Movie Reviews: 2023 – Page 2 – Jon The Blogcentric

2023 Oscars Short Films Review: Live-Action

27 February 202425 February 2024Jon The Blogcentric1 Comment

It’s interesting when the Academy deliver their nominations for feature-length films, they’re mostly for English-language films. Most of them being American films. Yet the nominees for the short films categories are often multilingual. For the films nominated for the live-action category, we have films in French and Danish. We also have three English-language films, but two are from the UK. Not as much foreign language as the animated films but still it tells how these categories are among the most international of them all.

What’s interesting about the short films in the live-action is that many are from up-and-coming directors, as is the common case in this category, but we also have one British film directed by Wes Anderson! Also in the film are renowned star actors like Benedict Cumberbatch, Ben Kingsley, Dev Patel, Ralph Fiennes and Richard Ayoade. The other films also show actors of renown like Brittany Snow, Leif Andree and David Oyelowo. So there’s something about short films that make well-known actors want to pursue them.

Without further ado, here are my thoughts on the Live-Action short films nominated for the Oscars:

The After (dir. Misan Harriman) – Dayo is a successful businessman in London. One day, he drives his daughter to the top floor of a parkade to meet up with his wife. Suddenly a man wielding a knife commits a massacre all over the parkade. The man stabs his daughter to death. The wife, heartbroken, jumps to her death as Dayo fights to restrain him for the police. Time passes. Dayo is resigned from his position and makes his pay an Uber driver. He has cut off all contact from his friends and colleagues and won’t even meet with crisis management counselors. Although he keeps to himself, it’s obvious he’s still hurting on the inside. As he waits for his latest customers at the airport, he takes the picture of his family and sings “Happy Birthday.” The daughter of the family he’s to drive looks very much like his own late daughter. He tries to restrain his emotions at first as the parents make their way to the car. During the drive, the couple are consistently arguing in front of the child, but the daughter is sensing something is wrong with Dayo. Dayo still tries to keep his cool. As he gets out lets the family off at their house, the daughter goes to hug Dayo and Dayo just breaks down. The parents are shocked by what they see and leave him, but Dayo picks himself up.

How do you live again after you’ve lost it all? This is the type of question we don’t normally ask ourselves or don’t want to think about but unfortunately, there are some people who have to do exactly that? This is a story that does a great job of showing the before-and-after of a tragic incident that claims the lives of Dayo’s wife and daughter. Throughout the story, Dayo is the storyteller through his actions and his emotions. Even without dialogue, you can sense what Dayo is saying through his body language. He doesn’t know how to live again or deal with his emotions. It’s right after the breakdown he has after the daughter hugs him that Dayo knows he has to continue on, despite how hard it will be. This film which is the directorial debut film for Misan Harriman tells a gripping story with a profound message. David Oyelowo does an excellent job in his performance in both scenarios of the story. If they could give Oscar nominations for performances in short films, I’d say give one to David!

Invincible (dir. Vincent René-Lortie) – The film begins with a young boy in the driver’s seat in a car named Marc who telephones his mother, but doesn’t say a word. His mother tells him to come home, but police lights flash. Rather than surrender to the police, Marc drives the car off the cliff into the water. Going back weeks earlier, Marc is on a family vacation having fun with his family at the lake. He plays with his little sister but is embarrassed of how she chickens out with her finger over his lighter. This is the last set of fun Marc will spend with him before being sent to the youth detention centre. The first day, Marc can’t stand being in a sweltering room with no way to cool off. He ignites the sprinkler system which the officials put him on a stern warning. A councillor tries to deal with Marc and tells him how he has what it takes to be a smart positive influence on others and can’t understand why he’s always getting in trouble. One day, the official sees progress in Marc and how he helps others. The officials decide to take the boys to a nearby community pool. it appears Marc is having fun with all of them but when the councillor isn’t looking, Marc does his latest escape. Marc runs into a car but as the woman enters a store to call the ambulance, Marc steals it, attempting to take his escape further. As Marc stops, he calls his family. The mother, aware the police are pursuing Marc, pleads for him to return as the sister tests her pain with the candle.

This is a story inspired by a troubled 14 year-old boy from Quebec who killed himself as he drove into a lake in 2008. The story haunted the people in the area for many years. The boy, Marc-Antoine Bernier, was a friend to the director. Here, it appears the director is using his film to bring some respect back to Marc. Marc was an intelligent boy capable of a lot of good, but kept on getting into trouble. We all have known a kid like that in our childhood. Although this is a story inspired by a real-life person and based on true events, there may have been events or happening added to the story. Only Marc knows what really happened. Nevertheless Vincent makes a good effort to redeem Marc from the story he tells and even tries to get us to feel some empathy for him. We’ve all had those years when we were younger when we all felt we were trapped mentally, if not physically. If Vincent doesn’t make you feel empathy for Marc, he does make for an intriguing story. That’s why I make this film my Should Win pick.

Knight Of Fortune (dir. Lasse Lyskjær Noer) – Karl is at a multi-chapel funeral home where he comes to mourn his wife. Left alone, he can’t bring himself to open the casket. He tries to adjust a light but it breaks. Frustrated, he goes to a bathroom where he encounters another widower named Torben. Torben claims he can’t open the casket for his wife. Karl goes with Torben to the chapel and helps open the casket. As Torben attempts to say his “last words,” a family comes in. They’re the real family of the deceased woman including the real widower. They allow Torben and Karl to stay. When the widower is at a loss for words, Torben is able to say the right words as if the woman really was his wife. Karl leaves Torben angrily but he later learns from the funeral directors that Torben lost his wife in a boating accident three years ago and never had a real chance to say goodbye. Outside in a nearby bench, Karl notices Torben. Instead of anger, Karl laughs and invites Torben to the chapel where his wife is. Torben is able to open the casket and Karl is able to say his last goodbyes. As Karl gives his wife one last kiss Torben sings “Knights Of Fortune.”

Another story of loss and coping. Although this story deals with the subject of death in a gentler manner, and even includes humor, We all know that loss is never an easy thing to deal with, but it needs to be dealt with. This is a story of a widower struggling to properly say goodbye encountering an imposter who knows the right words to say goodbye to a woman he’s never really met, but makes like she was his wife. Once Karl learns about Torben that he’s not simply an imposter, but a hurting man who uses funerals of wives to say the goodbyes he always wanted to say to his own wife, could Torben be the very person to help Karl deal with his grief? This is a story of grieving, healing and saying goodbye that is greatly different from other stories. Nevertheless it does offer a message of healing and hope. It’s ironic how this imposter is exactly what Karl needs to properly deal with is loss and say goodbye, and a friendship that really shouldn’t be, happens.

Red, White and Blue (dir. Nazrin Choudhury) – Rachel, a waitress in a diner, looks at a pregnancy test and sees a positive result. Rachel is a single mother who has difficulty to support her two children. She also lives in Arkansas where abortion is illegal, thanks to the overturning of Roe v. Wade. She plans a trip for an abortion procedure in Illinois where it is legal, but it’s more than she can afford. One day, a woman customer who somehow knows what Rachel is dealing with leaves her a tip which makes up the remainder for her abortion trip. Soon, she leaves her son Jake with a friend as she takes her daughter Maddy on this trip. This is the first time out of Arkansas for both of them. Before they go to the clinic, they go to a carnival as it’s just before Maddy’s birthday. Maddy wants a merry-go-round ride, but it’s more than Rachel can afford. She agrees to one ride and Maddy chooses the elephant. At the clinic, Rachel learns she’s late for her appointment but through past recollections and as the receptionist learns the dirty facts, she tries to make it urgent.

No doubt this story is about abortion. Especially in post-Roe v. Wade United States. The thing is this story is more than that. You know the story is about the pursuit of an abortion, but it’s not what you originally think at first. You think it’s about an impoverished mother getting an abortion because she’s two-and-through, but things change as you learn more information. You wonder why on earth would a mother take her young daughter on an abortion trip? Soon you learn there’s more to the reality of unexpected pregnancy and abortion that meets the eye. Including a lot of upsetting truths. It’s also surprising how in a story that has a theme that hits close to home and presents a story that many would find upsetting, it is still able to have a heart-warming ending that works. That is something in film that is very tricky to do, but Choudhury accomplishes it!

