Movie Reviews: 2025

VIFF 2025 Review: As The Water Flows (翠湖)

Jon The Blogcentric1 Comment
A dying grandfather, played by Li Zhenping (centre), seeks to mend family ties in the Chinese film As The Water Flows.

As The Water Flows is one of many Asian films that played at the VIFF this year. Its subject matter isn’t exactly a film that would make you want to see it, but it’s worth seeing.

The film begins with a grandfather on a boat on a river with his grandchildren. The film then goes to the grandfather Xie Shuwen, a former college professor. He’s with his new girlfriend whom he has seen recently since his wife died. He will be having a dinner with his daughters and he’s unsure they will be happy with the news of her. The dinner happens and all three daughters are there with their husbands. Only one daughter brought their child: a pre-teen chubby boy named Panda. He delivers the news, but they’re not happy about it. Especially the oldest and the most orderly of the daughters. After the dinner, bad memories of the past agent the daughters.

After the dinner, the daughters move on with their lives. They’re busy maintaining a career, their own families and their children. They want their children to grow up well and be successful but there will be difficulties ahead. One daughter is proud that her son, the eldest grandson, is going to Stanford the next year. Suspicion of what’s really happening grows when Xie notices the grandson drunk. Panda appears to participate in classes well but he is the target of bullying because of his short overweight stature. Another daughter of Xie’s is unhappy her own daughter quit a job in a family restaurant and has different career desires.

Meanwhile Xie learns he has a terming lung cancer diagnosis. As he knows he’s dying, he continues to spend his quiet time at Green Lake Park but he also uses the time to spend more time with people close to him. That includes his new girlfriend, friends from the college he taught at, neighbors, and his families. Family dinners become more common. One daughter notices how he has become closer to the family even more so than when they were younger. She also notices how his harmonica which he used to play often is showing age. She’s especially angry when she learns he’s still smoking and playing mah-jong.

As time passes, what the children are hiding becomes more obvious. The granddaughter wants to go her own direction and she has fallen in love with a man. She hints she may want to marry. The older grandson admits he forged the acceptance letter to Stanford and that he will really be going to a common University. He’s broken-hearted about this. Also Panda is unhappy with the demanding regiment at his school. It becomes frustrating to the point Panda buries his schoolbooks in dirt. It’s time with grandfather Shuwen that the grandchildren are able to be more confident with their life and their decisions. Even the older grandson is able to find luck in his life as he meets the granddaughter of one of his grandfather’s professor friends.

Shuwen then has one last visit with his girlfriend. It’s a nice quiet occasion. The marriage between the granddaughter and her boyfriend happens and Shuwen is happy to be there. The occasion is a happy occasion for all and he’s able to have amicable conversations with his daughters, despite his cancerous coughing. The ending and credits role gives a hint the wedding is the last family occasion Shuwen is present.

The film is as much about the family dynamic and the family ties as it is about the main protagonist trying to find his purpose to live. We have the widowed grandfather who has recently been diagnosed with lung cancer. Even though he lost his wife, he wants to maintain a life for himself by playing mah-jong, meeting with his professor friends and dating again. We have the three daughters who are trying to maintain their careers, keep their marriages together, and raise their children for the future. They’re the ones with the biggest struggles now. Finally, we have the three cousins that treat each other like siblings. They dream of the future, but they also fear for it. They feel it’s demanding and unforgiving and they either don’t know what to do or they want to do it their way.

This all comes as Xie Shuwen learns he is dying, just a year after his wife’s death. He spends time with his children and their families. He becomes like a guide or a mentor to the grandchildren while the daughters feel he didn’t spend enough time with them during his professor days. It’s possible he wants to seek relations with his grandchildren and resolve with his daughters. It’s not an easy thing to do with the constant arguing between the daughters and him. To add to it, the daughters are not very welcoming to his new girlfriend.

The story is told through all angles. The biggest angle seen is through Xie’s, but we also see the story through the angles of the daughters and the grandchildren. The multiple angles make for a good way of telling a story and presenting the complicated scenarios, but it can get confusing at times. The story itself is so complex, it can often seem like a drama that’s drawn out longer than it should be. Often throughout the film, you’re tempted to question who the story is mostly about. Some would argue the film follows the same formula as 1989’s Parenthood. Some would also say it has a similar sound of 2001’s The Royal Tenenbaums. It’s easy to dismiss as such but if you see the story, it relates to real situations that one can see happening in their own family. That’s the biggest quality of the film. That probably every family can see an element of the film or the characters in their own life.

This film is the directorial and writing debut for Zhuo Bian. Not much is known about Zhuo’s filmmaking before this film, according to IMDB. With this film, he creates a well-arranged family story that starts with a family dinner, goes into the lives of the separate families and the members, often returning with another family dinner from time to time, then going off again, and ending with the wedding. This type of storytelling allows the story to be told from all angles and remind us that it’s a family story. It’s very complex and sometimes difficult to connect all the stories together, but Zhuo does a very good job. He also does a great job in placing the story to the Green Lake Park in Kunming, China. That’s the place where Xie often visits or meets with others as he reflects on his thoughts. Adding that in adds to the sensitivity and solitude of the story.

The film has excellent acting from Li Zhenping as Xie. As the grandfather who’s at a crossroads between living again after losing his wife and just learning he’s dying, he does a great performance that is low on the drama but makes for honest emotions. He does a great job of holding the story together. It’s hard to pick out the best supporting performance because all the other actors did an excellent job of playing their parts well. The daughters, the sons in law, the grandchildren, they all did their parts well. The cinematography of Wang Zixuan and Jie Zhu gave the dramatic story a picturesque telling with its various shots happening inside homes and outside in nature.

As The Water Flows is as much about the family dynamic over three generations as it is about the difficulty of a grandfather trying to maintain a family and maintain one’s life. It’s possible you can see something where you can identify in your own life with this film.

