film reviews

Film Review: PATERSON (USA 2016) Top 10 *****

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paterson.jpgDirector: Jim Jarmusch
Writer: Jim Jarmusch
Stars: Adam Driver, Golshifteh Farahani, Nellie

Review by Gilbert Seah

PATERSON is the brilliant but quiet new film from Jim Jarmusch that focuses on a working-class poet (Adam Driver) in a small New Jersey town who practices his craft amidst the quiet magic of everyday life.

Those familiar with Jarmusch will be glad to notice the director’s traits from his early films present in PATERSON The wide camera panning of STRANGER THAN PARADISE and the dead pan humour of DOWN BY LAW are a few examples. But PATERSON is clearly his best film. Jarmusch captures the simplicity of an American small town and both the complexity and beauty of life amidst the daily routine of bus driver wannabe poet called Paterson in the town ale called Paterson.

Jarmusch shows that magic is where one finds it. The pleasures from the film derive from the audience’s observations of the film. For one, the film is a film about Paterson’s routine. It is a week in the life of Paterson beginning on a Monday and ending on the morning of the Monday of the following week. Paterson carries on his daily routine that includes getting up in the morning at the same time at 6:10 (though he wakes up late one of the days). He kisses his wife, eats the same breakfast of fruit loops and milk and goes to work at the bus garage where he drives the the bus of the same route everyday. When he gets home, he walks his dog, Marvin, and stops for a beer at the neighbourhood bar, chatting with the locals.

Amidst the driving and walking, he writes poems – beautiful and simple ones that the audience can relate to. All these might sound mundane, but Jarmsuch has created a really beautiful film, aided by his muse, actor Adam Driver, whose every facial expression registers his mood and emotion. The Toronto Film Critics Association awarded Driver the Best Actor Prize this year.

PATERSON is also a love story. The two lead a simple life of the same daily routines, but it is clear that they care for each other – deeply. It is tolerance and sensitivity that are the ingredients that make their love so strong. In one of his poems. Paterson says, I see other girls but if his wife were to leave him, he would tear his heart out.

It is also noticeable that Paterson is the happiest character in the film. The bartender Doc envies Paterson’s relationship with his wife. Everett, a local is heartbroken from unrequited love while his fellow bus driver, Donny is always full of personal and family problems. Everything seems to turn out right for Paterson, even his wife’s cupcake sale at the farmer’s market.

A key character in the story is surprisingly Paterson’s dog, Marvin. While Paterson straightens the post of his letter box very day after work, it is Marvin that topples it slanting every day when Paterson is at work. Marvin also chews up Paterson’s book of poems one day, an act that brings the film to its climax.
PATERSON turns out to be the perfect poetic film – visually as well as in the character’s writings. Effective, moving and thoroughly captivating, PATERSON is a a genuine feel-good movie without artificial sweeteners!

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8pGJBgiiDU

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Film Review: AKRON (USA 2016) ***

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akron.jpgDirectors: Sasha King, Brian O’Donnell
Writers: Brian O’Donnell, Brian O’Donnell
Stars: Matthew Frias, Joseph Melendez, Edmund Donovan

Review by Gilbert Seah

After the gay lifestyle gained acceptance around the world, gay films appear to have exhausted all possible subjects. Issues such as coming out, sex change, gay marriage, teen love, transgender identity, gay bashing, prejudice, gay rights have all been covered in one gay film after another. Filmmakers with gay themed films have to resort to used subjects with a new twist or a new look to succeed. AKRON, a teen mid-western gay love story does just that.

“You don’t choose who you fall in love with?” Benny challenges his father during a confrontation in one of the film’s key scenes. It is a valid question and one that does not have a single answer. The film poses one big magic question: “Can love conquer all?” And the film, as in many love stories, has an obstacle to the romance. In this case it is a very huge obstacle.

This obstacle is observed in the film’s first scene, which appears at first to have no connection to the rest of the movie. When the connection is made, it generates a powerhouse effect.

A young boy, Christopher is at the supermarket with his mother. In the parking lot, the mother accidentally runs over and kills a boy. It turns out that the boy’s younger brother is Benny, who meets and falls in love with Christopher later on, the coincidence first unknown to both. When the truth emerges, the romance is challenged, first by Christopher and Benny individually, and then by Benny’s well-meaning parents. Sometimes, a secret might best be kept, but this is the movies.
The film is undoubtedly a tear-jerker. There are no scenes that are milked for sentiment, but the effect of the story is a powerful one.

