movie review

Film Review: FIST FIGHT

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

fist_fight.jpgDirector: Richie Keen
Writers: Van Robichaux (screenplay), Evan Susser (screenplay)
Stars: Ice Cube, Charlie Day, Tracy Morgan

Review by Gilbert Seah

As the title suggests, the climax and the soul purpose of the film is the FIST FIGHT that will happen at three o’clock after school at the school parking lot between the film’s two lead characters.

This is a pretty thin premise for a full length feature, so a running time of 90 minutes is not surprising. The goal of the script is to keep the audience attentive for the rest of the movie before the FIST FIGHT.

The beginning of the film sets up the incidents leading to the provocation of the challenge of the fight. This takes 15 minutes or so. It all boils down to a silly excuse of one teacher, Andy Campbell (Charles Day) telling on his fellow teacher, Ron Strickland (Ice Cube) as one of the two will be fired by the principal (Dean Norris).
Strickland challenges him to a fight after school in the parking lot. The news goes viral, in this modern day and age. The actual fight also takes a full 15 minutes. To director Keen’s credit, the fight choreography is well executed with a solid blend of excitement and hilarity.

The script by by Van Robichaux and Evan Susser introduces an assortment of weird characters to the comedy mayhem. Some work and some don’t. Miss Monet (played by Christina Hendricks, who has been voted before as America’s sexiest woman), the sexy drama teacher who has the hots for Strickland is one that works. She brings spice and unpredictability to the proceedings and her gait and mannerisms are priceless. Jillian Bell as the meth taking Councelor Holly who is constantly on the look-out for sex with her students is also funny.The principal’s (Dean Norris) role could have been funnier. A lesson could be taken from another adult school comedy STRANGERS WITH CANDY’s principal, who is the funniest bumbling idiot ever.

The film takes a while to land on its feet. Charles Day, playing the protagonist Andy Campbell is all over the place, partly due to the script. For the audience to root for him, he is given too many ‘vices’ for his character to be liked. For example, he is deemed a coward and snitch. To escape the fight, he plans to plant drugs on Strickland.

Ice Cube, has prove his mettle in comedy in the past, particularly in the JUMP STREET movies, and proves himself a better lead than Day.

It is hard to figure the film’s target audience. The language is quite foul with lots of swearing and references to sex and drug use. I am assuming the filmmakers take their audience to be partying teens in or just out of the school system. As one characters says in the film, “The best place to buy drugs is in an American high school.” School kids know more than adults give them credit for.

As the saying goes, if one does not have ones hopes up too high, one will not end up disappointed. I chose the screening of FIST FIGHT over A GREAT WALL as the last thing I would want to see is a pretentious movie about a glorified white man in China directed by Zhang Yimou who has turned exciting martial-art movies into boring pretty pictures (HERO). At least, FIST FIGHT is unpretentious. Crass though it may be, I got what is expected – silly, raunchy and adulterated entertainment.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aIzXYo6VCE

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Film Review: A UNITED KINGDOM (UK 2016) ***1/2

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

a_united_kingdom.jpgDirector: Amma Asante
Writer: Guy Hibbert (screenplay)
Stars: David Oyelowo, Rosamund Pike, Jack Davenport

Review by Gilbert Seah

Director Amma Asante follows up her successful British period piece BELLE with another of the same, but this time pitting Britain against Africa.

A UNITED KINDOM begins humbly as a love story between two young lovers who first meet in 1947 in a jazz club. The trouble is that one is coloured and the other white. The coloured one happens to be a prince, first in line to the throne of Bechuanaland (today’s Botswana). He keeps this from her and so does director Asante of the film’s main plot. This is the biopic of Seretse Khama (David Oyelowo), the former African royal who courted controversy with his interracial marriage to Englishwoman Ruth Williams (Rosamund Pike) and later led his nation to independence from the British Empire as the first president of Botswana.
One trouble about scripts of period films is that the writers often forget that certain words or common phrases were never used in the past. An example is the word mother f***er, which cannot be used say, in a film set in the 70’s. In the case of Guy Hibbert’s script, an address in Parliament had the speaker use the phrase, ‘most importantly’ a term which was never used before the year 2000.

