This is another of those weeks when the gates open and many new films arrive. I review seven below this and couldn’t do an eighth, Captive State, because there were no previews around here.
There’s lots for you to consider though. Read on.
Birds of Passage: 4 ½ stars
Midian Farm: 3
The Quietude: 3
Five Feet Apart: 3 ½
Wonder Park: 3 ½
Level 16: 3
Gloria Bell: 2 ½
BIRDS OF PASSAGE: Modern lives clash repeatedly with tradition and ancient points of honor in this remarkable film. It tells how over about three decades how the drug trade started up in the South American country of Columbia. What we see here paved the way for Pablo Escobar, although it’s confined to one small area, the northern peninsula where the Wayuu people live. They wouldn’t let the Spanish colonize them but in the late 60s with Peace Corps volunteers and CIA men bringing an anti-Communism message they fell under another type of influence. Money, luxury goods, big houses. Violence. There was a big market for marijuana among these gringos. Yes, they call them that, as well as “alijunas”, outsiders who despoil their land, and the culture.
One young man, Rapayet, gets into the trade to earn a dowry. The business grows fast but when a crazy friend flips out and kills some of the outsiders a climate of revenge and fear develops. His nephew grows into a violent socio-path and his mother-in-law, the matron of the tribe and protector of its traditions, can’t keep a lid on events. This is a devastating picture of not just the drug trade, but modern colonialism. These people participated willingly, the filmmakers Ciro Guerra and Cristina Gallego, suggest. The film shows the clash of cultures with color, widescreen cinematography and a robust energy. You’ll see guys carrying the crop on burros (like the coffee farmers in TV ads) and then see them driving Land Rovers. But don’t just go up and talk to them. You have to send a “word messenger” first. The old rules require it. The film shows in detail how old and new co-exist (not always peacefully). The same group explored similar themes four years ago in the Academy Award-nominated Embrace of the Serpent. (VanCity Theatre) 4 ½ out of 5
Two more at the Van City …
MIDIAN FARM: Two years ago I reviewed a film about a back-to-the land community formed by a bunch of hippies north of Powell River. Here’s another memory-album about one of these “intentional communities”. This farm existed from 1971 to 1977 in Beaverton, Ontario, northeast of Toronto. The two experiences are remarkably similar. City kids thought they could learn farming, leave the grid and change the world. For a while they did. They worked co-operatively, grew produce to sell, built two geodesic domes and helped stray kids escape the drug scene. The colony was based on Christian principles but not to preach, just to live by.
Filmmaker Liz Marshall, who lived there as a child, got stories from some two dozen former residents (now scattered through Ontario and BC). Adding in a lot of photos and a little bit of home movie footage she tells what went right (the idealism) and then wrong (money was tight, the work proved hard and was followed in quick succession by hail, lightning, flood, and fire). Her father was the charismatic leader (“inspirer,” as he puts it, “authoritarian,” some say). Her mother became a feminist. The couple split up and left several years before the experiment collapsed. Out of courtesy to them, Liz doesn’t go into any details about that and it feels like a missing element. They originally met in Vancouver and it seems that he came back to BC. It’s not the whole story, but it is a touching and wistful look back. Liz Marshall will be at the screenings this weekend to answer your questions. (VanCity Theatre) 3 out of 5
THE QUIETUDE: Films from Argentina persist in taking us back to the years of military rule (1976-83) which was such a traumatic horror. This film is one of the middling ones, partly because it focuses on the still-painful aftermath (good) and partly because it takes its time getting there (not so good). It gives us a huge dose of melodrama to find our way through.
The daughters (Martina Gusman and Bérénice Bejo) of a former diplomat visit the family hacienda just as dad is called in by the district attorney to answer a few questions. We don’t know what they are but he suffers a stroke and lies at home in a coma. That opens the family drama wide. They argue at dinner. Later in bed, the sisters play masturbation games. One has been sleeping with the husband of the other and says she’s pregnant. But then she’s known to lie a lot. Mom has always been dismissive of the other and later we find out why. That’s part of a stunning avalanche of late revelations that flips your perceptions completely upside down. It’s overwrought and kind of preposterous but also a fun ride thanks to the strong performances by the actors and the agile direction by Pablo Trapero. (VanCity Theatre) 3 out of 5
FIVE FEET APART: Ten year ago, there was 65 Red Roses, a very emotional documentary about a young woman from New Westminster who suffered from cystic fibrosis. The same affliction features in this film but is presented very differently. This is a teen romance, offering an attractive couple, an almost cheerful tone and few signs of the grim details of the condition. It causes the lungs to spew extra mucus but except for one coughing-up incident we only get talk about it. I got a fair amount of information from it but came away wondering if the sights had been weakened a little too much, just to make us comfortable.