The Wonderful Story Of Henry Sugar (dir. Wes Anderson) – Based on a short story written by Roald Dahl, Henry Sugar is the pseudonym of a wealthy bachelor who loves to gamble away his inherited riches. Thing is he never seems to have enough and wonders how can he get more money? He learns the legend of a man from India named Imdad Khan who learned the fine art of levitating and seeing with is eyes closed, thanks to the teachings of a Great Yogi. Thing is as the doctors were studying Imdad, Imdad tells his story and dies suddenly. Henry tries through great lengths to master this technique through all he can learn. Once he finally masters the sight trick, he goes out gambling and wins big! Problem is all this money isn’t making him any happier. At first he thinks the right way to give the money away is to throw it off a balcony. After it causes a riot, police recommend Henry develop a better method. Henry then spends the next twenty years traveling the world, gambling, and donating his winnings to hospitals and orphanages.

This is the last of the five shorts shown in the shorts.tv reel. After seeing four stories that were either depressing, too serious or had dark subject matter, it was refreshing to end the reel with a light-hearted comedy. The story succeeds in making the tale amusing. Already we have a major director directing it and four major actors — Cumberbatch, Kingsley, Fiennes and Patel — acting in it. Nevertheless the story telling, set changes, and the acting of all make it a delight to watch. It makes for a “guilt-free guilty pleasure” as I like to call such things. That’s why I make this film my Will Win pick!

And there you have it. Those are my reviews of the five films nominated in the Oscar category Best Live-Action Short Film for this year. That also completes all my reviews for the Oscar-nominated short films. Those short film categories are usually the hardest to pick a winner. You think you know what will win, but end up surprised in the end. We’ll see how it all goes on March 10th.

2023 Oscars Short Films Review: Animation

26 February 202427 February 2024Jon The Blogcentric1 Comment

It’s interesting with seeing the reels of the shorts films, the Animation nominees are often the ones with the least total running time. They go by so fast, the shorts.tv reel add in a couple of other shortlisted films that got their honorable mention.

Anyways without further chit-chat, here are my reviews of the nominated animated shorts:

Letter To A Pig (dir. Tai Kantor) – The story begins telling of a boy hiding in a pig sty from Nazis who seek to put him in a concentration camp. The Nazis can’t find him. Fast-forward many decades later. The man tells his story to school students on Holocaust Memorial Day. He tells of how he credits the pigs in the pig sty for saving his life. He even wrote a letter to the pig. As he reads it aloud, one boy gives a taunting “oink,” while a female student listens intensely. As she engages herself in the story, she imagines herself and her classmates coming across a giant almost monstrous pig and them holding him prisoner in a trap. As they hold the pig prisoner, she can feel her nose metamorphose into a pig snout. Soon she feels sympathy for the pig and lets the pig go. As the pig is set free, he shrinks into a piglet and she hugs him.

This is an impressive story. It’s a story of a man who tells how a sty of pigs — animals he had been taught his whole life to regard as filthy and disgusting — helped spare him from dying in the Holocaust. As the young girl hears the story, she reflects on her own feelings of human hatred directed towards a pig in her mind and how she develops sympathy soon after and learns to love the pig. The story has its themes of collective trauma, fear and identity. It’s done in an impressive style that consists of a mix of 2D pencil drawings with minor colorization and mixing it with live-action images. The film is as much about the imagery as it is about the story. That’s why I give it my Will Win pick.

Ninety-Five Senses (dirs. Jared and Jerusha Hess) – The story begins with a man telling his views of human senses and colorful images about from the words he tells. At first you get the impression, this man is friendly. Then you hear his story. This man is on death row having his last meal. The capital offence he committed was arson of a repair shop he was fired from. He loved the jobs, but couldn’t handle being fired. He responded by setting it ablaze, forgetting the shop was also a house where the family lived above. As he anticipates his last meal, he looks over his past with regret, but also a sign of hope in the afterlife. He even has an outlook of how all once a person died, each of the five senses fade in their own way one by one. After a life of only five senses, he looks forward to the 95 senses in the afterlife.

It’s very rare you hear a story of a man awaiting execution to be told with a light-hearted spirit or even with some optimism. Never mind including humor. The man, voiced by Tim Blake Nelson, does a great job in telling his story without it becoming a common “Sob Story” you’d expect from a Death Row inmate. The story comes with some surprises for those who watch, like you wonder how a man that sounds so friendly would end up on Death Row. The film even ends on a humorous note. The story not only tells of the incident and of his observations and hope, but it does so in including in all five of the human senses. The story is told through six different animation styles and a multitude of colors that’s a delight to watch, despite the dark subject matter.

Our Uniform (dir. Yegane Moghaddam) – This film is where Yegane tells her story of growing up as a girl in Iran right after the Islamic Revolution. She talks of how the female teachers taught the girls to shout anti-American, anti-Israel and anti-UK messages on a daily basis. She talks of the uniform she was required to wear at school and of how the women there were firm in how all girls should wear their clothes in a proper manner and have all their hair hidden in a hijab. She talks of the difficulty she had in the hijab covering her hair that was longer than the hijab cloth, which got on the women’s nerves. She reflects on how growing up, she was taught under the new revolution to feel like she was inferior to men or below men.

No question this is a film of how a girl was indoctrinated with sexism not simply at a school, but from a system implemented by the ruling regime. The theme of the story is to do about clothing and the strict religious regulations of how girls should wear their clothing according to the new regime. The story is told with stop-motion imagery using clothes or fabrics of the clothes she wore as a child. The images drawn or painted on the clothes as well as the stop-motion movements of the clothes do a great job of telling her story. The use of clothing in the animation of telling the story is vital since clothing has a lot to do with what life was like under the regime. It makes the images as vital to the story as Yegane’s retelling. Hiding all your hair in a hijab and wearing a dress that covered everything was the new law in Iran and the film shows it in a unique way.

Pachyderme (dir. Stephanie Clement) – A woman retells her story of how as a young girl, she would often stay at the cabin of her grandparents. Her grandfather’s stern manner leaves her with a feel of fear and discomfort. The cabin was located by a lake. The cabin bedroom she sleeps in has a displayed elephant tusk the grandfather names “Pachyderme,” pointing in its direction in the hall. The room would give the girl and eerie sense about it through the wood imagery and the creaking of the boards. Even though the grandparents would say there’s nothing to fear, she felt there were monsters to take her. She goes to a lake where a woman had drowned some time earlier and feels spirits drawing her to its depths. Some time later, the grandfather dies and Pachyderme is split in two. As she returns to the cabin following her grandmother’s death, she takes both pieces of Pachyderme to the lake to bury it in the water. One of the two pieces is not completely immersed.

This film has to be the darkest of the five. In reading articles about it, it deals with the subject of incest. Incest itself is disturbing enough for audiences so it makes sense that it’s told through subtle imagery and storytelling that hides the actual facts. The theme of how she regards her grandfather as a monster and how it’s represented in Pachyderme adds to the storytelling, including the burial at sea. The ending where she attempts to bury the two pieces of Pachyderme in the water remind us she can bury a horrific memory like her grandfather’s terrible ways, but the small piece sticking out reminds us the bad memory can’t completely be buried. The imagery of the story is told through 2D images that appear as common images one would remember from storybooks they read. Possibly the monster that is her grandfather is epitomized through the common images of monsters we read in our children’s books of the past. It’s charming in its imagery as it is disturbing to see and listen to the harrowing story.

War Is Over! Inspired By The Music Of John And Yoko (dir. Dave Mullins) – The film starts in a battlefield of war. One soldier has a chess set where he appears to play by himself. After he makes his move, he writes his move on a piece of paper and attaches it to the leg of a messenger bird. The bird flies to “enemy territory” and gives the message to an “enemy” soldier who also has a chessboard and looks like he’s playing by himself. After he makes his move, he writes his move to a message for the messenger bird to deliver. Over time, the intrigue grows with the soldiers on both camps. As the bird delivers message after message, the anticipation on what the next move will be or who will win appears to quell the enmity between both sides. Then checkmate! But the sergeant is disgusted by what he sees. He reminds the camp they’re enemies and the battle must begin now. The soldiers on both sides line up with bayonets and all ready to do battle against the “enemy.” The battle begins and bloodshed ensues. On the field one soldier notices the messenger bird is shot dead. Just as the two soldiers from the chess game confront each other, it’s there from a message that slips out that one realizes the other is his chess rival. They drop their guns. All drop their guns when they see the written message “War Is Over.”