VIFF 2025 Review: Christy

Jon The Blogcentric1 Comment
Christy is about female boxing legend Christy Salters-Martin (played by Sydney Sweeney) who had more than her fair share of fights.

It’s very rare to see a sports film at the VIFF. Christy was one of the feature attractions of the Festival. It’s more than a film about a pioneering female boxer.

We see Christy Salters-Martin just about ready for a fight. She talks about all she went through to get there. The film flashes back to 1986 in her hometown in West Virginia. A teenage Christy Salters is into sports. She also spends a lot of time with a girl named Rosie. Rumors are going around that they’re more than best friends. The rumors upset the mother. One night, Christy attends a fighting group. She caught the attention of a boxing promoter named Larry. He believes she’s worth promoting. Christy is reluctant at first, feeling it won’t give her much of a future, but she eventually accepts.

Larry finds a local boxing coach named Jim Martin. Jim is not at all interested in training a female boxer at first but when he sees Christy punch, he sees promise in her. He believes with his coaching, she can become the best female boxer in the world. As Jim trains Christy, but he’s very suspicious of her behavior. He notices she’s a lesbian and she’s more masculine than other women. He gets her to wear a pink uniform with pink boxer trunks and give her the name the ‘Coal Miner’s Daughter.’ He even gets her to marry him. Over the years, Christy does become the top female boxer in the world. She even gets legendary boxing promoter Don King to pay attention to her and promote her in 1996. It’s after that Christy helps to pioneer the sport of women’s boxing. She becomes known for her fierce fighting and her trash-talking of her opponents. She’s also noted for calling some of her opponents ‘lesbians’ despite the secret she’s hiding.

Things change in 2003 as in one of the most hyped-up fights in women’s boxing, Christy will face the challenge of Laila Ali, daughter of legend Muhammad Ali. Once again, her title of World Champion is on the line. In a highly broadcasted fight, she loses by KO. The marriage between her and Jim Martin also starts showing friction as Jim has been getting more and more controlling over her and even abusive. Adding to the difficulty, she tries to get her mother to listen to her situation but she is so flattered by Jim, she sooner takes Jim’s word over Christy’s.

In 2010, Christy is still training in the gym, but Jim is busy training new younger fighters, male and female. Christy is unhappy about this because she still wants to fight. Jim also notices Christy meeting up again with high school friend Rosie. Jim, fueled by cocaine he and Christy both do, starts becoming more controlling of her and watches her every move, threatening to kill her. He even gets Christy to participate in super-lewd videos which upsets her mother. Once again, the mother takes Jim’s word over Christy’s.

Soon Christy develops a bigger sense of assertiveness at the urging of Rosie. Jim responds to it one day by stabbing her four times and shooting her. Miraculously, Christy survived and is able to get help from a driver to the hospital. At the hospital, Rosie is by her bedside, to the disgust of her mother. With the family by her bedside, the father and son care about her condition but the biggest thing her mother cares about is her being a lesbian. It’s there she finally puts her mother in her place. Christy recovers faster than the doctors expect. She returns to the gym and is greeted warmly by all. They are also shocked that she wants to get back into fighting. Jim is put on trial where Christy delivers a scathing speech making him confront what he did and is sentenced to 25 years in prison. The film ends with the start of one of Christy’s fights!

Normally when you go to see a biopic of an athlete, one would expect it to be about their long rise to the top. Christy is different. It does showcase a story of a boxer who wins and pioneers women’s boxing to new heights. In actuality, it becomes more about Christy Salters breaking free from her controlling and abusive manager at a time that was now or never. It’s also of Christy assuming her identity and dealing with a mother who cared more about what she thought than what Christy felt. You could understand why that fight at the end was important to Christy, win or lose.

There have been films of female boxers before. The two best known are 2000’s Girlfight and 2004 Best Picture Oscar winner Million Dollar Baby. This film is a biopic of a legendary female boxer. At a film festival, one would expect to have films that take filmmaking to new or unique artistic directions. This film isn’t as artistically inclined as most of the films at this Film Festival. One unique direction the film goes into is that it focuses on Christy and the intensity of what she goes through. It focuses on her fighting wins, her fighting losses and her abusive relationship with Jim.

It may be common for any protagonist of a film to dominate the focus of the whole film, but it’s important here as it is Christy’s tough will that gets her through the hardest of times. The abuse she endured at the hands of Jim Martin is just as important as her fights. You can understand why that fight in 2010 with Christy at the age of 42 was an important part of the film. If there’s a message to sense in this film, it has to be Christy Salters is a woman of many victories but her biggest victory was outside the boxing ring.

This film is great work from director David Michod. With the story from Katherine Fugate, Michod co-adapts the story with wife Mirrah Foulkes and creates a film that will keep you intrigued from start to finish. He does a great job in getting the actors to do their parts well. Sydney Sweeney is not only unrecognizable as Christy, but she delivers an excellent performance from start to finish. She will let you know she is not simply performing the role of an athlete. It’s about a person and her grit. Ben Foster is also as unrecognizable as Jim Martin and he succeeds in making him into a cocaine-fueled controlling megalomaniac. You will end up hating Jim. Merritt Wever is also great and hard to recognize herself as the mother Joyce Salters. It’s completely different from her Nurse Jackie role she’s known for but she does a great job of making the mother look like the parent you can’t trust. Cinematographer Germain McMicking did a great job of the shooting angles and the close-ups. The musical score of hits mixed with original music from Antony Partos fit the film well, but some hit songs were years behind the year of the scene!

Christy is more than just a biopic of a successful boxer. It’s a film that shows Christy Salters had bigger battles outside the ring. It may be imperfect, but it is a compelling story.

VIFF 2025 Review: The Scout

Jon The Blogcentric1 Comment
The Scout is about a film location scout names Sofia played by Mimi Davila (left) who discovers more than film locations.

