gilbert seah

Movie Review: THE STEPS (Canada 2015)

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the_stepsTHE STEPS (Canada 2015) **
Directed by Andrew Currie

Starring: Emmanuelle Chriqui, James Brolin, Jason Ritter, Christine Lahti, Kate Corbett

Review by Gilbert Seah

THE STEPS of the movie title to the members of a step-family. There is every variation from stepmother, stepfather to stepmothers and stepsisters in this comedy about a dysfunctional step-family.

The setting is the family’s reunion at a lake house in picturesque Parry Sound, a small town in Northern Ontario. The patriarch, wealthy publishing magnate, Ed (James Brolin) has married the love of his life, a lovely, bubbly good-berated Sherry (Christine Lahti) and wants everyone over in order to convince a social worker that the happy family is perfect for the adoption of a Chinese girl.

The story’s main focus could be any member of the family, but it chooses failed investment banker, Ed’s son, Jeff (Jason Ritter) as the one. Whether this is the correct choice makes no difference, as long as the story has an anchor that puts everyone else into perspective. Jeff arrives with his party animal sister, Marla (Emmanuelle Chriqui). They meet Sherry’s children, pot-smoking half-East Indian Samir (Vinay Virmani), David (Benjamin Arthur) and Keith (Steven McCarthy). They do not get along.

Director Andrew Currie directed the zombie comedy FIDO a decade or so back – another family based comedy in which zombies could be trained as a pet. His comedy sense seems largely muddled in THE STEPS – a pity as FIDO was a very well received and hilarious comedy.

The script by Robyn Harding contains lots of potential for comedy. The fact that half of the siblings are American (Ed’s kids) and the other half Canadian (Sherry’s kids) opens humour to be poked at the different cultures. Jeff knocks over a stuffed moose in one scene and David angrily complains that the national animal is not respected. The many siblings from different backgrounds also offer other avenues for humour. The pot smoking allows Jeff to get very high; the party animal Marla is caught giving Keith a blow-job and David blasts Jeff with 7 hits of paintballs. Still, it is a disappointment then that Currie’s film is hardly funny. The jokes are mildly funny at best and the laugh-out loud segments are very few and far between.

Performances are largely wasted. Christian Lahti, so good in her early films like HOUSEKEEPING has nothing much to do here but to smile, complement everyone and lead silly ice-breaker games. The segment on paintball, the greatest potential for humour hardly generates any laughs at all.

When Ed tells Sherry at the film’s mid-point,that his children will come through at the end, the film really dips into predictability. Jeff turns into the perfect son, bringing the family together (literally) into getting the Chinese girl adopted.

The question is whether an audience wishes to see a dysfunctional family of Americans and Canadians eventually come together with silly jokes and pointless humour? The answer is one big ‘no’. But if the film turned out as funny as Currie’s last film FIDO, all might have been forgiven.

Movie Review: Warcraft: The Beginning (2016)

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warcraft.jpgWARCRAFT (USA 2016) ***
Directed by Duncan Jones

Starring: Travis Fimmel, Paula Patton, Ben Foster, Dominic Cooper, Toby Kebbell

Review by Gilbert Seah

The phrase ‘based on a video game’ should scare serious movie goers from this CGI blockbuster extravaganza. Based on the Blizzard Entertainment Warcraft series which consisted of 5 core games, this film is actually based just on the first one. WARCRAFT is set in the human Kingdom of Azeroth, threatened by an Orc invasion before Azeroth was expanded into new continents of Kalimdor, Northrend and Pandaria, allowing the introduction of new characters like the Night Elves.

The story in nutshell involves humans fighting against the Orcs as they invade through a portal. The battle lasts from the start to the end of the film. There are several main characters, humans and good Orcs to distract audiences from a basically non-existent story.

The Orcs come from another world called Draenor to invade Azeroth. The warrior Lothar (Travis Fimmel) fights for his king (Dominic Cooper) who relies on the suspicious Guardian, Medivh (Ben Foster) who has taken to the dark side, and is responsible for opening the dreaded portal. Meanwhile, the young warlock Khadgar (Ben Schnetzer) lands a hand. The Orcs are led by an evil Gul’dan (Daniel Wu), that a good Orc chieftain recognizes should be stopped. The characters help to liven the video game movie up several notches.

The film is best watched in IMAX 3-D – forget the small extra cost. It is difficult not to get into the action on a film in 3-D IMAX. The special and video effects, production design by Gavin Bocquet) and costume design all look the more convincing. This is director Duncan Jones blockbuster directorial debut after making small films like MOON and SOURCE CODE.
I entered the screening with the lowest expectations after all the bad hype about the movie. But truthfully, WARCRAFT is not bad. It is better watching an expensive blockbuster that is difficult to make than a well reviewed low budget film with maybe just two characters. On has to give credit for effort put in.

