Film Review: DRAG KIDS (Canada 2019) ***

May 20, 2019 festreviews 2017 movies, 2019 Movies, movie, Movie Review, Uncategorized DRAG KIDS, film reviews, gilbert seah, Megan Wennberg

Directed by Megan Wennberg

DRAG KIDS is a Canadian documentary about drag kids i.e. kids that dress up in drag to perform, just as their adults counterparts – drag queens do.

Director Megan Wennberg’s doc takes advantage of this curiosity as well as proposes answers to questions like why would kids want to do drag and how their performances affect themselves and their close ones.

Four children are chosen from Canada, Europe (Spain) and the United States. The children are as diverse as they are drag kids. The four are: (their stage names used; just as their adults counterparts use) Queen Lactatia, Laddy GaGa, Suzan Bee Anthony and Bracken Hanke. The climax of the film is their performances, their first time at Fierte Montreal (the new name for Pride Montreal) where they come together and interact, just as their parents do. Needless to say, they have the times of their lives as in the words of Suzan: “This is the best time in my life – ever!” Suzan is the only female doing drag. One the music starts, and the kids go on stage, the remarkable happens!

One encouraging thing the doc exposes is the support provided by the parents of these children regardless of which continent they come from. The parents speak highly of their children and their ability to do what they want. One parent makes a good point putting down the fact of the question on whether his child is straight or gay. My son is only 9, is the valid response.

The doc offers close to equal time devoted to each of the 4. Which drag kid is the best? The answer is revealed at the end of the competition, but it does not really matter when everyone is having a good time, parents included.

It is also no easy task to perform drag, kid or adult as the film reveals. The children undergo intense choreography lessons in preparation for their show.

One glaring fact is that Wennberg only skims the surface of drag kids in her doc and fails to go deeper into any connecting issues. The result is an ok doc, pleasant to watch with a little information on the subject but fails to offer major insight to the its subject.

DRAG KIDS premiered at the Hot Docs in Toronto 2019. There will be two other opportunities to view the film – one at the LGBT Inside Out Film Festival that runs from the 23rd of May and the other, when it premieres on the Documentary Channel in July of this year.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUto5LJ2AmY

Film Review: MOM & DAD (USA 2017) ***1/2

February 16, 2018February 16, 2018 festreviews 2017 movies, movie, Movie Review, Uncategorized Anne Winters, brian taylor, film reviews, gilbert seah, MOM & DAD movie, Nicolas Cage, Selma Blair

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A teenage girl and her little brother must survive a wild 24 hours during which a mass hysteria of unknown origins causes parents to turn violently on their own kids.

MOM & DAD is a black horror comedy in which parents go on a rampage turning violently killing their children. It is not the first time films have pitted parents against their children. The very clever PARENTS was one of them, way back when, when the son had to deal with his human flesh eating parents. Black comedy is the best way of dealing with this subject matter.

MOM & DAD imagines a 24-hour nightmare where parents worldwide succumb to a mysterious mass hysteria that turns them violently against their own children. It is a macabre and inspired conceit, and works mainly because writer/director Brian Taylor (CRANK: HIGH VOLTAGE, CRAMER, GHOST RIDER) knows how to play the genre right and keeps his film funny and smart. Though one might think this one idea premise might run out of steam, Taylor has fresh ideas all through the film, that runs only at 83 minutes.

Taylor use the tactic of flashbacks to inject humour to many a horror scene. Taylor has one where Cage and son sit down talking about his f**ked up life with a flashback on how Cage drove his dad’s car into an accident and had to work and pay him back for the damage. The same goes in the segment where Cage lets it all out in a flashback in the pool table man cave episode.

Taylor pays tribute to the great suspense and horror directors like Hitchcock, Truffaut and Argento. The scene in which mom and dad spend ages trying to open the basement door is reminiscent of the segment in TORN CURTAIN, where Hitchcock shows how difficult it is to kill a man without a weapon. The sealing of the air of the basement door immediately reminds one too of Truffaut’s THE BRDE WORE BLACK when Jeanne Moreau sealed off the air from the staircase locker to suffocate Michel Lonsdale. The suspenseful scene with daughter, peeking through the keyhole where a knife is at the other end is right out of Argento’s OPERA. There are many other classic film nods that are fun to pick out. Taylor’s film contains a few ultra violent scenes (the dental hook), though they should be taken tongue-in-cheek.