With the Vancouver Film Festival, you can get a wide variety of styles of film showing throughout the Festival. One unique film is the American film The Scout. It’s unique in its own way, even if it is confusing.

Sofia is a location scout in New York City for a film company. Most of the day, she drops flyers into the mailboxes of surrounding houses or apartment suites saying she’s interested in having the inside of their places as set pieces with her phone number listed. After sending out a set of flyers, she makes a trip to an apartment of an older woman as she listens to her voicemail responses. The voicemail range from people interested to those thinking it’s stalking to some unhappy she hasn’t come to her place yet. As she photographs the suite of the older woman, she learns more about her life. She learns the mother has two grown children who have moved out and never returned to see her.

Her second trip is to another apartment. At the house is a man who works from home and often spends time looking after his infant daughter Sophia. Sofia takes a special liking as they’re names are similar. As she photographs the house, she learns more about him and has a sense from the talk that his marriage is falling apart. Her third trip is to another apartment, but that will require crew from the film company to also review. This will be busy for Sofia, the crew and the suite holders. The resident is quite welcoming. The talk from the film crew makes obvious a lot of thought is to go into selecting. Some like it, some are critical of it. Sofia is hoping it will work out.

The day continues as Sofia goes to another apartment of one who accepted. She finds out it’s her friend from her college days. Both of them are shocked. They reminisce about the good times of the past and they talk about what’s happening in the present. Not all of it is pleasant, especially in terms of their relationships. Sofia’s last appointment is to be with a pet store. She’s a half-hour late and the owner is unhappy with it as he’s locking his store. Despite his anger, she’s able to convince him for the appointment. The appointment goes so well, they even have dinner together going into the night. As great as that was, Sofia finds out it took so long, the traffic police clamped her car and she’ll have to pay a fine of more than $400!

The next morning, she attends a meeting at her company’s office. There they talk about certain locations for a scene. Judging by the discussion, it looks like one of Sofia’s discoveries won’t be considered for this scene. After the meeting, she spends the rest of the day over at an urban beach. She just goes there onto the sand holding a coffee and stands there looking out. You can tell on her face something is wrong.

The thing about this film is that it has a good beginning and a good end, but an unsolid middle. In seeing the film, it’s hard to understand what it’s all about. It does show a lot about what it’s like to be a location scout for a New York City film company, but it doesn’t fully make clear what it’s about. You don’t know if it’s intended to be a day-in-the-life film. You don’t know if it’s about the loneliness Sofia’s going through. You also don’t know if it’s to do about the frustration of working a film job in New York. The film could be a case that the director wants us to decide for ourselves what the story is, but I wish it was clearer.

If this film is intended to be one of those day-in-the-life films, it’s not an easy genre to accomplish as the day could present itself as a story to tell or just a portrait of daily life. The film does have a lot to say as Sofia goes from place to place and either meets with her crew or has an ordeal to deal with. It doesn’t make it too clear about what it’s trying to say. One can think of many themes this film could be about like the demandingness of a filming job, life inside different from what we see on the outside, or the story of a successful but lonely young woman. Scenes like when Sofia goes into her parents’ house and call out for her mother make you question if loneliness is the theme. You may have to watch it a second time to make up your own mind what this film is about.

This is the directorial debut of Paula Gonzales-Nasser and the first feature-length script she wrote. Paula has been in the New York film industry for eight years and has made a jack-of-all-trades of herself in doing set design, cinematography, art direction, location managing and producing. The first six years she spent being a location scout so it becomes pretty clear she’s basing this story on her own experiences. The story she writes and directs is a telling story of a location scout trying to make it, but it’s not the clearest in telling its story or making its main point of focus. Despite the lack of overall theme, the performance of Mimi Davila is great. Davila has had an acting career of over 15 years in various roles. In this film, she keeps her performance low-key but she can send a lot of messages even in her moment of silence. She makes for a very believable performance. The supporting performances from the people Sofia visits to the crew she works with also add to the film and make like you’re watching a real situation instead of seeing them act.

The Scout is a unique drama. It could easily be dismissed as a ‘boring movie,’ but you have to look closer. One thing is that the message or theme are not the clearest to understand.

VIFF 2025 Review: Bidad (بیداد)

Jon The Blogcentric1 Comment
An Iranian singer named Seti (left, played by Sarvin Zabetian) is threatened by the law and only has a random man she met (right, played by Amir Jadidi) supporting her in Bidad.

At this year’s Festival, you will see a lot of films that deal with the harsh realities of the filmmaker’s home nation. Bidad is a film that deals with the issue of simple human rights.

Seti is a young Iranian woman who dreams of a singing career. In Iran, only men can be lead singers and female singers are relegated to the background. Seti did sing at a park sing-along but was stopped by the Guidance Patrols, or ‘morality police’ of Iran. Since she can’t perform on a public stage, the most she can do is post videos of her singing on social media. Seti also has a major problem in her life. Her mother Homeyra, whom she lives with, is an alcoholic who can’t seem to recover from her addiction. To make matters worse, Homeyra often has an alcohol-fueled explosive temper. Seti often stumbles into her with a bottle in her hand, and it infuriates her.

Seti is a bit of a rebel. She dares to walk the streets of Tehran without a veil or a hijab, despite the chance of the Guidance Patrols arresting her even for that. She even cuts her hair in anger. One day after rehearsing with others in her underground college, she comes across a man who hoots at her from her car. At first, she thinks it’s just another young jerk male. She reluctantly decides to spend the night at his place. She learns this man named Bebin is a lot more. He has shown a liking to Seti and her music. Overnight she learns more about Bebin and he’s a man who really cares about her. Bebin also has a secret of his own. He has a bottle of specialty alcohol that he has to keep hidden from the Guidance Patrols. He gives her a drink and he talks about hope of seeking refuge in another country.