The 50’s atmosphere of Victorian London and the village atmosphere of African Bechuanaland are both beautifully created and shot by cinematography Sam McCurdy. London is often shot in grey while Bechuanaland in bright colours. There are also gorgeous shots of galloping giraffes and deer on the Botswana plains as seen from an airplane.

At one point in the film, I was wondering (and I am sure many in the audience would as well) what is so special about Khama, the prince – why is he so needed and what he can do to provide his people with a better life. The answer to this question is revealed – to Hibbert’s credit in Khama’s well-written and delivered crowd rousing speech the reason he should remain in line to the throne and how his vision is for Bechuanaland is to be the first to end black/white segregation in Africa.

The film is aided by the impressive performances of its two leads David Oyelowo and Rosamund Pike, bringing to life one of the great forbidden romances of the 20th century. Oyelowo has proven his acting mettle as Martin Luther King Jr. in SELMA and in A UNITED KINGDOM, he delivers a royal performance fit for a King.

Director Asant and scriptwriter Hibbert are careful in building up the film’s momentum. The film also rallies the audience’s anger at Britain’s injustice done against them both and against Bechuanaland. Though the film is clearly anti-British, the anti-British feel is lightened by the fact that the British public eventually supported Khama.

A UNITED KINGDOM ends up a satisfying biopic turned political drama. A more ambitious project for director Asante than BELLE, this film proves her successful and ready for another super period film.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX5vI4osR50

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Film Review: DANCER (UK/Russia/Ukraine/USA 2106) ****

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

dancer.jpgDirector: Steven Cantor
Stars: Jade Hale-Christofi, Sergei Polunin

Review by Gilbert Seah

 In the opening scene of DANCER, 22-year old Sergei Polunin, acclaimed as ‘the most naturally gifted male ballet dancer of his generation’ downs a test tube of liquid and says that it gives him so much energy that he does not remember the performance. DANCER tells the story of the bad boy of ballet, the now 37-year old Sergei Polunin who astounded the world with his outrageous antics. But though the film starts off this way, director Cantor shows the reasons and circumstances leading to this state of affairs eventually revealing that Polunin is not really such a bad boy after all. Though this undermines the dramatization of Cantor’s project, DANCER is still a captivating documentary that also reveals the insides of the ballet world – one that is unknown to most people.

DANCER tells the life story of Sergei from a boy at the age of 6 to the present as a young man at the age of 37. As Sergei loved to film, director Cantor is fortunate to have lots of archive footage of the dancer, showing him progress as a talent from age 6 to 8 to 10 to 12 to 13 and so on. It is fascinating to see the boy, pushed on by his parents leaving him as a teen alone in a new world at the Royal Academy of Ballet in London. He could not speak a word of English. Sergei does now, obviously, and with a London accent.

It is in London hat the bad boys antics began to show. Sergei misses his rehearsals and eventually quits the Royal Ballet. Soon, no other British company would touch the man, knowing his reputation. Sergei moves back to Russia and drops from star to TV personality. But a video “Take me to Chruch” that he worked with David LaChapelle turned viral with 15 million viewers making Sergei Polunin a household name. The film includes the famous video, though many, including myself had already seen it. Still, it is good to watch again, Sergei’s incredible performance.

“The need for excellence of each performance” is the reason given for Sergei’s antics. He wants his freedom and is restricted by his talent s well as what his company wants him to do. But the film show that it is his parents’ divorce that broke him. There is no purpose in excelling after this point.

Noticeably missing in this documentary is Sergei’s personal life. No mention is there anywhere of a girlfriend (or boyfriend for that matter). Surely, a man with such a good physique and gorgeous looks would have a healthy sex life.

To Canter’s credit, he has assembled a good variety of talking heads. The best insight to Sergei’s personality is provided by his Royal Ballet Academy friends. One says: “Many do not realize that Sergei is only 22 years old.” A moving and realistic segment has Sergei filmed dancing naked in the snow, showing him acting as a teen.

