The Vancouver International Film Festival is getting close. Passes are already on sale. Meanwhile the 17th annual Latin American Film Festival is already on now. Over the next 10 days there are some 70 films available at a variety of locations (the Cinematheque and SFU downtown principally) and these are a few that have caught my interest.
Two that I reviewed when they were here before: Birds of Passage (4 ½ stars) and Rojo (3 ½ ), Museo about an art heist with Gael Garcia Bernal (“grippingly intense” according to the Guardian) and El Ángel about an infamous criminal in Argentina.
Most intriguing though is The Infiltrators a documentary about American authorities detaining undocumented immigrants. Two activists get themselves arrested so that they can get inside a detention centre and expose the for-profit organization running it. Extremely relevant now that Trump is talking about detaining people indefinitely.
There’s more at www.vlaff.org and notes on the week’s other new films right here.
The Peanut Butter Falcon: 4 stars
Ready or Not: 2 ½
The Death and Life of John F. Donovan: 2
Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am: 4
Aquarela: 3 ½
Angel Has Fallen: 2 ½
THE PEANUT BUTTER FALCON: A filmmaker in California named Tyler Nilson met a man with Down Syndrome named Zack Gottsagen, found he could act because he had taken lessons and wrote this script for him. Along with his pal Michael Schwartz he directed him in this superb movie, probably the first with a Downs actor in the lead but with not a whiff of diversity do-gooding about it. It’s a charming, funny and engrossing road movie set in North Carolina where the director is from and it’s got a wonderfully genuine good ‘ol boy atmosphere. The title is awkward but it sort of justifies itself later on.
Gottsagen plays Zak who, with no family to care for him, is housed by the state in an old age home. He escapes and sets out to find a wrestling school that he’s seen in an old VHS tape that he’s watched over and over. It’s his dream, to be a wrestler, he explains to the first man he meets, a larcenous crab fisherman (Shia LaBeouf) who reluctantly agrees to help him. Before you know it they start to tolerate each other, bond even. That’s as they’re being pursued by a couple of other fishermen who’ve been ripped off and have a tire iron as their choice of weapon and by a volunteer from the old age home (Dakota Johnson) who is under orders to bring Zak back. Actually she joins them. Part of the trip is by raft (Mark Twain-like), to Bubba’s Store, a blind preacher’s cabin and ultimately to the wrestler who calls himself Saltwater Redneck, played by Thomas Haden Church. Surprises, good feelings and good acting elevate this movie. (5th Avenue, no minors unfortunately) 4 out of 5
READY OR NOT: Some people see a treatise about income inequality in this one. And about the affectations of the 1% among us. It’s hard to see it through all the blood though. It comes gushing in an extreme climax that a lot of people, including two very loud ones behind me at the screening I attended, laugh at uproariously. It owes some to other films, especially Scanners (no spoiler intended) and the whole movie feels like its shaky plot is manufactured only to take us there. How else to explain the contrivances in the plot.
There’s a wedding, a dinner after and then a family ritual. The bride (Samara Weaving) has to play a game along with the groom (Mark O’Brien) and the rest of the family (which includes Adam Brody, Henry Czerny and Andie MacDowell). This time it’s hide and seek. She’ll hide but is not told that the others will do more than seek; they’ll hunt and try to kill her. It’s to save themselves. “She’s not one of us,” someone says but the class distinctions that quote suggests isn’t followed up on. Instead of a sharp dissection of the culture of the privileged rich, the plot is driven by a debt to the devil. Toronto’s Casa Loma provides a perfect location, lots of hallways, wood-paneled walls and nooks and a dumbwaiter. Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett of the Los Angeles collective Radio Silence provide snappy direction but too much of a tilt to the playful side. (Scotiabank and suburban theatres) 2 ½ out of 5
THE DEATH AND LIFE OF JOHN F. DONOVAN: Jacob Tremblay, Vancouver’s own (and currently also in the hit movie Good Boys) is the best thing in this not-so-new film by Quebec’s whiz kid director, Xavier Dolan. (Actually he’s 29 but he’s been at his trade since he was only 20). Tremblay is 12 and puts in a beautiful performance here as an 11-year-old bullied kid who consoles himself by writing letters to his favorite TV actor. Amazingly, the guy, played by Kit Harington, yes the erstwhile Jon Snow, writes back and the two correspond for some time. Until the actor is found dead one day. The boy is distraught and years later an adult version of him writes a book and tells the story to a reporter. Fame and adoration are well-portrayed.