The film starts like a rom-com. She, played by Haley Lu Richardson, meets him (Cole Sprouse, known from the locally-filmed Riverdale series) in a hospital where they are getting an experimental drug treatment. (That makes it possible to avoid any mention of hospital expenses in the US.) She’s a rule follower, adamant to stay five feet away from another victim to avoid trading symptoms. He’s more prone to experimenting. You can tell where this is going to go. Yes it becomes a weepie, somewhat absurdly at its height. But much of the content is real. The film is dedicated to a young woman in Texas who, until she died, blogged about the condition. Her outlook seems to be throughout this film. (Scotiabank, Marine Gateway and suburban theatres) 3 ½ out of 5
WONDER PARK: “Splendiferous” is the word you hear several times in here and it perfectly describes this fine animated film. It’s original and extremely imaginative. Kids will like the high-spirited fantasy and parents will appreciate the message: don’t let fear get you down. That emerges in the story of 10-year-old June (Brianna Denski) who has her room and much of her house decorated like a theme park but trashes it all in a fit of depression when her mom (Jennifer Garner), who she is very close to, has to go away sick.
Circumstances lead June to come across a real version of her imaginary theme park in the woods. It’s run down, the clock mechanism is broken and she’s the only one who can fix it. The park characters (a bear, a porcupine, a boar voiced by Mila Kunis, and a couple of beavers voiced by Ken Jeong and Kenan Thompson) want her to but a pack of Chimpanzombies try to stop her. The writers previously created a couple of Ninja Turtles movies and there’s some of that eccentric humor in here too. But more prominently, there’s a nice story about a girl’s love for her mother and a strong admonition to fight off “the darkness”. (International Village, Marine Gateway and suburban theatres) 3 ½ out of 5
LEVEL 16: This superior dystopian thriller is booked for only one screening (9 p.m. Sunday at The Rio) and that’s a shame. It should get more because it’s beautifully crafted, well-acted and has something to say. Danishka Esterhazy took memories of her Winnipeg high school years (enforced conformity, disempowerment) and spun them into this stark vision of women under tight control. It goes way beyond most anybody’s school experiences and feels like a junior Handmaid’s Tale. It’s set in an orphanage, that claims to be a school and, because of the strict regimentation, feels like a prison. Eventually it’s revealed for what it really is.
Sara Canning is a tyrannical teacher and Katie Douglas plays a student who rebels against her control. Peter Outerbridge is a doctor who prescribes daily vitamins and counsels cultivating the feminine virtues like obedience and cleanliness. There are subtle hints that all is not as it seems and the final reveal is too shocking to really fit the story. There are also some intriguing pointers to who is really behind it all but they’re left open. Still, the eerie atmosphere Esterhazy has created and the power she conveys in teen girls helping each other make the film worth your while, genre fan or not. (Rio) 3 out of 5
GLORIA BELL: The original Chilean version that came here five years ago was a poignant story of a mature, lonely woman seeking love. This English-language re-make, by the original director, Sebastián Lelio, isn’t nearly as effective. The melancholy has been turned up and the result is more tedium than empathy. Julianne Moore is fine as a divorcee in her early 60s, and so is John Turturro as the guy she meets in the dance club she frequents, jumps into bed with and compares philosophies with.
They have less to say though than their Chilean counterparts. Their characters are less interesting. She’s full of energy; he’s a bit of a sad sack. She’s trying to stay connected to her two kids (Michael Cera and Alanna Ubach); he gets frequent phone calls from his and can’t get free of them. A dinner party brings out all his feelings of inadequacy and he walks out. He’s actually a more complex and interesting character than she is, but it’s her we spend time with. Fear of getting old and dying trickles into the picture too, thereby moving it even further away from a light, fun time, even with all the music and dancing. (5th Avenue) 2 ½ out of 5