WARCRAFT ends with the obvious set-up for a sequel. Judging from other critic reviews so far, WARCRAFT has been panned. But for video game fans, this might be the fun film summer has promised. The film has already made $45 million in China on opening day breaking all records for a weekday opening day. So it looks like a sequel will likely be in the making with Night Elves.

See WARCRAFT for what it is – guilty entertainment with super special CGI effects. And Remember – to see it in 3-D IMAX.

Movie Review: POPSTAR: NEVER STOP NEVER STOP STOPPING

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Deadlines to Submit your Screenplay, Novel, Story, or Poem to the festival: http://www.wildsound.ca

popstar
POPSTAR: NEVER STOP NEVER STOP STOPPING (USA 2016) ***
Directed by Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaffer

Starring: Andy Samberg, Jorma Taccone, Akiva Schaffer, Sarah Silverman, Imogen Poots, Maya Rudolph, Joan Cusask

Review by Gilbert Seah

POPSTAR is a Saturday Night Live type comedy that centres on a successful white rapper, by the stage name of Conner4real (SNL’s Adam Sambrg). It is Samberg’s vehicle with his name on the starring, writing and producing credits. It is a send up of pop stars – which one, no one is really certain. It could be Justin Bieber, judging from the tattoos’ on Conner’s arms or from the jokes on Anne Frank’s house in Amsterdam. His boy band, Style Boyz could be parodying The Beastie Boys or even NSynch. His donkey hop is a variation of the famous horse dance by North Korean rapper, Psy. Whatever the parody is, the film quickly changes to another so no one is really sure. The film also moves along so fast that there is hardly time for the audience to realize what most of the words of the dialogue mean. Or to understand what the film intends to do- if there is an intention.

Real life boy bands break up and never get back together. The Style Boyz has Conner still working with his best friend and DJ, Owen (Jorma Taccone) while finally getting back with the estranged Lawrence (Akiva Schaffer) at the end of the film
Where the film succeeds are the laughs and tie-ins the film brings with corporations like Aquaspin hosted by Maya Rudolph. But bits of the stories are also thrown into the film, as if at random. The story puts in bits like the need for the band for a corporate tie-in without any warning. Just as fast as this point is introduced, it is taken away. The same goes with Conner’s girlfriend, Ashley (Imogen Poots) who disappears just as fast as she appears.

The film is however, hilarious in parts. Samberg is a fast talker and a fast performer. His music videos (example the one on Bin Laden) are well orchestrated in the film. If only the film had a stronger narrative with all the points better assembled together.

A good number of music business and TV celebrities appear in the film as cameos. The list is endless and includes artists Snoopy Dog, Paul McCartney, TMZ, Ringo Starr, actors Martin Sheen, Joan Cusack (as his mother) and comics Bill Hader, Will Arnett and Maya Rudolph to mention a few. This is one of the film’s delights that would more than cover the film’s flaws.
The film takes the one idea story nowhere. The story of the white-boy band star who grows up to to be a spoilt man that eventually grows up runs out of steam fast.

POPSTAR is a film for the young and for those who know the music business. A similar film that falls into this category was ENTOURAGE. It is not surprising therefore to see a number of the older audience walking out of the theatre during the promotional screening. Those in the know can relate to the film’s inside jokes, identify the pop-up cameos and enjoy the silly yet entertaining song and rap numbers.

POPSTAR NEVER STOP NEVER STOPPING is conceived by Samberg’s long time partners Taccone and Schaffer – the film’s directors, who with him (they call themselves The Lonely Island) also wrote the script. The story of the Style Boyz must, for all that it’s worth, has some truth in it.

Also, Free logline submissions. The Writing Festival network averages over 95,000 unique visitors a day.
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Movie Review: ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS (USA 2016) **

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Deadlines to Submit your Screenplay, Novel, Story, or Poem to the festival: http://www.wildsound.ca

alice_through_the_looking_glass_poster.jpg
ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS (USA 2016) **
Directed by James Bobin

Sarring: Mia Wasikowska, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, Sacha Baron Cohen, Rhys Ifan

Review by Gilbert Seah

Based on Lewis Carroll’s ‘Through the Looking Glass”, the sequel to ALICE IN WONDERLAND entitled ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS is produced by Tim Burton but the director’s reins are now taken over by The Muppet’s James Bobbin. Burton’s dark first film is replaced by glowing dizziness, all shiny stuff and sparkles, delivering a louder and glitzier Alice. Which one is better? Critics have been divided roughly 50-50. But both films had the common trait that the plot’s logic is largely incomprehensible.

When ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS opens, the titles inform that the ship Alice Kinsleigh (Mia Wasikowska) is captain of, is sailing the Straits of Malacca in the year 1874. To those rusty with their geography or history, the straits is the narrow sea separating the west of West Malaysia (known at that time as Malaysia) and Sumatra, Indonesia. It is the time when trade was opening between Britain and the East Indies. Alice is supposed to be prospering in trade. But now, she is pursued by pirates. The pirates are inserted, perhaps to whet audience’s appetite for a new version of PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN from Disney. Alice’s ship escapes, thanks to the magic of CGI but she returns to more trouble in London, England.

