Happy Birthday actor Frances McDormand
Born: June 23, 1957 in Chicago, Illinois, USA
Married to: Joel Coen (1 April 1984 – present) (1 child)
| Raising Arizona 1987 dir. Joel and Ethan Coen starring Nicolas Cage Holly Hunter |  Miller’s Crossing1990 dir. Joel and Ethan Coen starring Gabriel Byrne Marcia Gay Harden |
 Darkman1990 dir. Sam Raimi Starring Liam Neeson Frances McDormand |  Fargo1996 dir. Joel and Ethan Coen starring William H Macy McDormand |
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Happy Birthday writer/director Joss Whedon
Born: June 23, 1964 in New York City, New York, USA
Married to: Kai Cole
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Happy Birthday actor Selma Blair
Born: June 23, 1972 in Southfield, Michigan, USA
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Happy Birthday actor Emmanuelle Vaugier
Born: June 23, 1976 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
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Happy Birthday actor Melissa Rauch
Born: June 23, 1980 in USA
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Happy Birthday actor Joel Edgerton
Born: June 23, 1974 in Blacktown, New South Wales, Australia
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THE LOCKPICKER is the low budget multi-award winning feature debut of director Randall Okita, arriving at big screens in Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary for special screenings this week.
THE LOCKPICKER was shot in actual Toronto classrooms over a span of two school years with a cast of non-professional teenagers in key roles. This intimate coming-of-age drama follows high school student Hashi (unknown and newcomer Keigian Umi Tang) as he struggles to maintain a state of calm in the wake of the sudden suicide of his friend. When people close to him are victimized by violence, he is forced to choose between fighting back and becoming what he fears, or leaving behind everyone and everything he knows.
Tang inhabits his role as the restless student with relative ease. This is not an actor’s but director’s film. There are no extensive monologues or other acting demands required of Tang. Much of the character’s personality is established by the director. For example when Hashi steals money from the jackets hug outside the classrooms, he only takes the small notes and not the larger twenties. The director intends to show Hashi as a thief but with some conscience. He takes only what he needs for the moment. Hashi is displayed as the normal teenager at school, easily distracted with hardly a thought of his future. Hashi smokes weed, crashes parties and badgers adults to buy him liquor. He is distracted enough not to complete the assignments necessary for him to quality for a sailing outing, He goes around constantly distracted with a head set on. Hashi is a fairly good-looking and fit kid who works occasionally at a shoe store. Director Okita does not have Hashi commit acts that determine his character to be a likeable or unlikeable one.
As a first feature, THE LOCKPICKER looks sufficiently fresh. It appears that Okita experiments quite a it with lighting, cinematography and camera placement. The film is also variedly shot with steady cam and hand-held camera. His eye for natural landscape and surrounding architecture is alas apparent when Hashi travels around the icy winter by transit or waiting at a bus stop with the transit map in the background. The Toronto winter is revealed to be a cold one with dirty snow and litter blowing across the snow and ice. The film contains a comfortable mix of staged and free flowing improvised parts.
In Toronto, THE LOCKPICKER will be screened with a special Question and Answer a with Okita discussing the film’s powerful themes and its deeply personal connection on June 22 at 6:45 PM at TIFF Bell Lightbox.The film won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Picture in the Discovery Section.
It should be noted that Okita was the recipient of the Toronto Film Critics Association’s (of which the writer is a member and involved) Technicolor Clyde Gilmour Award with a cash prize of $50,000, which made the production of The Lockpicker possible.
Trailer: https://vimeo.com/181642231
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Kevin Hood (screenplay by), Thomas Bezucha (screenplay) |3 more credits »
The film’s trailer and film’s beginning establish the origin of the name of a book club in the Island of Guernsey. It all began in 1941 during the World War II when a group of four English people, two men and two women, are walking at night-time in German occupied Guernsey. They are stopped by Germans for breaching curfew. When asked for their reason, one of the women notices a book in the pocket of one of the Germans and says that they were at a book group. Collectively they improvise the book group’s name: the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and avoid arrest when one of the men throws up on the soldiers’ boots.
This film is the second film (the other being BEAST set on Jersey Island) to open this month that has a setting on a United Kingdom associated island in the sea between Britain and France. It is beneficial to know a bit that Guernsey like Jersey Island in order to better appreciate the film. Guernsey is is not part of the United Kingdom though the populace share a lot in common with the British including the currency of pound sterling The island is self governing though protected by Britain’s Military. The island’s landscape is stunning, especially the beaches and rocky cliffs, much like Wales, west of Britain. The film is shot in England and at Ealing Studios and not on Guernsey though the film would definitely aid the Guernsey Tourism Board in efforts to promote visits to the island.
The film has a strong female slant, understandably being based on the 2008 novel of the same name by two female writers Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, with a female protagonist at the heart of the story. All the males have secondary importance in the story, serving the purpose of the females. One could suitably classify this WWII historical drama as a chick flick.
The story, set in 1946 on Guernsey Island, concerns an author Juliet Ashton (Lily James) invited to the island to address the local book club. She learns of the story of Elizabeth McKenna (Jessica Brown Finlay) who has a daughter with a German soldier during the German Occupation of the island. The message of the film is show how books can affect human lives.