DANCER, one of the best documentaries released so far this year is a film for everyone, besides those interested in dance. The film shows life, mistakes made and mistakes corrected as it logs Sergei’s rise to stardom, his fall and rise again. The message of the film can be learnt in observing the life of this very gifted artist.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8ZNodT9kcM

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Film Review: XX (USA/Canada 2016) ***

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xx.jpgDirected by various directors (see below)

Not since the British horror anthropology DEAD OF NIGHT has a more memorable one hit the screens. A hit at this year’s Sundance 2017, the film features four horror shorts by four killer female directors.
Each director is given full creative license to tell any story they choose revolving around a female protagonist. While the directors have been given free creative rein within budget and time constraints, all of the segments themselves involve the horror genre in a new all-female helmed horror film.

The film is called XX likely because of the female chromosomes that make up the sex of a newly born infant. [In this system, the sex of an individual is determined by a pair of sex chromosomes (gonosomes). Females typically have two of the same kind of sex chromosome (XX), and are called the homogametic sex.]

Award-winning animator Sofia Carrillo (LA CASA TRISTE) wraps together the four suspenseful stories of terror with eerie stop motion creatures and objects running around.

The four films are outlined below. They are all equally good and worth a look. A brief description and review is given of each.

THE BOX (Directed by Jovanka Vuckovic)

THE BOX is every mother’s nightmare. The female protagonist here is a mother who when taking the TTC (Toronto Transit Corporation) train one day with her two children encounters a stranger carrying a red box, taken as a Christmas present. After the son takes a peek at what’s inside of the box, he stops eating. No reason is given for his lost of appetite as the boy feels fine As the days pass, he grows thinner and weaker. Vuckovic’s film is a very well executed exercise in suspense, despite it having an open ending.

THE BIRTHDAY PARTY (Directed by Annie Clark)

Clark’s BIRTHDAY PARTY deals with the female protagonist, a mother trying to hide a dead corpse (her husband) from everyone. I am not a fan of dead corpse films like WEEKEND AT BERNIE’S, SWISS MARY MAN nor his one. I do not find anything hilarious about dragging dead body around through a whole movie. Clark plays it for laughs rather than horror.

DON’T FALL (Directed by Karyn Kusama)

DON”T FALL sees a group of four (2 males, 2 females) venturing into unchartered territory. They see figures carved in rock, not knowing what they stand for. Before they bed down in their trailer, horror strikes. DON”T FALL is at times quite hilarious, but it is also quite scary as the last female of the group tries her best to escape sinister forces. Good make-up and special effects!

HER ONLY LONGING SON (Directed by Karyn Kusama)
“Something is happening to Andy”. Kusama’s tale is from the point of view of a mother who sees strange behaviour in her son. Called to school, after her son tore out the fingernails of a classmate, she is surprised that he is unpunished as the principal claims the son to be special. Things take a twist when it is discovered that the mother knows more than it seems. This is the longest of the 4 films. It could also stand for the sequel for ROSEMARY’S BABY.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGH-zJ9_uFs

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Film Review: KEDI (Turkey/USA 2016) ***

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

kedi.jpgDirector: Ceyda Torun
Star: Bülent Üstün

Review by Gilbert Seah

 Right on the paws of the controversial Hollywood animal movie A DOG’S PURPOSE comes KEDI, a film about cats. KEDI is set in Istanbul, Turkey. The film’s niche is that it is a documentary looking at the ancient city of Istanbul (a city that has survived through the rise and fall of empires) through the eyes of cats. Director Torun live in Istanbul and understands the city.

Cats are not as trainable as dogs. Torun had to basically follow her cats around, hoping that they do what is expected of them and that a story (or stories) can be told. The difficulty of using cats is immediately noticeable upon watching both A DOG’S PURPOSE and KEDI. But there are dog persons and cat persons.

Unfortunately, I am a dog person and basically despise cats, but I will try to be unbiased in reviewing this cat documentary.