This is a creative story Dave Mullins directs and co-wrote with Sean Ono Lennon and Brad Booker produces through the inspiration of John Lennon’s legendary Christmas song and the message “War is over if you want it.” The one 3D-computer animated film nominated in this category this year, this is a film with a montage appearing to have a World War I setting and sends a message that still matters today. There may be a winner in a chess game but there are no winners in war. The scene where all the soldiers are intrigued and excited by a chess game against a player from the “enemy” side sends the message that enmity is something war creates and provokes, and is often unnecessary. The ending where the bloody battle is instantly ended with the written message “War Is Over” also sends a message of how many battles are in vain. The story first seems to be a story that’s either cute or “fluffy,” but the ending of the bloody battle with “Merry Christmas (War Is Over)” sends a significant message that is as important today as it was when John and Yoko recorded it back then. That’s why I give it my Should Win pick.

And there you have it. That’s my review of the five films nominated for Best Animated Short Film. Interesting that in a time where animated features appear to be dominated by 3D computer animation, only one of the five nominated films is such. That’s what I like best about this category. It opens itself up to various styles of animation, rather than going with one that’s all the rage.

2023 Oscars Short Films Review: Documentaries

25 February 202425 February 2024Jon The Blogcentric1 Comment

Once again with the Academy Award nominations being awarded for the biggest feature-length films of the year, the AMPAS Academy also rewards the short films in three categories. I’m lucky to live in Vancouver where I can see the short films on the big screen.

The first set of films I will be focusing on is Documentaries. In each of my blogs about the short films, you will also get my predictions for which films Should Win and Will Win:

The ABC’s Of Book Banning (dirs. Sheila Nevins, Nazenet Habtezghi and Trish Adlesic) – This documentary focuses on recent regulations implemented in American school systems in the past ten years to ban certain children’s books. Most notably in Florida. There are three classifications: Restricted – disallowed to children unless permission from parent; Challenged – at risk of being banned from school libraries; and Banned – completely banned from school libraries. The books banned are mostly to do about the themes of racism and racial empowerment, sexism and female empowerment, and LGBT pride. The authors are unhappy and the children can’t fathom why they’re banned and are disappointed with the reading material they are allowed to read.

This is a smart documentary that highlights the problem from all angles. It doesn’t just show the classification system but also the books that have fallen prey to this system. We hear verses from the book and we sense why they’re banned, but still wonder what’s the problem? We hear from some of the authors of these banned books and what they have to say. We hear what the children have to say and how they can’t understand why they’re banned and what they’re left with are books with weak material. You’re left feeling for those children and the lack of knowledge they’ll be receiving. You’re also left wondering about how the USA — a nation that advertises itself as “the land of the free” — can allow for book banning to happen. I thought book banning and book burning were considered “Un-American!” Not anymore? That’s why I pick this as my Should Win and Will Win picks.

The Barber Of Little Rock (dirs. John Hoffman and Christine Turner) – In this documentary, we are introduced to Arlo Washington. He started as a barber in Little Rock, Arkansas to help raise and provide for his younger siblings after his mother died shortly after his graduation. Over time, he progressed to opening his own barber shop, then his own haircutting school, and then opening a loan company that gives loans to African Americans and other impoverished people the banks normally reject. The film not only showcases what Washington has accomplished but also interviews some of his loan customers from his bank and gets them to describe systemic racism.

The best thing about this documentary is its insightfulness. It touches on a topic we commonly hear about, but know very little of the stories of people who live it. We learn of the man who beat the odds, but he’s not hoarding all his wealth to himself. He’s a man who knows the problem and is willing to create things to empower people like never before and even fight a centuries-long problem like never before in the community. The film also reminds us that what he’s fighting is a nation-wide problem. The opinions from his interviewed clients about the topic of economic discrimination and systemic racism will open your eyes to the very people who have been hurt by this. Although Washington is doing a great job fighting it in Little Rock, he can’t fight it alone and there’s lots to be done nationwide. This documentary is very much an eye-opener.

Island In Between (dirs. S. Leo Chiang and Jean Tsien) – The film is about S. Leo Chiang, a Taiwanese-born American filmmaker, who returns to his nation of birth, but to an area he only knows from his family’s past military duties. The part of Taiwan he returns to is the Island of Kinmen. Kinmen is a set of Taiwanese islands that are closer to Mainland China than the main island of Taiwan. Actually the area of Kinmen he lives in has just a three-mile separation from the island city of Xiamen through the Tuyu Islet. As he sees this seemingly-short gap of water between the two islands and the rusty military guns that sit by the coast, he reflects how he was taught Taiwanese pride in his childhood and of anti-China propaganda he was taught. He talks of his confusion of his citizenship as he mentions of using his Taiwan passport to return to the US, but use his American passport to visit China. He talks of radio messages sending messages of freedom to the citizens of Xiamen and continue to be sent. He talks of the fear of war with Mainland China that could erupt and how tensions appeared to be easing in the last twenty years. One of the breakthroughs was a ferry system that could allow Taiwanese people to visit Mainland China that went well until the COVID pandemic hit.

This film serves as a reminder of the Cold War we forgot still exists. The Iron Curtain that was broken down in Eastern Europe in the early 1990’s overshadowed that hard-line Communism still exists in a few nations like the People’s Republic of China. Those unfamiliar with history will need to know China underwent a Cultural Revolution shortly after World War II which separated the Communist mainland from the capitalist Taiwan. The two nations have been bitter political enemies since the start. There was warfare between the two in the 1950’s. Despite the war ending many decades ago, the fear of another war still continues despite the guns rusting away on the coasts of the island. Chiang shows how all this has had a hard time for him establishing his identity. The national politics, the use of passports and the recent slow breakdown of political barriers leaving him wondering how should he identify himself? Chinese? Taiwanese? American? This is another documentary that’s insightful about a topic we so easily overlook.

The Last Repair Shop (dirs. Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers) – This film focuses on a shop in Los Angeles that repairs musical instruments. It’s not just any repair shop. This repair shop repairs musical instruments for the 80,000 school students in the Los Angeles Unified School District area free of charge. It’s the last shop of its kind left in LA. Featured are the repair people: Dana, who repairs stringed instruments; Paty, who repairs and cleans brass instruments; Duane, who takes care of woodwinds; and Steve, who repairs and tunes pianos. In the film we learn Dana is a gay man who had to be closeted in his early years, even as he did music in his prime. Paty, a single mother, first appeared to have a limited future as a music teacher until a chance to show her skills opened doors for her and a better income for her family. Duane used to be a banjo player who performed for the President of the United States. Steve learned music in his home nation of Armenia until a war in 1990 where his father was killed caused his family to flee to the US. The film also shows some of the students whom benefit from the repairs performed. Most are from underprivileged areas. The film ends with a final symphony with all.

This is one of the least heavy documentaries of the five nominated. This is a film that will remind you not to take things for granted. We learn of the students whom are benefiting from this. Students that value the music lessons and see ambition in their instruments and their lessons. Students that wouldn’t have much of a chance elsewhere, or would come at a cost. We learn of the people in charge of the shop. We learn of their backgrounds and how music either was always part of their life or changed their lives for the better. We learn of how some like Paty have this as an opportunity to beat the odds and have something better for herself and her family. As we watch the final symphony, we see how for all involved that music is not just music. It’s a crucial part of their lives and represents a future of promise for the young. This is not simply a documentary that’s light-hearted. It’s as much insightful as it is a delight to watch and enjoy.

Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó (dir. Sean Wang) – Two grandmothers. Both in-laws. One grandmother goes by the name Nǎi Nai. The other goes by the name Wài Pó. One is in her 80’s, but still feels young. The other is 94, but feels like she’s 100. They both live in the same house and sleep in the same bed. The two talk of their history and of how they first met. The two talk of how both of them, each different in their own way, manage aging and still do their best efforts to maintain a vital life. The two also talk about the fears of aging. Especially as one looks through an old personal phone list and notes how it has the numbers of those that are deceased.