Seti has a public performance set up for her at a club. The advertising had to be kept to a minimum for the sake of Seti’s safety. Homeyra is scared to see her there but Bebin will see her perform. Before she is even able to perform, the Guidance Patrols bust the place up. They boot everyone out of the club. Infuriated, Seti attacks the Patrol and runs off with Bebin helping her escape. The Patrols did track her identity down and later arrest her at home. She is taken into custody for a week’s period of time. The cell she’s kept in feels like a prison. The inspections she is forced to endure from both male and female patrols are humiliating. She is released on bail awaiting trial.

After her release, she returns home. Homeyra tries to show Seti that she has stopped drinking for nine days. Seti learns some unhappy news. Her social media account is restricted and Homeyra posted a message that Seti will never perform or post videos again. Seti is infuriated and lets out her anger to Homeyra. She leaves for the streets and soon learns the club she performed at is closed off by a concrete barrier. Soon, she learns of an underground public music rally. Many other women will be performing. On her way, she’s fortunate to bump into Bebin again.

Seti and Bebin find a group of ‘underground’ performers. It looks ideal for Seti to sing as many women are singing and are without veils. Just as Seti finds a female guitarist to sing along with, the Guidance Patrols bust the location up and are ready to make arrests. Bidad knows if Seti is caught, she would be arrested and could be executed. Bidad is willing to take her to safety, but Seti insists on singing with the guitarist. The ending doesn’t give full details of the aftermath but the images during the credits are telling.

Seti’s story is a common story for many women in Iran. Men have more freedoms and the women are frequently targets of the Guidance Patrols if they don’t obey. It’s been that way since 1978 when the Islamic Revolution happened in Iran. Even seeing how there are a lot of women that are part of the Guidance Patrols speaks a message how there are many women in Iran who agree with this restrictiveness. Seti is a woman of rebellion. Her only weapon is her singing voice, but the powers that be in Iran consider it a threat. No veil and a woman singing in public. You can understand the reason for rebellion with the Iranian women revolting in 2022. In fact, the word Bidad is Farsi for ‘outcry.’ You can see that this film is also outcry about this problem. That scene where Seti cuts her hair will remind you of how Iranian women cut their hair during the revolt that year.

It should also be reminded it’s not just women doing what women are not allowed to do that are under scrutiny from the Guidance Patrols. Drinking alcohol is a crime for any Iranian. That explains why Bebin has a hidden bottle of whiskey and that’s why Homeyra can’t get proper treatment for alcoholism. Because she’ll be arrested.

The film isn’t just a reminder of what women in countries like Iran are going through. The film is about Seti herself. Seti loves to sing. It’s her expression. She does not understand why only men get the lead and only men can perform in public. It’s because of her passion for singing that she dares to perform in the club and dares to attack the Guidance Patrol when she’s about to be arrested. It’s because she’s furious with her mother when she learns she posted a fake video that she’ll never sing again. How dare she say a lie like that on social media about her passion. You can understand why Seti dared to perform at that underground performance. She won’t even let the threat of death stop her from doing what she loves.

This film is a great work from Iranian director Soheil Beiraghi. Iranian women and their fight for their rights and autonomy are a common theme in his films like 2016’s I (Me), 2018’s Cold Sweat (Permission), and 2020’s Popular. This fourth feature he directed and wrote is another story of Iranian women and their struggle. This is something how Iran and their Guidance Patrols consider something as simple as a woman singing in public is seen as a threat to order. He has a statement to make and he does an excellent job of making it as a dramatic story rather than something preachy. It’s tricky to do something like that but he succeeds very well. This film was a nominee for the Best Film award at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival and won the Crystal Globe at that Festival for Special Mention.

The performance of Sarvin Zabetian is excellent. She not only delivers a good performance but she makes Seti and her dream of public singing a relatable story. One can’t help but feel a connection to her dream and disgust to why she’s forbidden, and she succeeds in making us feel that way. Leili Rashidi is another actor who delivers a great performance. Her performance of Homeyra is one where you don’t know whether to despise her or feel sympathy for her. I know Seti makes it appear living with her is like a prison of its own but sometimes, you sense Homeyra is also a prisoner of her own situation. Amir Jedidi delivers a great character in his role of Bebin. He makes Bebin to be a likeable person, especially as he’s the one person Seti feels completely secure around, but I feel his role could have been developed more.

Bidad is both a tragedy and a story of hope. You can see an incident like this happening in Iran. You can also sense the film telling you despite these dark times, there is hope for the future of women in Iran.

VIFF 2025 Shorts Segment Review: Forum 6 – City slickin’

Jon The Blogcentric1 Comment

What can I say about short films? A lot of them are good and can often promote an emerging director. The latest Shorts forum I saw was Forum 6: City slickin‘.

As you can tell by the title, the series revolves around situations in cities. The cities in the six shorts are in Spain, Belgium, Jordan, France and two in the Unites States. All six make for some great tales:

-Budget Paradise (USA – dir. Latajh Simmons-Weaver): Chester is a non-binary artist looking for an area to paint in peace and inspiration. They are told to leave one public place. They go to an art store and steals $97 worth of paint. They try a café for artists, but the cashier gives them attitude. They try a hotel for a two-hour stay in a suite promising to pay. The model they hire attracts them, but the hotel owner demands they pay.

Trying to get art done wherever and whenever. A common artistic dilemma. This adds humor as Chester finds bad place after bad place, has to steal paint, gets caught up in a street dance and the the one place they can find, it demands pay. A humorous story how one steals paint and coaxes their way into creating their art.

-Our Room (Spain – dir. Jaime Claret Muxart): Gal-la is a disc jockey at a Spanish radio station for its classical music show. She brought along her younger son Marius to watch, but he’s bored. She is also unhappy in her setting. She thinks to how her French-speaking husband Paul is into electronic music. It’s there she decides to quit and the three of them can start their own home radio station that fuses classical music and electronica with Marius’ keyboard!

