Year: 2019

Film Review: TONI MORRISON: THE PIECES I AM (USA 2019) ***

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Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am Poster
Trailer

This artful and intimate meditation on the legendary storyteller examines her life, her works and the powerful themes she has confronted throughout her literary career.

Director:

Timothy Greenfield-Sanders

Stars:

Toni Morrison, Hilton Als, Oprah Winfrey

This artful and intimate meditation on the legendary story- teller, TONI MORRISON examines her life, her works and the powerful themes she has confronted throughout her literary career.

For those unfamiliar with the literary world of Toni Morrison, Toni is a Pulitzer Prize winner for her novel Beloved and also the recipient of the the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993 with four novels in Oprah’s Book Club.  She is at present 88 years of age, and still as spritely as a young author, evident during her interviews captured on film.  She has been described more accurately as a legendary storyteller whose books are written from the black perspective. 

There cannot be enough praise for Toni Morrison.  Morrison has accomplished monumental orgs in her lifetime.  Besides her literary works, she also did the biography of Mohammad Ali.  On camera, she does not blow her own horn. But the other interviewees on camera like Oprah Winfrey, Toni’s friends and author Fran Lebowitz, author/activist Angela Davis, poet Sonia Sanchez, long-time editor Robert Gottlieb are others singing her praises.

Toni’s life, career and achievements are actually available for a good read on Wikipedia and one can learn just as much reading Wikipedia as it traces Toni’s lifelong journey from child to the present and how her life influenced her works.  But Greenfield-Saunders brings her life to the screen with lots of archival footage, such as grainy black and white film of black folk riding horse carriages in the old towns in America.  The film also puts her work and black folk into perspective.  It is revealed in voiceover that blacks were not allowed to be taught to read not even by the white folk.  Toni, who grew up in Loraine, Ohio, went to school and eventually to college.  She attended the historically black Howard University (where she faced segregation within the black community), to her stint as an editor at Random House (where she did ’70s-era book tours with Muhammad Ali).  She was also a single mother with two sons, rising at 5:00 am to write.

The film is directed by photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, who met Morrison in 1981 when he did a cover shoot with her.  For this film, he has Morrison looking directly into the camera, while he shoots the others in an “over the shoulder style.”  As a director, he’s known for his “identity” documentaries such as The Black List (inspired by Morrison).

The best part of the doc is Toni’s books been described on film as well as the reactions of the books when first published.  Mention is given of her works like Beloved.  Another book “The Bluest Eye” is described in detail.  This is the book she wrote every morning up at 5 am while bringing up her two children.   Oprah interviewed, described how she got and called Toni on the telephone, ending up making a film of BELOVED directed by Jonathan Demme.  There is no mention, however that the film was a box-office flop.

Though it is pointed out in the film that Toni has both the respect and readership worldwide of Mexicans and Asians, the film would be more directed towards Americans (both black and white).  After all, the black American is half and an important part of American history.  

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8sUwXTWb4M

Film Review: EXTREMELY WICKED, SHOCKINGLY EVIL AND VILE (USA 2019) ***

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Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile Poster
Trailer

A courtroom frenzy ensues and sweeps 1970s America when a young single mother meets Ted Bundy.

Director:

Joe Berlinger

Writers:

Elizabeth Kendall (based on the book “The Phantom Prince: My Life with Ted Bundy” by), Michael Werwie

Stars:

Lily Collins, Zac Efron, Angela Sarafyan

Director Joe Berlinger is no stranger to the serial killer genre nor even to the Ted Bundy killings.  Ted Bundy is one of the most infamous American serial killers in history, being extremely charming and good-looking while committing unspeakable violent acts with the women he has killed.  Berlinger has made the 1997 doc PARADISE LOST: THE CHILD MURDERS AT ROBIN HOOD HILLS and lately CONVERSATIONS WITH A KILLER: THE TED BUNDY TAPES.  In his latest film, EXTREMELY WICKED, SHOCKINGLY EVIL AND VILE, the Ted Bundy story is told from a different perspective, from the point of view of one of the women charmed by him, who fell in love with him and visited him in prison while all the time believing in his innocence.  This woman is Liz (Lily Collins) who is finally forced to let him go at the end of the film.

