Movie Review

Film Review: THE REPORT (USA 2019) ****

festreviews 2019 Movies, movie, Movie Review, Uncategorized , , , , , ,
The Report Poster
Idealistic Senate staffer Daniel J. Jones, tasked by his boss to lead an investigation into the CIA’s post 9/11 Detention and Interrogation Program, uncovers shocking secrets.

Director:

Scott Z. Burns

Writer:

Scott Z. Burns

Stars:

Adam Driver, Annette Bening, Jon Hamm

THE REPORT is about the alleged report which exposes the CIA for their use of torture on suspected terrorists.  Most of what has been going on is already well known, including the inhuman torture methods as these have since been publicized following the Oscar Winner for Best Documentary, Alex Gibney’s TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE.

Gibney’s film examines the U.S. policy on torture and interrogation, specifically the CIA’s use of torture and their research into sensory deprivation. The CIA re-terms the word torture with the phrase enhanced interrogation.  The film includes discussions against the use of torture by political and military opponents, as well as the defense of such methods; attempts by Congress to uphold the standards of theGeneva Convention forbidding torture; and popularization of the use of torture techniques in TV series such as 24. 

Burn’s film is highly different and employs actors to re-enact real life characters in the true story.  THE REPORT plays as a political thriller that explores matters of vital importance to the present. THE REPORT takes a deep dive into recent revelations that have lost none of their capacity to shock and appall.

Dan Jones (Adam Driver) is the man assigned to research and submit a report.  He is asked twice during the movie. “Did you sleep?” to which he answers.  “I used  to but it gets in the way of my work.”  Jones, a staff member of the US Select Committee on Intelligence, is tasked with helming a Senate investigative report into the CIA’s use of torture after 9/11.  Some $80 million was spent; 119 detainees were interrogated. Hundreds of hours of recordings of those interrogations were destroyed. What happened? Who is accountable? Faced with one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after another, Jones spent half a decade finding out.  The CIA expected Jones to do the study , uncover a few facts but never expected Jones to go through all the extreme lengths to find out the truth and to uncover it to the American people.

Burns elicits excellent performances from his entire cast.   Adam Driver and Annette Benning both deliver award winning performances.  One cannot imagine anyone else playing those two roles.

Some might complain about the film’s talkiness.  It is talky but that is not necessarily a bad thing.  The dialogue from the script, also written by Burns is sharp and witty, and able to carry ones attention throughout the film.  A few of the torture scenes are re-enacted to emphasize the terrible use of torture by the CIA.

Everybody knows the ineffectiveness of torture as a interrogation tool to get information from the enemy.  Which is basically the tortured person saying anything to get the torture to stop.  Most of the information surrendered are either information the U.S. already knows or lies.  The script offers little debate on the matter, as the fact is already well known and stablished inTAXI TO THE DARK SIDE.  The REPORT is an excellent companion piece to that film film and succeeds, despite all the bad stuff the American CIA has done, in extolling the United States as a democracy who can call out its bad people.  If only they would made these people pay for their crimes.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHmn9U3c0zA

Film Review: FROZEN 2 (USA 2019) ***

festreviews 2019 Movies, movie, Movie Review, Uncategorized , , , , , , ,
Frozen II Poster

Anna, Elsa, Kristoff, Olaf and Sven leave Arendelle to travel to an ancient, autumn-bound forest of an enchanted land. They set out to find the origin of Elsa’s powers in order to save their kingdom.

Directors:

Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee

Writers:

Jennifer Lee (screenplay by), Jennifer Lee (story by) | 4 more credits »

Stars:

Kristen Bell, Jonathan Groff, Idina Menzel

After the phenomenal billion dollar success of 2013 FROZEN, directors Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee return with their sequel that will surely make more money for the already wealthy company Disney.  

The origin FROZEN was much well loved not only for its memorial musical songs but an incredible story – the type typically found in classic fairy tales.  The story involves two close sisters, princesses, Elsa and Anna, Elsa given ice magical powers that she is unable to control.  It is beneficial to recall the story of the first.  Though not necessary, the story of FROZEN II will make more sense thus enhancing ones entertainment.  So, before venturing to see number 2,  do a little homework and read on the original story.  Most of the characters in the original including the much beloved Olaf, the snowman and Sven the reindeer are present, so fans should not be disappointed.  Again, magic is the key and saving the Kingdom Arendelle is the princesses’ quest.

When the film opens, it is three years after the events of the first film.  Elsa (Idina Menzel) starts to hear a strange sound from the north calling her.  Together with her sister Anna (Kristen Bell), Kristoff (Jonathan Groff), Olaf (Josh Gad) and Sven , they embark on a new journey beyond their homeland of the Kingdom of Arendelle in order to discover the origin of Elsa’s magical powers and thus save their kingdom.