Istanbul is seen through the eyes of seven cats. Torun has chosen her cats to be as distinct as possible from each other. The stories are not interweaved and unfold one after another. During the breaks, many cats are shown together at different spot in the city. The film first introduces Sari, a yellow tabby. After she roams the streets, she is revealed to be with young kittens to feed. Sari is a persistent hustler, a quality that has earned her the love of a local shopkeeper. The send is Aslan Parçasi, better known as “little lion”. He is rewarded by a famous fish restaurant for keeping it mice-free. Psikopat is a tough cookie who fears no one, respected by local humans for her boldness. Duman, a little chunky thanks to his gourmet diet, has become a fixture at an upscale deli, where he refuses to beg. Deniz is known as the Ferikoy Organic Market’s social butterfly, Gamsız is a tough fighter with a sweet face that can charm any human, and Bengü is sweet and cuddly, beloved by everyone in her neighbourhood. Torun divides equal screen time among the cats without favouritism. So, whig cat is the most adorable? It is entirely up to the individual.

The film also deals with the plight of the cats as the city is modernized with less greenery. The result would be fewer places for the cats to poop. The film also shows the relationship between certain people and the cats. Thousands of stray cats in Istanbul. But the film omits completely the problems street stray cats can cause.

KEDI is no Disney film – so there are no special effects and human-style stories, There are also no messages to be learnt in this movie. But the film is just a light, entertaining look at cats and what they do in their lives.

KEDI has a special engagement run at the Bloor Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema. Cat lovers take note! There are lots of cutesy shots of the felines to keep cat lovers purring.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKq7UqplcL8

_________

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Film Review:JOHN WICK CHAPTER 2

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

john_wick_chapter_2Director: Chad Stahelski
Writers: Derek Kolstad, Derek Kolstad (based on characters created by)
Stars: Keanu Reeves, Riccardo Scamarcio, Ian McShane

Review by Gilbert Seah

The second in the series of John Wick films is in fact a continuation of the first JOHN WICK film, with the same director and star Keanu Reeves as the hit-man John Wick.

When the first film was left, Wick’s prized Mustang got stolen and his dog killed by the son of a Russian mobster. In an extended car chase and fight sequence when CHAPTER 2 begins, the audience sees the mobster grunt in disbelief to see his shop and all his men, one after another, demolished by Wick as he comes hunting for his car. The comedy is black and funny enough with sufficient violent action fight choreography to satisfy the action fans. Director Chad Stahelski knows how to stage fights, him being Reeves’ stunt double in THE MATRIX films.

CHAPTER TWO runs at full-throttle for over two hours with a minimum plot The premise involves legendary hit-man John Wick forced back out of retirement by a former associate plotting to seize control of a shadowy international assassins’ guild. Bound by a blood oath to help him, John travels to Rome, where he squares off against some of the world’s deadliest killers. Though the story obviously is inconsequential, one would have expected the filmmakers to put in a bit more effort into the story.

Keanu Reeves makes the perfect anti-hero John Wick, shown with face bruises more than half the time. It is worthy of his character in BILL AND TED’S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE that brought him to fame. CHAPTER TWO sees more well-known actors lending a hand to make the film more exciting. COMMON plays Cassian, the head of security of a female crime boss who gives Wick a good fight for his money. Laurence Fishburne plays The Bowery King, a ruthless crime boss and Italian star Riccardo Scamarcio plays Santino, an assassin while Ian McShane reposes his role as the head of hotel, where no killings re tolerated.

The first JOHN WICK film had lots of fresh ideas whereas CHAPTER TWO rides on the first success, adding no new inventive surprises. In the first the hotel where truce must be obeyed is again reprised with Wick and the security played by Common forced to have a drink there. In the first film, there is a very sexy fight between a lady assassin in black and Wick. In CHAPTER TWO, there is a fight between Wick and a girl, this time in white, Ares (Ruby Ros) but the fight scene can nowhere be even described as sexy. Rose looks incredibly unsexy, when she dies with her huge eyes bulging. CHAPTER TWO also contains lots of repetitions. The joke of Wick and the security head fighting and rolling down the steps is repeated not once, but twice in the same sequence. Wick’s affinity to his dog, a black pitbull is also repeatedly drummed into the audience’s heads.