The words of them film’s title are the exact words of Judge Edward Coward (played with sarcastic relish by John Malkovich), himself charmed by the killer while sentencing the man right after the trial.  Throughout the film, Berlinger never admits to Bundy’s guilt though there are a few instances (the evil sensed by a dog; his look while having sex; his look while being pushed beyond the limit) of a possibility.  If one had not known the history that Bundy had admitted his guilt and has since been executed in the electric chair, the film would attest his  innocence and how wrongful his arrest was.  Such is the story-teeing ability of Berlinger.

The film unfolds like a love story.  Bundy and Liz meet at a bar. It is love at first sight.  He takes Liz on as a girlfriend and lover despite she being a single mother.  When arrested, Bundy insists on his innocence.  Liz believes in him and supports him all the way despite contrary advice given her by her best friend. 

Berlinger wants to show that Bundy can charm both his women as well as the audience,  Zac Efron playing Bundy does just that and a marvellous job.  In fact Efron bears an uncanny resemblance to the real Ted Bundy.

The film’s lighter side has Bundy defending himself in court after firing his lawyer.  He pokes fun at the American Justice System while also putting down the politics of Florida.  These are the only parts that Berlinger glorifies Bundy as a kind of folk hero.

At the end of the film, Bundy still persists his innocence.  Though the man was to confess to his 30 or so killings before his execution, nothing of this fact is mentioned anywhere in the film, not even at the end credits.  The film should be seen in conjunction with CONVERSATIONS WITH A KILLER, Berlinger’s doc on Bundy to get a fuller picture of the story.  

EXTREMELY WICKED, SHOCKINGLY EVIL AND VILE, a Netflix original movie as well as CONVERSATIONS are both currently streaming on Netflix.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtXEcBz3Go0

Film Review: MAIDEN (UK 2018) ****

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Maiden Poster
Trailer

The story of Tracy Edwards, a 24-year-old cook on charter boats, who became the skipper of the first ever all-female crew to enter the Whitbread Round the World Race in 1989.

Director:

Alex Holmes

Stars:

Tracy Edwards, Jeni Mundy, Mikaela Von Koskull

The newly refurbished Maiden yacht will dock in Vancouver, July 28-August 2, as part of a two-year world tour to raise funds and awareness for girls’ education and female empowerment.  Why is the Maiden famous and what is it known for?  Alex Holmes’s MAIDEN is an exhilarating documentary that played at TIFF 2018 and Sundance 2019, delighting audiences with its story about 26-year-old Tracy Edwards, who broke the
glass ceiling when she skippered the first all-female crew to enter the world’s biggest sailing event, the Whitbread Round the World Race, in 1989-1990 (renamed Volvo Ocean Race in 2001).  Maiden is name of Edward’s racing yacht.

The film begins with these warning words: “The ocean is out to kill!”   “It does not take a break.” “There is no hope if anything happens.”  Yet, the doc’s subject, Tracey Edwards, at the time of the race at the age of 26, face crashing waters and frigid temperatures – the big setback at sea.  In 1989, the concept of an all-female crew was inconceivable to the manly world of open-ocean yacht racing.  Press bet on their failure.  Sponsors balked, fearing that the crew might perish and bring bad publicity.  After a failure at almost 2 years for sponsorship, Edwards refused to give up – she remortgaged her home and bought a secondhand boat that the crew refurbished themselves. She finally secured sponsorship through Jordan’s King Hussein.

Holmes humanizes the story by telling the story of Tracey from young child to older woman with white hair that she has now.  This was, that the audience can relate to the character, the underdog and root for her.  Tracey had the idyllic childhood till the worse thing imaginable could happen, happened to a child – the loss of one of a parent.  She moved to Wales with her mother and new abusive step-father which resulted in her running away from home.  Other adventures led her to her realization of her love or sailing.  When she realized the difficulty of females getting on a crew for the Whitebread World Race, she formed her own crew.  The doc continues this story.