The film clearly reminds one of first love, teen love and innocent love at that – whether gay or straight. The film could very well be a straight love story between a boy and girl, with not much difference in effect.

AKRON works as a film (ignore the 4.2 rating on imdb) for various reasons. For one, it is a sincere story of first love. One can always remember the first time one has fallen in love and thus, one can relate to the characters. The chemistry of the two leads are almost perfect. The two teens playing the leads are also excellent, particularly Matthew Frias, who looks like a younger version of Andrew Garfield.
The two actors portraying the teens are almost too perfect in terms of muscled bodies. The love makng is very erotic aided by the fact that they have almost perfect chiseled bodies and handsome faces. As the film is a teen romance, it is appropriate that no hardcore sex scene is presented – only ones with kissing and foreplay, thought these are erotic enough.

Though this well-made, sincere film should get a theatrical release, it goes straight to video. AKRON will be released February 7, 2016 on DVD and VOD via Wolfe Video. But AKRON is well worth a viewing. Warning, make sure you have lots of Kleenex. But it is good to have a good cry once in a while. At last these will be happy tears.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9p831bjy74

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Film Review: MALIGLUTIT (Canada 2016) ***

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maliglutitDirectors: Zacharias Kunuk, Natar Ungalaaq
Writers: Norman Cohn, Zacharias Kunuk
Stars: Benjamin Kunuk, Karen Ivalu, Jonah Qunaq

Review by Gilbert Seah

 If the English title of this movie sounds familiar, it is because the film is taken from the plot of John Ford’s classic John Wayne western THE SEARCHERS. The Inuk title translates literally to ‘followers’. The simple plot involves an Inuk man searching for his kidnapped wife and daughter.

The film begins with a quarrel as an Inuk man is upset that a man has been fooling around with his wife. The words ‘f***ing asshole’ and ‘***ker’ (in Inuk) are exchanged frequently. It is the omen of what is to occur. The Inuk man has his wife and daughter are later kidnapped by marauders. He and his son set out to find those responsible and rescue the wife and daughter. The revenge plot gives the film, at times the feel of an action flick like TAKEN.

The film is a bit confusing at the start. All the characters are heavily clothed and it is at first hard to tell who is who and which one is the villain. It does not help that the Inuk man and son as well as the maunders take out an expedition at the same time, so that one has to recall the faces to figure out what is going on, in terms of plot.

What is most fascinating about the film is the Inuk culture depicted. The daily routines like making tea, eating and sewing are on display. If one has never seen what he inside of an igloo looks like, the film offers plenty of opportunity to see both the insides and exterior, as well as the brief construction of one. The chopping of frozen food that makes the daily diet, as well as eating of the food frozen.

The cinematography of the real ‘great white North’ is nothing short of stunning. Like David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia where a lone figure stands in the vast spaces of sand, lone figures are seen in the mountains of snow and ice with no other signs of civilization. One wonders how the filmmakers managed to get all the filming equipment way up to the Arctic.

The film is necessarily violent from the kidnapping to the revenge scenes. The latter is satisfying, seeing how director Kunk has primed his audience for anger and a thirst for revenge. The tracking of the kidnappers, Inuk-style is like nothing anyone has seen before. Suspense is also heightened as the Inuk man has only one bullet left at the end, so that he has to kill two men with one bullet.

Inuk filmmaker Zacharias Kunuk broke into the film scene 15 years ago when his film, the excellent ATANARJUAT: THE FAST RUNNER won the prestigious Caméra d’or for Best First Feature at Cannes. SEARCHERS can nowhere can be compared to ATANARUAT, but the film is still definitely worth a look. The film has also been selected as Canada’s top 10 films of 2016.

Trailer: http://www.isuma.tv/Maliglutit/Teaser

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Interview with Festival Director Jonatan Petré Brixel (Berlin Experimental Film Festival)

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Berlin Experimental Film Festival focuses solely on Experimental films of all kind from all around the world. The Festival takes place at Kino Moviemento, the oldest Cinema in Germany, founded in 1907 located in Kreuzberg in the middle of Berlin. Regardless if its a quiet sensitive film about personal pain, an angry roar against society, a light hearted documentary about a grandmother, a visual portrayal of sound itself or an insecure attempt to wander into an unknown sexuality – the Experimental Film making as such is what the curated program is be built upon.