This is a documentary that’s sweet, funny and sad at times. We see two grandmothers of the filmmaker who go by different names and live together. Their friendship is surprising since in-laws are known to be at odds with each other. They show how they continue to pursue vitality in their ages and will do it in their own way, whether by one doing cultural sword arts or one drinking shamelessly. They also show that they won’t shy away from some of the dark realities of aging. They know that despite the vitality they pursue and odds they aim to beat, there are some sad reminders of some realities around the corner. It’s a mix of bitter and sweet that is impressive to watch. Including the ending where one calls Sean a brat!

And there you have it. That’s my review of the five documentaries nominated in the category Best Documentary Short Film for this year’s Oscars. I know I described many of them as “insightful,” but all of them are eye-openers that will get you to see more about topics you may already be familiar with, topics you never know about or even topics you may have overlooked before.

VIFF 2023 Review: Do Not Expect Too Much From The End Of The World (Nu astepta prea mult de la sfârsitul lumii)

20 December 202321 December 2023Jon The Blogcentric1 Comment

Ilinca Manolache stars as Angela: a Romanian business executive who represents capitalism in Romania well in all its strengths and flaws in *Do Not Expect Too Much From The End Of The World*.

My VIFF experience for 2023 ended with the Romanian film Do Not Expect Too Much From The End Of The World. It was a good choice to end the film festival with, but not a really great choice. It has a point to deliver, but makes it in a way many will miss it.

The film begins with Angela, a young woman in Bucharest. Angela has a good-status job as an entertainment executive. Actually her job works her long hours and pays her not enough. Her job also interferes with her chances in getting a stable love life. She gets an income enhancement with her social media side gig. Angela is also a TikTok influencer named Bobita: a misogynist “alpha-male” type that Angela creates with a smartphone filter. Right into the beginning, Angela is part of the latest production job. It’s for a work safety video where they’re to have a victim tell their story. The decision of which story to use and the shooting of the video will have to be completed in two days. In addition, the head of the production company from Austria will be flying in tonight for this project and Angela is to pick her up.

Angela’s own life somewhat mirrors the life of another Angela. A fictional Angela from a 1981 Romanian film called Angela Moves On. In that film, the Angela is a cab driver in the era of Communism with Romania being part of the Eastern Bloc. Angela gets flack from her male co-workers of what a woman’s job should be. Her drives down the streets of Bucharest are relatively easy compared to the packed traffic present-day Angela gets. Angela presses on and hopes to find love on the job. She saw a chance in a man she picked up from the airport.

These two days come by with Angela at full force. The company has to pick and choose the person and family to do the video with. The story of the person’s accident has to fit the film’s narrative and the person needs to have a likeable personality. Meanwhile Angela tries to juggle work, a conference call with the video director Austrian Doris Goethe, meeting with her family, meeting with the actress who played Angela in Angela Moves On, shooting more Bobita videos (where Bobita’s phoniness is slowly given away video by video), entertaining Uwe Boll (and even shooting a Bobita video with him), dating a man and losing out, and driving Goethe after she arrives from Vienna. During the drive, Angela gives Goethe a good history lesson of Romania with its Communist past and present problems like the single-lane highway of death.

Then finally the safety video is being shot. They chose a family man who was left wheelchair bound and film him with his family posed in front of the area where it happened. The video goes through many takes and many style changes. In that time, Angela is there looking after things. She does her Bobita videos during the breaks and everyone can hear her. During shooting, a sudden fact is discovered but they continue on. The producers deal with it so they can get the story to fit the film’s narrative, much to the discomfort of the man and his family. The producers have it ‘stylized’ with the man telling his story with message cards.

Sometimes when watching this film, you think director/writer Radu Jude has a lot to say not simply about capitalism in Romania, but of Romania as a whole. On this film, we see pieces of Angela Moves On where it unintentionally showcases the hardships of Romanian life under the Communist Ceaucescu regime. Even how one of the male leads had his Hungarian name “Romanianized” may send a message. Now we have the Angela in Post-Revolution capitalist Romania. She works 16-hour days, she takes a side-hustle where she does this misogynist character on TikTok, the agency she works for tries to stylize the safety video. Romania has a sharp divide between the wealthy and the impoverished; the biggest in the EU. You can’t help but think that’s the statement Jude intends to have made in the film. To show that Romania had it the worst during the days of the Iron Curtain, but made to look nice, and now has it among the worst in the capitalist era of Eastern Europe.

The thing about this film is that it has a lot to say, but it doesn’t appear to have a consistent beginning, middle and end. Sure the film shows two days in the work life of present Angela, but it often appears there’s a story about to hatch. Yes, it shows her doing her Bobita videos and it shows scenes of the truth that can be given away any minute, but it doesn’t, leaving the viewer to wonder what’s next. Even the two long scenes — of most of the memorials of crash victims on that “highway of death” and of the 40-minute scene of the shooting of the safety video at the end — can leave one confused about the whole story. I’ve seen films before where it appears to be a magnifying glass on a person’s life, but even others I saw had a consistent flow from start to finish where everything connects solidly. This appears not to come together as solidly and fluidly. Either that or this film was not meant to be the film most of us expect. I’m sure Jude had his intentions for what the film is supposed to be.

This is actually the very first work I’ve seen from Radu Jude. His works have earned him a reputation as one of Romania’s best modern-day directors. It all started with the 2007 short The Happiest Girl In The World and it paved his reputation in his works to come. His breakthrough in feature-length films came in 2015 with Aferim! which became his first film Romania would enter in the Oscar category of Best International Feature Film. His past films have focused on a lot of themes in Romania’s history and Romania’s present. Even a film like his previous one — Bad Luck Banging Or Loony Porn — have elements of Romania’s past history despite the situation not intended to be political.

This film is the fourth Jude film Romania has entered into this Oscar category. This film has something in common with his two previous films: a very long title. Another thing it has in common is elements to do about Romania. The unique thing is how it does Romania past and Romania present. We have Angela the taxi driver in 1981 under Ceaucescu-era Communism and in color. We have modern-day Angela in the days of democracy, capitalism and the EU, but shown in black and white. We have Angela from 1981 dealing with male chauvinism in her job and trying to find the right man. We have modern-day Angela in a business that has a mix of men and women, but is overworked and gets her misogyny from the male drivers on the busy streets. It’s possible she uses the misogyny she gets for her Bobita videos. It’s a film that has a lot to say. Even if the film doesn’t make complete sense, it still leaves you with a lot to think about and definitely things Romania can identify with.

I feel the best thing about the film is the acting from Ilinca Manolache. If you’ve seen this film, this film seems less like a dramatic film and more like a documentary or a reality show. Manolache is successful in making this look like a natural situation instead of something acted out. She’s successful in making the actions and moments of Angela low key and happening in front of us as if this is real life. She’s also good in doing the Bobita parts in the humorous nature it’s intended to be and showing the irony of Bobita’s misogynist talk.

This film has garnered additional acclaim besides its Oscar submission status. It won the Best Film award at the Gijon Film Festival and at the Locarno Film Festival, it won the Special Jury Prize for international film and was also nominated in the Best Film category. Other nominations for this film include the Fiction Feature category for the Montclair Film Festival and the Gold Hugo award for Best Feature at the Chicago Film Festival.

Do Not Expect Too Much From The End Of The World is the type of film where you anticipate it to end a certain way, but it ends in a way different than one would expect. It’s a film that has a statement to make, but doesn’t do a good job of making its statement made well or clear. Despite its flaws, it is a film that will get you thinking.

And there you go! That is my look at the films of the 2023 Vancouver International Film Festival. I know it was later than usual but I figured that with these films bound to come out at a later time, reviews for them all are still worth posting. Even my wrap-up blog will come very soon.

VIFF 2023 Review: The Wait (La Espera)

17 December 202317 December 2023Jon The BlogcentricLeave a comment

Victor Clavijo stars as a Spanish marksman/farmer who seems to be possessed by something supernatural in *The Wait*.

With the VIFF ending the following day (October 8th) and Halloween about to come, it’s natural to want to see at least one more Altered States film. Though the Spanish film The Wait doesn’t have your common Halloween scariness, it does give you the fear and suspense you look for in such a film.

It is 1973 in the Andalusian countryside. A hunter named Eladio agrees to supervise the hunting grounds of land belonging to Don Francisco. He supervises one of ten grounds Don Francisco owns. He brings his wife Marcia and his son Floren to live on the land, but soon learns the land he supervises is quite desolate. He’s able to take Floren practice shooting, but Marcia is unhappy. She lets him know how much he let her down.