The film contains interviews with Tracey and her crew as well as a few male sailors who  talk about their admiration and astonishment of the female sailor.  The film has a major part of its running time, the race that the Maiden won.  One wonders how many of the scenes were shot, especially with the waves crashing the boat.  According to the press notes, archival footage were taken on the boat, which explains the authentic ‘fly off the wall’ footage film that would almost get one seasick.

But what is most exhilarating about the doc is the human account of an underdog doing well – showing off those skeptical who claim that it cannot be done.  Edwards hows the triumph of ones human spirit over adversity,  The film also shows that she is not the person you want to be around with either, when she is under pressure – showing both sides to the coin.

MAIDEN is a beautiful documentary celebrating the harshness of nature and the foibles and strength of man – or woman in that respect.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AecVJ3Br4zc

Film Review: NEVER-ENDING MAN: HAYAO MIYAZAKI (Japan 2016) ***

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Owaranai hito: Miyazaki Hayao Poster
Trailer

A look at famous Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki following his retirement in 2013.

Director:

Kaku Arakawa

Stars:

Hayao Miyazaki, Toshio Suzuki, Yuhei Sakuragi

Made as a Japanese TV movie back in 2016, taking 3 years before getting a commercial release at the TIFF Lightbox, one can understand the limited attraction of this documentary.  Though Studio Ghibli films are the bread and butter of Japanese animation features, still the studio’s film and director’s names are still unknown to many Americans who will never see anything not North American.  Unless one is a Studio Ghibli fan, fascinated by the films and an admirer of Hayao Miyazaki, the studio’s founder and the Academy Award winning director (for PRINCESS MONONOKE) of more than a dozen world wide successes, the target audience is limited.

The film begins with the camera panning an empty animation studio following Miyazaki’s announcement to the press and staff of his retirement.  But he soon begins work on a  short film, BORO THE CATERPILLAR (in 2018) using CGI for the first time and then contemplating the main of a full length feature, which he jokingly claims could be completed after his death.

The film is clear to point out Miyazaki’s successes with a collage of his hits including SPIRITED AWAY (my favourite), MY NEIGHBOUR TOTORO, PONYO, HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE and his last feature THE WIND RISES.

The doc clearly narrow the scope to the director’s work and his daily routines.  It clearly omits anything of his past, his childhood or his influences.  Nothing is revealed of his family either.  In one scene, Miyazaki mentions his wife, but the film has not a single shot of her.  He is also shown making his own meals (often having ramen from pack of instant noodles) and walking around what seems an empty typical Japanese house.

Miyazaki the man is shown to be a simple one, but an over-obsessed animator that strives for his vision 100% totally driving those that have a different view crazy if not out of the picture.  He has a cigarette in hand most of the time and obviously smokes too much.  Miyazaki is also shown to be a kind man.  When shown a CGI animated segment of a zombie like creature writhing in pain, he astounds all present that he says he wants nothing to do with it.  “You have no idea of pain.” He relates a story of meeting a man who suffers pain that he could not lift up his hand to ‘high five’.   He insists on the importance of being sympathetic to pain, which again is illustrated in the emotion-like characteristics in all his animated characters and figures.

Besides being a film about Miyazaki, the film also reveals the difficult task of CGI and how much work goes into producing CGI effects.  One CGI animator even claims: “Perhaps it is easier to do hand-drawn”.  The film also questions the issue of retirement among the old.  Miyazaki says he’d rather work than do nothing, a philosophy many seniors who have all their faculties share.

The doc turns out to tackle more issues than expected which audiences hopefully will get to learn more of this legendary director.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7od_hvrGeHo

Film Review: LA DISPARITION DES LUCIOLES (THE FIREFLIES ARE GONE) (Canada 2018) ***

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The Fireflies Are Gone Poster
Trailer

A frustrated teenager frees herself from her mother’s influence and her narrow life in a small industrial town to find out who she really is.

Director:

Sébastien Pilote

Stars:

Karelle Tremblay, Pierre-Luc Brillant, François Papineau

Warning: This review contains a spoiler in its plot point.  The spoiler occurs int h second last paragraph of the review.