It’s hard to picture something like this happening in real life where they can make a radio station at home, but it makes for a fun story. I believe the theme of the story is about family relations and family closeness. The beginning seems a bit drawn out or elongated. The ending, however, is happy and you’re left convinced that’s how it should be.

-Father Alphonse and the Fight Between Carnival and Lent (Canada – dir. Diana Thorneycroft): Father Alphone is a new priest and his first mass is to be on Ash Wednesday. As he readies himself, it’s Fat Tuesday and all the people in town are having a blast with all their pre-Lent debauchery. Something his strict father forbade him to do throughout his life. As he walks through town, he’s shocked by all the debauchery but finds himself in an unexpected tangle. That leads to a humorous and unexpected ending.

This short by Winnipeg animator Diana Thorneycroft was inspired by the 16th Century Belgian painting The Fight Between Carnival And Lent. This charming stop-motion short is a case where life imitates art for the new priest and he get tangled in with behaviors his strict father would condemn of! It’s cute and humorous and a delight to watch.

-Ambush (Jordan – dir. Yassmina Karajah): In a conservative area in Jordan’s capital Amman, a hall is turned into a techno club and makes a lot of noise in the normally quiet neighborhood. Hasan, a young man, watches the club from his family rooftop and anticipates an encounter one day. One of the attendees, Jana, is a recovering alcoholic wresting with her own love issues. Can they connect?

The story has two themes in one. One is about people’s desire for love. The other is about how what we see from the outside isn’t completely what we think it is. Hasan watches from afar and thinks they’re all having fun while Jana shows a reality Hasan can’t notice from that far away. As time passes, you think they won’t connect. The ending could get you thinking otherwise.

-There’s A Devil Inside Me (USA – dir. Karina Lomelin-Ripper): Teenage girl Teresa is about to be confirmed at her Catholic church. She struggles in her confirmation class as other girls have attitude. As she struggles with her faith, she dons a nun’s habit as a mass is taking place. An altar boy mistakes her for a real nun and hands her all the collection money. What’s she to do with the money she’s given? Especially after her bratty little sister lost a tooth and swallowed it?

Watching a film like this can cause one to question is this is blasphemy or just simply a film about a mistake that happened. Teresa makes for a believable story of a teenage girl who’s trying to work things out with her life, her faith, her romancing boys and her place in the family. It does make for a bizarrely far-fetched comedy that gives an ending you can laugh at either way you see it.

-No Skate! (France – dir. Guil Sela): Isaac is a student who’s hired to promote swimming in the Seine River. He notices Cleo, his colleague, get into a fight with her skateboarder boyfriend. He sees it as a chance. She’s reluctant, even though they do date and she gets him to spend the night with her. Cleo insists it’s just a friendship, but is it?

New love can come from the unlikeliest of people in the unlikeliest of places. Even the type where one tried to make like it’s not really love. This is a boy-meets-girls story that is slow and leads to an ambiguous ending. Even if you’re left undecided if this is new love or not, the story is funny and charming.

And there they are. Those are the six short films part of the City slickin‘ forum. All of them were unique in their own way and all six had a good story to tell.

VIFF 2025 Review: Akashi (あかし)

Jon The Blogcentric1 Comment
Akashi is a film by Mayumi Yoshida (right) who makes peace with her Japanese family’s past during the funeral of her grandmother, played by Hana Kino.

One thing about the Vancouver Film Festival is you will find some unique films from local filmmakers. The Japanese-language film Akashi is one of those films and it was met with great fanfare.

The film begins with Kana returning to Tokyo, Japan from Toronto, Canada. Kana is an advertising professional who dreams of breaking through as an artist. The purpose for the trip is a sad one: her grandmother’s passing. She is welcomed warmly by her parents, siblings, niece, nephew and in-laws. Kana is the only one of the children who has not yet married. In Canada, she’s been more focused on getting a prestigious arts grant and is awaiting the news of her third attempt at it.

As she’s in the home of her grandparents, memories come back to her. As she sees her grandfather’s artwork on the walls, it reminds her of how he used to teach her how to draw when she was younger and how it would lead to her own dream to be an artist. As she sees photos of her grandmother, she is reminded of the last talk she had with her. Her grandmother told her the marriage was arranged shortly after World War II and her grandfather actually loved another woman named Wakaku.

As she’s on a shopping errand before the funeral, she goes to a local store. In the store is Hiro, the boyfriend she had before she left for Canada. As they dated, Hiro had dreams of becoming an actor and the relationship was a case of two lovers with artistic dreams. Kana does not want Hiro to know she’s here and hides, but a sudden phone call from Shelby, her work colleague in Toronto, gives it away. Hiro is surprised to see her and the two talk for a while.

Kana is staying with her family for that week’s period. The funeral happens and they hold the service, tearfully paying their last respects. As Kana spends more time with her family, she starts observing her parents and how they struggled to keep a marriage and a family together while they were pursuing their professions. Now she sees it in her brother and sister and how they’re trying to raise their two children. This causes her to spend more time with Hiro. She starts to sense maybe Hiro was the one she was meant to be with.

Things become more frustrating for Kana as she learns that the drama group he’s with is not that successful. This comes over time she tries to learn more about the love between her grandfather and the other woman Wakaku. It’s in her grandfather’s drawings and notes that she learns more about what was covered up over time. Even though her grandfather was arranged to be marries to her grandmother, his love for Wakaku never died. Any interaction between the two had to be kept private. It’s noticeable as in one encounter in an art gallery, Wakaku and the grandfather had to give small talk and not have people notice. One boyfriend of Wakaku’s did find out about the love in the 1950’s and blamed her miscarried pregnancy on him, but it was the boyfriend that impregnated her.