The plot involves a few different stories. One is her losing her independence and her ship to a former suitor, Hamish (Leo Bill). But Alice escapes through a looking glass back into Wonderland where she meets her old friends Tweedledee/Tweedledum (Matt Lucas from LITTLE BRITAIN), the White Rabbit (Michael Sheen), the Cheshire Cat (Stephen Fry) and the White Queen (Anne Hathaway). Everyone appears worried about the depressed Hatter (Johnny Depp), and the White Queen dispatches Alice to travel back into the past to save his family. So the second story involves Alice stealing time in the form of a gyroscope under pursuit by Time (Sacha baron Cohen) himself. The other less interesting one has the red queen (Helena Bonham Carter) dealing with her evil issues.

The humour is very, very mad and all over the place. Imagine sitting in a room having tea with a bunch of crazies or on an uncontrollable acid trip. Johnny Depp is in home territory here.

Sadly, the film’s most interesting segments are Alice’s problems back in reality dealing with her mother’s contract to Hamish and how she deals with them. It is when Alice goes to Wonderland, which is the majority of the picture, is when the film gets too crazy.

All the gaudy excesses cannot hide the fact that a film with a convoluted and confusing plot results in a less satisfying entertainment – whether a dark or glossy look is used to disguise it. Both ALICE fins fail to hit the mark. And the film contains too many puns on the word ‘time’.

The film is lovingly dedicated to Alan Rickman who voiced Absalom, the blue butterfly that leads Alice to the magical looking glass. It is funny that Rickman should be remembered by his last film a a blue butterfly than in his first film and best role in DEEPLY, MADLY, SWEETLY.

 

 

Also, Free logline submissions. The Writing Festival network averages over 95,000 unique visitors a day.
Great way to get your story out: http://www.wildsound.ca/logline.html

Deadlines to Submit your Screenplay, Novel, Story, or Poem to the festival:http://www.wildsound.ca

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INSIDE OUT 2016 Toronto’s LGBT Film Festival

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The Inside Out LGBT film festival includes: 

PINK CARPET PREMIERES, FRESH FEATURES AND THE BEST IN CANQUEER CINEMA,

Public tickets Have gone on sale since May 12 at insideout.ca

The full schedule and description of films can also be found on the site.

The Presenting Sponsor is RBC Royal Bank

Premier Sponsor: CTV

Rounding out the Festival’s impressive programming this year are Galas & Special Presentations, treating audiences to exclusive premieres of the best in queer cinema; Premieres programme, offering audiences a chance to be among the first to screen the latest in queer cinematic achievements; the Spotlight on Canada series, celebrating Canada’s own emerging and established talent which includes the Festival favourite shorts programme Local Heroes; and a diverse collection of films in the Shorts program.

Taking place this year from May 26 to June 5, Inside Out celebrates 26 years of showcasing the most ground-breaking, powerful and entertaining work in LGBT cinema from Canada and around the world. 

GALAS & SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS

The Galas & Special Presentations will feature films that are destined to become the future classics of LGBT cinema. Making its World Premiere as this year’s Women’s Gala is Toronto filmmaker Sarah Rotella’s ALMOST ADULTS starring Elisa Bauman and Natasha Negovanlis (stars of the popular web series Carmilla) in a poignant and hilarious examination of growing up and growing apart.  This year’s Centrepiece Gala is the directorial debut from actress-turned-director Clea DuVall with the International Premiere of THE INTERVENTION, a dramatic comedy featuring a stellar ensemble cast including Cobie Smulders, Melanie Lynskey, Natasha Lyonne, Alia Shawkat , Vincent Piazza and Clea DuVall herself.

This year’s Special Presentations include Festival favourites Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau’s PARIS 05:59: THEO & HUGO, a sensitive and emotional look at intimacy and relationships against the backdrop of the city of lights; and HURRICANE BIANCA will hit this year’s Festival as a World Premiere starring season 6 winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race, Bianca Del Rio, as the new teacher in small town Texas who’s got drag on her side.

PREMIERES

Inside Out audiences will be among the first in Canada, North America or the world to screen fresh features offered by award-winning filmmakers and their emerging counterparts in the Premieres programme. BURN BURN BURN, from British filmmaker Chanya Button, follows Seph (Downton Abbey’s Laura Carmichael) and Alex (Chloe Pirrie) as they set across the UK with their late friend’s ashes in tow on a quest to fulfill his dying wish; Festival favourite Ira Sachs returns to Inside Out with his subtly powerful film LITTLE MEN, an intimate character study set in New York City focused on the budding friendship between two teenage boys; the revolutionary film LOEV from Indian director Sudhanshu Saria is a film that was made in absolute secrecy following India’s Supreme Court’s ruling that homosexuality be recriminalized; and Andrew Ahn’s breathtakingly honest SPA NIGHT, a depiction of the Korean-American immigrant experience and a look at what happens when tradition and familial expectations comes up against personal desires and the economic realities of American life.