Kristoff is the iceman who plays Anna’s boyfriend, providing the romantic element of the story.  The sister-sister antics which made the original so enchanting is ever present in this one with the two girls always looking after each other.  

The songs are present but occasionally not well spaced out – the first two songs appear too close to each other leading to a a rather slow start for the film.  The humour is only slight at best, provided by Olaf, but nothing extremely goofy or funny.  

FROZEN 2 is heavy plodding while the original is heavy plotting.

Song-wise, no song in FROZEN 2 can match the famous “Let It Go”  of the original, though not for want of trying.  Each character in FROZEN 2 appear to have a song of their own from Elsa’s “Into the Unknown” to Olaf “When I Get Older” to  Anna’s “The Next Right Thing” and lastly to Kristoff’s “Lost in the Woods”.

Directors Lee and Buck keep to the successful formula of the first in terms of mood, atmosphere and  animation effects.  But the film, though visually stunning lacks the innovation and fresh ideas of the original thus leaving it, sorry for the pun, frozen in its delivery.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwzLiQZDw2I

(Cinefranco 2019): LE MYSTERE HENRI PICK (The Mystery of Henri Pick) (France 2019) ***1/2

festreviews 2019 Movies, movie, Movie Review, Uncategorized , , , , , ,
The Mystery of Henri Pick Poster
Trailer

An editor discovers a novel that she considers to be a masterpiece, in a library whose particularity is to collect the manuscripts refused by the publishers. The text is signed Henri Pick, a Breton pizza maker who died two years earlier.

Director:

Rémi Bezançon

Writers:

Rémi Bezançon (dialogue), Rémi Bezançon (screenplay) | 3 more credits »

Stars:

Fabrice Luchini, Camille Cottin, Alice Isaaz

A bold inventive comedy that is ripe for Hollywood to remake.  While conducting a television interview with the widow of pizza restaurateur Henri Pick, who is the posthumous author of a bestseller, talk show host Jean-Michel Rouche (Fabrice Luchini) attracts the wrath of his employer and the spectators by suggesting the book could be a sham. The same evening, his wife leaves him and he is fired from his job at the network. This double disgrace reinforces his desire to prove that he is right.  As Rouche acts not only like a know-it-all proud peacock but an asshole, the audience is only too glad to witness his downfall.  But Rouche is not without charm.

He is joined in his investigation by the late author’s bookworm daughter, Josephine (Camille Cottin), after convincing her the book couldn’t have been written by her father. Echoing Agatha Christie, false leads and literary fun abound in this charming French affair.  There is no romance here not even a little hint, but the story works as both a clever whodunit or rather whowroteit as well as a study of characters in a French literary setting.  Luchini exhibits charm as the disgraced host who eventually redeems himself. A mysterious pleasure of a film.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbyBzbTYw5s

(BITS Film Festival 2019 Review): SHE NEVER DIED (Canada 2019)

festreviews 2019 Movies, movie, Movie Review, Uncategorized , , , , , ,
She Never Died Poster
When a girl goes missing, a woman with a mysterious past tracks down the people responsible.

Director:

Audrey Cummings

Writer:

Jason Krawczyk

Stars:

Olunike Adeliyi, Peter MacNeill, Kiana Madeira

SHE NEVER DIED is the female companion piece to the 2015 similar horror feature HE NEVER DIED that was written and directed by Jason Krawczyk.  It follows an immortal, cannibalistic loner who has withdrawn from society to protect both himself and other innocents from bad people.  

In SHE NEVER DIED, the loner is now a girl.  Lacey (Olunike Adeliyi), a socially detached loner is cursed with immortality and a never-ending tedium of existence. In her attempts to keep her compulsions in check, she seeks out the darkest souls humanity has to offer.

Lacey must now face her own inner demons while simultaneously finding her next meal.  But Lacey is not the film’s most interesting character.  This honour belongs to the middle-age detective who uncovers her path and learns of her ‘powers’.  

Nothing is explained in the film as to how the girl obtained her powers.  The film is a blood fest with lots of torn body parts, if you like this sort of thing.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHq9o5BGSys

Film Review: THE GOOD LIAR (USA 2019) ***

festreviews 2019 Movies, movie, Movie Review, Uncategorized , , , , , ,
The Good Liar Poster
Trailer

Consummate con man Roy Courtnay has set his sights on his latest mark: the recently widowed Betty McLeish, worth millions. But this time, what should have been a simple swindle escalates into a cat-and-mouse game with the ultimate stakes.