At the start of the film, a radio show host Paul (Francois Papineau) announces on the radio that due to some unknown mysterious reason that have puzzled scientists and everyone else, all the fireflies are disappeared.  The fireflies are obviously a metaphor for something in the film which will be revealed in the second last paragraph of the review in italics.  Spoiler Alert: Skip reading the second last paragraph italics but the spoiler is included as it is crucial in the film’s critique.

The film’s best segment occurs at the start at a dinner arranged when Leo shows up late,  The uncomfortable dialogue that goes on around is brilliant – funny, informative and sarcastic.  Leo (Karelle Tremblay) is clearly out to disrespect her mother (Marie-France Marcotte) while showing her disdain towards her step-father, Paul.  It is Leo’s birthday but she leaves the dinner after excusing herself to the toilet.  Later on, the mother gives her her birthday present telling Leo never to do what she did ever again, which she promises.  The scene is multi-purposeful.  Besides introducing the audience to all the primary characters, it also reveals the relation ship Leo, clearly the protagonist has with each of the present at the table.  he dialogue is also sardonic if not witty, funny if not revealing.  Unfortunately no other segment in the film comes matches this.  But the confrontation scene between Leo and stepfather, Paul comes close.

The only character missing from the tables a local guitarist, Steve (Pierre-Luc Brillant) who is much older than her.  She takes guitar lessons from him and becomes a little infatuated with him.  When her real father, (Luc Picard) shows up, she finds him not the hero she expected him to be.

It is the performance of the actors that save this otherwise predictable tale of Leo, s girl stuck in her small town.  Newcomer Karelle Tremblay affects the audience’s sympathy without being the annoying teenager while older Quebec actors lend their support.

It does not take a genius to guess that the fireflies are a metaphor for Leo’s hope – or hope in general.  As Leo finally gains enough courage to hop on a bus to leave the small town and start life anew, the fireflies suddenly re-appear around the town in the dark (as is unfortunately totally predictable, especially for one who have seen too many films) signifying the return of hope or that hope is no longer lost.

For all that the film is, the film still succeeds as a well executed and thought-of portrait of a teen stuck in a small town.  At least Leo survives.  In a similar film, Robert Mandel’s 1983 INDEPENDENCE DAY (not the Roland Emmerich’s disaster flick of the same title), Diane Weist’s character escaped her personal prison by lighting up a cigarette while filling up the house with gas in the film’s last scene.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeY_FHcWhMo

Film Review: MIDSOMMAR (USA 2019) ***

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Midsommar Poster
Trailer

A couple travels to Sweden to visit a rural hometown’s fabled mid-summer festival. What begins as an idyllic retreat quickly devolves into an increasingly violent and bizarre competition at the hands of a pagan cult.

Director:

Ari Aster

Writer:

Ari Aster

Stars:

Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor, William Jackson Harper

Writer/director Ari Aster’s follow up to the critically acclaimed and highly successful horror feature HEREDITARY is a sprawling 2 hour 20 minutes occasionally disorienting horror piece that at times forgets that it is a horror movie.

At the special pre-screening of MIDSOMMAR that was graced by the presence of director Aster and actor Jack Reyner, the director describes his film, and very accurately so, about a film on codependency.  It is a break-up story, as the audience also learns that the director himself was undergoing one when he wrote the script.  

At the Q & A, Aster, clearly jet lagged and understandably disoriented  kept beating about the bush when asked direct questions, often taking a full 5 minutes on a straightforward question.     This could be the reason his film stretched out to 140 minutes.  But to Aster’s credit, what the film company A24 planned as a straightforward slasher film set among a Swede cult has turned into something more relevant, human and believable.  Aster did a lot of research on European folklore and history culminating in what can be witnessed as a worthwhile effort.  Though set in Sweden, the film was shot in Budapest, Hungary for financial reasons.