SPOTLIGHT ON CANADA

The Spotlight on Canada programme is a bold showcase of Canadian queer cinema sure to delight, challenge and inspire. The lineup includes the World Premiere of Richard Lusimbo and Nancy Nicol’s AND STILL WE RISE, a moving documentary that provides an insider’s view of Uganda’s LGBTI communities’ fight against the Anti-Homosexual Act; CLOSET MONSTER, a distinctively offbeat and emotionally striking coming-of-age story from first-time director Stephen Dunn; Bretten Hannam’s NORTH MOUNTAIN, a film full of action and romance that adds another impressive film to the growing number of Canadian aboriginal LGBT films; RE:ORIENTATIONS reconnects with seven of the original participants of Richard Fung’s 1984 video Orientations: Lesbian and Gay Asians, the first documentary on queer Asians and racialized queers in Canada; and from Mark Kenneth Woods and Michael Yerxa comes TWO SOFT THINGS, TWO HARD THINGS, a thoughtful documentary following the preparations for a seminal LGBTQ Pride celebration in Nunavut.

CAPSULE REVIEWS OF SELECTED FILMS:

CHEMSEX (UK 2015) ***1/2

Directed by William Fairman and Max Gogarty

CHEMSEX is a British documentary on the subject commonly known by the North American acronym PnP which means party and play.  The partying involves the use of hard drugs like crystal meth and the play is sex, mostly involving gay males.  Director Fairman and Gogarty aim to educate audiences on the extent of the chemsex problem and how it is dealt within the London setting.  The problem is obviously more evident in a big city where drugs can be more easily obtained just as partners who indulge in the same excesses more easily found.  The film centres on David, working out of 57 Dean Street, a centre that treats the problem.  Various subjects are interviewed discussing candidly their chemsex activities and if they are willing, their addiction.  The camera also follows the subjects to the parties where the activities take place.  CHEMSEX is an extremely disturbing documentary.  The film ends on a positive note with many of the subjects in the film recovered and now leading normal lives.  The hero of the piece is David of Dean Street and the villain the impulsiveness of man.

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

CLOSET MONSTER (Canada 2015) ***

Directed by Stephen Dunn

Newfie movie of an East Coast teenager and aspiring special-effects makeup artist, Oscar (Connor Jessup, BLACKBIRD) struggling with both his sexuality and his fear of his macho asshole father.  Oscar has a girlfriend, Gemma (Sofia Banzhaf) but pines for the new cute boy, Wilder (Aliocha Schneider) at his workplace.  The film teases all the way whether the relationship will happen, but the film takes a few turns.  The film uses the boy’s hamster (with a gender twist on it too) to provide insight to the story.  The hamster is voiced by Isabella Rossellini.  The film is a welcome comedic twist on the coming-of-age genre.  The film is not without flaws but given the fact that this is a first-time feature, CLOSET MONSTER is an assured debut. 

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=1&v=VSLEI55SS5s

DOWNRIVER (Australia 2015) ***
Directed by Grant Scicluna

DOWNRIVER’s protagonist is teenager James (Reef Ireland).  When the film opens, he is just released from juvenile prison.  He returns home to mother, Paige (Kerry Fox) hoping to find out the truth about the death of a child.   James was sent to prison for it when the death occurred when they were kids.  The film’s setting is perfect for this kind of plot.  The action takes place in the country where a trailer park exists close by.  There is a river where the folks go fishing and there are caves and abandoned  structures.  But it is surprising that in such a male chauvinistic environment, almost every young male is gay or has had a gay sexual encounter.  The gay sex scenes are shot mostly in the dark, making the sex appear even more erotic. Cinematographer Laszlo Baranyai does an even better job with the shots in the open.  His camera glides across the beautiful murky waters of the river.  The country areas outside Melbourne, where the film is shot, never looked more stunning.  But one of the film’s flaws is its muddled narrative.  As the film progresses, there are many confusing incidents.  Despite the film’s flaws, DOWNRIVER is an absorbing film about youth angst. It covers universal issues like redemption, family ties, relationships, friendships and gay sex.  It does not skimp on the nastiness which occurs quite a lot in the film.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-98kUEnkxHM 

THE INTERVENTION (USA 2015) ***
Directed by Clea DuVall

THE INTERVENTION is an ensemble piece that aims to show how good people are on the inside – never mind what occurs on the exterior.  A couple could be fighting but deep down, they love each other and cannot live without sac other.  One is caught kissing another by her partner, but the kissing means nothing and the love deep inside overcomes all.  The story involves three couples (one of which is a lesbian couple) meeting in a summer home to intervene with the relationship of a fourth married one.  They deem the marriage toxic and that it best for two to live apart.  Of course, these things do not go as planned, especially since the organizer of the intervention gets drunk half the time and that each couple have problems of their own.  DuVall who also stars in the film directs the goings-on fairly well.  In fact the film is more believable and enjoyable than similar Hollywood ensemble comedies like MOTHER’S DAY and NEW YEAR’S EVE.  The film is in reality, four different short stories connected to he intervention theme with a good bond of drama and comedy.