As his service comes close to reaching three years, Don Carlos, Don Francisco’s second in command, offers him a bribe to add an additional three stands to the area. Eladio is reluctant but Marcia wants him to accept since money has been scarce with his duty. Eladio accepts, unaware of what lays ahead. One day, Eladio takes Floren out practice shooting. Other marksmen are on the site. Out of nowhere, a bullet hits Floren in the head. Eladio is heartbroken but Marcia is devastated. She soon commits suicide. How can all these troubles happen to Eladio all at once?

Eladio soon becomes an alcoholic and finds himself in a violent nature he can’t control. The dog also shows moments of violent behavior. Eladio also notices bizarre images during his drunken hallucinations like slaughtered chickens, a goat’s head, and a human toenail in his stew. He sees Marcia in one of his hallucinations, but she curses him. Another hallucination, he sees Floren. He hopes to reunite, but instead sees Floren bloodied from the accident and reminds Eladio of the wrong he did and he will pay.

As the days get closer to the end of the lease, Eladio is frustrated and he goes to the mansion of Don Francisco. He notices something disturbing. He first sees a photograph of a family from three years ago on the land, and another photograph of another family three years earlier on that same land, and another and another. Eladio is scared. Is he part of a trap? Were those families in the photo also subject to that very curse Eladio is going through and claimed his family?

The day finally comes. It’s the end of the three years. Eladio faces up to Don Francisco at his mansion, but he also faces up to Don Carlos, Marcia, Floren and all the families of the other men who accepted that same bribe before. Their fate for what they accepted now becomes Eladio’s. The ending will have you at the edge of your seat.

This is a film that lets the suspense build slowly. The film starts as a man who made a bad purchase on the land and his wife lets him know it. Then the bribe starts the series of misfortunes such as the son’s accidental shooting death and the wife’s suicide. They all seem tragic, but it doesn’t seem like there’s a curse. It’s only until a short time before the lease is set to expire we learn there is a curse. Eladio senses it before we do and unravels it before our eyes. This is a curse that has plagued the families who also leased the land before him. It seems as though Don Francisco has this cursed land to set up families for their tragic fate and we learn about it as Eladio slowly learns about it. Don Francisco even told him about treating the land like family and if one betrays family, he will pay. It seems as though that contract from Don Francisco isn’t simply a three-year lease on the land but something that can be a loyalty test that could end up a “death warrant.” Anything that should be labeled a “death warrant” only kills the individual, but this is something that robs Eladio of prosperity, his family, his possessions, his colleagues and eventually himself. Just like those that leased the land before him! Did they also fall prey to a bribe like Eladio’s?

Another thing that grabs me about this film is that it’s estimated to be set in the year 1973. I find that as something of intrigue to me since Spain was under the fascist regime of dictator Francisco Franco at the time. I have seen two other films that were set during Franco-era Spain: Pan’s Labyrinth and Pa Negre. I’ve come to sense that Franco-era Spain is a common theme in a lot of Spanish film. It’s a period of their history that’s long passed but hard to overcome. Even though there are no specific signs in this film pointing to it, I do sense certain elements in the film reflecting the harshness of that era. Things like how farmers had limited prosperity back then, things like how Eladio was illiterate, and things like corrupt ownership. It can leave one thinking that.

The film itself is intended to be a paranormal thriller. One thing about it is it’s a story that slowly builds over time. The film begins with a slow melodramatic start. It’s when the tragedies in Eladio’s life happen that the story changes and the aftermath when the bizarre and the supernatural occur. The film does a good job in building itself as time progresses, leading up to the climactic finish. At the same time, this appears to be a film that tries to mix many genres together. That’s very tricky to do. The film doesn’t do a stellar accomplishment of trying to mix film genres together but it does a very good job here.

This film is a great work from director/writer F. Javier Gutierrez. This is only his third film in which he’s written and directed. It’s a very impressive work in taking dramatic story and mixing various film genres and styles together into what would eventually become a paranormal thriller. He tells his story not just with the dialogue but also with imagery and effective cinematography that adds to the story. I feel Gutierrez did a very good job, despite the film starting off slow.

Also adding to the story is the acting of Victor Clavijo. With him being the protagonist Eladio, he adds to the story’s intensity with his moments of silence as much as adds to it with the dialogue. Those with supporting roles added to the story and the drama, despite how short of a time they had. The cinematography from Miguel Angel Mora adds to the story and the musical score from Zeltia Montes adds to the intensity.

This film has been able to earn some accolades in the film festival circuit. It’s nominations and wins include: the Official Fantastic Competition at the Sitges – Catalonian Festival; Audience Award for Best Film at the Oldenburg Film Festival; five nominations including Best Director and Best Cinematography at the FilmQuest Festival; Clavijo winning Best Actor and Gutierrez nominated for Best Director at the ScreamFest; and two wins and the Audience Award for Best Picture at the Fantastic Fest.

The Wait is a film about a supernatural curse. It builds slowly, but the suspense greatly builds near the end. Definitely a film that will get your attention.

VIFF 2023 Review: Last Summer (L’Été Dernier)

15 December 202315 December 2023Jon The BlogcentricLeave a comment

Samuel Kircher and Lea Drucker play stepson and stepmother that goes too far in the French film *Last Summer*.

For those that attend film festivals, there are many patrons who hope to catch a film with a bizarre storyline that looks good. One film that attempts to do it is the France film Last Summer. It’s a bizarre story that comes with unexpected twists.

Anne is an attorney in family law. She knows the system well and what works and what doesn’t in the Corts, but she will fight for her clients. Especially children. Anne is well-respected with how she works with rape cases, especially those involving minors. Anne is married to Pierre and has two adopted daughters from China. She does a very good job of balancing family life with her career.

Things change when Theo enters the picture. Theo is the 17 year-old son of Pierre’s from his first marriage. Theo is a troubled boy frequently getting in and out of trouble. Pierre is hoping a summer stay at his house will help improve him and improve his relationship with his son. In fact Pierre picks Theo up after his release from a detention centre. Anne is hoping to have this time to establish a mother-son relationship with her stepson.

Over time, Theo has no problem with being one of the family. He comes to family occasions well. He’s able to be a fun brother to his step-sisters. Anne has also found Theo to be a lot of fun to be around. It seems like they’ve developed a good relationship…or it’s something more. Anne is attracted to Theo and lets him know it. Theo is attracted to Anne in turn. Their closeness becomes more. A lot more.

Only problem is secrets don’t stay secret for long. The first exposure comes at a family birthday party. Anne’s sister catches them too close. She is disgusted and hurls an insult. Soon Pierre hears the news from Theo. Anne insists it’s all a lie. Whenever Pierre tries to bring it up, Anne knows of the right thing to say. When Theo confronts her in her office, she levels with him. She reminds him of his bad reputation and that no one will believe him. As time passes, Anne has successfully convinced Pierre and her sister that what they thought all along isn’t true. Soon Anne has one last encounter with Theo, which shocks everyone in the end.

Now this film is something. Very rarely do we have a film about incest created. And rightly so. Incest is a topic that almost all of us find disturbing and still churns a lot of people’s stomachs. This is a bizarre case. Theo is the stepson of Anne. Even if you get yourself questioning your morality as he’s not a blood relative of hers, he’s still the son of Pierre. Theo is a boy Anne is not to be attracted to in more ways than one. Seeing how the romance that is not to be unravel itself is enough to shock the pants out of the audients.

The funny thing about this film is that this film appears be about an incident of incest but if you look closer, you’ll see the film looks to be about Anne. Anne is a lawyer and an advocate: a respected woman who appears to champion the causes of exploited children. Soon she finds herself in a ‘tangle’ with Theo — a tangle that would lead anyone in the hottest of hot water — but she’s able to state her innocence and successfully convince those closest to her that it’s all a lie. We often forget that is the profession of lawyers and politicians: the power of the talk. Talk that wins cases, talk that wins minds, talk that can even trump proven truths. Anne has that ability to deliver that type of talk power and we see it throughout. She has the talk to win cases for young girls in family court, talk that can convince her husband and even her sister who catches her in the act that there’s no incest, and talk to convince Theo he won’t win his case against her. Usually a film about such an incident would be a film consisting of the incident, arrest, trial, conviction and any aftermath. I think that theme of Anne and the power of her talk may be the reason why the film ended in the way it did.

