2018 movies

Film Review: MARLINA: THE MURDERER IN FOUR ACTS ****

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Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts Poster
Trailer

Marlina lives quietly in Sumba until one day a man named Markus and his gang tries to rob her house and she kills him. Eventually, she is haunted by Markus, and her life turns in 180 degrees.

Director:

Mouly Surya

Writers:

Rama Adi, Garin Nugroho|1 more credit »

Stars:

Egy Fedly, Dea Panendra, Yoga Pratama|

It is rare that a film from Malaysia or Indonesia, less an art film at that, receives commercial release in North America.  But MARLINA: THE MURDERER IN FOUR ACTS which premiered here at the Toronto International Film Festival is a special film that comes highly recommended.

The film plays like an Indonesian western.  It opens with a sparse landscape of dried brown vegetation to an Ennio Moricone-like soundtrack.  In the distance, is a figure of a man on a motorcycle (instead of one on a horse).   Director Surya is fond of distant shots with her characters slowly moving into her frames.  Her frames are beautifully crafted, many of which could make perfect paintings.

Marlina (Marsha Timothy), recently widowed is unable to pay her husband’s funeral services.   A troupe of ugly and unforgiving men use this excuse to take her livestock and have their way with her.  

“What do you want?”  Marlina first asks them.  “I want your money, your livestock and if we have time, we will sleep with you  All seven.”  But they are not prepared for the fury of this woman, in this revenge fantasy where women are warriors and will take no shit.  The film is surpassingly relevant in these times of female abuse.

Marlina poisons them with a soto ayam (local chicken soup dish) dinner and beheads Markus, the head of the gang, as she is riding him.

Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts (Marlina si Pembunuh dalam Empat Babak) is divided into 4 roughly equal parts titled The Robbery, The Journey, The Confession and The Birth.  

The confession is the most intriguing of the 4 acts where Marlin confesses her crime to a policeman at the station who nonchalantly records the facts as if they mean nothing.  He is obviously goes by the book, having being doing the same job for too long.  The last act is the most shocking and violent, bringing the film to an exciting climax.

Though the film is a slow moving and artsy, it is no less engaging a piece of storytelling that will grab one from start to end.  Humour is deadpan and always present as Marlina takes a bus with the head of Markus to make a report at the nearest police station.  She meets a pregnant neighbour, Novi who also has man trouble.  Her husband Umbu believes her late delivery is due to the fact that she has cheated on him.  The humour is mainly local, on the practices and beliefs of Marlina’s encounters.

Surya’s film is also intriguing from the observation of the unfamiliar Indonesian country culture.  I never knew horses were common in Indonesia, but I recognize much of the local dialect as I have relatives living in Indonesia, though in Jakarta.

Marsha Timothy is nothing short of amazing in her portrayal of a women of fury who will not put up with any nonsense.  The soundtrack is impressive and includes the song “Lazuardi”, composed and performed by Jakarta indie rock band Efek Rumah Kaca.

A stylish but violent film proving Surya as a fantastic storyteller.  The film is set on an island in East Indonesia shot in the language of Malay.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ikgy2Xukwng

Film Review: DARKEN (Canada 2017) **

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Darken Poster
A nurse finds herself in a dark and mysterious world.

Director:

Audrey Cummings

Writer:

RJ Lackie

Stars:

Olunike Adeliyi, Paul Amos, Rob Archer

The words at the beginning of tho new Telefilm Canada horror film DARKEN tells the audience: DARKEN is the resting sanctuary for all souls – whatever that means.  Darken is set in a bizarre, mysterious, and violent unknown world supposedly set with danger and death around every corner.  

Mother Darken appears to be the God in some alternative universe or different dimension.  Her high priestess, Clarity (Christine Horne) and oddball looking and acting assistant, Martin (Ari Millen) accuse a member of their religious sect of betrayal.  When the betrayer admits her guilt, she is stabbed and pushed out a door out of this universe.

A nurse, Eve (Bea Santos) helps the wounded girl, but ends up entering DARKEN through a one-way door.