LAST MEN STANDING (USA 2016) **

Directed by Erin Brethauer and Tim Hussin

LAST MEN STANDING begins with shots of San Francisco when it stood for the first vibrant gay city in the U.S where gays flocked there to live freely and without prejudice.  It then goes on to the era of AIDs describing how the streets were then emptied.  The film settles on its topic of 8 men who were diagnosed HIV positive then and have not died – living 30 years beyond their diagnoses.  According to the film, more than half of those living with HIV/AIDS in the United States are older than 50, many of them gay.  The 8 men now past their fifties, tell their own stories.  The common thread is that each needs love in the form of a companion who cares.  But as well-intentioned as this documentary is, the film runs out of martial even at 66 minutes.  The stories are personal but not super interesting and there is nothing really insightful provided by the film either.

OTHER PEOPLE (USA 2016) ***

Directed by Chris Kelly

OTHER PEOPLE is the opening gala film for this year’s INSIDE OUT LGBT film festival.  The film directed by Chris Kelly and starring Jesse Plemons as David is ok but but nothing exceptional.  It also stars Molly Shannon playing a largely dramatic role as David’s mother dying of cancer with Oscar nominee June Squibb as grandma.  David is a struggling comedy writer, fresh off a breakup and in the midst of the worst year of his life, returns to Sacramento to care for his dying mother.   There are quite a few problems with the film.  For one, there is no real reason David needs to return to care for mother as Joanna still has a husband and two other daughters.  The film is laid out in months, and from the period David has returned, he has done nothing to help mother but to mope around and try to write.  there (Bradley Whitford) has still not accepted David for being gay which serves yet another reason why David should stay.  Audiences would rather see hilarious  comedienne Molly Shannon being funny – as she really is, but her taken is stifled here.  The film dos contain some good moments.  The best is the one David freaks out at a grocery store unable to find laxatives only to break down crying, “I am a good person.”  A grocery worker suddenly shows up, points to the laxatives in from of him and then, slowly limps away.  The film at least spares the audience from a sentimental death scene.  Still, bring tissues!

Interview Clip: (no trailer available): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFF919bw9Yc

PARIS 05:59: THEO & HUGO

(THEO ET HUGO DANS LE MEME BATEAU) (France 2016) ****
Directed by Olivier Ducastel et Jacques Martineau

Directors Ducastel and Martineau have already wowed gay audiences with their earlier films THE ADVENTURES OF FELIX and COTE D’AZUR.  Their new movie on first love will certainly be another film to remember.  It begins with an X-rated 18 minutes sequence in a sex club which commonly exists as a bath house (spa) where Theo and Hugo meet and have steamy sex for the first time amidst a sea of naked men.  Despite the setting, the love comes across as a sweet and ‘innocent’ one which is put to the test after they leave the spa.  Theo (Francois Nambot) confesses that he had f***ed Hugo (Geofrey Couet) sans condom.   And trouble begins in paradise.  The couple also meet a Syrian kebab worker and an old lady in the metro.  In a short few minutes, these two deliver an abridged but very effective view on life as they see it.  Despite the film dwelling on two characters, they apparently unaffected lives in the world are put into perspective rather brilliantly.   It is an absorbing film and turns out to be a sweet romantic film about first love.  A perfect film to watch at Inside Out.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWiTP8V95oU 

WHERE ARE YOU GOING, HABIBI? (Germany 2015) ***
Directed by Tor Iber

WHERE ARE YOU GOING, HABIBI? is a sweet German film with a setting around a Turkish family living in Berlin.  Ibrahim (Cem Alkan), is gay and outed to his family by his sister.  As a result, he is kicked out of his family home by his father.  Fortunately, he is taken in by his gay-positive uncle (Neil Malik Abdullah, looking like a turkish George Clooney).  Amidst all this mayhem, Ibrahim falls in love with a straight blonde German, Alexander (Martin Walde).  The relationship is one of friendship that grows into something beautiful.  The issues of coming out and first love are nothing new and have been treaded once too often in gay films.  Yet, this sweet and non-pushy film makes it difficult to dislike.  The main message is tolerance, which is important not only in the film’s setting but in the entire world these days.  Habibi is the Arab word for baby or sweetheart.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NGPWraYtV0

*****

Also, Free logline submissions. The Writing Festival network averages over 95,000 unique visitors a day.
Great way to get your story out: http://www.wildsound.ca/logline.html

Deadlines to Submit your Screenplay, Novel, Story, or Poem to the festival:http://www.wildsound.ca

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Movie Review: The Boy and the Beast (Japan 2015) ***1/2