This is an incredible film by Catherine Breillat. Breillat is not well known outside of France. Her films in France have been known for decades to do about sexuality and family conflict. Her most notable works are 2001’s Fat Girl and 2007’s The Last Mistress. This film which she directed and co-wrote with Pascal Bonitzer is her first release in ten years and is actually an adaptation of a 2019’s Danish film Queen Of Hearts. Breillat does a great job in capturing the intensities of moments and having only us the viewer knowing the truth of the story. She knows how to capture what’s at stake should Anne be found guilty and expose a power play between the accuser and the accused.

The thing to make a film like this work is the acting. Lea Drucker was excellent as Anne, the one calling the shots. She knew how to make Anne the imposing figure that she is with the ability to be convincing to everyone even if we know it’s all a lie. Olivier Rabourdin was great as the husband who’s struggling to make sense of the whole situation of whether this really happened, what type of father he is. He was excellent at playing the man caught in the middle. Also great is newcomer Samuel Kircher. He gives Theo his recklessness, his innocence and his vulnerability without missing a beat. Very well done for a first performance.

Let’s just say Last Summer is a film of intrigue. It’s a film that features of an unspeakable happening and it comes with a lot of surprises including an ending nobody anticipated to happen. It’s a film that will get you thinking of what you saw over and over again!

VIFF 2023 Review: The Oceans Are The Real Continents (Los océanos son los verdaderos continentes)

11 December 202313 December 2023Jon The BlogcentricLeave a comment

A Cuban couple with artistic dreams and goals is one of three stories in the film *The Oceans Are The Real Continents*.

A film like The Oceans Are The Real Continents is a unique portrait of life centred around three different people in a town in Cuba. It paints quite a picture and is full of feeling.

The story begins with a theatrical production live on the lake. Alex is the main actor of the production. He is on a floating island as he floats to the actress, his girlfriend Edith. Alex is an acting instructor in the small Cuban town of San Antonio de los Banos. He has a loving relationship with Edith, a actress and puppeteer. It’s very apparent with the times Alex and Edith spend together, they have a loving relationship and are big artistic dreamers themselves. Recently Edith has applied for a visa to work in Italy. It’s a long process. Especially as news of a record number of evacuees from Cuba is broadcast on the radio.

At the same time is San Antonio de los Banos, there are two boys, around none-years old, named Frank and Alain. Frank and Alain live very close to each other and attend the same school, where they’re taught about glorifying Cuba. They do a lot together, but what they share most is their love for baseball. They play on the same little league team and as expected in Cuba, they are among many boys whom the nation hopes to train up for national glory. Thing is glory for Cuba is not what Frank and Alain are most interested in. They both dream of living in the US and hopefully play in a MLB team like the Yankees.

Also simultaneously in San Antonio de los Banos is an elderly woman named Milagros. MIlagros is retired from her normal work and is now out on the streets selling peanuts. Returning to her place, she dusts off images of past memories, plays music from decades before and reads letters written to her form her husband or boyfriend that he wrote to her as he was among a group of Cuban soldiers who fought in the Angolan Civil War in the late-1980’s. The letters her husband has written sound like poetry. Reading the letters is something she does on a daily basis.

Soon moments of friction happen in the three scenarios. As Alex continues acting and teaching, Edith has a successful puppet show. As news of her visa is getting closer and closer, Alex feels the strain of it. He’s even vocal to her about it, fearing it could hurt the relationship in the future. Especially since Edith desires to move to Italy permanently. For the two boys, Frank overhears a conversation his mother has about heading to Miami to be with family. That could mean leaving Alain behind. He doesn’t want that. For Milagros, a sudden rainstorm causes flooding in her suite and it gets everything wet, including her letters. She hangs them to dry outside after the storm ends. As she hangs them, she comes across what’s possibly the last letter her lover wrote to her and she’s in tears.

SPOILER WARNING: Ending in paragraph. Go to next paragraph if you don’t want to know the ending. The film ends with Frank and Alain walking along the railroad track close to the town’s station. As they arrive at the station, we see both Milagros and Edith waiting at the station as the train going to Havana arrives. In the end, we see and hear the letters Alex writes to Edith. He shares his belief that the distance between the two won’t stop their love for each other.

This film is unique that there are three stories surrounding people in this small town in Cuba. In retrospect, the film seems to be a film with the theme of hope. The case of the actress is a case in hope where it’s actively being pursued through her career and her channels with the Italian Embassy. There’s the case of the boyfriend who hopes to still have her despite the future of being thousands of miles apart. There is Frank and Alain whose hope in their baseball goals is something that will take maybe ten or fifteen years to determine their fates. Finally there’s Milagos who appears to be nearing the end of her life and all hope appears to be gone. She appears to cling to the letters of her late husband possibly as her only chance to get any feeling of hope. One thing the film leaves unanswered is how her husband died. Did he die on the battlefield during the war or MIA? Did he die peacefully in Cuba long after returning home? We don’t know and it’s up to us to decide. It’s possible her appearance at the train station at the end is the hope her husband will return one day.

This is a unique story of three different generations of Cubans who are not related or connected but find themselves linked at the end. The main story is of a couple with artistic dreams. Edith has a chance to go to Italy to further pursue her artistic direction, but Alex is uncomfortable with it. Frank and Alain are two boys with baseball dreams and hope to play for the Yankees one day instead of the glory of Cuba that’s expected of them. Milagros struggles to come to terms with the loss of her husband: a soldier in the Angolan War. It often seems as if reading those letters is the one thing keeping her alive. One story is of a couple and the present, another of a woman and the past, and another of two boys and hope for the future. Shot in black and white and done as a melodrama, it’s as much of a portrait as it is a story. Even without an obvious given time for a setting with the absence of modern technology, it’s a story that looks like it can happen anytime. That’s also part of the story’s magic.

This is an excellent first feature for Italian director/writer Tomasso Santambroggio. Originally from Italy, he has studied in La Havana. It’s apparent his experiences there are input into this film. This film was originally a short film he released four years ago and has only now incorporated into a feature-length film. He creates a story that’s a three stories in one. It’s of a shared theme of for each of the story’s protagonists, hope comes from somewhere else. At the same time, he’s able to show Cuba as a postcard-perfect place despite the crumbly buildings and the lack of promise. He’s able to show the beauty inside the dreariness and have it captured in this three-way melodrama. It’s very easy to be spellbound by the imagery while watching the melodrama. Also it makes sense that the film is marketed as an Italian film. I don’t think the nation of Cuba would want to support a film that depicts the nation negatively.

The unique thing about the film is that it shows actors who have had no known major acting credits before and they pull it off well. Also all five of the main characters in the film use their real first names in the story. For the couple, Alexander Diego and Edith Ibarra make their chemistry very believable. As they central story, they make the love between them and the friction that threatens to separate them often give us the feeling we’re watching a documentary of an actual couple. Frank Ernesto Lam and Alain Alberto Gonzales are both non-actors who come across as typical Cuban boys living the common little boy life, and that works to the film’s advantage as well as the story’s advantage. Milagros Llanes Martinez is also excellent in how she makes us feel her loneliness and her heartache. Of the three stories, hers was the one that most grabbed my attention.

The Oceans Are The Real Continents is a unique film. It is a drama with a central story, but two connected stories. It is both a story and a portrait. It is slow in its storytelling but big in capturing the moments, the land, and the emotions. It’s a rare gem that’s a delight to watch.

VIFF 2023 Review: When Adam Changes (Adam Change Lentement)

8 December 202310 December 2023Jon The Blogcentric1 Comment

The teen years are never easy. And overweight Quebec teenager Adam proves it in the animated film *When Adam Changes*.

The animated film When Adam Changes fulfilled the third of my annual VIFF goals of seeing at least one feature-length Canadian film. It’s an animated film that tells a common story of growing up the oddball, but done in a unique and entertaining way.

It’s a summer in the 1990’s. A grandmother is dying in the hospital. All the family members surround her. Then the grandmother utters her last words. It’s an insult of the size of the torso of Adam, her 15 year-old grandson. Adam has endured a whole lifetime of insults from her because he’s overweight. Crazy thing about it is her insult makes Adam’s torso grow bigger! After she dies, everyone is in tears, except Adam.