Eve finds a violent prison-like world of labyrinthine rooms, interconnected with no apparent rhyme or reason and no way of escape.  If all this sounds weird and unbelievable – it is! As she fights for survival within this brutal place, she finds allies who are rebelling against the rule of a self-appointed religious despot who demands allegiance to the all-powerful god called “Mother Darken.”  Eve and the exiles, as they are called must fight with everything they have if they are to have any hope of surviving the horrors Darken has in store for them.  The exiles are told that they have to keep moving.  But apparently, they are moving nowhere – and getting to nowhere fast.  And again when one exile is wounded, Eve (humorously) says:” We need to move her now.”  

The film plays like a children’s playground game adults that have forgotten to grow up indulge.  The fight scenes are executed for more gore and violence that excitement.  Lots of pain are inflicted on the wounded.

Olunike Adeliyi playing an exile, Kali deserves an acting award for the most over-acting performance in a movie this year.  She demonstrates how to act with her eyeballs, nose, lips and grimaces.   The dialogue is terribly silly: “Mother (Darken) is terribly upset!”  “Whenever I turn my back, they always disobey me.”  “Mother is so angry with us.”  – being a few examples.  The character Clarity is exceptionally good at giving orders and doing nothing.  The exiles use lighters that they somehow have, to light their way in the darkness though none of them smoke.

Prior to the film’s theatrical release, the producers Shaftesbury had released an 11-part digital prequel series, Darken: Before the Dark on YouTube, taking audiences deep inside the fantastic otherworld of DARKEN.  The audience is presented here with multiple points of entry on a range of platforms to build a world around the film. With DARKEN, audiences can watch the digital series, connect and discuss on social, immerse themselves via the VR experience, see the film on the big screen, or pre-order it to re-watch at home

DARKEN went on to win Best Science Fiction Feature at Buffalo Dreams Fantastic Film Festival, Best Fantasy Feature at Motor City Nightmares International Film Festival, and won four awards at Blood In The Snow Festival including Best Director and Best Cinematography.  Whatever all these awards mean, DARKEN is not a very good horror film – overacted, overdone, unbelievable story – a textbook case of maximum effort and minimum results.  But DARKEN is recommended for its unintentional humour!

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Itt-itaQZi0

 

 

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Film Review: WESTWOOD: Punk, Icon, Activist (UK 2018) ***

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Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist Poster
Trailer

The first film to encompass the remarkable story of one of the true icons of our time, as she fights to maintain her brand’s integrity, her principles – and her legacy.

Director:

Lorna Tucker

Star:

Vivienne Westwood

 

The Westwood mentioned here is Dame Vivienne Westwood, fashion’s notorious rebel.  Westwood defined the British Fashion scene for 40 years and she is responsible for creating many of the most distinctive looks of our time.  Her partner at the time was Sex Pistols’ manager Malcolm McLaren.

The film begins with Westwood speaking freely to the camera.  Director Tuckers knows her subject’s quaint personality and instead of asking questions with her answering lets her do the talking. “I do not like to answer questions,” she confesses to the camera. “Terribly boring.”  But Tuckers does ask her tot all about the Sex Pistols, which she grumbles about, ‘but that makes uninteresting talk.”  By letting Westwood talk, Tuckers intersperses her words with archive footage and images that are obtained on the subject.  The film surprisingly, flows very smoothly as if all the images and words matching identically.  Amidst all this, the audience learns of the origin of her design, together with watching many of her originals, many weird yet fascinating.  It is more is insightful to watch a documentary about a subject when the subject is still alive and able to speak about herself and her work to the camera.  Vivienne’s son and her manager, Carlo (both of whom do not get along) also have their say in the film.  Pamela Anderson, Christina Hendricks and Kate Moss make welcome cameo interviewees.

Despite the fact that Westwood is a worldwide known celebrity designer, Tuckers brings her down to earth by devoting a fair amount of screen time to her personal and business problems.  Her breakup with then husband Malcolm, her relationship with Andreas from Austria as well as her business problems make her a more vulnerable person.

The second half of the doc reveals Westwood as an activist for the environment.  She works with Greenpeace and is concerned about the end of humanity that comes with a dying planet.

There film blends archival footage, beautifully crafted reconstruction, and insightful interviews with Vivienne’s fascinating network of collaborators.