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Deadlines to Submit your Screenplay, Novel, Story, or Poem to the festival: http://www.wildsound.ca

the_boy_and_the_beast.jpgTHE BOY AND THE BEAST (Japan 2015) ***1/2
Directed by Mamoru Hosoda

Starring: Bryn Apprill, Kumiko Asô, Morgan Berry

Review by Gilbert Seah

When his mother dies, the nine year-old boy, Ren (voiced by Aoi Miyazaki) runs away from his relatives in modern day Tokyo and stumbles into a parallel realm inhabited by anthropomorphic beasts. There he becomes the apprentice to bear-like Kumatetsu (Koji Yakusho) who trains him in martial arts. Kumatetsu is a grumpy sort and the boy is feisty – so there is non-stop bickering back and forth. When the boy turns 17 (Shota Sometani), a darkness descends, putting the bond between him and Kumatetsu to the ultimate test. Ren re-enters the human world to search for his missing dad and halts the martial-arts training.

THE BOY AND THE BEAST is not entirely original in its story. It has taken bits from other animated features. The mixing of two worlds the beast and the human, and the crossings from one to the other is similar to what occurred in Hayao Miyazaki Studio Ghibli’s animated SPIRITED AWAY where the spirit and human worlds were crossed. The mouse like creature in the film is also similar to he furry balls in Miyazaki’s HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE. (Hosoda initially worked on that film before taken off by the studio.) But Hosoda’s film takes premises one step further. He bonds both worlds. What initially seems strange as the beast walks in the human world becomes natural by the film’s end. The training of apprentice and master is also given a good turnaround. Hosoda’s Master in the film has lots to learn unlike other films where the Master is perfect. As he trains his rebellious apprentice, both learn from each other and fine tune their techniques. Ionically, this is what happens with Hosoda. As he learns the techniques from other films, he does not merely copy but takes each film ahead, changing the rules and fascinating the audience.

Hosoda started his apprenticeship at the famous Toei Studios before starting his own Studio Chizu in which BOY AND THE BEAST is its second film.

As the film progresses, what initially appears as a predictable tale turns out to be a unique story full of wonder and surprise. The humour and lightness the of the film are never lost as important messages are subtly wound into the story.

Excepting the mousy creature, Hosoda refrains from cutesy bits, typical in Disney and other animated features aimed at kids. THE BOY AND THE BEAST thus has a more universal appeal despite it being targeted as a family film.

A key component in the majority of Miyazaki’s film is the love element. There is always a love story and one involving first love. In Hosoda’s film, Young Ren falls in love for the first time when he returns to the human world though it occurs at the half way point of the story.

The soundtrack of piano playing scores is very pleasant covering the darker nature of the story. Hosoda’s hand drawn animation is top-notch.

THE BOYS AND THE BEAST turns out surprisingly entertaining. It was a box-office smash in Japan and should do well in Norther American given its universal appeal.

Also, Free logline submissions. The Writing Festival network averages over 95,000 unique visitors a day.
Great way to get your story out: http://www.wildsound.ca/logline.html

Deadlines to Submit your Screenplay, Novel, Story, or Poem to the festival:http://www.wildsound.ca

Watch recent Writing Festival Videos. At least 15 winning videos a month:http://www.wildsoundfestival.com

Movie Review: THE MAN WHO KNEW INFINITY (UK 2015) ***

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Deadlines to Submit your Screenplay, Novel, Story, or Poem to the festival: http://www.wildsound.ca

the_man_who_knew_infinity.jpgTHE MAN WHO KNEW INFINITY (UK 2015) ***
Directed by Matthew Brown

Starring: Dev Patel, Jeremy Irons, Malcolm Sinclair, Stephen Fry

Review by Gilbert Seah

THE MAN WHO KNEW INFINITY is the bio pic of Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan (Dev Patel) based on the 1991 book of the same name by Robert Kanigel. Growing up poor in Madras, Nujan (as he is fondly called in the film) earns admittance to Cambridge University under the mentorship of professor G.J. Hardy (Jeremy Irons). Initially upset at Nujan for his pride and refusal to work out proofs for his mathematical theories, Hardy eventually relents and lets the horse run loose. Together, they achieve milestones in mathematics, cracking the almost impossible task of formulating formulae for partitions.

The first 30 minutes of the film is boring while the the film is set up. Nujan is just married, shown to love and excel in mathematics before fate forces him to leave Madras and serve his true calling. For a biopic of this kind, one expects him to face hardship and prejudice in his new country while finally proving himself to the nonbelievers while uniting with his family at the end. The film felt headed that way and one would almost walk out of the film if it had not changed course.

The typical story is altered by the First World War that creeps into the story. The second is the illness (T.B. or Tuberculosis) that Nujan falls prey to. The rest is pretty predictable stuff with the usual ‘stuffy’ English dialogue put in so that the film feels put up on a high pedestal since it is supposed to have a Cambridge university setting.