Like Hitchcock’s THE BIRDS, Taylor does not go into the explanation how the state of affairs parents wanting to do away with their children came about. It is immaterial. It could be guilt or nature’s revenge, none really knows. Like Hitchcock’s THE BIRDS, MOM & DAD has an appropriate abrupt ending.

Nicholas Cage and Selma Blair are nothing short of perfect as the killer parents. Cage goes into his famous self-ranting rage, playing himself at his crazy best. He is plain hilarious while occasionally being scary at the ams time. Blair complements his performance.

MOM & DAD appropriately premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival Midnight Madness Section in 2017 last year. It is the perfect film parents, frustrated at their disobedient kids need to see to get some steam off. It is also the perfect anti-family day movie.

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

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Film Review: FREE LUNCH SOCIETY (Austria/Germany 2017) ***1/2

December 29, 2017 festreviews 2017 movies, movie, Movie Review, Uncategorized christian tod, film reviews, FREE LUNCH SOCIETY, gilbert seah, Peter Barnes, Petra Barthel, Tiffany Beroid

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Free Lunch Society: Komm Komm Grundeinkommen Poster

What would you do if your income were taken care of?

Director:

Christian Tod

Writer:

Christian Tod

Stars:

Peter Barnes, Petra Barthel, Tiffany Beroid|

“Money is better than poverty, at least for financial reasons!” quote unquote Woody Allen.

Innovation is the challenge of an established order, and so says a billionaire in the documentary. FREE LUNCH SOCIETY is one such innovation, which this eye-opening film examines.

FREE LUNCH SOCIETY shot in German and English, is a documentary that studies ‘unconditional basic guaranteed income”. This means that the residents of a society receive a fixed guaranteed income regardless of how much they make at work. This income allows them not to worry about existence, the basic need to pay for food and essentials. It also gives the residents a newer found freedom. In case one wonders at the impossibility of this concept, it has already been applied in two cases, so says this film, both as a result of the oil industry. As a result of kickbacks rom the oil industry, residents of Alaskans get a fixed amount of money provided they prove that have lived in the state for a minimum amount of months per year. In Canada, the experiment was carried out in Manitoba from 19754 to 1978, but no conclusions were made. Files were archived to be studied later. In the U.S., the study was never conclusive either. The film documents Nixon’s proposal of the Guaranteed Income Program which was opposed by Reagan in California. However, in one diamond rich state in Africa, a village was also chosen for the experiment. It was shown that everyone benefited. Incomes rose and productivity increased. The theory that people become lazy when given a fixed income was disproven.

The concept of the basic guaranteed income is a tremendously intriguing concept for someone like myself, who has an MBA degree, always interested in finance, economics or just plain making money. So FREE LUNCH SOCIETY kept me watching, breathless from start to finish. I do not get paid for writing film reviews, as I have sufficient money but that does not make me lazy and contribute less to film reviewing. What company unions think (obviously they are against it, as the concept challenges their very existence) for example, what effects there will be for the rich and poor and the effects on the economy will be interesting questions to consider. Warren Buffett, the then third richest man in the world also has his say in the movie. His talk about the gap between the richest and the poor and especially the working middle class makes the most sense and arguably makes the most interesting and relevant part of the documentary. It is the rich people who control and everyone else working for the rich people. To make the film more relevant, director Tod also has a NYC cab driver have his say.

The film also examines the ethical question of what people would do then with their time if they need not have to work to earn a living.