Visit the website for more information.

Matthew Toffolo: What is your Film Festival succeeding at doing for filmmakers?

Jonatan Petré Brixel: We’ve had it once and we aimed at having quality fundamentals – paid accomodation for filmmakers, properly present and advertise the films and film screenings and to invite Film organizations that work with distribution, screening and promotion of experimental films. We succeeded which was real nice, we had full house on the Festival.

MT: What would you expect to experience if you attend the festival this year (2017)?

JPB: A festival much like the first but with more films, more attending film makers and more attending film organizations. We’re looking at screening around 70-80 films in our 2nd edition, while still having a proper presentation and promotion for the films.

MT: What are the qualifications for teh selected films?

JPB: The foundation for the Festival and the guideline for film makers submitting and for us who curate the program is the experimental method as such and the personal approach of the filmmaker, regardless of who made it or what it is about. We then have different sections for Narratives, Non narratives, Documentaries and Berlin Originals but all of them builds on the same core principle – a lust to experiment using film and the personal approach of the film maker.

MT: Do you think that some films really don’t get a fair shake from film festivals? And if so, why?

JPB: I think many established festivals tend to push their own ideological agenda and then choose films that fit and that irritates me but hey, it’s not like they owe me to promote my film.

All these festivals and other forms of film promotion places popping up – ours included – basically fill a need that has been growing and I think as a film maker it is more important to seek out the people you think promote your sort of film instead of complaining that the ones you know doesn’t. And if you cannot find any – do it yourself. That’s what we did, and funnily enough we discovered we were far from alone there were lots of people and organizations out there doing amazing things. Ever since we started working with the festival we’ve come in contact with alot of
people doing some really great things.

MT: What motivates you and your team to do this festival?

JPB: It is really great promoting other people’s work and making things happen. Organizing an event seeing all the impulses you sent out coming together is real fun even though it’s is a enormous amount of work and involves both monotomous grinding as well as stressfull sudden changes.

MT: How has your FilmFreeway submission process been?

JPB: Excellent, they have a superb platform they keep improving all the time. Easy to work with too.

MT: Where do you see the festival by 2020?

JPB: We’re working on several things, hopefully some of them will see reality even at the next edition 2017.

MT: What film have you seen the most times in your life?

JPB: Escape from New York followed by Big Troubble in Little China, I had them on a 4 hour VHS tape that i kept watching over and over.

MT: In one sentence, what makes a great film?

JPB: If I feel that they went for it may it be in the script writing, acting, directing or post production or of course at best all of them – it’s a great film. Sometimes it’s young kids unknowingly reinacting all hollywood movies they ever seen, sometimes it’s the life work of someone with a long career behind them, sometimes a manic up and comer, and sometimes it’s a failure and others a success for whatever reason but to go for it is the absolute essence of any great film in my opinion.

MT: How is the film scene in your city?

JPB: All over the place. Berlin has both the established Institutions as well as a gigantic amount of people doing their own thing with or without money. And of course all sorts of scenarios and collaborations in between.
berlin_experimental_2.jpg

*******

Organizers:
Festival Director, Jonatan Petre Brixel (b. 1984 Sweden) has a background in Philosophy and started making films 2007, first Film titled “Pig Man gets a Visit”. He has since made several short films and is currently filming his first Feature Film “Sven Harald’s Adventures”.

Festival Manager, Andrija Jovanovic (b. 1982 Serbia) made his first film the moment he laid his hands on a digital photo camera. His first stop motion project “The big bad bag” was broadcasted on a Swiss SRF2 in 2012. Since then he made several short films and is currently working on his first feature project “Ana”. He has a background in literature and painting.

Interviewer Matthew Toffolo is currently the CEO of the WILDsound FEEDBACK Film & Writing Festival. The festival that showcases 10-20 screenplay and story readings performed by professional actors every month. And the FEEDBACK Monthly Festival held at least twice a month in Toronto & Los Angeles. Go to http://www.wildsoundfestival.com for more information and to submit your work to the festival.

