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Film Review: AVA (Iran/Canada/Qatar 2017)

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Ava Poster
The life of a high school girl in Iran becomes more complicated after her mother catches her in an act of rebellion.

Director:

Sadaf Foroughi

Writer:

Sadaf Foroughi

Stars:

Vahid Aghapoor, Parnian Akhtari, Sarah Alimoradi

 

AVA is not to be confused with the other film AVA, the French film directed Lea Mysius that won a prestigious Cannes prize about a 13-year old discovering sex before going blind.  Both films coincidentally have young female protagonists.

What is a Persian high school female teen to do?  Everything she does is criticized and looked own upon.  Her mother (Bahar Noohian) is constantly on her case as are her teachers at school and even her friends when she goes on about dating boys.  Ava (Mahour Jabbari) would be considered a normal girl in the western world with her behaviour that would not be tolerated in the Persian world.

AVA is a critically acclaimed Canadian co-production shot in Iran that screened in the Discovery section at the 42nd Toronto International Film Festival, where it won the FIPRESCI Discovery Prize and received an Honourable Mention for Best Canadian First Feature Film. 

Writer/director Sadaf Foroughi ups the angst when Ava discovers that her parents were not so innocent either.  When Ava learns that her parents were once flagrant rule breakers themselves, she begins to rebel against the very foundations of her society. 

Surprisingly, Ava’s father (Vahid Aghapoor) is more tolerant and director Forough shows that Ava’s problems comes mainly from the females and not the males.  It is a cycle in society that has been so established that change is almost impossible.

The film slags a bit in the middle with what seems to be a shortage of material.  The film’s segments are the ones where mother and daughter argue it out, no holds barred.  They use every means possible to win their arguments including personal hidden secrets.  Director Foroughi clearly wishes the audience take the daughter’s side but actress Baba Noohian is so good as the mother, that her argumentative points gets the audience’s sympathy.  Father is always only in the background until the film’s climax.

AVA also reveals what an all girls school system is like (assuming what is shown is authentic).  As expected the headmistress is an anal retentive authoritarian (or bitch to be more direct) who has no sympathy for Ava and no clue on the restlessness of the youth under her care.

AVA masterfully demonstrates how a culture of authority can force denial and detachment, particularly among young women during their formative yet vulnerable high school years.  A small but important yet impressive first feature!  The film builds to an exciting and effective climax.

AVA is the film that sparked a bit of controversy at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival when its Iranian actors were denied entry to Canada for the purpose of promoting the film.  Immigration Canada responded to say that the would-be visitors failed to meet the requirement standards.

AVA is currently playing at the TIFF Bell Lightbox for a week, limited engagement as part of Canada’s Top 10 Films of the year.  Worth a visit for sure!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rF9pDPmF3is

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Film Review: BLACK HOLLOW CAGE (Spain 2017)

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Black Hollow Cage Poster
A girl who lives secluded in a house in the woods with the only company of her father and a wolfhound finds among the trees a mysterious cubic device with the ability to change the past.

Director:

Sadrac González-Perellón (as Sadrac González)

Writers:

Sadrac González-Perellón (story) (as Sadrac González),Sadrac González-Perellón (as Sadrac González)

Stars:

Julian Nicholson, Daniel M. Jacobs, Lowena McDonell

It is strange enough that this low budget stylish Spanish horror suspense thriller that cost 1.5 million euros to make got distribution here while many Canadian features do not.  The plot is even stranger.

The story unfolds in Chapters that last approximately 20 – 25 minutes each.  The first Chapter is called the Cube.  A girl, 13-year old Alice (Lowena McDonell) lives secluded in a house in the woods with the only company of her father (Julian Nicholson) and a wolfhound finds among the trees a mysterious cubic device with the ability to change the past.  She can also lie inside the cube that can open and close.  The wolfhound can speak using a device tied around her neck.  Alice converses to her as if the dog was her mother, which her father denies it to be.  Whether or not the fact is true, the wolfhound offers advice to Alice throughout the film.

Writer/director González-Perellón’s film opens at a snail’s pace.   It requires of the audience a lot of patience, also because not much sense can be made of the plot.  Many questions are posed at the start:  Why does Alice despise her father?  Why does she have a prosthetic (bionic) arm?  Why are they living in a modern accommodation right in the middle of the woods?  What is their past?

Just before any of these puzzles can be solved, Chapter 2 appears entitled The Strangers.  Two strangers arrive, a teen girl, Erika (Haydee Lysander) beaten up and her mute brother, Paul (Marc Puiggener).  Again, more questions are posed with their arrival:  Who are they?  Where do they come from?  Why is Erika all bruised?  To complicate matters, father has a crush on Erika and invokes Alice’s anger when he strokes her hair in from of the dog, that Alice still insists is her mother.

González-Perellón ups the angst with the third chapter called The Listening.  The cube (that opens) instructs Alice to listen to her headphones in front of a black clock at 4 o’clock.  Which she does.  She is told to let her father out of the house, to kill Paul, and then her sister.  She refuses to succumb to the instructions but later, as the cube can change the past, decides to kill Paul… with disastrous results that lead the film to its climax.  There is another chapter.

To González-Perellón’s credit, the film does keep the audience guessing as to what is it that all the events are about.  When the explanations are revealed, the result is disappointing as the explanations make no sense. except for some excuse to create an adventure around a modern house in the woods. 

Going back to the first paragraph of the review, the strangest of it all is after watching the entire film is the realization that BLACK HOLLOW CAGE is one nasty, pointless violent little film that is a waste of time.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yebYCgFzvG8

 

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Film Review: UNA MUJER FANTASTICO (A FANTASTIC WOMAN ) (Chile 2017) ***1/2

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A Fantastic Woman Poster
Trailer

Marina, a waitress who moonlights as a nightclub singer, is bowled over by the death of her older boyfriend.