For those uninterested in economics and money, FREE LUNCH SOCIETY might be quite the bore. On the other hand, those interested in the politics of income are in for a treat.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nw22w3P3gTg

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Film Review: AIDA’S SECRETS (Israel/Germany/Canada/USA 2016) ***

December 29, 2017December 29, 2017 festreviews 2017 movies, movie, Movie Review, Uncategorized 2017 movies, Aida Zasadsinska, AIDA’S SECRETS, Alon Schwarz, film reviews, Izak Sagi, movie review, Shaul Schwarz, Shep Shell

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Family secrets, lies, high drama and generations of contemporary history unspool in this international story that begins with World War II and concludes with an emotional 21st-century … See full summary »

Directors:

Alon Schwarz, Shaul Schwarz (as Saul Schwarz)

Writers:

Halil Efrat, Alon Schwarz

Stars:

Izak Sagi, Shep Shell, Aida Zasadsinska

AIDA’S SECRETS is a heartfelt documentary about secrets that could very well have been a fiction suspensor.

Though the film has Aida in the title, the woman Aida does not appear until half way into the picture. She is first seen in a senior’s home in Quebec visited by her two sons.

AIDA’S SECRETS begins with the character of Izak. Izak is clearly Jewish, getting up there in age and is first shown in a torn T-shirt sitting in a yard living in Israel. Izak, as a child was brought up by a loving family in Israel who never told him the truth of his origin. As a boy, his friends teased him that his parents were not his real parents. He finally finds out that he was an adopted child and that his birth mother is living in Canada. To his greeter surprise or rather shock, Izak finds that he has a brother, who is blind also living in Canada all through a family tree agency, the agent who seems as talented as a Sherlock Holmes.

Director Schwarz builds up his first third of his documentary with great finesse, piquing the audience curiosity as much as he can. The audience is as curious as Izak as to why his foster parents never told Izak the truth and why his mother kept he secret of his brother from him, after the two of them have met. As he title implies, there are more secrets to come – not to be revealed in this review to prevent spoilers.

Schwarz’s film takes a noticeable turn after the firs third when he finally meets his blind brother Shep for the first time in Canada. Suspense is unfortunately, turned into melodrama. Izak quips and hugs his brother Shep too many times: “You are my little brother. I love you. My little brother! My family!”

Aida has passed away since the film was completed leaving many questions the two sons unanswered. But some answers were provided by DNA tests as suggested by the agent of the family tree company. To his credit, many discoveries were made.

It is also fortunate that Izak’s father was a photographic specialist. There were lots and lots of old photographs that were studied with many conclusions drawn.

One touching scene is the first meeting of Izak and Shep at a Canadian airport. It is doubtful that the cameraman followed Izak on the plane or waited at the airport to capture the prized moment. It is more likely the reconciliation was an re-enactment. But the scene is still a powerful one.

The film also educates on what happened to the Jews after they were freed from the Nazi concentration camps. They were placed in displacement camps, like Izak’s father.

Ultimately AIDA’S SECRETS is about survival during the war. And the consequences, some uncontrollable that affect the lives of ordinary people. That is the reason the film is able to hold interest from start to end.

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/183442600

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TOP 10 Movies of 2017: See the list

December 29, 2017December 29, 2017 festreviews 2017 movies, movie, Movie Review, Uncategorized best movies of 2017, DOWNSIZING, DUNKIRK, gilbert seah, LOVELESS, PHANTOM THREAD, THE OTHER SIDE OF HOPE, THE SHAPE OF WATER, THE SQUARE, THE THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING MISSOURI, TOP 10 Movies of 2017: See the list, VISAGES VILLAGES

2017 has been an excellent year for films. There was little problem selecting the Best 10. What was noticeable is the fact that these 10 film are so different from each other.

Here they are in order:

1. THE SQUARE (Sweden Ruben Östlund)

Running at 2 hours and 20 minutes, director Östlund had to fight to keep the film’s length, And it is worth it. A brilliant satire on modern business and life, the film is not an easy watch though hilariously funny at times. Museum director has good intentions of keeping art alive and relevant but things keep going wrong for him after he loses his cell phone, no matter how hard he trues to correct the situation. Power in sex, a current topic with the Weinstein outrage is covered in the film before the events even occurred. A minor masterpiece! Voted Best Foreign Film for the Toronto Film Critics Association.

2. DUNKIRK (UK Christopher Nolan)

DUNKIRK returns filmmaking to its most cinematic – pure cinema with pure emotions. Depicting the evacuation of troops from Dunkirk during WWII, writer/director Christopher Nolan has finally proven his mettle as one of the world’s greets directors. The film brings tears from start to finish to see what freedom and life were worth fighting for. Completely compelling!