Film Review: BOTTICELLI – INFERNO (Germany/Italy 2016)

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botticelli_inferno_posterDirected by Ralph Loop

Up next in Event Cinema’s In the Gallery series is Botticelli – Inferno. The documentary takes audiences on a journey to discover the secrets behind Botticelli’s iconic “Map of Hell” painting.

The hidden stories behind some works of art are the most exciting, fascinating and engaging, so much so that they can even surpass any world-renowned, best-selling thriller. When one merges the style of one of the undisputed masters of the Renaissance, Sandro Botticelli, with the dark circles of Hell in Dante’s Inferno, the result is an intriguing plot made up of deadly sins, detailed investigations, inaccessible vaults, and seemingly unsolvable enigmas. Even after many centuries Botticelli’s works continue to engage and excite. Every year his most famous paintings draw thousands upon thousands of visitors to museums and exhibitions all over the world. However one of his most intimate and mysterious drawings – perhaps one of the most significant if we are to achieve a deeper understanding of him – lay locked up for years in the climate-controlled vaults of the Vatican. This is the drawing that Botticelli dedicated to Dante’s Inferno , and which has now taken the leading role in an original, exciting documentary film.

Everyone is intrigued by the unknown. And if the unknown is scary, interest will be picquet even more. So, Botticelli’s painting of hell has fascinated admirers from the past to the present. The recent Ron Howard thriller INFERNO with Tom hanks is an example of Hollywood banking on Botticelli’s Inferno.

But it is Dante’s Inferno. The Renaissance master Botticelli spent over a decade painting and drawing hell as the poet Dante (his vision of the Underworld) described it. The film takes us on a journey through hell with fascinating and exciting insights into Botticelli’s art and its hidden details.

The film is shot all around Europe in exclusive locations such as the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, the Vatican Library and more.

The voiceover is in the first person, as Botticelli, talking about his paintings and of his life in Florence. Director Loop also enlists an expert, an Italian historian who knows the city of Florence in the Rainnasance era to narrate part of the film. It helps that he is an extremely spirited (and knowledgable) person, who brings some humour and spirit to the film. As a result, the film would cater was well to the interest many who have limited knowledge of Bottlicelli. The film is also brought into the present with its restoration. The shots of the digital image scanning that reveals the detail of Botticelli’s details are remarkable – the benefits of modern technology.

The most interesting segment of the film is the illustration of modern drawings in contrast to what were done in the age of Botticelli. Now paintings are created using virtual ink on virtual materials using computer software. The film sidetracks too on the Scots influence. The Duke of Hamilton acquired a substantial amount of Botticelli’s manuscripts.

The film will run in participating Cineplex theatres January 18 and 29, 2017. For theatres and showtimes, please visit
cineplex.com/Gallery

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lobp5HK-TmA&feature=youtu.be

 

 

 

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Film Review: PATRIOTS DAY (USA 2016)

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patriots_day.jpgDirector: Peter Berg
Writers: Peter Berg (screenplay), Matt Cook (screenplay)
Stars: Mark Wahlberg, Michelle Monaghan, J.K. Simmons

Review by Gilbert Seah

PATRIOTS DAY tells of the heroes behind the capture of the Boston marathon bombers. Arriving 3 years after the incident, the film is still as timely owing to similar terrorist attacks around the world – in Miami and Paris, just to name a few. In fact, the film also pays homage to the victims of those attacks as they are mentioned during the film’s closings credits.

The second film in less than year from director Peter Berg and actor Mark Wahlberg sees PATRIOTS DAY as an improvement with a more serious tone than the previous DEEPWATER HORIZON. More so, since the film is a re-creation of the Boston Marathon bombing on the holiday Patriots Day, which the title of the film derives from. It is the star vehicle again of Wahlberg and it is not surpassing he chose this role as Boston is the star’s hometown.

The film is an earnest account of Boston Police under Commissioner Ed Davis’s (John Goodman) actions in the events leading up to the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing and the aftermath, which includes the city-wide manhunt to find the terrorists behind it.

The film takes a while before establishing a sound footing. The first third of the film feels like the garbage that was in director Berg’s DEEPWATER HORIZON as in the scene where Wahlberg’s young daughter explains to him and wife how an oil rig could explode with a can of coke at the breakfast table. The family scenes of various characters at the film’s start sets the film up like a soap opera with the director like a traffic cop, but the film improves from there getting to the main business at hand.

