The new movies this week don’t have drama as high as TV gave us Wednesday from Washington and Ottawa. But there’s lot of choice: four films that I’ve reviewed; four that weren’t available to see early and an important festival you should consider.
Women in Film, which starts on Tuesday, shows works by and about women and offers talks and seminars about the industry. Check out this site for more www.womeninfilm.ca/
There are many short films and among the longer features I especially noticed Warrior Women, about indigenous activists, Swords and Sceptres: The Rani of Jhansi, about a rebel leader in India, Miracle, about capitalism’s shady return to Lithuania and A Perfect 14 about plus-sized models.
You can see three films for free including This Changes Everything about systemic sexism in Hollywood. A star-studded cast talks about it including Meryl Streep, Cate Blanchett, Sandra Oh and Chloë Grace Moretz, who also happens to be in the first movie I review today.
Greta: 3 stars
Ruben Brandt: Collector: 4
The Image Book: 3
Climax: 2 ½
A Star is Born Encore Version: --
Apollo 11: --
Goalie: --
A Madea Family Funeral: --
GRETA: Not ready for the serious issues Women in Film will bring? Here’s the flip side: a nutty almost-horror film about a woman’s obsession that starts as a tender case of women bonding. By the time you reach the screwy ending, you’ll have had a good time and a few thrills and learned that Isabelle Huppert can play a madwoman with convincing style. She’s done it before and it’s a real treat to see her go at it again. She modulates back and forth so easily from warm host to psychopath. Chloë Grace Moretz, by contrast, is stuck playing a victim most of the way.
Chloë’s character is a naïve young woman, new to New York, sad that her mother has died and happy to be welcomed in by Greta, whose purse she found on the subway and has come to return. A sweet friendship develops between them, a mother-daughter stand-in, but a surprise discovery bursts the illusion and the film turns into a b-movie chiller. Greta stalks the young woman, on the street where she lives, even at the restaurant where she works. The police don’t help; a private detective (Stephen Rea) turns up some worrying facts and the girl’s father just worries. He’s played by Colm Feore because the film was partially made in Toronto (as well as Ireland). Neil Jordan directed it with his best films like The Crying Game far behind him but still able to ratchet up the tension and let logic run free. (5th Avenue, Scotiabank and suburban theatres) 3 out of 5
RUBEN BRANDT, COLLECTOR: Why this film was not nominated for an Academy Award eludes me. In style alone and in ambition it should have been considered. Overall theme? Okay that’s a problem; it doesn’t seem to have one but there is so much disconnected content there, so many sly references to art and mental health that you’re sure to be entertained.
The story is pure fantasy. A psychotherapist is tormented by nightmares in which figures from famous works of art try to kill him. His professional dictum is “Possess your problems to conquer them” and that motivates him to steal 13 paintings from top galleries like the Louvre, the Uffizi and MOMA. Four patients help out; they happen to be experienced thieves. Brandt becomes known as “The Collector” and a reward keeps rising as more heists are carried out. He manages to grab works from Botticelli to Van Gogh to Picasso to Warhol and the film gleefully throws out visual allusions to art trends, cultural movements and in elaborate action sequences: movies. It’s an inspired work (in English) by Milorad Krstić an animator in Hungary. It’s a high-minded entertainment and great fun. (VanCity Theatre) 4 out of 5
THE IMAGE BOOK: Here’s a very personal essay on, well, just about everything by one of the legends of world cinema, Jean-Luc Godard. He made his key films in the 1960s and a year or so ago at age 87 made this pastiche of still photos and film clips (old, new , his own, news footage, social media) intricately edited, grouped and narrated in his own voice to convey his thoughts about the world. Sometimes you’ll struggle to deduce what he’s going on about, but the craft alone that he demonstrates in assembling it makes it interesting to watch, and think about.
