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
Jeanne Herry (screenplay)
Marcelle Lean picked a real winner for her Cinefranco 2019 with this film about France’s adoption process. The adoption process is shown here in all its complications and complexity with a whole lot of people involved in finding an adopted baby a good home. PUPILLE unfolds non-chronologically as fiction though one can be sure that director Herry has done lots of research. The story follows Theo, abandoned by his biological mother (Leila Muse) as Social Service strives through many applicants to find him a suitable and loving home.
The film reveals the various emotional states of everyone involved in the process from the mother, to the accepted new adoptive mother (Elodie Bouchez), to the social workers (3 of them) to the man (Gilles Lellouche) who looks after Theo before delivered to his final home. Director has created both a heart warming and heart wrenching drama that will tug at ones emotions. So, bring lots of Kleenex.
A few of the film’s parts are out of place like the emotional drama between two of the workers. But given the film’s content, good intentions and research, PUPILLE deserves full marks. (It has also 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes at time of writing.) PUPILLE is the term given to the ward while under the care of France’s Social Services. The film returns ones faith in the human race.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bx3DnPLI6U (ver francais)
Stephen King (based on the novel by), Mike Flanagan (screenplay)
DOCTOR SLEEP is based on the Stephen King’s 2013 novel, that follows what happens after THE SHINING, which was made into the Stanley Kubrick horror classic of the same name with Jack Nicholson, who declined to appear in this sequel. Flanagan is an American filmmaker. He is best known for his horror films, all of which he directed, wrote, and edited including Absentia (2011), Oculus (2013), Hush, Before I Wake, Ouija: Origin of Evil (all 2016), Gerald’s Game (2017), and Doctor Sleep (2019).
It is 2011, sometime after escaping the Overlook Hotel, Danny Torrance, (now all grown up into Ewan McGregor and now known as just Dan) and his mother Wendy live in Florida. He escapes his alcoholism though still scarred by his experiences at the hotel. Danny is taught by the ghost of Dick Hallorann to lock such ghosts in imaginary “boxes” in his mind. Meanwhile, a cult of quasi-immortals known as the True Knot, led by Rose the Hat, feed on “steam” produced by the dying moments of people with the Shining ability to slow their aging. She recruits a teenage girl called Snakebite Andi into the cult after observing her ability to telepathically control people.
In a small town, Dan befriends Billy Freeman, who gets him a job and becomes his AA sponsor. Dan uses his Shine abilities to comfort dying patients, who give him the nickname “Doctor Sleep” where the film title is derived from. The film’s main story which now moves to 2019 involves his dealing with Abra Stone, a young girl whose Shining is even more powerful than his and the destruction of The True Knot group.
For those who love THE SHINING, DOCTOR SLEEP pays enough homage to the original film while still keeping it fresh with new scary ideas. There are the familiar scenes of young Danny riding his tricycle in the hotel hallways, the huge gushing of blood from the double closed doors in the hotel and characters that look like the mad Nicholson and frantic Shelley Duvall. Yet, director Flanagan has enough ideas to keep his film original and fresh. The beginning sequence where Rose the Hat entices a little girl with flowers is the film’s scariest and creepiest scene. No other scene in the film tops this one. The film has a solid climatic showdown.
DOCTOR SLEEP lacks jump scares, which are basically cheap scares that often make no sense to the plot or story but annoyingly scares audiences out of their seats. I hate these. Lacking these, DOCTOR SLEEP rises itself over cheap horror flicks like THE CONJURING series. DOCTOR SLEEP works like an action horror film, that includes a big shootout showdown, western-style. The 45 million budget allows high production values that make the film look great. It runs a full 152 minutes or so, but director Flanagan knows how to build up suspense. It is better to watch suspenseful segments that watching segments with lots of jump scares. (Example IT2).
DOCTOR SLEEP should keep both SHINING fans and horror fans satisfied.
Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2msJTFvhkU4
Ira Sachs (screenplay), Mauricio Zacharias (screenplay)
Clearly playing a role written specially fro her, Academy Award nominee French actress Isabelle Huppert play a famous French actress like herself, who gathers her extended family for one last summer vacation.
The film is set in Portugal’s Sintra, made even more beautiful by cinematographer Ruiz Pocas, with repeated scenes of idyllic mountainside town with lush forests. The characters move around on cobble-stoned pavements in an ancient looking town.
There is not much story or purpose in the film except to glorify Huppert who probably does not need any more glorification. The simple story unfolds over a day, when the audience learns around the film’s half way mark that Frankie (Huppert) has only a few months to live. This is likely an excuse for Frankie to put her family affairs in order, which includes sorting out her son and other family members.
Frankie’s husband (Brendan Gleeson) loves her dearly. Director Sachs (LOVE IS STRANGE and LITTLE MEN) includes an uncomfortable love scene where Gleeson and Huppert embrace with their clothes off in bed. (She is too slim and tanned while he too pale and large.) To add to Frankie’s afflictions, she has other family problems. Her ex-husband (Pascal Greggory) has moved on, her stepdaughter (Vinette Robinson) is contemplating a divorce and Frankie’s son (Jérémie Renier one of the best looking young French actors here sporting the ugliest moustache) is at loose ends. Frankie thinks her son would be a good match for her hairdresser (Marisa Tomei), except the latter shows up with her boyfriend (Greg Kinnear). There is nothing really urgent about these family matters, and the script by Sachs and co-writer Mauricio Zacharias does not attempt to edge the audience either.