MIDSOMMAR ends up as an engaging folk horror film that follows a group of friends who travel to Sweden for a festival that only occurs once every 90 years.  Christian (Jack Reyner) and Dani (Florence Pugh), a young American couple, are having trouble with their relationship.   The story points out that is a dysfunctional one that should not go on.  Dani is over possessive and Christian is not there for Dani when she needs him most, as when her parents and sister are killed from gas poisoning.  She follows Christian and his friends to a commune in Sweden where the relationship is further put to the test.  As the group stay on, weirder and weirder incidents take place that have to be seen to be believed.  Aster does an excellent build up.

The film is well shot with colourful exteriors – large field in Hungary standing in for Sweden with bright coloured huts of the commune.  The young actors Pugh and Reyner form good chemistry as the dysfunctional couple.  There is an emotional scene where Dani is laid across Christian’s lap crying, bawling her eyes out at the death of her family.  That image is reminiscent of he unforgettable image of the tortured couple in Alfred Hitchcock’s TORN CURTAIN.  But the scene is dark and one cannot see Christian crying as a result of Dani crying.  Actor Reyner during the Q & A confessed he cried as a result of Pugh’s emotional outburst.

Though the film is generally slow, it is even paced and is an absorbing watch.  There has not been such a slow moving film where time actually flies through the films running time.  Aster at the Q & A says that he has several scripts ready to be directed but none of them horror.  His HEREDITARY and MIDSOMMAR are marginally horror films, so nothing much will be changed.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Vnghdsjmd0

Film Review: YESTERDAY (UK 2019) ***

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Yesterday Poster
Trailer

A struggling musician realizes he’s the only person on Earth who can remember The Beatles after waking up in an alternate timeline where they never existed.

Director:

Danny Boyle

Writers:

Jack Barth (story by), Richard Curtis (screenplay) | 1 more credit »

Stars:

Himesh Patel, Lily James, Sophia Di Martino

News had it that Danny Boyle was so impressed with Richard Curtis’s script of the idea of a singer rising to fame performing the songs of The Beatles, these songs wiped out of the minds of everybody in the world except for him that he agreed to direct the film without a second thought.  Boyle has obviously not seen many French films like the one in which all the minds were similarly erased on the memory of the songs of French singer Johnny Halliday.  Coincidence maybe? Or plagiarized premise, it will be difficult to prove.  Still YESTERDAY has enough differences in the story to stand on its own.  And it is directed by well-respected Danny Boyle who made 28 DAYS LATER and SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE and his best film, TRAINSPOTTING.

Jack Malik (newcomer Himesh Patel) is a struggling singer-songwriter from Clacton-on-Sea, England whose dreams of fame are rapidly fading.  He has the unfailing devotion and support of his childhood best friend, Ellie (Lily James) and his band. Then, after a freak bus accident during a mysterious global blackout, Jack wakes up with his guitar broken.  When his friends buy him a new one as a recovery preset, he sings to them the Beatles hit “Yesterday” only to find out that nobody else on Earth besides himself remember The Beatles.

With the assistance of his steel-hearted American agent, Debra, Jack rises to global fame by performing songs by the band. However, as his star rises, he risks losing Ellie — the one person who always believed in him.  The romance between him and Ellie makes the other part of the story.  Jack starts feeling guilty.  But director Boyle shows Jack’s guilt is fear of being caught rather than of theft of the Beatles’s songs, though he finally confesses at the end, something that goes against the trend of his behaviour.

I am not a fan of Boyle’s feel-good movies like this one or SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE.  I prefer Boyle’s darker works.  As such, YESTERDAY’s best moments are those with Jack’s agent the over enthusiastic Debra, brilliantly played by Kate McKinnon.  She paints a darker side of the recording industry lampooning it occasionally.

The film is given a tremendous boost by the inclusion of singer Ed Sheeran, playing himself.  Shreeran discovers Jack and gets him to open for him on his Russian tour.  Sheeran has quite the large supporting role in the film so Sheeran fans should make it a point to catch the singer doing his sly acting bit.

One of the pleasures of watching YESTERDAY is to admire once again the genius of The Beatles as song after song of their hits are played.  Paul McCartney has a cameo in the film as does a fictitious John Lennon (with a look alike actor playing him).

