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A film I did not praise a couple of weeks ago has just been awarded a top prize at the Vancouver International Film Festival. Universal Language is also Canada's submission to the Academy Awards. Well, who needs all round agreement anyway, eh? I'll write more about it when it arrives in regular theaters.
The Joker has just barged in there, and Saoirse Ronan has made a quieter but much more impressive entrance. Read about them here, plus a fine international trip to heal a family and a few more VIFF picks.
Joker: Folie à Deux: 2 ½ stars
The Outrun: 4
Blink: 4
VIFF: Saturday Night Live: 3 ½
VIFF: Disco's Revenge: 4
VIFF: Angela's Shadow: 3
VIFF: Rumours: 2 ½
JOKER: FOLIE à DEUX: There are reasons to see this. It's one of the most anticipated films of the year. It's a sequel to the original which was a huge hit and won Joaquin Phoenix the best actor Academy Award. And it's got Lady Gaga starring beside him. But caution. It is very odd. A musical, no less. Broadway tunes, a Sinatra classic and old chestnuts are played or sung. They duet for instance on Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered. Together or seperately you'll hear them do songs from the Bee Gees and The Carpenters. "That's Entertainment" is heard several times. That's as the film explores the madness these two characters share, which the French psychiatric term in the title refers to.
Phoenix is Arthur Flack, the failed comedian who in his depression turned himself into Batman's enemy. He committed several murders and as he's going on trial his lawyer (Catherine Keener) is trying to argue that childhood trauma caused his split personality and he didn't do the killing; the Joker did. Harry Lawtey as Harvey Dent is prosecuting him. Brendan Gleeson as a prison guard beats him severely. And he, confined to an asylum, meets and falls in love with Lee (basically Harley Quinn from previous movies) and played here by Lady Gaga. She admires the Joker because of a TV movie about him that she watched. He's flattered and we see his reactions in those dream-like musical sequences. It's a way, I suppose, to elevate a pathetic character. Phoenix and director-co-writer Todd Phillips do their best but don't quite manage that. It's nervy but like I said: odd. (In theaters) 2 ½ out of 5
THE OUTRUN: We've seen many films about addiction, about falling with it or overcoming it. This has a new slant, a clear tracing of the psychological progress of a victim. It comes with a moving performance by Saoirse Ronan and sensitive direction by Nora Fingscheidt. She's a German filmmaker who's introduction to us was System Crasher, the very fine portrait of a troublemaking young girl. Her portrait of a young woman alcoholic is just as fine. It's from a personal memoir by Amy Liptrot who co-wrote the script. That may be why it feels so real and convincing.
Ronan's character lived a fast life in London. We get several flashbacks. She decides she needs to get clean and travels back to where she grew up, one of the Orkney Islands in Scotland, maybe the most remote according to a terse description that she gives. That contrast between the two worlds is perfectly conveyed but, of course, she's not free and settled down. As she says: “The past follows us.” That's not only her wild, partying life in London, but with deeper flashbacks, right where she is now. There's a memory of her dad and an extreme fit of anger. We only get hints but sense there's been an influence. “I can't be happy” she says. To get better she attends AA meetings and joins a bird survey team but admits the lure of alcohol continues. “I miss how good it made me feel,” she says. Authentic. (In theaters) 4 out of 5
BLINK: When you feel “numb and powerless” and “can't do anything about it” how do you react? Here's an inspirational story about a family from Montreal that could give you a feeling of hope. Edith Lemay and Sébastien Pelletier are told that three of their four children have a rare eye affliction that will eventually make them blind. There's no cure. Edith gets a good idea: fill their visual memory before they go blind. Take them travelling, in this case a year-long trip around the world. They get to Africa, Turkey, Mongolia, South-East Asia, and more.
They draw up a bucket list to follow which includes wishes like “To drink juice on a camel.” And yes they do that, as well as take a hot air balloon ride in Ecuador, go on a multi-day hike in Nepal and step into The White Desert which they explore like a strange planet. The cinematography is beautiful in this National Geographic film and the human emotions are paramount. The children's characters come through, the smallest proving to be something of a philosopher. They all learn about the world by going out there. The mother's dread over what is soon to happen to them brings on what she calls “anger and sadness” but then satisfaction in seeing them mature. It's a fine trip with a heart-warming sensibility. (In select theaters) 4 out of 5
Four from VIFF:
SATURDAY NIGHT: Forty nine years. SNL has been on that long and though I'm often disappointed by the writing on the show these days, this film is a worthy celebration of that TV institution. It depicts it's very origin by re-creating the week that led up to the first episode which aired October 11, 1975. The film, directed by Jason Reitman perfectly captures the hectic atmosphere, chaos even, as the cast, the writers, the producer and NBC executives battle out what is happening. The execs want to know what kind of show it is. We know now; nobody seems to have known them, except for producer Lorne Michaels, played by Canadian actor Gabriel LaBelle. You saw him as Steven Spielberg in The Fabelmans. Here he's short in stature but big in control.