JOHN WICK CHAPTER 2 has lost its spark. Running at a length of over 2 hours does not help matters either. The case of more and louder in this sequel leads to boredom and a headache.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/user/eOnefilms

 

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Film Review: THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE

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

lego_batman_movie.jpgDirector: Chris McKay
Writers: Seth Grahame-Smith (screenplay), Chris McKenna (screenplay)
Stars: Will Arnett, Michael Cera, Rosario Dawson

Review by Gilbert Seah

 
The LEGO BATMAN MOVIE screening was preceded by the trailer for the next LEGO project entitled THE LEGO NINJA MOVIE, which looks even more hectic from this one.
The simplistic story of LEGO BATMAN could do with a few plot twists. Batman (Will Arnett) goes on a personal journey to find himself and learn the importance of teamwork and friendship in the hopes of saving Gotham City from a hostile takeover set by The Joker (Zach Galifianakis).

The film is relatively free of violence and foul language (though BATMAN does quip: “I like fighting around…”), making it suitable for children’s viewing. But there might be too much activity taking place at any one time on the screen. The best target audience suitable would be the video game generation, whose minds can decipher multiple happenings on screen.

The film gives affectionate nods to the first LEGO MOVIE. There is a nod to the ‘Everything Is Awesome’ hit song and a quip about Master builders. Gotham City is also built like Lego Construction. The Joker’s explosion will break the connection of the city’s construction just as if the city was built on Lego blocks. Chris McKay (ROBOT CHICKEN TV film/series) takes over the directing reins from Chris Lord and Christopher Miller who serve as producers of this film. Lord and Miller directed as well as wrote THE LEGO MOVIE. THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE is credited with no less than 5 writers (Seth Grahame-Smith, Chris McKenna, Eric Sommers, Jared Stern and John Whittington) with less effective results – a case of maximum effort, minimum results, instead of the other way around.

THE LEGO BATMAN is too repetitious and manic for its own good. The message of Bateman/Bruce Wayne needing a family and lacking the ability of appreciating a relationship is drummed into the audience’s head much too often. From the framed photographs in Batman’s bat cave room to the dialogue – enough is enough of the message. The film contains too many scenes in which too many things occur so that it is hard to figure out what is going on. Lego-shaped blocks fly across at the screen too fast to see and words are spewed out to fast to hear. In Wikipedia, director McKay got into filmmaking cited Hitchcock as his film influence. Hitchcock always had ‘breathers’ in his films, when nothing really happens, just for the purpose of the audience to take a break.

THE LEGO MOVIE was inspired, fresh full of ideas and funny as hell. THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE should take lessons from the first movie. Too much, louder and faster never really works. THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE turns boring quite fast despite so much happening on screen at any instant. It is a question of quality vs. quantity.
McKay is fond of parodying classic films like the STAR WARS films and THE LEGO MOVIE.

Will Arnett’s BATMAN low key voice occasionally sounds like President Donald Trump – and even more so in one segment when he says: “I don’t pay taxes.” But these inspired hilarious laugh-out moments are too few and far between. But what can I say? I am only an over-rated film critic.

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

_________

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LAND OF MINE (Under Sandet)(Denmark/Germany 2015) *****Top 10

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

land_of_mineDirector: Martin Zandvliet
Writer: Martin Zandvliet
Stars: Roland Møller, Louis Hofmann, Joel Basman

Review by Gilbert Seah

The Danish entry for this year’s Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, LAND OF MINE is a film where hate dominates, but a film in which a hidden story needs to be told. It is a film that took a while to reach screens in Toronto, having premiered two years ago at the Toronto International Film Festival. It is a difficult film to watch, but an essential one. I have seen the film three times and is my favourite choice for the Winner for Best Foreign Film after TONI ERDMANN.

The film begins with the title, May 1945, five years after the German Occupation in Denmark. A Dane sergeant, Carl Rasmussen (Roland Møller) is driving along the road while German troops are evacuating. He sights a German stealing a Danish flag and lets him have it. “You are not welcome here,” he screams. This same sergeant is responsible for 14 young German POWs with no prior training, given the dangerous task of dismantling the land mines left on the west coast of Denmark.