The film’s best segments are those that involve the terrorists – as one is always curious of a world one knows very little of. The best of these is the interrogation segment where a lady expert is brought in to question the wife of the deceased bomber. One cannot help but admire the professionalism on display here – from the scripted questions to the suspenseful staging of this scene. The ultimate question that needs to be answered is “Is there another bomb?”

The film feels racist in the one scene with the asian whose car is hijacked by the terrorists. He speaks with a typical Chinese accent with all the ‘r’s pronounced as ‘l’s. But when the actual Chinese portrayed appears at the closing credits, he speaks with the same accent pronouncing all the ‘r’s as ‘l’s.

The purpose of the film is clearly a dedication to the strength and courage of the citizens of Boston from the law enforcement to the victims to the FBI. The last 10 minutes including the end credits are specially devoted for this purpose and though director Berg overdoes it, one can hardly complain over words like ”We consider ourselves not the victims of violence but the ambassadors of peace,’ voiced from the actual bomb victims.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWPRxMj8Wl8

 

 

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Film Review: MONSTER TRUCKS (USA 2016)

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monster_trucks_movie_poster.jpgDirector: Chris Wedge

Writers: Derek Connolly (screenplay), Matthew Robinson (story by)

Stars: Lucas Till, Jane Levy, Thomas Lennon

Review by Gilbert Seah

A monster truck is a vehicle (usually a pickup truck) that has been modified with a larger suspension and larger tires so as to compete in shows and mud bogs. While vacationing in New Brunswick years back, I was taken to a mud bog. It was the most boring time of that vacation. But there is no monster competition show in this film called MONSTER TRUCKS. But there is a real life monster living inside a truck, the one modified by the protagonist Tripp (Lucas Till) who drives it.

Looking for any way to get away from the life and town he was born into, Tripp Coley, a high school senior, builds a monster truck from bits and pieces of scrapped cars. After an accident at a nearby oil-drilling site displaces a strange and subterranean creature with a taste and a talent for speed who he names Creech, Tripp may have just found the key to getting out of town and a most unlikely friend. The rest of the film has Tripp rescuing the creature, embedded in his truck (don’t ask) and retiring it to its habitat, ET-style. The story was reported to originate from ex-Paramount President (reason he is now ex-President is obvious) and his 4-year old son.

Director Chris Wedge (who made ICE AGE and the forgettable animated features like EPIC and ROBOTS) appear to be just going through the motions with his latest feature. The film is cliched from start to finish. But the greatest fault of the film is the seriousness everyone seems to be taking of the material, despite the film’s really ridiculous plot of monsters surviving near oil wells and able to join in human beings and amalgamate with their trucks.

It is the same old cliched story of boy wanting to escape from small town with subplots of single mother trying to keep son in town; overbearing mother’s boyfriend (Barry Pepper) who must be the sheriff of the town; pining wannabe girlfriend; loner befriending monster and so on. With uninspired direction and writing, the film turns boring within the first 10 minutes. The silly message about caring for the environment does not help the film’s originally either.
Lucas Till (the X-MEN films and yes, in that teen awful film HANNAH MONTANA) is plain awful as the lead who appears o be hired for the job based on his looks. The sequence where he pretends to drive a truck in the garage proves how bad he is. Amy Ryan as is mother is totally wasted but Barry Pepper is at least watchable. Pepper is an actor from Vancouver and likely hired as the film was shot in the Vancouver Production Studios.

The film has so far garnered negative reviews (example 22% on Rotten Tomatoes as of time of writing). Paramount is reported to be taking a $115 write down for the film which cost $125 million to make, mostly for the special and CGI effects, which are the only impressive things about the film, despite looking silly (tentacles protruding from the body of the trucks). MONSTER TRUCKS turns out to be a big awful monster of a movie.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQrj2M-2Uiw

 

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Film Review: Mostly Sunny

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mostly_sunny.jpgDirector: Dilip Mehta