With the grandmother dying, Adam’s family will be having family over to make funerary plans, host gatherings and also have Uncle Mario living with him, his older sister and his parents. With Adam being 15, the father wants him to learn responsibility. He gets him to do things like mow a neighbor’s lawn, take care of the house of his cousin’s, and walk a neighbor’s dog. The latter is a bizarre case as the previous walker takes the bags of droppings and hangs them from a neighbor’s tree. Adam’s not too happy about that. He just wants to hang out with his equally awkward best friend, play video games or watch action movies.

As the family and other relatives make funeral plans and arrangements, Adam goes about his duties the best he can. He even disposes of the dog dropping properly. However problems arise. In the area of his dog walking is a boy named Pierrot. Adam knows Pierrot. Years ago, he was encouraged to befriend him on the playground. It went well until an accident Adam caused led to a big gash on Pierrot’s face. The scar from the accident is still very noticeable on Pierrot’s face and Adam is afraid to make eye contact with him To add to his problems, he learns a bully from his school lives close by. He’s going to take pleasure in being mean to Adam. Adam does see a possible ray of hope in his girlfriend, who’s also a classmate of his. He notices she takes a liking to him. Can he win her?

As the days pass, the funeral happens. Adam does his best to speak about his grandmother, as all her grandchildren were to say something about her. It’s not easy since she was so mean to him, but he pulls it off. After that difficult task, Adam goes about doing his duties. It’s not always easy as the school bullies are harassing him and seeing him being left out of parties makes him feel like a misfit. To add to his personal insecurities, his sister has a boyfriend who doesn’t look like the type to trust. On top of it, he keeps seeing Pierrot walking down the sidewalk with a long metal rod. Why? Is it personal? Does Pierrot hate him from that incident from long ago?

One day, Adam has a ray of hope. The bully’s girlfriend invites him to Marianne’s party. His best friend encourages him. Things do not go all that well. It’s crazy but Adam wants to do something to be popular and win her love. He fantasizes being the hero as he watches the action movies. Then he tells her a party at his place. Hopefully this will make things work out.

Adam’s been waiting for this moment. He’s even watched some of his action movies to make him feel big. Then the doorbell rings. She came! But shoe brought friends along, including her boyfriend. This is going to be a long night for Adam. The party doesn’t go well and his sister caught her boyfriend cheating. Suddenly Adam sees an opportunity with his classmate. She gets into a scuffle with her boyfriend, but he turns abusive to her. That’s it. Even though he may have bullied Adam in high school, Adam’s not taking it and he gives him a piece of him with moves he learned from the movies. The bully’s down on the ground. Adam things he won her, but i9t’s not the case. Dejected, Adam leaves the house. He notices Pierrot and that the reason for the metal rod was to take the dog dropping out of the tree and sending them to the original walker. Adam helps and it turns out a friendship between the two was there after all. The film ends with Adam at the couch with family.

Let’s face it. The teenage years are the years you both love and hate. You love it for the best music and best movies of your life. You hate it because of all the jerks and mean peers you have to deal with. I’ve even said that high school is a total social “torture chamber.” I think everyone can remember the false sense of superiority some students had or the many times peers made one feel inferior. We see that in Adam as he’s often fat-shamed. He wants to fit in, but he also has his hopes on a bigger prize: that girl. Can he win her? He looks like he can win her and he has a chance.

Watching the film will remind us of our teenage years. They’re some of the best moments of our lives and some of the worst moments of our lives. The film does a good job in displaying that in a humorous form that can make us laugh off even some of our worst high school memories. It also doesn’t miss in showing some of the ugly cases of teenage life such as use of substances, bullying, infidelity and abuse. Even that thing where someone hurls an insult at an aspect of Adam’s body and that aspect grows, wasn’t it just like us back in our teen years? Didn’t we also feel that same way the instant somebody taunted us about a physical flaw of ours, whether it be minor or major? I guess that’s what the film is intended to do. Remind us of our teen years as the most frustrating years of our lives, but in a humorous way.

The film ends with a touching moment where the protagonist gets the message that despite the garbage and pressures around you, it’s important to surround yourself with people who care about you. There’s Adam with his teenage sister, Uncle Mario, his parents and his best friend watching a movie. Leaving the peers who used him and crashed his party somewhere else. With the frustrations that come with being a teenager, I guess that’s what you need to have. Have a time to be around the people who make you feel good about yourself. That scene is a good “To hell with it,” to the garbage of teenage peer pressure.

This is a unique story and film by Joel Vaudreuil. Up until now, Joel has had experience in creating animated shorts and even directing music videos. This is his first attempt at making an animated feature and it’s impressive. Its 2D animation is unique in its style and fits the story well. Vaudreuil also gives a story that does hit close to home but in a humorous way. Yes, the teen years were a hurtful time for all of us, but it’s able to make light of it well. Even some of the nastier moments of our lives. Very impressive first feature-length film.

This film has already won an award in animated film. The Ottawa Animated Film Festival made it the Grand Prize winner. The Annecy International Animated Film Festival made it a nominee for the Contrechamp Award for Best Film.

When Adam Changes is an enjoyable animated movie. It’s another example of how Canada keeps on sending out winning animation time after time. It’s also a good reminder of why you’re glad your teenage years are long over!

VIFF 2023 Review: The Sacrifice Game

29 November 202315 September 2024Jon The Blogcentric2 Comments

*The Sacrifice Game* is a super-bizarre story of a Christmas dinner two private school girls will never forget. Try as they might!

Can you mix the horror movie genre with the Christmas season and be able to create a good movie of the mix? The American film The Sacrifice Game makes that brave attempt.

The film begins with what appears to be four guests approaching a Christmas party three days before Christmas 1971. The hosts don’t recognize them, but that doesn’t matter because the four ‘guests’ kill the family in their home. One of them paints an image with a victim’s blood on the window. The following day is the last day before Christmas for a boarding school. All the girls leave the school and the dorms to be with their families for Christmas. All except Samantha, whose father can’t see her for Christmas this year, and Clara who appears not to have a family. Rose, one of the teachers, is willing to have a Christmas dinner with the two girls at the school. She even gets her fiance Doug to help.

That same day, the group of four, maned Jude, Maisie, Jimmy and Grant, go to a nearby church and claim the priest as their latest victims. Before they leave him behind, they take a piece of his skin that has like a bizarre tattoo on it. As the time gets closer to the ‘party’ at the girls’ school, Samantha tries to start conversation with Clara. Clara is reluctant. It may appear shyness, but more like Clara has a secret. A secret notable from the scars on her skin. Also the girls at the school hear the news of the killings. It makes them nervous, but they think it’s a distant problem.

The next day, two days before Christmas, Rose is helping to organize the dinner and Doug is helping along. The two girls go to the more closed-off areas of the school building. They come across a lot of secret things, including books they’re not to read. Meanwhile the four claim their latest victim. A policeman stops their car on the road. As he inspects the car, he comes across the pieces of marked skin from their victims. He becomes the latest victim of the four. The following day, Christmas Eve, Rose has everything ready for the two girls and Doug is heading over to the school. The group of four approach Doug and kill him. They then enter the school where the three are waiting for Doug and the group kidnaps them.

This is it. It’s Christmas Eve and the group of four are now terrorizing the three girls all tied up. Jude, the de facto leader, talks about how lovely the party is in a sinister way. He terrorizes them at the dinner table and in the gift area. Then Jude tells of a force that he read in a book and he believes to be coming to this very school on Christmas Day. Rose chastises him for it, but she gets killed. Now it’s just the four and the girls as the four wait for the force to come at midnight.

Midnight happens, but the force the four were hoping for doesn’t appear immediately. Jude, who appeared to be the one in control, is now angry and out of control. The three others go searching around the school. This allows the two girls to break free and hope to escape, but their secret is revealed to one of the members. Over time, the four are both trying to look for the spirit and chase the girls down. Samantha and Clara search things out but Samantha discovers secrets about Clara. To best describe the ending without giving it all away, it becomes a twist and turn of events in which leave the four of them dead and Samantha shocked for life!

Doing any horror movie is always a challenge. Humor is welcome, but to a limit. The best element of a horror movie is to give the audience a sense of fear. People come to horror movies to be scared for fun. Adding in the theme of Christmas does set up for a risk of balancing out being funny with the aim of scaring people. This film does a good job as it tells the story over four days. The four are in search of a demon. The people they kill before they go to the school are people with a skin print they believe will connect them to the spirit they search out. They sense it at the school but they can’t find it only for an unlikely girl to be the very spirit they were looking for.