Patel was the second option to play the main role as the filmmakers wanted an actor internationally known to carry the film. Patel, who has proven himself apt in comedy as in SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE and the BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL films, demonstrates here that he is also capable of carrying a more dramatic role, one that needs to show suffering from illness as well as desperation and despair. Irons looks convincing as the pipe puffing professor who ends up sympathetic towards Nujan’s course. Stephen Fry is remarkable in being able to make a lasting impression from a performance than lasts only a few minutes. The role of Bertrand Russell, the British philosopher and mathematician undertaken by Jeremy Northam is underwritten and exists only to make a few criticisms on Hardy’s character.

World War 1 is dealt with in terms of both prejudice and its futility. The former issue is demonstrated very effectively in a scene in which Nujan is beaten up by white English soldiers for being a freeloader in a country where the rest have to go fight and die for their country. It is anger that has its point and one almost impossible to resolve. Hardy organizes antiwar rallies dealing with the other war issue.

Associate producers Manjul Bhargava and Ken Ono are distinguished mathematicians who also served as the film’s math consultants. The math is shown only briefly but the message on the intricacies of infinite series and partitions comes across clear enough.

THE MAN WHO KNEW INFINITY make its case more of one of cultural acceptance than (one) in the development of new mathematical theories. Brown brings the film to an end all too quickly, wrapping everything up with Nujan’s eventual failure to survive from Tuberculosis.

 

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Movie Review: Neighbours 2 (USA 2016) ***1/2

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bad_neighboursNEIGHBOURS 2: SORORITY RISING (USA 2016) ***1/2
Directed by Nicholas Stoller

Starring: Seth Rogen, Rose Byrne, Zac Efron, Chloë Grace Moretz, Dave Franco, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Clara Mamet, Selena Gomez

Review by Gilbert Seah

NEIGHBOURS the Seth Rogen comedy with Zac Efron as a frat neighbour was one of the best comedies of 2014. It featured the funniest sequence in a comedy that year – the Robert De Niro segment in which Efron, Dave Franco and gang all dress up as De Niro to taunt Rogen and wife for calling the cops the night before to lodge a complaint about their party.

NEIGHBOURS 2 has tough shoes to fill. But thanks to good writing from a script credited to 5 writers, the sequel makes it. Jokes like the air bags and the Dean Carol Gladstone character (Lisa Kudrow) from the first film are brought back into the sequel. If a few jokes do not work, one can be sure another couple will in a few minutes. With hardly any time for the audience to take a breather, NEIGHBOURS 2 comes across as intense as the dressed up clown that shows up at a tailgate party, a segment that is almost as funny as the De Niro sequence.

The success of this film lies a great deal on the comedic potential of both Efron and Chloe Grace Moretz. Efron plays the older frat member, now graduated and unable to find a decent job and living space while Moretz plays his younger female version looking to party all the time. Teddy Sanders (Efron) helps her at first in renting her sorority house that just happens to be next to the house that Mac (Rogen) and Kelly (Rose Byrne) is selling. But Teddy switches to Mac’s side to help him evict the sisters sorority. It is a fairly simple plot but with plenty of comedy potential, with the setups well staged. Efron has proven his mettle in comedy as in the first NEIGHBOURS and the recent DIRTY GRANDPA. Efron can even be funny in moments demanding the audience to show sympathy for his character. Teddy, for example, shows genuine puzzlement on why eggs get hard whereas pasta gets soft when dunked in boiling water, Moretz, however, has the straighter role. Her character serves to anchor the story. Her sorority sisters, Beth (Dope’s Kiersey Clemons), and Nora (Beanie Feldstein) and other sorority members are left with the task of providing the laughter.

NEIGHBOURS 2 also lifts comedy to a level of political correctness. The gay jokes are largely positive, with Teddy’s best friend, Pete (Franco) coming out and getting married to his new husband. On the female side, the sisterly bond fosters positive feminism while male chauvinism (such as in the depiction of girls as whores in colleges) is frowned upon. There is also a comedic discussion on the difference between a male teen vs. a female teen losing his or her virginity.

While NEIGHBOURS 2 is funny enough, its desperation to top the original is obvious. The film grabs at any opportunity for a joke, even to have didoes dressed as princesses to get a laugh. The result is the film looking a bit ‘all over the place’ compared to the more focused original despite the almost equal high to hit miss laughter ratio.

 

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(THEO ET HUGO DANS LE MEME BATEAU) (France 2016) ****Movie Review:

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paris_0559PARIS 05:59: THEO & HUGO
(THEO ET HUGO DANS LE MEME BATEAU) (France 2016) ****
Directed by Olivier Ducastel et Jacques Martineau

Starring: Geoffrey Couët, François Nambot, Mario Fanfani

Review by Gilbert Seah

Truly sexual films just do not just contain sex scenes anymore. Truly sexual films use sex scenes to push their audience past some new psychological frontier.
And gay films do just that, pushing their audiences past boundaries straight films never reached before. BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOUR (L’HISTORE D’ADELE) portrayed very long hot steamy lesbian sexy scenes never dared before in a commercial movie. French Directors Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau do the same for the gay male sex movie.