Sachs past films have all been made or centred in New York. This is his first film in Europe. In one scene, the characters talk about New York when it is mentioned that the city is not what it used to be as most of the favourite restaurants have closed except for one. Maybe you can just keep going to that one is the reply. Maybe that is one of the reasons Sachs have ventured to Europe for this latest offering.
The film could do with more and much needed drama as well as humour. Humour is light. When Frankis is admonished for swimming topless in the pool, she says not to worry as she is photogenic. Nothing really funny nor amusing about this line of dialogue. There are lots of these going on in the movie.
Performances are best described as relaxed. Audiences have seen Huppert and Gleeson in better films that showcase their talents.
There is no death scene or any hint of Frankie’s cancer suffering, which makes this her illness hard to believe.
The lack of material can be best observed in the closing segment where character slowly walk down a hill – the segment lasting a full 5 minutes or so.
FRANKIE debuted in competition at Cannes this year but failed to garnish much fanfare.
Ivan Calbérac (novel), Ivan Calbérac (screenplay)
Based on the 2015 novel ‘Venice is not in Italy’ by Ivan Calbérac, VENICE N’EST PAS EN ITALIE (English title VENICE CALLING) follows the coming-of-age adventures of teen math geek Emile who lives with his struggling but over-loving parents in a caravan falls for ultra wealthy girl in his class.
When she invites him to her orchestra performance in Venice, he promises to attend, if his parents can afford it. They agree to let him attend but decide to come along as well, together with caravan in tow and his elder cool brother who suddenly shows up. VENICE has all the charm and nuance of a French comedy that is both funny and entertaining with a message to boot. The film’s best part has the mother giving Emile a smack across the face for being ashamed of her.
The truth is almost every child is ashamed of their parents for some reason or other, for being not rich enough, for dressing odd, for showing affection in public etc. At the same time, the boy grows up learning more about life (including sex, courtesy of his elder brother) and what counts in life. The film is a total delight!
Trailer: http://www.allocine.fr/video/player_gen_cmedia=19583589&cfilm=241649.html (ver Fr)
Kevin Mosley (screenplay by), Kevin Mosley (story by) | 1 more credit »
The premise: While celebrating Christmas at a cabin in the woods, a group of high school students are stalked by a psychotic killer obsessed with horror movie icons. There might be serious continuity problems with this film that surprisingly have won quite the few award at various horror festivals around the world.
For one, the titles go ’10 years later’ which shows Jamie clearly in his late forties while 10 years back was a mere kid with a puppet. (But this could be deliberately done, as all the actors playing the high school students are in their forties or thirties!)
But for sheer cheesiness and violent gore and bloodletting, director Ovies knows how to dish out the goods. As a child, Jamie is given a puppet by his mother that he adores. When mother dies of cancer, the evil new father’s girlfriend (termed stepmother again, continuity problems) tears down all the posters and things Jamie loves.
She is mysteriously bludgeoned tp death, horror-movie style which means it is likely a PUPPET KILLER is on the loose. The best way to enjoy this horror flick is to ignore all logic and enjoy the cheesiness – which there is plenty of. Director Ovies shows promise but her film is all over the place.
Thee is no boat in LOVE BOAT TAIWAN. That is the nickname given to the Taiwanese program designed to attract young Taiwanese and Chinese visitors from abroad to spend a few weeks in Taiwan to be immersed in Taiwanese culture. A typical daily routine involves a flag raising ceremony, Mandarin language lessons,
Chinese brush painting and martial-arts training before being taken on a bus for an afternoon excursion, often to visit Chang-Lei Check monuments. The program is not totally successful as the young ones , being youthful are rebellious are out for a good time, often breaking curfew to go partying.
The film is comprised of interviews of past visitors who lend both their humour and points-of-view on what they experienced. Director Soe knows that her doc is to be taken in with a grain of salt, resulting in an entraining while enlightening documentary on her bananas.
These visitors are called bananas as they are yellow on the outside and white on the inside.
Charles Brandt (book), Steven Zaillian (screenplay)
Arguably the most powerhouse of all films made this year, THE IRISHMAN features the film industry’s biggest names that include multiple Academy Award Winners in its cast and crew. Director Martin Scorsese directs high profile stars seldom or never seen together in the same frame in a movie. Robert De Niro stars alongside Al Pacino (both of whom shot to fame after Francis Ford Coppola’s THE GODFATHER II films) with Joe Pesci, Ray Romano, Bobby Cannavale, Anna Paquin and Harvey Keitel.