The intriguing thing about this film is that it comes close to the time another film about kids left behind during Christmas, The Holdovers, is about to come out in theatres. Here we have two female Holdovers at an all-girls school in the 70’s. This is different as the teacher is very willing to befriend the girls. She even brings her boyfriend to the dinner. Little did any of them know of the mayhem of terror to come.

The film is mostly successful in piecing the story together, but its flaws are noticeable. The most noticeable is the middle of the story where the team of murderers wait for the moment to happen. Usually in horror films, the biggest clinic would come at the very end. It comes at the middle and it seems like.it’s trying to drag the climax throughout the rest of the movie. I’m sure there are a lot of people that felt the film either get too slow or too confusing. Also that twist when it becomes Christmas and the big force they expect to come doesn’t, I think that will leave a lot people scratching their heads and wondering what’s going on. I have no problem with surprise plot twists, but as long as they’re done well. Also the portrayal of insanity in some of the characters like Jude. That seemed too over the top.

Overall I consider this to be a good film by director Jenn Wexler. This film she directs and co-wrote with Sean Redlitz is a good take on using Christmas as the setting of a horror story. Wexler has already had experience in directing horror with 2018’s The Ranger. Here she takes a story that’s unpredictable and adds a few twists to it. Although it’s not as smooth and one might question the choices she makes, it actually turns out to be better than your average horror film and doesn’t cross into the stupidity traps most horror films fall into. As far as acting, the two girls, played by Madison Baines and Georgia Acken, were the best performers. They both played two scared lonely girls who felt like misfits in a boarding school well. Acken transitioned into her horror character well. That’s what makes for a believable horror story.

You’d think it’s highly unlikely that a horror film would win awards at film festivals but The Sacrifice Game has won awards. At the Fantasia Film Festival, it won the Audience Award for the Best Canadian Feature. Even though this is an American film, it qualifies as a Canadian film in some festivals because it was filmed in Quebec. The Nashville Film Festival awarded it the Best Graveyard Shift Feature award!

The Sacrifice Game is not the first horror movie to mix a horror plot with the Christmas season, nor is it the best. Nevertheless it does take full advantages of putting the Holiday season in its plot and even paves the way for an unlikely heroine!

VIFF 2023 Review: It’s Only Life After All

10 November 202310 November 2023Jon The BlogcentricLeave a comment

*It’s Only Life After All* is an intimate and personal look at the Indigo Girls and their long career of establishing themselves as musicians. Not just female musicians.

Before I saw the documentary It’s Only Life After All, I wasn’t really a fan of the music of the Indigo Girls. If you like music, this is a documentary that will keep you intrigued.

The film begins with Amy Ray and Emily Saliers, the two women making up the Indigo Girls, meeting with Alexandria Bombach and bringing out a lot of old audio tapes, video tapes, old magazine articles and various pictures. They wonder what this documentary will be like. First we learn that Amy and Emily first met in elementary school but it wasn’t until attending Shamrock High School in DeKalb County, Georgia that they both learned the other likes music. A friendship began and the musical companionship started soon after. At the same time, they discovered through their own ways, they’re lesbians. Both had differing initial reactions to it as well as initial reactions from family.

As both graduated in different years and went to colleges in separate states, they both eventually became homesick and dropped out. The music led them back together. The two went through various names at first but decided on The Indigo Girls in 1985. Over time they began to draw bigger crowds in their home state of Georgia and started cutting records. First a single, then an EP in 1986 and then a full-length album Strange Fire in 1987 recorded in a studio in the ‘college rock’ town of Athens, Georgia. Their album attracted the attention of music manager Russell Carter who first dismissed their music as too ‘immature’ to get a record deal. The album changed his mind about the two and Carter agreed to be their manager which he still is to this day.

Their success grew in the coming years but they did face some difficulties in terms of establishing themselves. Folk music had commonly been known as stoic and serious. The Indigo Girls were more light-hearted and cheerful on stage. Then there’s the fact that they’re two lesbians which was becoming more acceptable, but still seen as a taboo by most. The AIDS epidemic and how it increased the public’s hostility towards LGBT people in the late-1980’s didn’t help much either.

One thing is the two did have a source of luck on their side. In the late-80’s, there came this boom in folk music. Possibly as a backlack to the loud heavily-distorted guitars of the heavy metal phenomenon from years earlier. It was also a boost for female folk acts like 10,000 Maniacs, Suzanne Vega and Tracy Chapman. The folk phenomenon also led the two to be signed on to Epic Records in 1988. Their self-titled release with Epic included participation with REM’s Michael Stipe and Irish band Hothouse Flowers. After its release in 1989, it has since gone double-platinum and spawned their biggest hit “Closer To Fine.”

Their overnight success came with both perks and problems. The perks included appearances on MTV and VH-1, a Grammy win for Best Contemporary Folk Recording, praise from critics and a growing fan base. The problems included fame coming too fast, not being a feature in Rolling Stone or musical guests on Saturday Night Live, some negative reviews from male critics whose reviews sounded more like sexism than critiquing. Even the big question or concern about whether their fame will turn them into a ‘product’ or not was of concern.

As their sudden fame cooled off, they continued making music together. They also ventured into activism. Their causes include feminism and indigenous rights but their most notable activism has been LGBT rights. With them being two lesbians from Georgia and having established a big LGBT following, they have been active in being active in LGBT issues. From dealing with AIDS, whom they lost a lot of musical friends to, to military participation, marriage and adoption, The Indigo Girls have been very vocal on many LGBT issues. The two also made a cameo appearance in an Ellen episode in 1997. Even some LGBT fans have gone as far as crediting The Indigo Girls for saving their lives.

In the 21st Century, the two started to focus more on themselves as individuals. They wanted to start families. Both married another woman and have daughters of their own. Amy did solo recordings and started exploring her gender identity more. Emily encountered a struggle with alcoholism for years and needed time to recover. Despite it all, both came back to each other and got performing again. They also have their own record label. The film ends with a recent post-COVID concert.

This is a film that will capture one’s intrigue if they like biographies about music and musicians. This is a telling story about two friends who have had a career together going on almost 40 years. Like most musician’s careers, it has not been smooth and it has had its fair share of hurdles. The Indigo Girls being two women who play folk will undoubtedly face obstacles more than just facing a general public that may accept them or not. They face the sexism that’s common to women in music. They face the homophobia of them being two lesbians. They face the music business which frequently pressure musical acts, established and rising, to make a product of themselves. They face unwelcomed intrigue of them being two lesbians who never dated each other. They even have to face their own personal demons and their own personal obstacles. It’s not just about music that they face obstacles and frustrations with.

Even though it is about a folk duo who rose to fame and are still going strong after all these years, it’s about the two as people. It shows through images and their words about what it was like growing up as lesbian teens in the late-70’s and early-80’s. It shows how the two still worked to keep themselves together as a duo and still keep themselves grounded and avoid the common pitfalls of the music business. It shows Emily’s struggle with alcoholism, It shows Amy’s path to starting her own family. It shows personal sides to them known to few including Amy’s spiritual side. It shows the close personal relations they have with family, fellow musicians and close friends. It shows the duo’s move towards activism towards various causes. This film is very in depth about showcasing the two.

This is an excellent work from director Alexandria Bombach. Bombach’s documentaries have commonly been about feminist topics. Her most renowned works involve stories of women in Islamic countries. Here, her subject matter is less intense. Nevertheless the documentary she delivers presents The Indigo Girls as musicians, as temporary celebrities, as activists, as crusaders, as mothers and as people. It’s a good documentary featuring footage on media, footage never seen before and filming during their more private moments. It does an excellent job of being three-dimensional and going beyond.

This documentary has had awards acclaim at film festivals. Nominations for Best Documentary include Seattle, Cleveland, Atlanta and the South By SouthWest (SXSW) Film Festivals. The Sidewalk Film Festival awarded it their Audience Award for Best Documentary and The Film Club made it their winner of their Lost Weekend Award for documentaries.

It’s Only Life After All is a telling look at the Indigo Girls through all the ups and downs and struggles they had to go through from their formation to now. It succeeds in getting you to respect them and what they do.