Directors Ducastel and Martineau have already wowed gay audiences with their earlier films THE ADVENTURES OF FELIX and COTE D’AZUR. Their new movie on first love begins with an X-rated 18 minutes sequence in a sex club which commonly also exists as a bath house (spa).

The sex scenes are tastefully done, as evident in the light shone on the two when the two first meet. Their bodies glide towards each other before they begin copulating. Almost all is laid bare except the ejaculation which is assumed to have occurred when Theo reaches for the tissues.

Theo and Hugo meet and have steamy sex for the first time amidst a sea of naked men. Despite the graphic setting, the love comes across as a sweet and ‘innocent’ one which is put to the test after they leave the ‘club’. Theo (Francois Nambot) confesses that he had f***ed Hugo (Geoffrey Couet) sans condom. The subject of a.i.d.s was addressed in Ducastel and Martineau’s first film THE ADVENTURES OF FELIX in which Felix , the lead character had to deal with the disease. The couple Theo and Hugo face the same demise, but times have changed in 30 years. The majority of hiv positive people now survive under medication. Theo enters the emergency ward of the Parisienne hospital to get medication to prevent himself from getting the virus. This is in contrast to the directors first film, where Felix struggles to deal with his upcoming death from the disease.

The couple also meet a Syrian kebab worker and an old lady in the metro. In a short few minutes, these two deliver an abridged but very effective view on life as they see it. Despite the film dwelling on two characters, their apparently unaffected lives in the world are put into perspective rather brilliantly. All matters in the short time the film is set.

The two young actors have to perform as well as act their roles. The two newcomers, Nambot and Couet exceed expectations. They are extremely cute with matched body types.

The rest of the film, as hinted by the film title ends almost at 6 am in the morning in Paris. It is an absorbing film which turns out to be a sweet romantic film about the innocence of first love. A daring film that demands to be seen if one can bear the extended sex scenes.

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Movie Review: NEON BULL (Brazil/Uruguay/Netherlands 2015)

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neonbull.jpgNEON BULL (Brazil/Uruguay/Netherlands 2015) ***
Directed by Gabriel Mascaro

Starring: Juliano Cazarré, Maeve Jinkings, Josinaldo Alves

Review by Gilbert Seah

NEON BULL tells the story, set in a Brazilian rodeo setting, of Iremar (Juliano Cazarre) and his immediate family, all living at the edge of poverty. The family consists of his girlfriend an exotic dancer (Maeve Jinkings) and her daughter Caca (Aline Santana). Iremar works at a rodeo called the ‘Vaquejadas’ in the north east of Brazil. In the rodeo, two men on horseback bring down a bull by its tail (which is sanded for grip) within a time limit. There is no story but the film’s purpose is to show what life is like for them. The film works around Iremar’s immediate family and work while focusing on his desire to get out of the bull business as it is difficult hard-breaking work. Iremar’s passion, believe it or not is designing skimpy women’s clothes.

Mascaro uses dramatic set-ups to tell his story. The segment in which the little girl Caca asks Iremar, the mother’s befriend out of the blue for a hug shows the closeness between the two that is missing between her and her real mother. On the other hand, the mother slapping Caca in another scene demonstrates the mother just tolerating her most of the time. These often isolated segments do not help smooth the flow of the story telling, which feels choppy at times. The dramatic contents of the film, however, are strong.

Mascaro loves to focus his camera on images of bodies be it humans, even on co-worker Ze’s (Carlos Pessoa) pot-belly and his protruding belly button or on the almost perfect contours of the white bulls in the rodeo. It seems natural then, that his protagonist has the ambition to design fashion outfit as an alternative source of income.

The film’s cinematography by Diego Garcia is detailed enough to observe dust in the wind. His fond of use of shadows is apparent in the many night scenes. There is much to enjoy in the lighting department as well, as evident in a scene which is lit up by the needle of a sewing machine emphasizing Iremar’s dedication to his design work.

NEON BULL has the mixed feel of art and biopic. The slowness of pace and the often lingering of the camera with the explicit use of colours (the white bulls, the neon lights, the colours of posters) are the realistic dirty look of poverty of the subjects.

The climax of the film is where everything comes together – filmmaking-wise. It is a sex scene, very graphically explicit, shot in the night with shadows and minimal lighting with selected musical scoring. The sex is very erotic and different, between Iremar and his cosmetics saleslady who happens to be pregnant. It is not a scene for everybody, riding from behind, but tastefully done, arguably.

If the visual and dramatic setups are tied in with a stronger film narrative, NEON BULL would emerge a more focused film and even one that could contain a message of survival and maybe the mistreatment of animals. Shot in Portuguese.

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