Director Lorna Tuckers herself spent her 20’s working behind the camera and jumping on tour buses with bands creating tour videos and music promos.  She understands the problems that come with success.  The film emphasizes Westwood’s reluctance of expanding her brad too fast.

And what is Westwood the person like?  She is shown to be bossy, fond of uttering foul language like the frequent use of the ‘f’ word and also not afraid to come down on her employees.  On a more personal level, she is shown to be a caring mother and one who would not take any nonsense from her at times, jealous husband, Malcolm.

Tuckers’s film moves along at a good pace,and her documentary makes as compelling a watch as her subject Dame Vivienne Westwood is compelling.

WESTWOOD the documentary comes to Toronto June 29 for a one week engagement at the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema. 

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvYmFcAegH4

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Film Review: NORTH MOUNTAIN (Canada) ***

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North Mountain Poster
In the dead of winter a young aboriginal hunter falls in love with a fugitive ex-con and helps him fight off an army of crooked cops seeking revenge.

Director:

Bretten Hannam

Writer:

Bretten Hannam

Stars:

Justin Rain, Meredith MacNeill, Gharrett Patrick Paon

 

Made in 2015, NORTH MOUNTAIN is an almost full indigenous film from its direction, actors, setting, story and script.  

NORTH MOUNTAIN is the film’s setting as well as the area where the film’s protagonist a 30-something Mi’kmaw hunter first discovers the wounded body of a man that changes his life, also providing him some coming-of-age maturity for good measure.

Wolf (Justin Rain)is a young Mi’kmaw hunter, spends his days hunting and trapping on the isolated North Mountain.  His simple routine is disturbed when he discovers Crane (Glen Gould), a wounded ex-con on the run from the law.  Wolf brings him to his home, where he lives with his grandmother, Nan, nurses Crane back to health, and an intimate bond forms between them.  Some excitement is introduced with the arrival of a dirty cop from Crane’s past sets into motion a series of dark events that tests their relationship and changes their lives forever.  There is a huge bag of money.  Crane tries his best to remain incognito to prevent the family helping him from getting into trouble with the killers hunting him down.

It is a good story (that could be se anywhere) made even more intriguing with an indigenous setting.  A few snags in the plot involve how easily the bad guys keep finding Crane.  Best these overlooked as many Hollywood thrillers contain plot holes.  Director Hanna is also unafraid to include some violence (finger breaking) and gore to add a bit of flavour to his thriller.  The film is initially vague about Wolf’s family though everything comes clear towards the middle of the film.

“It would not be Christian if I did not look after her.” the film has minimal dialogue and each one indicates more than one bit of information.  The line for example, tells of the shopkeeper’s religion, her kind and caring nature and her relationship to the person mentioned in the sentence.

A good blend of drama, emotions with some suspense and thrills, NORTH MOUNTAIN is a well made indigenous film that should both appeal and entertain mass audiences.  Wolf uses his native hunting skills yo get better of the villains who hunt down him and Wolf for the large amount of money stolen from them.  How Crane got the money is never dealt in detail.

North Mountain is the directorial feature debut from Bretten Hannam, a Nova Scotia filmmaker, himself  of Mi’kma, Ojibweorigin while having a bit of Scottish ancestry.  He is a Fellow of the Praxis Centre for Screenwriters, Outfest Screenwriting Lab, as well as an alumnus of the Canadian Film Centre’s Screenwriting Lab.  After a wildly successful festival run and racking up multiple awards, including the Screen Nova Scotia Award for Best Feature Film, North Mountain gets a week-long engagement at The Carlton Cinema, beginning on June 29.

Shot in Mi’kmaw and English with some subtitles.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQyhnIHEzx4&feature=youtu.be

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Film Review: AMERICAN ANIMALS (UK 2018) ***

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American Animals Poster
Trailer

Four young men mistake their lives for a movie and attempt one of the most audacious heists in U.S. history.