Some of his images are manipulated with ultra-bright colors maybe to hide the pessimism behind them. The world is in a mess he seems to be saying and art, rather than heal it, has helped it become that way. He’s on about the harm caused by capitalism and inequality. “Society is based on shared murder,” he says rather cryptically at one point. War doesn’t end with victory and “war is therefore divine.” The film is sprinkled with nuggets like that and there’s film to support them. One chapter defends the Arab world which he says the west insists on maligning and he invokes an entirely fictional country to talk about imperialism. Some think Goddard is hectoring. I think he’s free associating, in a kaleidescope. (VanCity Theatre) 3 out of 5
CLIMAX: I haven’t been a big fan of Gaspar Noé. He’s from France, known as an adulte terrible for the twisted ideas in his films and widely celebrated for his visual style. With this film I’ve warmed up to him. There’s energy that never sags, intensity that grabs you and a propulsive momentum. I’m not sure what it’s in aid of, what it means, but it is compelling to watch. A dance troupe is holding auditions and after a long montage of interview clips with the applicants, we get a five-minute sequence of dancing. It’s wild, undirected and vigorous, a party it seems. That’s a sign of what’s coming.
There’ll be lots more dancing, driven by techno-beat hits from a DJ, and short interludes as various dancers talk and reveal their characters. One guy wants to sleep with every woman in the room. Two guys trade very intimate sexual advice and quite a bit of boasting as they laugh happily. Two women discuss the rights and wrongs of having an abortion. One woman has brought her young son and has to watch out for him. They’re all going to be in peril soon because somebody has spiked the sangria with LSD. The film simulates an acid trip perfectly, floating gets surreal, then dark and angtsy. People wander the halls and backrooms. The mood is orgiastic; then turns anarchic. Fights break out when woozy types accuse others of drugging them. The filmmaking by Noé is flashy and playful (the film starts with the end credits and runs the opening credits in the middle) but it’s not easily ascertained if he’s actually trying to say something with it. (VanCity Theatre) 2 ½ out of 5
Also now playing …
A STAR IS BORN ENCORE VERSION: It only got one of the eight Oscars it was nominated for but here it is again, slightly altered. It’s got 12 extra minutes, mostly extended music sequences. Three of Lady Gaga’s songs are longer. She also sings to Bradley Cooper’s Jackson Maine in a wedding scene, he’ll sing “Too Far Gone” in his studio and both will be seen composing a brand new song called “Clover”. Usually deleted scenes like that show up on the DVD. The film has grossed over $420 million worldwide. You can find this version at International Village and Cineplex theatres in Coquitlam and Langley.
APOLLO 11: We’ve just had First Man, the story of Neil Armstrong and the moon landing back in 1969. Now here’s a documentary recalling the mission again but with something special. NASA took high resolution film of the venture, filed it away in a warehouse and never showed it to anyone. Until now. Director Todd Douglas Miller got it from NASA who apparently didn’t even know what it was. It was in unlabelled cans but proved to be 70-millimetre large-format footage, like the best that Hollywood was using at the time. That’s the centerpiece of this film. It wowed people at Sundance and is opening today in just one location in BC, Langley’s Cineplex Colossus, in IMAX. Next week it’s planned to go wider and I’ll have a chance to review it.
GOALIE: It’s a Canadian film with the life story of a Canadian legend, and yet it arrives in town with almost no advance word. No previews to enable reviews either. So, just the facts. This is a dramatized bio of Terry Sawchuk one of hockey’s most beloved stars back in the original-six days. Mark O'Brien plays him and Kevin Pollak is Jack Adams, the general manager of the Detroit Red Wings when he was there.
Sawchuck’s life was filled with drama, personality clashes and medical problems; perfect it would seem for a movie. This one is based on the book “Sawchuk: The Troubles and Triumphs of the World’s Greatest Goalie" by David Dupuis. Adriana Maggs directed and co-wrote the script with her sister Jane. It’s playing at International Village.
A MADEA FAMILY FUNERAL: Tyler Perry wants to move on to more serious acting. He was Colin Powell in Vice. Maybe that’s why this is the last time he’ll play (and direct) the gun-totin’ grandma Madea. She and three other characters he plays find themselves in Georgia for a family reunion. Somebody dies; a funeral has to be arranged and somehow old secrets leak out and cause resentment and hilarity. These films never get previewed around here but they have a following, apparently.