3. VISAGES, VILLAGES (France Agnes Varda et J.R)

Why do you do this, someone asks Varda in her utterly charming documentary about people and places. Her answer? To show the power of the imagination. What appears to be a simply made film does wonders in terms of emotion and charm. Varda and J.R. travel around France (avoding the big cities) to put murals of the locals up in the most unlikely of places.

4. THE OTHER SIDE OF HOPE (Finland Aki Kaurismaki)

Kaurismaki adds in deadpan suspense to his usual famous deadpan humour in his tale of two men trying to make themselves a better life. One is a Syrian refugee and the other a man who leaves his wife to open a restaurant. The two meet and things turn out, actually for the better. Kaursimaki keeps it both smart and funny in his message on the world refugee crisis.

5. LOVELESS (Russia/France/Germany/Belgium Andrey Zvyagintsev)

Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev’s (THE RETURN, LEVIATHAN) latest film of a boy gone missing, is a tragedy that emerges from the result of lovelessness. A divorcing couple’s son goes missing after all their shit. LOVELESS is an analysis of the couple’s shit intercut with the detailed process with the police and volunteer group involved with the exhaustive search process. LOVELESS is a powerful film that instead of showing the power of love, shows the opposite, how life cannot survive with love. A terrific movie that won the Jury Prize at Cannes!

6. GET OUT (USA Jordan Peele)

Besides making a massive 5544% rate of return (Gross of $254 Million of a production cost of $5.4 million), this film is both scary and funny and first time effort from director writer/director Jordan Peele. Also a clever message on racial prejudice, GET OUT has also been voted the #1 film for the critics poll at Sight and Sound Magazine.

7. THE SHAPE OF WATER (USA Guillermo del Toro)

Del Toro has made a love story between the creature from the black lagoon and a mute cleaning lady played wonderfully by Sally Hawkins. Don’t dismiss the story as fantasy nonsense as del Toro has created a scary, violent and effective adult fairy tale with his excellent imprint on it. Brilliant on all levels.

8. DOWNSIZING (USA Alexander Payne)

The Norwegians have learnt to shrink people to a thousandth of their size to solve the over-population problem. But mankind has still not been able to solve the pains from old age sicknesses, complains Matt Damon’s character’s mother in the film Alexander Payne at his most playful yet serious look at the problems of mankind. Payne goes into intricate detail of the shrinking process to make his film more credible. Many twists in the occasionally brilliant script co-written by him and Jim Taylor. Surprisingly, newcomer Hong Chau steals the show as the cleaning lady who teaches Damon and the rest of the world a thing about two about life.

9. THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI (USA Martin Lee McDonagh)

A brilliant script with twists and terms, excellent performances and rude comedy make this film the delight at the Toronto International Film Festival winning it the People’s Choice Award. Frustrated mother McDormand that nothing has been done by the sheriff’s office to investigate the murder and rep of her daughter, she rents three billboards condemning the sheriff’s office. This leads to dire consequences changing he life, the sheriff’s and others while ironically does nothing to further the solving of the case.

10. PHANTOM THREAD (USA Paul Thomas Anderson)

50’s London and the subject is master dressmaker Woodcock, brilliantly played by Daniel Day-Lewis. Anderson’s arguably best film unfolds meticulously in every scene, planned and executed, reflecting the careful care the subject Woodcock puts into the design of his dresses. He meets his match in the form of strong-willed young woman, Alma (Vicky Krieps), who soon becomes a fixture in his life as his muse and lover.

(RUNNER UP) THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER (UK/Ireland Yorgos Lanthimos)

A supernatural psychological thriller that is the most difficult to watch (not for everyone) despite its bouts of black humour. The film follows Dr. Steven Murphy (Farrell), a cardiac surgeon who is first seen at a diner meeting with a 16-year-old named Martin (Barry Keoghan). Steven introduces Martin to his wife (Nicole Kidman) and two children. Strange things begin to happen with the children developing paralysis right out of the blue. The film has a lot of anger and the anger is slowly but surely unleashed by every one in the party concerned.