After 11 years of bringing you local reporting, the team behind the Vancouver Observer has moved on to Canada's National Observer. You can follow Vancouver culture reporting over there from now on. Thank you for all your support over the years!
newmovies_600px.jpg

Judy Garland revived; a yeti wonderfully animated and more picks to see at VIFF

(Page 2 of 3)

THE LIGHTHOUSE: Next weekend at VIFF, you can catch some powerhouse acting between two popes. Meanwhile, how about two lighthouse keepers? Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson are just as strong playing guys who are stuck with each other, get on each others’ nerves and come apart in a classic site of claustrophobia, isolation and sinister legend. It’s bad luck to kill a seabird. A previous keeper went crazy because he believed there was “some enchantment” in the light. Ghosts of Robert Luis Stevenson and Herman Melville seem to haunt this story directed with great, edgy atmosphere by Robert Eggers. He made his name with a moody horror film called The Witch. He’s continued on to riveting and chilling effect here.

Dafoe is the senior keeper and flings out orders accordingly. Pattison, as the new guy, has to address him as “Sir,” do the chores, paint the lighthouse, push a wheelbarrow in a downpour and never talk back. He doesn’t, by the way, but then he is supposed to be a Canadian. He’s got a bad episode in his past which Dafoe eventually manages to get him to talk about. He, on the other hand, is prone to bellowing especially during the inevitable storm that all but shuts this New England lighthouse down. Oh, and one of them sees mermaids. Yes, it’s weird but immensely moody and intriguing. Crazed too. It plays only once now, Sat evening, but will be back in three or four weeks for its regular run.

63 UP: It’s been seven years since 56 Up so of course it’s time to check in again to see how the children we’ve watched growing up since 1964 are doing. This is the ninth film to do this, the eighth directed by Michael Apted (who will be at VIFF Sunday afternoon  to talk about it) and it’s yet another engrossing update. One of the originals has opted out, one who did but returned is still back and one, who we learned last time had a serious disease, has died. The others are as chatty and philosophical as ever.

 

Neil, for instance, the boy who wanted to be an astronaut but became homeless and then a local politician, does some lay preaching and hates BREXIT. It was like taking poison, he says and not really a vote against Europe but against all politicians. John says it’s “a leap into the dark.” Tony, the cabbie, rails about Uber. Sue, divorced and then engaged to be married, is still engaged. That’s 20 years now. There have been other divorces, major moves and job changes, retirements, new grandchildren. It’s become like watching your neighbors’ lives progress. Most in the group have mellowed enough to accept what has and hasn’t changed. Andrew, who became a solicitor, says the class system is changed. It’s now more based on “fame and achievement.” Nick disagrees. “People from the right public schools still run the country,” he says. Nuggets of wisdom and personal stories again make this a delightful film. Advance tickets for the Sat evening and Sun morning screenings are already sold out. Pass holders better get there early.

THE TWENTIETH CENTURY: There’s something reassuring here. It shows that Canadians can make films that are outrageous, cheeky and hilarious. We know that but it’s worth mentioning with every example that comes along. This is Canadian history re-imagined, sent-up and sort-of-correctly represented all at once. Matthew Rankin, now living in Montreal, has absorbed all the off-the-wall techniques of Winnipeg’s Guy Maddin, who he used to work for, and made a film precisely in his style about William Lyon Mackenzie King.

 

More in New Movies

Disney wildlife times two, a blast at American politics and a traumatic teen drama

Also a couple of small but amiable comedies, one of them Canadian

More streaming ideas take you to Brazil, low-life China and two Jesse Eisenberg films

As well as a cleverly-plotted trip to Barcelona thanks to Netflix

Movie theatres are shut down, so what’s streaming?

Some modest recommendations and stay for the last one, an alarm about what has happened to the internet.
Speak up about this article on Facebook or Twitter. Do this by liking Vancouver Observer on Facebook or following us @Vanobserver on Twitter. We'd love to hear from you.