As Kana is nearing the end of her visit, she has to make decisions. As she’s about to leave, she tells Hiro that she can’t be his. Hiro is heartbroken to hear the news. He takes it as another failure in his life. She gets the news of her attempt for her grant from Shelby. Again, it was unsuccessful. She also has a meeting with Wakaku on the day she is to leave. She sees Wakaku and learns she never married. She hears from Wakaku all that happened. Wakaku even appeared at her grandfather’s funeral. For which, the grandmother had no ill feeling and thanked her for loving him. The film appears to end with a telephone interaction between Hiro and Kana that appears she will live out a similar love story like her grandparents.

One theme of this film is about making resolve of the past and making sense of what love is. Kana sees the strong but difficult marriage of her parents and the marital situations of her own siblings. She has the reflection of her own relationship with Hiro and doesn’t know if it’s worth pursuing again. Then there’s the loveless marriage of the grandparents and knowing of the other woman. It is through talking with the other woman that Kana can resolve the dark secret in her family. Hidden truths no longer have to haunt her or the family. The marriage of her grandparents happened in post-World War II Japan and times were difficult as the nation was rebuilding itself. All personal lives and all family’s lives in Japan were affected by it in some way. It was a hard time for the family and for the grandmother to marry a man she didn’t love, but she held no hard feelings to the other woman in the end.

The film has many more themes to it. Another element of the story is about how things relate to in her own life. Kana is a struggling artist. Despite having a good job with an advertising agency, she still wants to make it as an artist. Meanwhile she reunites with her boyfriend who has still not become too successful as an actor. Her other siblings have bustling but difficult careers and her parents are retiring. This comes as she’s waiting to see if her application for the grant, her third attempt, will come through or not. As this all happens during her grandmother’s funeral, it’s there she finally gets the answers about the ‘other woman’ she learned of years ago. It’s there she learned of grandfather’s true love and gets a look at the relationship of her own parents and her siblings. It’s as she sees and learns what goes around her, she’s trying to question her own life and her own love. All this in a week’s period of time. To add to it, she begins the film as the family member who has been away for so many years and appears out of place at the start. At the end, she gets her feeling of belonging back. It’s almost like everything in question at the beginning was answered in the end.

This film is unique that it has most of the story in black and white, but both the story of the affair of Wakaku and the grandfather and the mental interaction of Kana and Hiro at the end in color. I think Yoshida had a reason to make it that way. I think it may be because the color was to represent the love that’s meant to be, despite the barriers and friction separating them. The story itself is slow and can get intense at times, but it does tell its story very well.

This film is an accomplishment for actor/writer/director Mayumi Yoshida. It’s a feature-length film nine years in the developing. It started as a stage play, adapted into a short film in 2017 and eventually evolved into a feature-length film. The audience at the Playhouse Theatre cheered loudly as a Japanese-born Vancouver local made her dream happen! The story is based on a conversation Yoshida had with her own grandmother back in 2011 shortly after the earthquake and tsunami that year. In an interview, she mentioned she noticed how her grandmother’s generation and her own generation look at love and marriage differently and has often reflected on the popular misconception of the young that the older generations had it better and easier. The film may be slow at times and appears to try and keep solitude even in the biggest moments of friction, but it tells the story well and pieces the puzzle together in good form.

Additional good acting performances are from Hana Kino. Her portrayal as the grandmother who kept secrets and eventually found peace in the end added to the drama of the story. Ryo Tajima is also very good as Hiro. His portrayal as the ex-boyfriend who still loves Kana makes for a very telling situation of modern love in a story about love between three generations. The performances of Kimura Bun as the younger grandfather and Sayaka Kunisada as the young Wakako is acted very well and makes for a believable scenario of the complications of love at the time. Even that single-scene performance of Chieko Matsubara as the older Wakaku makes you feel for the ‘other woman.’ The best technical aspects of the film are the cinematography from Jaryl Lim, the colorizing from David Tomiak, and the piano-driven score from Andrew Yong Hoon Lee.

Akashi is a film that’s simply more than a woman returning home. It’s about making peace and resolve with the past while making decisions about her own life. Although it may be slower than it should be, it’s still nice to see and showcases the skills of a promising director.

VIFF 2025 Review: Idiotka

Jon The Blogcentric1 Comment
Anna Baryshnikov plays a fashion designer looking for her big break on a reality TV contest in Idiotka.

The VIFF will be full of dramatic films this year, so it’s kind of understanding why I would want to look for a comedy break. I was lucky to get it with Idiotka. It’s an American comedic film that can make you laugh.

Margarita Levlansky is a woman who dreams of becoming a fashion designer. Trouble is she lives in the Russian section of West Hollywood where it’s hard to get notice. She also has a flimsy sewing machine. The only way she can make money from her fashions is when she sells them with a big-name designer label on them and sell on eBay. Margarita’s family are full of hard times in America. Her brother Nerses is an unsuccessful musician, het father Samuel was a doctor who spend eight years in prison because of medical fraud and was depressed enough to leave his practice, and grandmother Gita is physically unable to work thanks to chain-smoking. To complicate things, they’re waiting for a house being constructed and they’re five months behind in rent at their apartment. Their landlord, restaurant owner Vlad, is not happy at all about it.

One day, Margarita finds a chance for a big break. A fashion television channel is starting a new reality competition for fashion designers from underprivileged backgrounds called Slay, Serve and Survive. At the audition, she meets the shows top producer Nicol Garcia. She let’s Margarita know from the start that this fashion contest will involve a lot of playing to the camera. That will mean things like a likable personality, a relatable scenario and even exposing personal things about her family is she progresses in the rounds. Margarita accepts. Within time, she is one of the final five for the big prize of $100,000. The family is excited for Margarita. Finally, a chance for a way out of the financial mess for them.

At the start, Margarita is nervous when she learns who her four rivals are. They also have attention-getting backgrounds of their own. To add to it, she also learns of the flamboyancy and ego of the two other judges: Candy and Emma Wexler. The first round starts where they all have to take various types of yellow-colored pieces of clothing and work them to make something nice and eye catching. They all have a limited amount of time to make it work. At the end, all five show their works off. Then the judges decide. One has to go home. It’s not Margarita! She’s still in the running!

