea for this film. The director is Charles Stone III whose film Drumline a few years ago I also enjoyed. (Streaming on Prime Video) 3 out of 5
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