But despite Boyle’s enthusiasm that shows throughout the film, the film is highly predictable, particularly the romance and the ending.  The humour with his family is also familiar fare.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HY0GBmOxyYY

Film Review: THE EXTRAORDINARY JOURNEY OF THE FAKIR (India/France/Belgium 2018) **

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The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir Poster
Trailer

Ajatashatru Lavash Patel has lived all his life in a small Mumbai neighborhood tricking people with street magic and fakir stunts. He sets out on a journey to find his estranged father, but instead gets dragged on a never-ending adventure.

Director:

Ken Scott

Writers:

Romain Puértolas (screenplay), Luc Bossi (screenplay) | 3 more credits »

Stars:

Dhanush, Bérénice Bejo, Erin Moriarty

The term fakir is more unfamiliar to North Americans than say the British who likely termed the word since India was part of the British Empire.  The best example of a fakir, as often seen in British comics, is the Indian with turban blowing on a pipe with a snake rising to its music from a basket.  In the fantasy comedy THE EXTRAORDINARY JOURNEY OF THE FAKIR adapted from Puértolas’ novel “The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir Who Got Trapped in an Ikea Wardrobe,” that came out in 2014, the fakir is Aja (Dhanush), a magician who     performs magic tricks in crowd while pickpocketing unsuspecting watchers in the bustling city of Mumbai.  But he was son of a is ale mother who embarks on a journey to Paris in search of his father, after mummy passes away and yes, he has given away his sacred cow after seeking advice from her.  Any book with a title as odd as thine, must surely attract a lot of readers, but the title of the film has been toned down a little.

Quebecois director of crowd pleasing films like STARBUCK and THE GRAND SEDUCTION i an appropriate choice to heal this crowd please given his track record.

Any fantasy story with a message despite the fact that it is fictional fantasy requires some credibility int he story or the message will fail to come through.  It is unfortunately that the source material itself involves a journey of chance from one city to another all over the world but Scott’s direction does not help either.  He does not attempt to normalize any of the fantasy situations.  Even the main message of the film met through, through the protagonists’s mother in a photograph talking to him.  

The film on the positive side, contains an impressive list of international stars.  The lead himself (Dhanush) is a popular Bollywood actor though people outside India would likely not heard of him.  Thee is a complete Bollywood style dance midway during the film allowing him to strut hi Bollywood expertise.  Though the sequence is non-consequential to the story, it still makes one of the more entertaining moments in the film.  Berenice Bejo, the Argentine born French actress (star of her husband’s THE ARTIST, the Oscar Winner for Best Film) plays a movie star who befriends Aja as does Somolian Actor Barked Abdi (Academy Award nominee for Best Supporting Actor as one of the pirates in CAPTAIN PHILLIPS) playing a Somolian refugee.  French actor Gerard Jugnot (almost unrecognizable sporting hair) as the cab driver cheated out of his cab fare by Aja.

THE EXTRAORDINARY JOURNEY OF THE FAKIR ends up feeling totally fake in its execution, message and entertainment.  But the film would be enjoyed by the lesser demand audience and the film did go on to win the Audience Award for Best Comedy at the Barcelona Sant-Jordi International Film Festival

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1WASu-s4eA

Film Review: PARIS IS BURNING (USA 1990) ***1/2

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Paris Is Burning Poster
A chronicle of New York’s drag scene in the 1980s, focusing on balls, voguing and the ambitions and dreams of those who gave the era its warmth and vitality.

Director:

Jennie Livingston

Stars:

Brooke Xtravaganza, André Christian, Dorian Corey

A gay friend of mine told me once.  When you have a group of gay males around a whole wardrobe of dresses and make-up, the inevitable happens.  They will dress up as women in the dresses, put on the makeup and do drag.  This explains the fascination of gays doing drag to the extent that for many, their entire lives as demonstrated in the film, depends on.

PARIS IS BURNING began as Livingston’s student film project that involved interviews with key figures in the ball world.   Pepper LaBeija, Dorian Corey, Angie Xtravaganza, and Willi Ninja are a few of the interviewees.  These figures share experiences on their life stories, on gender roles, gay and ball subcultures. 