As each round progresses, the fashions get more and more personal and the competition gets that much tighter. They even go as far as showing off one’s ethnic background. The producers are looking for more chaos from Margarita but she’s reluctant. Grandmother Gita wants to be on camera but father Samuel is reluctant. He still doesn’t want to admit his failings. Soon bad news hits the family as Vlad is evicting them from the house and Gita has been diagnosed with lung cancer.

The two finalists have been narrowed down. It’s Margarita and Jung-soo. For the final episode, only one will walk away with the $100,000. In the days leading up, Margarita is still uncertain how things will go. Her father is still reluctant, she has no place to show her clothes, and her sewing machine works terrible. She’s just about to quit. The night before the main event, she has drinks with Jung-soo and he talks about his own nervousness for this contest. Soon things look up. Gita used her last money to buy Margarita a new sewing machine. One that works effortlessly! Vlad learned of Margarita on television and is willing to forgive the family of the money they owe as long his restaurant is shown in the final episode. Right just an hour before Margarita is to give her show, the father is finally willing to go along and be on camera.

The final show is on. Filming takes place in Vlad’s restaurant. All of Margarita’s family wear fashions showing off the shortcomings of their lives. Nerses shows himself off as the flop singer. Gita shows herself off as the smoking grandmother and tosses cigarettes to the hosts and producers. Samuel comes on with his MD uniform and takes it off to unveil a prison uniform. Finally Margarita comes out in one of her hand-made outfits with all the designer labels she uses sewn all about. Then it’s up to the judges to decide who the $100,000 winner is. The ending gives us a sense that things will get better for the family, but not without some heartbreak along the way.

It’s not that often I go to see a comedy at the VIFF. I just took the film because it was available at the time. I’m glad I did. This comedy does have a lot of relatable teams. A young budding fashion designer who longs for her big break. Her family that’s full of flaws and problems. A fashion contest/reality show that’s a chance to be her breakthrough. It gives a lot to identify with and laugh about. Especially for the young.

I know that films about a reality TV competition have been done very frequently in the past, so this comedy doesn’t offer anything too new. What this comedy does do is it gives a relatable situation about a family with problems and one person trying to find a way out of it. It will require family cooperation and it gets messy, but it does work out in the end. The story is also about how the child of the family has the biggest responsibilities with her being the breadwinner. To do all that she does and then risk it big time to win on reality TV, that is one big challenge. Nevertheless the story pulls itself off well. It may get messy at times in the story, but it succeeds in the end.

This is the first feature-length film for Nastasya Popov. She has directed short films including documentaries before. Here she delivers a compelling comedy about trying for a big break while hanging by a string. It’s a funny story, if it’s not always together. Popov has gotten some acclaim for this as she won a New Director award at the San Francisco film festival.

Anna Baryshnikov holds the film together as the protagonist. The daughter of legendary ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnykov, she’s had a steady acting career for over eight years and she looks great here. She’s able to balance the humorous with the dramatic and be able to be the centre of a story of a messy family drama. The chemistry of the family also made the film work. Mark Ivanir is great as the father too prideful to fess up to the mistakes he made. Nerses Stamos is also good as the son who can’t get a break. Galina Jovovich often steals the film as Gita the fierce grandmother. Camila Mendes adds to the humor as Nicol as do both Julia Fox and Saweetie as exaggerated versions of themselves.

Idiotka may follow a common story line found in most comedies, but it succeeds in delivering its own story. It has a mix of relatable and unrelatable ingredients that will make you enjoy it.

VIFF 2025 Review: Death Does Not Exist (La mort n’existe pas)

Jon The Blogcentric1 Comment
Activist Helene is given a second chance in her life after a failed heist in Death Does Not Exist.

The only feature-length animated film I saw at this year’s VIFF is the Canadian French-language film Death Does Not Exist. It is not your typical animated film as it defies expectation.

Helene is part of a group of young radical climate activists. They have the goal of attacking a rich family and brought guns along to make their message heard and to encourage others to follow their act. The attack becomes full-fledged a hail of gunfire on between both the radicals and the family’s bodyguards follow. People on all sides are killed. Helene’s colleagues, the rich family members, the bodyguards, no one is safe. Just as Helene appears to be the only one of the radicals who survives, she runs off into a forest and is completely lost.

The forest she runs into, which is immediately outside the mansion, is treacherous and wild wolves chase her. Lost in the woods, she comes across many wild creatures. The ground is covered with red leaves, resembling the blood of her comrades. In the woods, she comes across wolves chasing after sheep. She senses it’s telling her a message about herself. As she runs away, she falls and knocks herself unconscious.

As she wakes up, she comes across a childhood version of herself. It’s possible she can start a new life. However, she finds Manon: one of her activist comrades who was gunned down. How is she not dead? As Manon makes meat of a rabbit she killed, she makes Helene confront her own cowardice for leaving them all behind to die. She may be unhappy with Helene leaving them behind, but she offers a second chance.

The moment reoccurs again. Helene’s activist group and the rich family are all alive as if the massacre never happened. Will things change? Again, the massacre blows up and all of Helene’s comrades are gunned down. Again, few from the rich family in the golden mansion survive. The grandmother from the wheelchair, the survivor of the rich family Helene noticed most, survives again.

Instead of running into the woods, Helene goes into the mansion. Will shooting the woman be what she needs to do? It is there that the mansion becomes a forest or jungle of its own with the animals themselves also resembling characters of Helene. Helene soon confronts the grandmother in the wheelchair and has a message to give to her that stuns her. Soon after, Helene confronts an older version of herself and received messages from her. She then moves into images of the future, including one of the mansion being swallowed by the ground and flowers growing where it once stood. The film ends with message Manon delivers at the end.