Director:

Bill Condon

Writers:

Jeffrey Hatcher, Nicholas Searle (novel)

Stars:

Helen Mirren, Ian McKellen, Russell Tovey

Nothing but excellence can be expected from GODS AND MONSTERS and THE FIFTH ESTATE director Bill Condon and British heavyweights Helen Mirren (Oscar winner for THE QUEEN) and Sir Ian McKellen(Two-time Oscar nominee),  But what is lacking here is a somewhat lack of surprise.

Before venturing out for the film screening, I was hypothesizing the film’s plot.  Con man McKellen entices Mirren for a date and aims at stealing all her money.  McKellen falls for Mirren while she discovers the truth and ends up milking McKellen instead for all his worth.  Not all of the above is true for the movie, but a fair portion is, and it is a good guess, from just watching the film’s trailer.

When the film begins, the audience sees the pub date between two who have met using ‘computer services’.  They immediately confess they honour the truth though each are superb liars, fooling notably each other, but the audience as well.  This is the more fun part of the script.  Consummate con man Roy Courtnay (Ian McKellen) has set his sights on his latest mark: the recently widowed Betty McLeish (Helen Mirren), worth millions.  And Roy means to take it all.

  From their very first meeting, Roy begins plying Betty with his tried and true manipulations, and Betty, who seems quite taken with him, is soon going along for the ride.  But this time, what should have been a simple swindle escalates into a cat-and-mouse game with the ultimate stakes—revealing more insidious deceptions that will take them both through a minefield of danger, intrigue and betrayal.

The quite too incredible to be believed story is based on a widely acclaimed novel by Nolas Seattle adapted for the screen by Jeffrey Hatcher who also penned MR. HOLMES also directed by Condon.

The supporting cast fare well.  Russell Tovey (THE HISTORY BOYS and QUANTICO) plays the supposedly grandson of Betty while the excellent Jim Carter last seen in DOWNTON ABBEY plays Roy’s friend and conman.

The script’s story takes the audience back to World War II Germany where credibility becomes the issue where background on the real Roy Courtney is dumped on the audience.  The film also contains some brief nudity but a quite a bit of violence.  The struggle between Roy and Betty at the film’s climax is rather laughable and could have been due eliminated.

A few continuity problems exist, that many might not be aware of.  One segment has Roy enter the London Underground through Piccadilly Circus station.  Once inside, the tube walls indicate Charing Cross Station.

THE GOOD LIAR ends up a cheesy thriller, with some really nasty bits – not entirely boring but lacking more solid substance.

Trailer: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5563334/videoplayer/vi1183235865?ref_=tt_ov_vi

Full Review: FORD V FERRARI (USA 2019) ***

festreviews 2019 Movies, movie, Movie Review, Uncategorized , , , , , ,
Ford v Ferrari Poster

American car designer Carroll Shelby and driver Ken Miles battle corporate interference, the laws of physics and their own personal demons to build a revolutionary race car for Ford and challenge Ferrari at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1966.

Director:

James Mangold

Writers:

Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth | 1 more credit »

Stars:

Matt Damon, Christian Bale, Jon Bernthal

Right out of the headlines on November the 14th, 2019.  Ferrari unveils their 5th latest car for their 2019.  So the question is who is thermal winner in the phrase FORD V FERRARI?   On Ford’s side, they are investing a lot of money into the smart car.

One of the big films opening this week is FORD V FERRARI, from 20th Century Fox now owned by Disney, that premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.

FORD V FERRARI features two of the finest looking actors working in movies at present – Christian Bale and Matt Damon  Bale discards his good looks, looking sufficiently grimy to portray an expert auto-mechanic/race car driver eventually working for Ford.

FORD V FERRARI represents the kind of movie 20th Century Fox finances that Disney does not know what to do with.  This is what was reported.  To Fox’s credit, it takes guts to finance a film like this one, when car race movies are seldom financed.  This could be the reason this big production is released at this odd time in November.  But it is not a bad film and definitely worth a look for its excitement and drama.

Director James Mangold (3:10 TO YUMA) and the 4 film writers tell the story of real-life superheroes Carroll Shelby (Damon) and Ken Miles (Bale), race car engineers who commandeered the resources of the mighty Ford Motor Company in the 1960s to go head-to-head with the gods of Italian auto racing, Ferrari.  

This is one car racing movie that shows the mechanics and marketing and business that goes behind the scenes of a race.   The mechanics at the race’s pits tops are just as important as the race car drivers.  Everyone has an input to who or which car wins the race from the families of the race car drivers, to the company to almost everyone connected to the race.