Director:

Sebastián Lelio

Writers:

Sebastián Lelio (screenplay), Gonzalo Maza (screenplay)

Stars:

Daniela Vega, Francisco Reyes, Luis Gnecco

 

Chilean director Sebastián Lelio broke into the international film scene with his Best Foreign Film Oscar nominee GLORIA back in 2013.  His latest hit, already critically acclaimed since its debut at Cannes also deals with a female protagonist, actually a transgender heroine, played astonishingly by Daniela Vega.  If she had been nominated for a Best Actress Oscar she will make headlines as the first transgender to get nominated in the Best Actress Oscar category.  Lelio’s camera loves her.  And she is very good in the role too.  And very beautiful!

A FANTASTIC WOMAN is the portrait of a woman adrift.  Marina (Vega), the FANTASTIC WOMAN of the title is beautiful, enigmatic, and plunged into a precarious situation after her older boyfriend dies unexpectedly in her company.  Her world is turned upside down.  She has to come to terms not only of her loss but with the horrid prejudice of his family.

Fifty-seven-year-old divorcé Orlando (Francisco Reyes) wakes in the middle of the night, suffers an aneurism, and falls down some stairs.  He sustains injuries that will come to haunt Marina after she takes him to the hospital and attempts to slip away before authorities and family members begin prying. 

Marina knows she’s regarded with suspicion for her youth, class, and, above all, gender status.   She experiences the viciousness of Orlando’s son, the cold-heartedness of Orlando’s ex-wife, and the intrusiveness of a detective from the Sexual Offences Investigation Unit force Marina to not only clear her name, but also to demand the very thing no one seems willing to give her: respect.  The saddest segment is when she is denied the human right to say goodbye to the dead Orlando.  She is chased out of the funeral church service by her family.

The events are also put into a different perspective from Marina’s sister and her husband, who reluctantly but finally offer to help.  At least they realize that it is the right thing to do.

The film is shot in Santiago, though the tourist sights are not seen.  The film is accompanied by sombre music when it needs to and uplifting music at other times.

Lelio’s film contains both disturbing scenes and scenes of elation.  The ones most difficult to watch are understandably those involving abuse to Marina.  Marina is picked up and forced into a car by Orlando’s brother and family, beaten, taped up and then tossed out of the car.  Marina at one point, goes dancing to forget her troubles.  In a fantasy sequence, she dances wearing a sparkling top together with those dancing around her.  Marina finally sums up her courage to do what is right – to see her lover, Orlando one last time before he is cremated.

A FANTASTIC WOMAN is both a sad and uplifting film that illustrates the old adage that something that will not kill you will make you stronger.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgDhpy9Z-NM

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Film Review: ENTANGLEMENT (Canada 2017)

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Entanglement Poster
Trailer

While recovering from a suicide attempt, Ben Layton accidentally falls in love with a girl who was very nearly, almost his sister – and then things start to get weird.

Director:

Jason James

Writer:

Jason Filiatrault

Stars:

Thomas Middleditch, Jess Weixler, Johannah Newmarch

 

ENTANGLEMENT plays on the subject of Quantum Entanglement, which is the reason the film subject, Ben Layten’s (Thomas Middleditch) has fallen apart –  mentally.

Quantum entanglement (as in Physics) is described as the physical phenomenon that occurs when pairs or groups of particles are generated or interact in ways such that the quantum state of each particle cannot be described independently of the others, even when the particles are separated by a large distance.  The pair in this case is Ben and his almost adopted sister, Hanna Weathers (Jess Weixler).  Ben’s parents were ready to adopt Hanna as a baby.  Hanna arrived the very same day Ben’s mother discovered she was pregnant with ben and therefore unable to adopt.  Ben concluded that his life would have been different and therefore meeting her now would have resulted in a correction in the path of his life.

As far as theories go, this is both an interesting and credible one.  Feeling that this is the key to his happiness, Ben sets out to find her only to learn that it is the woman he met earlier named Hanna Weathers. Through constant visitations with her,  Ben falls in love with her and learns that life and love is far more complicated than he thought.

It is difficult to root for a loser like Ben.  Ben is not only a recent divorcee, but leads a miserable, jobless life.   He has made a few unsuccessful suicide attempts, though a good thing coming from this is his befriending of his sarcastic, yet helpful neighbour Tabby Song (Diana Bang).  Writer/director Jason James pulls a few surprises in his plot.  To see Ben slowly emerging victorious from the doldrums, though is uplifting for the audience.

The problem with ENTANGLEMENT is that the film is just not serious or funny enough (Ben trying to electrocute himself in the bath but forgetting to plug it in; slitting his wrists but then having to answer the door bell) in the material’s treatment.  Ben’s unsuccessful suicide attempts cold have been funnier or insightful.  The decision to make Hanna totally a character that conforms to Ben’s wishes and then have Ben snap out of his problems is a bitt of a cop-out.

ENTANGLEMENT does contain a few good scenes like the confrontation segments where Ben’s mother angrily tells Ben that he has no right to turn out the way he did.  The confrontation segment between Ben and Tabby seems to go along too similar lines.

From the cast of relative unknown actors, Marilyn Norry does best as Ben’s conflicted mother.  Thomas Middleditch, the lead isn’t bad either, his look and stature resembling the nature of his character.

Running only at 82 minutes, Jason James’ debut feature is not without its charms. ENTANGLEMENT could have turned out as the best feel-good movie of the year if done right.  Life could be seen as a whole lot of surprises and good events instead of the negatives.  James’ film instead plods along towards a boring finish.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMMWSu3AjJo

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