So far so good except that as it comes out in flashbacks and an interview over coffee it’s not clear what really happened. The actor was a closeted gay; the boy was harassed at school. A scandal broke out when their correspondence became known but why? And why did it lead to his death? The film is too muddled to tell us. We don’t get enough about him and that leaves a hole in the centre of the story.
It’s Dolan’s first English-language film and he gives us a lot of his usual: the problems of gays, arguments with mom, feelings of living a lie. Tremblay’s side, the adoring fan, is more convincing and he does a remarkable job with a talking-while-crying scene. Natalie Portman, Susan Sarandon, Kathie Bates, Thandie Newman and Michael Gambon are also good but for Dolan, who fussed and re-edited this over two years or so, it’s only an average film. (International Village) 2 out of 5
TONI MORRISON: THE PIECES I AM: This film about the beloved writer wasn’t picked up by any theatre around here when it was offered back in July but after she died less than three weeks ago it’s been getting a few one day bookings. The latest is this afternoon at four at the VanCity Theatre. Short notice, but the film is worth catching because it elucidates the thoughts, the life history and, most importantly, the craft of a committed artist.
She answered an ad for an editoral assistant at a small publisher that was later bought out by Random House, became an editor (Angela Davis and Muhammad Ali were among her finds) and started writing herself. She won a Nobel Prize but not a Pulitzer (until other writers mounted a campaign for her). Oprah Winfrey was (and is again in the film) an enthusiastic supporter. So are Fran Leibowitz, Angela Davis and various editors and critics who share stories. There are old clips (news and interviews) but the bulk of the film is Morrison talking straight at us, amiably, with humor and wisdom. She laughed at segregation and decided not dwell on blacks as victims but depict them as real human beings who have dreams and imagination. It’s a very good and stimulating introduction to her work. (VanCity) 4 out of 5
AQUARELA: Much like in the films of Jennifer Baichwal and Edward Burtynsky here’s an environmental story told in grand, often imposing images. Water is the subject here, in all its forms, its beauty and power. Also danger. The Russian director Viktor Kossakovsky shows it without narration, hardly any people at all in the sequences, and sharp, crisp images (captured with a higher than normal film speed) and natural sounds delivered in the latest hi-tech format. The effect is exhilarating when ice shatters from a glacier in Greenland, or water drops down a cliff in the world’s largest waterfall (Venezuela) or giant waves crash in from an ocean.
The film starts on a Russian lake where drivers haven’t noticed the ice has melted early. Their cars have to be located and pulled up out of the water. We see the effort in detail. It seems like a bit of a humorous start but many images later, as a wind storm throws water around a Miami street, a message becomes clear. This film is not just about the majesty of water, but also about the signs of climate change you can see in it. It’s a cautionary picture show. (VanCity Theatre) 3 ½ out of 5
ANGEL HAS FALLEN: He’s got a new president (Morgan Freeman) and a new woman (Piper Perabo) playing his wife, but it’s the same Gerard Butler as the stalwart secret service agent Mike Banning who we’ve seen twice before. Dogged, sturdy, reliable. Odd isn’t it, though? How could he, who saved his president twice, now be accused of trying to assassinate one? Impeccable logic doesn’t matter here. It’s action the customers want and this film delivers lots of it. It’s propulsive with chases (a semi-trailer truck tipping off a dark road is a highlight), and with explosions, drone attacks and flashes of political intrigue.
Banning is close to the prez and in line for a promotion but on the run to prove his innocence after the nearly-successful hit puts the president into a coma and the vice-president in charge. An old colleague (Danny Huston) turns against him and a persistent FBI woman (Jada Pinkett Smith) is on his tail. He has to seek out his reclusive father (Nick Nolte) for advice and gets a rant about the corrosive effects of war on even the strongest men. We hear about the dangers of hiring private army contractors to help “make this country great again.” Election tampering comes up in another of those contemporary references that are so in these days. Still, it’s just a thrill ride. (Scotiabank, Marine Gateway, and suburban theatres) 2 ½ out of 5