But it is the Ford motor company’s owner Henry Ford and marketing chief that the two have to keep fighting in order to beat Ferrari.  So the title of the film should be Underdogs V Ford.   At worst the film descends a bit into cliche territory, especially in two manipulative segments (the fight and the ride Ford takes in the race car) that got the audience at the TIFF screening I attended applauding.  D.P. Phedon Papamichael shoots the race sequences, particularly the night ones spectacularly as if putting one in the driver’s seat. 

Christian Bale excels in his role as maverick Ken Miles.  Nothing in the film is mentioned of the reason his speaking wth a British accent.  Reading up on Miles, he is described in Wikipedia as a British born American race car driver.

FORD V FERRARI is the type of crowd pleasing action packed movie that critics generally dislike and audiences cheer to.  That said, it is definitely worth a look!

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3h9Z89U9ZA

Film Review: ASSHOLES: A THEORY (Canada 2019) ***

festreviews 2019 Movies, movie, Movie Review, Uncategorized , , , , , , ,
Assholes: A Theory Poster
Inspired by the NYT bestselling book, this lively philosophical investigation into the rise of asshole behaviour across the world asks: What does it mean to be an asshole, and more importantly, how do we stop their proliferation?

Director:

John Walker

Writers:

Robert Sandler, John Walker

Stars:

Edoardo Albinati, Sherry Lee Benson-Podolchuk, Bethanye McKinney Blount

Some grapple with the challenge of treating other human beings decently. Others are just… assholes, claims Professor Aaron James in his New York Times bestselling book, Assholes: A Theory. This intellectually provocative film takes a playful approach to uncovering why asshole behaviour is on the rise in the workplace, in government, and at home.

Finally a film about assholes or about assholism, a word conned by filmmaker John Waters (PINK FLAMINGOES, FEMALE TROUBLE).  The film is clear to emphasize at the start that is about the book “Assholes: A Theory”.  The film goes on, as expected, to define or state what people think an asshole is to be defined as: someone with the entrenched (an interviewee goes on to say right after that he loves the word entrenched) feeling that he or she is better than others and that others do not count.

As the film’s title implies, the film is supposed to be taken with a grain of salt.  Whatever is presented, it is to be lightly taken, to be fun and entertaining, while putting down the subject and villain of the film – the asshole.

The film explains that there are many types of assholes:

  • the boorish asshole
  • the smug asshole
  • the surfer asshole
  • the self aggrandizing asshole

etc.

Walker goes on the include clips from films that include assholes, poking fun at how funny assholes can be in film or in a book.  Among them is ex-Toronto mayor Rob Ford, who claims that he never smoked crack cocaine and then said later that he could have, on one of his drunken stupors.  But this clearly makes him only a clown.  But once he decidedly goes on late talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, he has upgraded his status to asshole mayor. 

But Walker is quite serious of the subject.  Walker intends to discover the impact of assholes so he takes off, to the streets of L.A.  He also engages a psychotherapist to talk about the subject.  She treats the subject seriously including bullying that is a true trait of being an asshole.  Harvey Weinstein, an easy target is brought up, which I am sure will get many an audience cheering.

Walker’s film gets serious on the segment where the RCMP is attacked as condoning asshole behaviour.  An interviewed female member in Winnipeg whistle blows the RCMP and with reason. She is called raison tits and other degrading terms by the males and no one said anything.  She holds the assholes at the top responsible, saying that anyone had said something, this crime would not have gone on.

The film is also amusing in the way it states certain things that most of us, the audience already know.  One is the difference between a prick and an asshole.  If a boy exhibits asshole behaviour, he is called ‘a little shit’, because he has not come of age yet to be classified an asshole.   It requires a certain age to know the difference and if one still thinks one is better than others and behaves so, then that is a true classed asshole. And so the film amusingly goes on.

How long can this theory go on before the audiences can say that it all become a bit boring.  Fortunately, the film is short enough to keep interest from waning.

Trailer: https://ca.video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?fr=yhs-dcola-005&hsimp=yhs-005&hspart=dcola&p=assholes+a+theory+trailer#id=2&vid=0771888bdfa48a14ba9cefd393f0803a&action=click

Film Review: THE TWO POPES (UK/USA/Italy/Argentina 2019) ***1/2

festreviews 2019 Movies, movie, Movie Review, Uncategorized , , , , , ,
The Two Popes Poster
Trailer

Behind Vatican walls, the conservative Pope Benedict and the liberal future Pope Francis must find common ground to forge a new path for the Catholic Church.