Director:

Bart Layton

Writer:

Bart Layton

Stars:

Ann Dowd, Evan Peters, Blake Jenner

 

Spencer Reinhard (Barry Keoghan), Warren Lipka (Evan Peters), Eric Borsuk (Jared Abrahamson) and Chas Allen (Blake Jenner) are four friends who live an ordinary existence in Kentucky.   They plan, from watching old crime movies, to to steal the rarest and most valuable books from the university’s library that are worth $12 million or so.   The film unfolds, documentary style with the real men (other actors) re-telling the stories in flashback.  Writer/director Bart Layton, redoes the similar style of his hit 2012 documentary THE IMPOSTER which had won him a BAFTA Award.

“We must suppose that AMERICAN ANIMALS  – slowly migrated by successive generations from the outer world to the deeper and deeper recesses of the Kentucky caves.”  These words inform the audience right at the start of the story.

One can tell from the film’s start AMERICAN ANIMALS is not going to be the ordinary run-of-the-mill heist film.  It begins with the word “Based not on a True Story” followed by the fading out of the words followed by the word ‘not’ faded out.  Which implies that this fictional tale cold very be a true one.  Or a true tale that could be fiction.

“There was nothing in that background that would suggest something like that might happen.  They were pretty good kids.”  says the teacher at the start of the film, as a teen puts up blue make-up around his eyes, for a disguise to commit a heist.

There is a segment in the film when the director demonstrates a textbook example on how to life the spirit of an audience.  This includes arousing music, dancing and other scenes involving throwing caution to the wind.

Well written with lots of movie references, the film’s best line after they discover the enormous value of their loot: “We need  a bigger boat.”   Another involves Eddie trying to convince his friend to decide whether to be in or out of the venture without disclosing any details of the it: “This is your red or blue pill moment.”   The RESERVOIR DOGS nod is also surprisingly funny.  Another well-written set-up involves Eddie being bright into the Dean’s office for a pep talk which turns around once Eddie turns the tables on the talk.

As one character, the professor talks about the robbers in his classroom, the chalk scribblings on the board in the background make intriguing details that might give some additional insight into the film.  These are the details and little nuances that make AMERICAN ANIMALS stand out from the many heist films.  Needless to say, the film is often smart, funny and fresh.

Barry Keoghan plays Spencer, one of the robbers.  Keoghan was discovered by director Yorgos Lanthimos in THE KILLING OF A SACRED DEER and was last seen in Christopher Nolan’s DUNKIRK.  He has that special look of a disturbed youth.  I would see any film Keoghan is in, he being one of the brightest new presence in films.  Actor Udo Kier who is fond of playing odd characters has a cameo as a ‘fence’, the person who guys valuable questionable goods.

AMERICAN ANIMALS is funny, fresh, smart and original while still playing homage to classic films.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKvPVvy2Kn8

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Film Review: OCTAVIO IS DEAD! (Canada 2018

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Octavio Is Dead Poster
Tyler tries to discover the father she never got the chance to meet in this stirring psycho-sexual ghost story, exploring themes of gender and sexual identity.

Director:

Sook-Yin Lee

Writer:

Sook-Yin Lee

Stars:

Sarah Gadon, Rosanna Arquette, Raoul Max Trujillo

Sook-Yin Lee, best known as the actress in the hit HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH directs this odd film produced and starring Sarah Gadon who broke into fame with David Cronenberg’s COSMOPOLIS.  Gadon plays,

Tyler the daughter of an obsessive over-spirited mother (Rosanna Arquette).  She decides to leave her mother for Stelton City (Ontario’s Hamilton standing in for the city) to learn about the father she never met.  She discovers his ghost, trapped and unable to escape his apartment. They forge an uneasy bond, but by communicating with him, and learning about his tumultuous and secret past, Tyler discovers new ways to engage with the world, to seek love in unexpected places, and to explore life in new and unfamiliar territories. 

 Love is discovered in death!  She falls for the cute blonde student that had an affair with his father, who she learns left both her mother and her because he was gay.  The supernatural angle fails to blend with the coming-of-age drama.  Nicely shot, but the film fails in that it leads nowhere and turns terribly annoying with Lee’s attempt to create a moody atmosphere.  

 

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Full Review: LES GARDIENNES (France/Switzerland 2017) ****

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The Guardians Poster
Trailer

Women are left behind to work a family farm during the Great War.