He has to be with the rowdy group of comedians he hired for the show, not yet called The Not Ready for Prime Time players, but acting like it. Arguing, getting stoned, fighting even, as the week counts down to the premier episode.
Cory Michael Smith looks quite a bit like Chevy Chase, Dylan O'Brien is Dan Aykroyd, Rachel Sennott is Rosie Shuster, Ella Hunt is Gilda Radner and Nicholas Braun, who you'll remember from Succession, is both Andy Kaufman and Jim Henson. There are more including the standouts Matt Wood as a volatile John Belushi and Willem Dafoe as an NBC exec who is ready to shut it all down and has a Johnny Carson showtape cued up in case. The film describes well the network politics alongside the fears and tensions of creating something new. (VIFF tomorrow, in theaters soon, and Toronto already) 3 ½ out of 5
DISCO'S REVENGE: Here's a bright and lively alternative to so many serious films at VIFF. The bouncey rhythms of the disco music era drive it while the mirror ball flashes above our heads. And yet directors Omar Majeed and Peter Mishara find cultural substance in it, certainly in its early 1970s days. Gays revelled in the music and the club scene. Black and Latino music flavored it and the enthusiasts saw in it a movement that brought people together, no matter how different they were. Somebody mentions Buppies for instance, black urban professionals, which was a class making strides at the time. Latinos gave up the samba and learned the hustle.
The film hears from fans, club owners, journalists and many other types to describe how the music started in clubs like The Loft in New York City and caught the industry by surprise to grow big. Nile Rogers, the producer, songwriter and leader of one of the key bands, Chic, has a lot to say about those early days, how it opened the door for a lot of new black performers and drummer Earl Young demonstrates the key rhythm elements. When the music became commercialized, the disco sucks movement killed it. Not completely. The revenge is that it survived, influenced hip hop and house music and is enjoying a resurgence now among young people. (VIFF today + Sunday) 4 out of 5
ANGELA'S SHADOW: Here's a dedicated and passionate story about Indigenous history in Canada. I like the insights and the message but find the passion runs too high. The story becomes overblown to make its point and that weakens it. Before that it's a mystery and a good depiction of Indigenous mythology directed and co-written by Dr. Jules Arita Koostachin, a Cree from Ontario with a PhD from UBC and a number of films in her resume. It's set in the 1930s and mentions the effects of the residential school system as part of the background.
Angela (Sera-Lys McArthur) with her husband Henry (Matthew Kevin Anderson) travels from southern Canada to a small northern community on the invitation of her childhood nanny (Renae Morriseau) who is also a midwife. That's convenient because Angela is pregnant. A dark shadowy figure starts menacing her and that brings on a revelation about her life as an Indigenous woman.
Henry is white but learning about the culture and writing about it as a journalist. A man at a dinner party wonders why bother writing about "half-naked savages." It's by decrying that tone that this film condemns racism. Good, but it gets unrealistic when Henry takes a sudden turn to racism himself. He resolves to save Angela from this place and even at one point rants about Jesus Christ. Interesting, but overstated I'd say. (One more time at VIFF, Saturday morning). 3 out of 5
RUMOURS: Here's the cheeky humor you expect from Winnipeg's Guy Maddin (co-directing this time with Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson). And there's lots of the usual oddball material too. To borrow a Tim Walz sentiment, this film is weird. But its got a great cast led by Cate Blanchett as the Chancellor of Germany, Charles Dance as the president of the USA and Roy Dupuis as Canada's prime minister who is hurting under some unnamed scandal. They and the heads of the other G-7 countries hold their annual summit in Germany and prove to be bumbling when it comes time to write a statement to tell the world what they've decided.
What's at issue, a crisis apparently, isn't explained. Nor is the holdup. They get distracted by an archeological dig for bog people relics and a walk out into the woods where they get lost. That may be a comment on their competence. Previous statements are referenced for inspiration. There are competing visions: "A black storm comes" or "A new dawn is coming." Meanwhile, dark shapeless figures are hovering in the woods. Allegorical? Maybe, but funny as it is, not very sagacious about politics or leaders. (At VIFF tonight) 2 ½ out of 5
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