Writers: Deepa Mehta, Dilip Mehta

Stars: Daniel Weber, Sunny Leone

Review by Gilbert Seah

 MOSTLY SUNNY is not the first documentary made on a porn star. Two of the most memorable documentaries made on a porn star are PORN STAR: THE LEGEND OF RON JEREMY in 2001 and SAGAT: THE DOCUMENTARY. Both of these films featured a male porn star, one an American and the other French. Both of the adult stars like SUNNY, became more famous than they ever imagined.
All the three films are radically different in the way they dealt with their subjects. RON JEREMY was well- known not because he was handsome or attractive but because he had an enormously huge tool that could be kept functioning for long periods of time. Despite the humorous treatment of Jeremy, the doc took quite a serious look at the underground pornography industry. SAGAT, only 80-minutes in length was as lively as its subject, Francois Sagat was. And Sagat is quite the showman. (I have seen him perform in Toronto during the Gay Pride Military Party where he was not too bashful to jerk-off onstage. But that doc treated the subject in dead seriousness, tracking Sagat’s rise to fame.

In MOSTLY SUNNY, Dilip Mehta (COOKING WITH STELLA) continues the lightness of his previous film with his portrait of Indian porn star Sunny Leone. For those unfamiliar, Sunny Leone is the most famous of all the porn stars in India and who has now ventured into Bollywood Cinema.

MOSTLY SUNNY is produced by Deepa Metha (FIRE, WATER, EARTH, MIDNIGHT’S CHILDREN, THE BEEBA BOYS) and her husband David Hamilton. For those wondering about the connection, Dilip is Deepa’s brother.

Those venturing to watch MOSTLY SUNNY should not expect too serious a film or a message or even controversial film. Metha’s treatment of his film and subject is as breezy as his subject Sunny Leone. Sunny is filmed in most scenes smiling or laughing. Even when talking about a serious topic like the reason her father chose to live in a small Ontario town of Sarnia, she is laughing and giggling. So, the subject of Sunny in the adult film industry, infuriating her parents and Indian community is treated as a brush off. Her fame in porn is also treated lightly. Those expecting to see Metha in any sex act in his doc will be disappointed, though there are a few nude pictures. The only one time Sunny gets really open, is when she tells the camera (through a past interview) that she is bisexual and got really excited when she shot a film segment in which the male came in both hers and another girls’ mouths. Metha shows more of Sunny in her non-porn Bollywood films than in her porn films.

The film runs at slightly over 80 minutes. Metha is short of material on his easy-going doc as evident in the segment where he tries to get any member of Sunny’s family still living in Sarnia to have a word or two to say to the camera.

As it turns out, Metha’s doc about a porn star is not really about a porn star – but about an ordinary hard-working Indian immigrant who just happens to turn out to be a porn star by accident. And it is not a bio-pic of Sunny either. Sunny is teated as mostly normal throughout the film, also marrying the one true love of her life – her manager who has accepted her past work. Perhaps a more appropriate title of the film wold be MOSTLY NORMAL.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmC1DOLiCBg

 

 

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Film Review: MAPPLETHORPE: LOOK AT THE PICTURES

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mapplethorpe_movie_posterDirectors: Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato

Stars: Nancy Rooney, Harry Mapplethorpe, George Stack |

Review by Gilbert Seah

Robert Mapplethorpe. Artist or pornographer? Or a bit of both?
Using two retrospectives at LA’s Getty and LACMA museums as a backdrop, Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey’s film profiles the controversial artist from early childhood, to his beginnings in NYC and his meteoric rise in the art world, to his untimely death in 1989. By then, audiences can decide on their own the answer to the question regarding the controversial artist.
They say that a documentary is only as interesting as its subject. No one could be as interesting as the late artist Robert Mapplethorpe who died from a complication of AIDS at age 42. His works and lifestyle are as intriguing as the man is beautiful and daring.

The subject is only shown in archive paintings and photographs. It is without argument that the man is extremely attractive. As in the words of Mapplethorpe’s ex-boyfriend, “Everyone liked him, men and women. Even dogs liked him.”

The film offers lots of talking heads, from Mapplethorpe’s family, friends and artists, possible since the subject is still ‘recent’, having only passed away un 1989. Unfortunately, the artist himself is not alive or is there any archive footage for him to have his say.

Mapplethorpe’s art doubtless shocked America. The images forces whoever’s looking at them to continually stare and be shocked at what they see – be it genitals, the naked body or bondage S&M. But Barbato and Bailey does not let their camera linger on the pictures. The images are shown fleetingly, perhaps to whet the audience’s appetite to want for more. The images are also explained in context by the talking head experts.