Ball is explained in the film as the event where drag queens compete.  Other terms like house, voguing, shade, reading and legendary are also amusingly explained.  Many of the contestants vying for trophies are representatives of houses that serve as their families, social groups and performance teams.  Some of those names include Extravaganza, St. Laurent and others.

The doc took 6 years or so in the making due to the difficulty of attaining funds.  Though the film is only 78 minutes, it had been cut from over 70 hours of footage material.

Director Livingston does not appear or speak during the film except for a few instances the she can be heard.

The film contains a very touching moment which is exploited for good use at the end of the film.  The scene has two kids, barely16 with their arms around each other in love, as if nothing else in the world matters.  It brings out what true innocent young love is.  And no one can take away that!

PARIS IS BURNING, a film well ahead of its time, got generally excellent reviews from critics when it first opened.  It also went on to win many film awards though it failed to get an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary which implies that certain topics were excluded in the Academy’ choice of films nominated. 

The film has got a 2K restoration and opens just in time for Pride Toronto.  The film is just as timely then as is now.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78TAbjx43rk

 

Film Review: ANNABELLA COMES HOME (USA 2019)

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Annabelle Comes Home Poster
Trailer

While babysitting the daughter of Ed and Lorraine Warren, a teenager and her friend unknowingly awaken an evil spirit trapped in a doll.

Director:

Gary Dauberman

Writers:

James Wan (story by), Gary Dauberman

Stars:

Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Mckenna Grace

There is one rule in the horror book that should never be broken.  There must be deaths.  In ANABELLE COMES HOME, no one dies.  The rule is broken in one of the worst horror films or films in general to open in 2019.  It is senseless, overlong, boring and downright silly.

ANNABELLE COMES HOME is the third instalment of the ANNABELLE  franchise, a spin off fro the Conjuring movies.  The first was terrible, the second not bad and this one back to terrible.  It is the second film with the theme of a demon doll to open this month after last week’s more fun CHILD’S PLAY.  Ed Warren (Patrick Wilson) the main character of the film is clear to point out the difference.  Annabelle is not a doll that is possessed, but a portal through which demons can enter the human world.  He also claims that possession can only take place in living things therefore putting CHILD’S PLAY down.  To add on: “Isabelle is the devil.”

Determined to keep Annabelle from wreaking more havoc, demonologists Ed (Wilson) and Lorraine Warren Vera Farminga) bring the possessed doll to the locked artifacts room in their home, placing her “safely” behind sacred glass and enlisting a priest’s holy blessing.  But an unholy night of horror awaits as Annabelle awakens the evil spirits in the room, who all set their sights on a new target—the Warrens’ ten-year old daughter, Judy (McKenna Grace), and her friends, babysitter Mary Ellen (Madison Iseman) and Daniela (Katie Sarife), the troubled one guilt ridden of having killed her father in a car accident.

Director Gary Fauberman directs from the script (if one can call it that) he co-wrote with James Wan.  The film begins with Ed and Lorraine Warren who bring the audience to date of the doll and how they lock it up safely.  The couple has three scenes – the locking of the doll, the stranded car and the end.  Other than that, they disappear for the rest of the film.

The film has the typical scares found in a horror film like sudden appearance of objects or loud sounds (telephone ringing) and other assorted false alarms.  These go on throughout the entire film regardless of where the story is leading, escalating to a meaningless climax.  Too much of the same thing leads to monotony which is exactly what happens in this otherwise extremely slow paced film.

To Dauberman’s credit, his time lapse mirror segment is worth mentioning.  In it, the girl glares at her reflection in the mirror.  The reflection in the mirror occurs a few seconds in the future.  For example, she sees a falling in he mirror just before it actually falls.  Though this has noting to do whatsoever with the plot, it is quite the creepy and inventive device.

Forget the ANNABELLE and CONJURING franchise.  It is time to have the series locked up for they do no-one any good.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCxm7cTpBAs