Lily James (Kate Winslet was originally slotted) delivers a sufficiently fine performance while her co-star Dutch Game of Thrones actor, Michiel Huisman was chosen for her main love interest likely for his resemblance to Alan Bates who has a similar scruffy look in FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD. Matthew Goode has another gay role as Juliet’s publisher while British TV actress Penelope Wilton steals the show as Amelia Maugery.
One would naturally expect a whimsical female fantasy from the FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL director director Mike Newell. The film succeeds with regards to this respect. Commercial filmgoers would be more likely entertained by this film than the serious film critic who would be quick to shrug at the beleaguered dialogue and identify the plentiful clichés.
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Two newly married young lovers with no money face life’s challenges.
The film’s premise sounds like many a newlywed’s demise. Which means that either the story might tend to be very relevant or too boring to many.
PAPER YEAR opens with an old romantic tune (“Young Love” by Sonny James) played on the soundtrack as the lovers run around kissing. It is revealed that there are just married. Dan (Avan Jogia) and Franny (Eve Hewson) are happy but poor.
However, the marriage is a paper one – one that has taken place in court but without a full wedding reception. Franny does not truly believe that a real wedding (if there is no big ceremony) has taken place though the couple is legally married. Hence, the title of the film – PAPER YEAR.
As it goes, Franny gets a job on some production company of some silly sports reality show called “Goosed” where she meets the boss Gavin (Brooks Gray) and Noah (Hamish Linklater), the head writer, who both try to make the moves on her. Franny has the sexual hots for Noah. When Franny’s friend advises Franny to remember that Noah is ‘not special’, the audience immediately knows that Franny is gong to be unfaithful to her husband with Noah. Dan is no angel either. When alone. he watches porn or goes on on-line chatting sites.
The cast is made up of unknowns with only Andie MacDowell as the only recognizable name playing Franny’s mother Joanne. The unfamiliar cast give the film a fresh look, at least, where the audience do not have any preconceived notions of past characters. The supporting cast like Gray and Linklater have got some minor roles on TV and little films.
The question that obviously comes to mind is the purpose of the film? The fact that despite all the problems the couple could face (in-laws, kids, money, friends), it is infidelity that is chosen as the couple’s main life challenge after marriage. Franny finally gives in to her temptations to her attraction for her co-worker Noah after a dinner party gone awry. This occurs around two-thirds into the film, so that the film just meanders initially. Then now wonders where the film will be leading after the problem arises.
PAPER YEAR is one of those Canadian films that pretends to be American with references to cities like Nye York and Arcadia, even though it does not come across very convincing. It would have worked better if the film remain fully Canadian despite having a smaller target audience.
Written and directed by a female, Rebecca Adelson. the film takes the female point of view though making the female also the one at fault or the one causing the rift in the couple’s relationship. It is Franny that gets into Dan’s diary and she that cheats on Dan. The female is the main breadwinner, with the steady job while the man is just a dog walker. The film also takes a pessimistic view of life.
PAPER YEAR moves at a leisurely pace with not much but little happenings, making the film light entertaining drama with a few light touches of comedy. The twist ending (not to be revealed in this review) is what is supposed to make this film special.
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THE CLEANERS, the new doc that premiered to sold-out performances at this year;s Hot Docs brings the audience into the hidden third world shadow industry of digital cleaning, where the internet rids itself of what it doesn’t like.
The new documentary THE CLEANERS unashamedly touts the all importance of ‘cleaners’ at the very start of the film. Words (titles) on screen emphasize the millions of tweets, posts on youtube and the millions of people connected on social media going to say how much the internet would be a mess without THE CLEANERS. The Cleaners delete images, videos and texts that violate the rules of social media. his is none from, (surprise! surprise!) none other than Manila in the Philippines. It is revealed that there are other smaller centres too, given this dauntless task, but Manila is the main one. “Delete, ignore,” these are the words often spoken by the workers (in a Filipino accent) as they work their jobs.
Yes, the film has got the audience’s attention. The question then would be whether the doc would be able to keep it a compelling watch from start to end.
The film introduces five “digital scavengers” among thousands of people outsourced from Silicon Valley whose job it is to delete “inappropriate” content off the net. In a parallel struggle, we meet people around the globe whose lives are dramatically affected by online censorship. A typical “cleaner” must observe and rate thousands of often deeply disturbing images and videos every day, leading to lasting psychological impacts. Yet underneath their work lies profound questions around what makes an image, art, or propaganda, and what defines journalism. Where exactly is the point of balance for social media to be neither an unlegislated space nor a forum rife with censorship. The Cleaners struggles to come to terms with this new and disconcerting paradigm.
The high executives of the high-tech companies like Facebook appear sincere in doing what is right – to seem out inappropriate content that will promote hatred and ignorance But it is an impossible task. The film goes deep in the last third to demonstrate how hatred is promoted through Facebook against the most prosecuted minorities (The Rohinghas in Burma) in the world.
The film is even more shocking when it shows glimpses of a few of these deleted images. The directors cannot resist sensationalization from their film. There is a disturbing segment which shows an image of a beheading done with a dull knife (like kitchen knife) resulting in a crooked cut with lots of blood.
The film lacks a proper conclusion for the reason that problems presented in the film have no clear resolution. Promises by the high tech giant executives are difficult to keep despite good intentions. One thing the film clearly shows is the evil that reside inside human beings. The question still remains that social media like Twitter, Facebook, Youtube will continue to exist despite uncontrollability. But accountability has at least reared its ugly head.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JA1DxRdT2hA
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MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
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Festival Reviews 