Based on a true but previously hidden story, Martin Zandvliet’s LAND OF MINE is a tension-filled drama about Denmark’s darkest hour when a group of German POWs – most of them young boys – were sacrificed in the aftermath of WWII. With minimal training, they must remove 45,000 land mines from the local beach, among 2.2 million that the Nazis planted along the western coast. The POWs are just boys, recruited late in the war as older able-bodied men were dwindling.

The German boys dream of going home, to get a girl, to eat decent German food. But danger lurks every second, as they can be blown up by a land mine, if they let their guard down for even a second. There are 6 blow ups in the film, but director Zandvliet is smart enough to let them occur when least expected. So be forewarned that you will be jumping out of your seat in fright too often for comfort. On my third viewing, I still jumped up twice.

Despite the prevailing hatred for the Germans by the Danes, the German boys survive – for their innocence, their youth and the triumph of the human spirit. They even save a little Danish girl who ventures on to the mined beach despite them being mistreated by the mother. Among those playing the POWs are Emil and Oskar Belton (as identical twins), Louis Hofmann (as the group’s natural leader) and Joel Basman (as a cynic who would have liked to be leader).

This is one film that will bring tears to ones eyes. It is moving film about forgiveness, tolerance, racism and finally about doing what is right. The sergeant hates the Germans, mistreats the German boys under his command initially. After seeing them blown up by the mines, mistreated by the other Danes and mostly seeing them innocent as young boys caught in a world beyond their control, even though they are German, Rasmussen finally decide to side with the boys.

I watched an interview on director Zandvliet on TV two years ago. He says that his film is based on a story that has to be told. He also expressed his concern for the Syrian refugees and how governments should be more sympathetic to let these refugees in. This is one man who is dedicated for doing right for the human race. His awesome film LAND OF MINE demonstrates his conviction. I highly recommend this film, a great watch even after a third viewing.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GafFkkl0xt0

_________

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Film Review: OSCAR NOMINATED SHORTS – LIVE ACTION

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OSCAR NOMINATED SHORTS – LIVE ACTION

Just in time for the Academy Awards ceremonies at the end of February, there will be screenings of 2 programs of short featurettes – live action and animated shorts.  These run from February the 10th  and make a welcome change from feature films.  These are the budding filmmakers who might make it big one day in Hollywood.

The total running time of this animated shorts program is 130 minutes.  The program runs for Feb 10th to the 16th at different times each day at the TIFF Bell Lightbox.  The Live Action program is the most international of all the programs.

For complete showtimes, click on the link below:

http://www.tiff.net/events/oscar-shorts-animation

Capsule Reviews of each live action short are outlined below:-

ENNEMIS INTERIEURS (France 2015) **

Directed by Selim Aazzazi

An interview at a local police station turns into an inquisition during which a French-Algerian born man sees himself accused of protecting the identities of possible terrorists.  This close-up of France’s troubled history with its former colonies has one man controlling the fate of another with the stroke of a pen during a turbulent period in the 1990s.  The film is basically  two handler with the two men arguing with each other.  The film is clearly biased towards the Algerian, even though the narrative does not stay in one direction.

LA FEMME ET LE TGV (Switzerland 2016) ****

Directed by Timo von Gunten

This French short from Switzerland tells the tale of elderly woman, Elise Lafontaine and the Le Grand Trains Vitesse (GTV), the high speed train.  Her daily routine is to wave the Swiss glad every morning and evening the train passes her house by the tracks.  She leads a humdrum life cycling to work in her barry store in the town of Monbijou.  Things take a turn when she starts exchanging notes with the driver daily.  I want to live life again, she tells her son who thinks she should be in a home.  This is a very charming and beautiful film based on true events about hope and living.  Elise is wonderfully portrayed by veteran French actress Jane Birkin.  