But the full title of the film, as seen in the opening and closing credits is THE IRISHMAN, I HEARD YOU PAINT HOUSES, based on the book of that name by Charles Brandt. The main protagonist of the film is the Irishman of the film title, Frank Sheeran played by De Niro who is obviously Irish by blood. When the film opens he and pal, Russell Bufalino (Pesci) are having a road trip with their wives on way to attend a wedding. As they stop their car for their wives to have s smoke, Frank realizes that it is the same spot he and Russ had first met. Through flashbacks it is revealed that the wedding is a disguise for them performing a peace mission that ends up as a vicious killing. How and why the situation had come to reach this stage is the film’s story. And it is not a pretty story.
The Irishman is an epic saga of organized crime in postwar America told through the eyes of World War II veteran Frank Sheeran, a hitman who worked alongside some of the most notorious underworld figures of the 20th century. Spanning decades, the film chronicles the disappearance of legendary union boss Jimmy Hoffa (Pacino) — which remains unsolved to this day — and journeys through the hidden corridors of organized crime: its inner workings, rivalries, and connections to mainstream politics.
THE IRISHMAN clocks in 3 and a half hours. Director Scorcese remarked that when he Scorcese has been quoted to say that the people at Netflix are excellent. The rest is a film that Scorcese can indulge in. Though the film is a long haul, Scorcese gets to tell the story his way, his style. When one analyzes many of his set-ups, one can see his attention to detail and the brilliance of Scorcese’s craft. He tells a story while impacting emotions in the larger realm of things, and told with dead pan humour with the added bonus of a great soundtrack, put together by Robbie Robertson. Never mind that the film turns a bit difficult to follow at times – Scorcese doesn’t care, but continues his passion of telling his story. The result is a crime story told from one person’s point of view – Frank Sheeran’s and one very effective one at that. The effect of the man on his family particularly on his daughters notably Peggy (Paquin) who refuses to talk or see him is devastating and the only thing that makes him regret his life. The final scenes showing him speaking candidly to a priest (shades of Scorcese’s SILENCE) trying to extol himself from the sins committed in his life.
Th film uses CGI to ‘youthify’ De Niro, Pesci and Pacino for their character in their younger days. This de-ageing process looks effective enough to enable the 75 year-old actors to play their younger years.
De Niro and Pacino are superb playing off each other. Pacino’s Hoffa is volatile, loud, insulting and gregarious compared as compared to De Niro’s Frank who is smart, cunning, silent but deadly. It is pure pleasure to see both De Niro and Pacino together in a single scene and there are quite a few of these in the film.
THE IRISHMAN is a must-see crime drama, not because it is true or could be true, but for Scorcese’s craft with the Master is still at his peak.
THE IRISHMAN opens for a limited engagement at the TIFFBel Lightbox before streaming on Netflix.
The film (based on the novel of the same name) opens with its setting in a small fictitious American town of Stokum (with fake car license plates to go with it) where apparently lives suck. The film is actually Canadian passing off as an indie American film. Lives probably suck more for a teenager where success in life looks dim and worse of all, if the teenager does nothing to improve him or herself but smoke pot, skateboard, play video games and do lousy at sports. These are typical teenage losers who have as much to blame themselves as society. So who is this teenage prophet, where does he come from and what can he do to improve the situation?
Anthem tells the story of Luke (Cameron Monaghan) a teenager who foresees the death of his new best friend Stan (Alex MacNicoll), the most popular and buffed guy in school. When this premonition becomes reality, Luke must deal with the trials and tribulations of being dubbed “The Prophet of Death” and being titled a freak by the entire town. The town really begins to suck for Luke now. It doesn’t help that he’s fallen in love with Faith (Peyton List) who just happens to be Stan’s girl or that he’s on the outs with his childhood best friend Fang (Grayson Gabriel) or that the premonitions just keep coming.
The film takes a bit of time to get it footing. A little patience is required. The first 15 minutes or so shows here annoying small town teenagers just slacking around, annoying the adults and the audience included. It is only when it is realized that Luke has these fainting spells that allows him to see who is abut to die next that the film becomes more interesting. In fact, this is a clever and original premise.
Monaghan looks and acts like Kevin of the hit British skit of Kevin and Perry, but a more serious version. But he is a good actor and presence to be reckoned with. Juliette Lewis absolutely steals the show as Luke’s super cool mother who thinks the world of her supposedly loser son.
Messages on life are dished out as funny as they arrive. Luke is given solid advice by a midget truck driver. “I spend my entire life diving this truck looking out this window driving along these lanes. I cannot swerve like a madman when a deer or tree falls into my lane. Or I will be certifiable. One cannot control was comes into our lane. You can’t! You hear me?”
The film’s subplot of Luke’s weird acting gay best friend, Fang (Grayson Gabriel) shows Luke’s worth and the strength of their friendship which anchors the film. Brilliantly, this subplot also proves the truck driver’s message wrong.
The film won accolades at the Vancouver International Film Festival. An interesting enough film that just reaches its potential, ANTHEM OF A TEENAGE PROPHET has sufficient nuance and innovation to keep audience interest piqued.
ANTHEM is an earnest film on teen’s angst and survival in a world that seems both strange and cruel. It is funny, occasionally brilliant, observant and entertaining.
Festival Reviews 