Director:

Fernando Meirelles

Writer:

Anthony McCarten

Stars:

Jonathan Pryce, Anthony Hopkins, Juan Minujín

Films about popes have already been interesting, regardless if one is Roman Catholic or not.  The Roam Catholic institution has survived ages.  News and headlines about priest abuse and the selection process of a new pope have always fascinated the world.  In THE TWO POPES, director Fernando Meirelles’s (the director of the Academy Award Nominee for Best Foreign Language film, CITY OF GOD), THE TWO POPES tells the stories of not one but two popes as they interact with each other, both with different ideals for the church and basically two highly different people.  Yet, they are good people, as they should be, with great ambitions for the Catholic Church.  They are played by two of filmdom’s finest actors, Sir Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce, both now old enough to play the two pontiffs.

The film opens with Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio (Pryce) preaching in the streets in Argentina while also cheering his favourite soccer team.  The film quickly established Cardinal Jorge as  a decent man with ordinary pleasures like the love for soccer.  The film effectively closes with both popes watching the World cup final each cheering for their home teams, while making ‘human’ jokes while getting extremely excited.

Of the two popes, Bergoglio is the more interesting, only because director Meirelles devotes more time in him.  Bergoglio prefers walking or biking to limousines.  He likes to tango and watch soccer with ordinary people.  In an amusing early scene, we hear him whistling “Dancing Queen” in the Vatican men’s room.  He is clearly shown to be against sexual abuse, believing that offenders should be defrocked.  He is also against homosexuality, which clearly will anger the majority of people, but that is his belief.  No reasons are given for this belief.

Director Meirelles spends time on the process of selecting Bergoglio that went behind closed doors in the Vatican when white smoke from the chimney would indicate the decision that a new pope has been selected.

 In contrast is the opposite nature of Pope Benedict (Hopkins), who regards any change as a perilous compromise to the Church’s integrity.  Nevertheless, Benedict realizes that momentum is building for Bergoglio to succeed him, so the two men meet, break bread, and engage in a debate that reveals much about their respective pasts and divergent visions for the future.  This is perhaps the most interesting part of the film, analogous to climatic confrontation in a film drama.  The only difference here is that there is no right or wrong but differences in opinion and beliefs.  Except for the fact that homosexuality should not be condemned in the Catholic Church, an issue neglected in the film.

THE TWO POPES should be seen primarily for the performances of its two leads, Hopkins and Pryce.  Director Meirelles has also achieved the formidable task of making a film on the Catholic Church more interesting that it should be.

THE TWO POPES premiered this year at the Toronto International Film Festival.  It has a limited screening engagement at the Bell Lightbox before being streamed on Netflix.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpUd9SoP-l8

Film Review: THE WARRIOR QUEEN OF JHANSI (UK 2019)

festreviews 2019 Movies, movie, Movie Review, Uncategorized , ,
The Warrior Queen of Jhansi Poster

Trailer

A tale of women’s empowerment, The Warrior Queen of Jhansi tells the true story of Lakshmibai, the historic Queen of Jhansi who fiercely led her army against the British East India Company in the infamous mutiny of 1857.

Director:

Swati Bhise

Writers:

Devika Bhise, Swati Bhise | 1 more credit »

Stars:

Jodhi May, Rupert Everett, Derek Jacobi

(Blood in the Snow Film Festival(BITS)): DEAD DICKS (Canada 2019) ***1/2)

festreviews 2019 Movies, movie, Movie Review, Uncategorized , , , , , , , ,
Dead Dicks Poster
After Becca receives a distressing call from her suicidal brother Richie, she rushes over to his apartment and finds him alive and well – surrounded by copies of his own dead body.

Directors:

Chris Bavota, Lee Paula Springer

Writers:

Chris Bavota, Lee Paula Springer

Stars:

Heston Horwin, Jillian Harris, Matt Keyes

One wonders the reason that this film got selected for the Blood in the Snow film festival as there is no blood in the snow in this film.  But thank heavens the film got picked, as this film shows lots of promise.  And there are lots of blood to compensate, as bodies get chopped up and disposed in garbage bags.  

The story defies logic but it works.  Suicidal Richie (Heston Horwin) cannot die – a sort of horror GROUNDHOG DAY.  Whenever Richie kills himself, he re-emerges from a vagina on the wall in the next room.  Sister Becca (Jillan Harris) helps her brother though no help can save the day.  Downstairs apartment neighbour Matt (Matt Keyes) sees the dead bodies of Richie’s past deaths and the film gets weirder.  Written and directed by the Montreal-based duo, the film keeps audience’s interest piqued by the creation of lots of audience anticipation segments. 

 The micro-budget film showcases the budding talent of both cast and crew in this weird horror fest flick.

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/346229040