Director:

Xavier Beauvois

Writers:

Xavier Beauvois (screenplay), Marie-Julie Maille (screenplay) | 2 more credits »

Stars:

Nathalie Baye, Laura Smet, Iris Bry

 

(Spoiler Alert: Last paragraph in bold italics.  Skip this last paragraph though reading it will not spoil the film’s impact.)

Director Xavier Beauvois (director of DES HOMMES ET DES DIEUX, 2010 last seen as an actor playing Vincent in Clare Denis’ LET THE SUNSHINE IN) returns with a World War 1 historical drama about women looking after the farms when the men are send out to fight during the great war.  It stars Nathalie Baye in a dramatic but controlled performance as Hortense, a strong willed woman and matriarch of the Pardier family who manages the family farm.   The film is based on the novel by Ernest Pérochon and written by Xavier Beauvois, Marie-Julie Maille and Frédérique Moreau.                     

Beauvois’ film like his previous film moves at a leisurely pace with an authentic period atmosphere of rural France.  The film plays out like the waiting of the war to end.  The farm chores like ploughing the land, harvesting the crops, milking and driving the cows help in the creation of rural farm life.

The story is told from the points of view of both Hortense and Francine (Iris Bry), the new female farmhand (known eventually as the best farmhand in the region) that Hortense hires to help in the harvest who she eventually keeps on. 

The film is a handsomely mounted period piece of World War I told during the period from 1916 the war’s start to 1919 the year after it ended.   It is a story that needs ti be told – of

the devastation of war as examined from many angles

the absence of men

– the change of characters of the fighting men when they return from war (I do not recognize him: says one of the women of hr husband)

the hardship of those fighting and also of those not fighting in the war

shortage of the essentials like food  (as the camera pans a field of corpses in the film’s first image)   

as well as modernization had on a typical farm family in France. 

The women of the Pardier farm, under the deft hand of the family’s matriarch, Hortense must grapple with the workload while the men, including two sons, are off at the front.  Her husband, daughter and grand-daughter remain with her.  Romance and trouble brews when Francine and the grand-daughter fall in love with the same man, Georges (Cyril Descours).  Director Beauvois also shows the erotic sex scene is necessary to show the passion between the two lovers.

Beauvois use of close ups and editing especially the switching of the camera shots of the different faces (Hortense, Georges, the Americans, Francine) is masterfully demonstrated in the film’s best segment after harvesting.

The film is also quick to point out that there are equal casualties on both sides.  Clovis (Olivier Rabourdin) returning from furlough to the farm points out that Germans are like the French at war – ordinary men.  One nightmare segment has Georges screaming in the middle of the night when he dreams of killing an enemy with a knife, only to pull of the dead man’s h]gas mask to find himself looking at his own image.

The film also benefits from Michel Legrand’s grand musical score. 

LES GARDIENNES proves (like CASABLANCA and LES PARAPLUIES DE CHERBOURG) that not living happily ever after with ones true love can also make an unforgettable love story.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsdDm-mcczQ

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Film Review: THE LOCKPICKER (Canada 2016) ***

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The Lockpicker Poster
A teenage thief tries to leave town to escape the violence that threatens him and he people he loves.

Director:

Randall Okita

Writer:

Randall Okita

Stars:

Storie Serres, Linnea Currie-Roberts, Evan Gerolimon

 

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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Film Review: THE GUERNSEY LITERARY AND POTATO PEEL PIE SOCIETY (UK 2018) ***

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The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society Poster
Trailer

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is a movie starring Lily James, Glen Powell, and Matthew Goode. A writer forms an unexpected bond with the residents of Guernsey Island in the aftermath of World War II, when she decides to write a book about their experiences during the war.

Director:

Mike Newell

Writers:

Kevin Hood (screenplay by), Thomas Bezucha (screenplay) |3 more credits »

Stars:

Lily James, Glen Powell, Matthew Goode

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.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTDNGv61-Dk

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Film Review: PAPER YEAR (Canada 2017)

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Paper Year Poster
Young newlyweds encounter a series of challenges during the first year of their marriage.

Director:

Rebecca Addelman

Writer:

Rebecca Addelman

Stars:

Andie MacDowell, Avan Jogia, Eve Hewson

 

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.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6hZxo4jXhs

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