The directors do not offer a reason for Mapplethorpe’s lifestyle or art. But they deliver a good researched background of the artist, leaving the audience to determine for themselves the reason for the choices he made in his life. Robert is shown from his Catholic background as a boy who never failed to attend Sunday mass. His priest, who is still alive, also says a bit about the boy and how different he was. Surprising too, is Mapplethorpe’s first love, who is a female of the opposite sex. Patti Smith and Robert were very much in love, before Robert switched sides. Robert’s drug and decadent lifestyle is also mentioned in the film. A fair bit of screen time is also devoted to Robert and his long term partner and benefactor Sam Wagstaff.

The doc first premiered at Sundance Film Festival in January 2016, followed by the international premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in February, and a world television premiere on HBO in April. The film has been already released theatrically in the US and UK in April 2016. The reason the film is now being reviewed is that it will screen as part of the AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario) film series entitled ART ON SCREEN”, that begins January 18th, 2017.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrVYqB0geMo

 

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Film Review: SILENCE. Directed by Martin Scorsese

festreviews 2016 movies, movie, Movie Review, Uncategorized , , , , , , ,

silence_movie_poster.jpgDirector: Martin Scorsese

Writers: Jay Cocks (screenplay), Martin Scorsese (screenplay)

Stars: Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver, Liam Neeson

Review by Gilbert Seah

SILENCE. directed by Martin Scorsese and written by him and Jay Cocks is Scorsese’s labour of love. He was supposed to have made this film decades ago, but had to postpone the project many times owing to his obligation to direct other films. Finally, SILENCE is here, and despite all the hullabaloo, the film is surprisingly pristine and distant.

There is a lot of talk about the dedication and sacrifice the Jesuit priests went through. But the film never goes into the details of the source of this self-sacrifice. The only clue is the quoted scripture from Mark: 13, “Go ye into the world and preach the Gospel to the whole creation.” Apart from that, all the audience is given is lengthy talk of the priests insisting of going to Japan. There is one lengthy, unconvincing scene where priests Sebastião Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) and Francisco Garrpe (Adam Driver) argue with their superior (Ciaran Hinds) to be given permission to travel to Japan to locate their mentor Father Cristóvão Ferreira (Liam Neeson).

The film, based upon the 1966 novel of the same name by Shūsaku Endō is set in the 17th century. The two main characters are the Portuguese Jesuit priests — Sebastião Rodrigues and Francisco Garrpe. They face violence and persecution when they travel to Japan to locate Father Cristóvão Ferreira, who has committed apostasy after being tortured. The story is set in the time of Kakure Kirishitan (“Hidden Christians”) which followed the defeat of the Shimabara Rebellion (1637–1638) of Japanese Roman Catholics against the Tokugawa shogunate.

SILENCE contains many awkward scenes, the funniest is the one which involves the act of apostasy. Apostasy is the formal disaffiliation from, or abandonment or renunciation of a religion by a person. The term is also used is used by sociologists to mean renunciation and criticism of, or opposition to, a person’s former religion, in a technical sense and without pejorative connotation. In the film, Father Ferreira apostates and talks about it. It is a hard word to pronounce and in that scene Neeson blows the pronunciation. It is a wonder why Scorsese did not cut that scene out of the film.

Another is the homo-erotic hugging of the two priests played by Driver and Garfield before they depart. Their odd look – as if they know what the scene could indicate but totally ignore the fact – is priceless. But the first scene with the torture of the priests by the Japanese soldiers using leaking ladles is quite ridiculous. I am sure the Japanese could have devised more torturous and less cumbersome instruments.

The film is shot in both English and Japanese. As the priests were Portuguese, whenever the actors speak English with a weird accent that is supposed to be Portuguese, The English is supped to stand for Portuguese. Fortunately, Japanese is left as Japanese. But these pose problems when in one scene pre sits asks: “Do you speak my language?” in English which stands for Portuguese.

The film contains too many set-up conversational pieces and laborious inquisitions for its own good. The lengthy 160 minute running time does not help either. SILENCE ends up a long, laborious and boring affair.

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

 

 

 

 

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