SILENT NIGHTS (Denmark 2016) ***
Directed by Aske Bang

What is remarkable about this 30 minute short is the amount of material in the story that should easily fill a full-length feature.  The story follows Inger, a Danish single woman who volunteers at a homeless shelter.  She meets, pities and falls in love with an illegal immigrant from Ghana, Kwame who hides the fact that he has a family back home.  Ing has a mother who is old and eventually passes away.  SILENT NIGHTS is set during Christmas and shows how human decency prevails.  A touching and moving short, well acted and directed.

SING (Hungary 2015) ****
Directed by Kristof Deak

SING is my pick for the Best Live Action Short.  The entire project is a metaphor for the prejudice present in the modern adult world.  And the children in this choir show the audience how to deal with the problem.  Zsofi is struggling to fit in at her new school and singing in the school’s famous choir is her only consolation.    However the choir director may not be the inspirational teacher everyone thinks she is.  Zsofi is told her singing is not good enough.  She is told to mime during the performances.  Zsofi and her new friend Liza work to uncover the cruel truth and set things right.  Brilliant and wonderfully executed!

TIMECODE (Spain 2016) ***
Directed by Juanjo Gimemez Pena

This Cannes short Palme d;Or Winner tells the story of two parking security guards Diego and Luna.  Diego works the night while Luna the day shift.  They communicate through the video surveillance recordings at the timecode each of them leaves at the end of their shifts.  Irrelevant, comical and utterly charming, this is also Spanish dance at it most original.  Do not try to logically analyze the narrative, the trick is to just enjoy the its flow.

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Film Review: A MAN CALLED OVE (Sweden 2015) ****

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a_man_called_ove.jpgDirector: Hannes Holm

Writers: Hannes Holm (screenplay), Fredrik Backman (novel)

Stars: Rolf Lassgård, Bahar Pars, Filip Berg

Review by Gilbert Seah

Nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Foreign Film and Make-up & Hairstyling, A MAN CALLED OVE stands to compete with the big guys like the favourites THE SALESMAN, TONI ERDMANN and THE LAND OF MINE but the film has already been a hit in the U.S. when it opened last September as well as in its native country Sweden. The film is a dark horse but it might just be the winner as the Academy is made up of older voters and this film about an old retied widower is just the type of film that suits the voters.

Based on Fredrik Backman’s beloved novel (a 3.8 million bestseller), A MAN CALLED OVE tells the story of Ove (Rolf Lassgård from Downsizing, The Hunters, After the Wedding), a retired widower and a curmudgeon who keeps a critical eye on his neighbours and their goings on. He is all but given up on the world, until Parvaneh (Bahar Pars) and her family moves in across the street and an unexpected friendship emerges.

When the film opens, Ove is shown as an old grump. Films about old codgers have always been a favourite subject for filmmakers with films like GRUMPY OLD MEN (Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon) and the recent Scandinavian entry by Dome Karukoski called THE GRUMP. Like the grump in THE GRUMP, Ove is angry at all around him, but director Holm (Adam & Eva, Behind Blue Skies) ensures that he is a likeable character.

Ove (young Ove played by Filip Berg) is shown pining over his late wife (Ida Engyoll). He smells her clothes and visits her grave at least once a day bringing flowers. Who cannot like such a devoted husband? But Ove wants to end it all, as he sees no purpose in living. So, he attempts various ways of doing himself in including hanging himself in the middle of the living room, often with no success. During the time, when he is in ‘limbo’, his brain races to recall past memories. Director Holm uses this time to flashback and reveal to the audience the early life of Ove – from the loss of both parents to finding the love of his life. The film also plays as a romance. The dinner date scene and the marriage proposal scenes are both very romantic. Though more than half he film is in flashback, the transition from current to flashback is carried out very smoothly.

Holm’s film is not one with special effects or stunning cinematography. The cinematography by Göran Hallberg is still impressive with him giving the film a hazy romantic atmosphere. It is a film about human beings. It is good that Holm trusts the source material and the charm of the book rubs off the film nicely.

The film is immediately likeable for it will make the audience both laugh and cry at Ove’s undertakings. One can also relate with the main character – whether it him being a loner, a romantic or a senior or a misunderstood man.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMZuic0dG1w
 

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