The film does have a message. It’s that we’ve always lived in a world full of opposites, especially in terms of beliefs and convictions. It’s just now people on either side don’t talk. They just promote their belief and vilify those that believe otherwise. The massacre at the beginning is symbolic of such a situation as incidents that have happened in the past and what could happen in the future if we’re not careful. The world may be in crisis right now, but violence is simply making things worse.

Often the point of this film is that you should stand for what’s right but be cautious about your own actions at the same time. With Helene as the central character, it’s Helene’s consciousness that needs to be examined and exposed to her as she runs away. She’s exposed to her moral weaknesses and what she failed to become, but she also is shown enlightened images of what could happen, if she gets a second chance.

The film does a good job of being picturesque and telling in its imagery. Its images do catch your eye and can captivate the audience, but it can also lead them astray as they watch the story. Often there’s too much imagery happening and it doesn’t always make sense of whether the film is trying to tell a story or dazzle the viewer. Often, the audience can be led astray and become confused of what the whole message is. It does have a lot to say in both dialogue and imagery. It just doesn’t do it in too orderly of a fashion.

This is a good feature-length film directed by Felix Dufour-Laperriere. He’s had over 20 years of experience directing and producing animated film with 2021’s Archipelago being his biggest. Here, he creates a film that is so full of imagery, it took four years to complete. A lot of the imagery works in telling the story, while a lot of it can also lead the viewer astray. It is well done, but its imperfections are noticeable. Zeneb Blanchet does an excellent job in voicing Helene. She is good at capturing Helene’s confusions and insecurities well. She’s also great at making the character of Helene one of the best qualities of the film.

Death Does Not Exist is a slow and confusing animated film, but it’s also very picturesque. It deals with a deep subject matter and a deep message and allows the audience an escape to the beyond as images most tell its intended message.

VIFF 2025 Review: The Things You Kill (Öldürdüğün Şeyler)

Jon The Blogcentric1 Comment
Ekin Koc plays a son whose dark family secrets are unraveled after his mother’s death in The Things You Kill.

For the 2025 Oscar race, Canada’s official entry for the category of Best International Feature Film is a Turkish-language film: The Things You Kill. The film is both a psychological drama and a supernatural story.

Ali appears to live a somewhat stable life in Turkey with problems no worse than anyone else. He returned to teach English in Turkey after spending fourteen years in the United States as a literature professor. His wife Hazar wants to start a family but he learns of a low sperm count he tries to keep hidden. He lives in a well-to-do house and has a garden miles away he wants to make active again. He hires a new gardener named Reza to help. He notices his mother’s house is in need of great repair. Repairs the father neglects to carry out.

Then one day, the mother dies. After the funeral, the father Hamit puts all the blame on Ali for spending all those years in the United States. More bad news in Ali’s case comes as he’s told they can’t afford to have his program taught at the University. To add to it, he never told his wife about the low sperm count result. Soon his sister privately tells him a dark secret. The mother had head injuries at the time of her death and Hamit was seen with a bandaged arm. Ali suspects the worst. He tries to get an official account of her death, but it will take days.

Ali soon develops a mentality of rage. First he hires Reza to help dig a hole in an unknown place in the Turkish valley. Both men help in leading Hamit there and killing him. After the incident, Ali soon enslaves Reza and keeps him at the garden where he treats him like a dog, even leashing him with a chain. Ali also tries to keep all the secrets of what he conducted away from his sisters and Hazar as a nationwide search is conducted. Hazar is suspecting the marriage is falling apart. Hamit’s mother, Ali’s grandmother, is hugely concerned. Ali also receives a rude surprise as one of the people heavily concerned with Hamit missing is his mistress. To which, Ali responds with nasty insults to her.

One day, Ali returns to the burial site of his father only to find it all dug up. He goes back to the garden hoping to check up on Reza, only to get a surprise retaliation from him. Now Reza is filling in the places of Ali’s life Ali used to have, including that of teacher. It’s in a flashback to an interview with the Turkish college that we learn of the biggest reason why Ali chose to teach in the United States because of the abuse he and his family suffered at the hands of his father. The film ends just as Reza has it good for him, and he receives a shocking surprise at his door one night.

This film makes for a compelling drama. The incidents that take place over time will get one questioning of what really happened. Did his mother die at the hands of Hamit? The film also makes you question Ali. He is angered over the death of his mother and believes it’s his father’s fault, but he now turns into a person who is hungry for blood. He kills his father with Reza and then enslaves Reza like a dog. You’re left to wonder what’s with Ali? Is something supernatural taking over him?

The film does succeed in being a drama, but the film succeeds better as a puzzle pieced together over time. Throughout the film, there’s what we know and what we don’t know. This is something that will take time as the story will unravel facts hidden from us. It’s as it nears the end that we learn of what was hidden from us the whole time. Even though many questions are unanswered, you could see why Ali suspects this from Hamit. At the same time, this film does become a supernatural story as Reza acts like a dog as Ali treats him like a dog. It’s after Reza gets revenge on Ali that he acts human again. Even the ending of what Reza faces is supernatural. I just wonder if genres are trying to be mixed in the film.

This is a great film from Iranian-Canadian director/writer Alireza Khatami. His latest feature film, he creates a drama that will connect with you and keep you intrigued with what’s happening. The story may puzzle you, but he connects things all together at the very end. It’s a great work form him. Ekin Koc does a great job in his role of Ali. Going from the troubled son in the family to the one committing sinister acts is a big change of character and he does it well. Although Ali is the lead role, there are also great supporting performances. Hazar Erguclu is great as the wife Hazar. She is the one who’s able to maintain some control over Ali as he’s going out of control. Erkan Kostendil is also great as Reza. To go from human to animal-like back to a human character and make it look believable is no easy feat. Erkan does a great job of it.

The film’s accolades not only include the Oscar entry, but was also nominated for seven awards at the Istanbul Film Festival, nominated for Best Film at the SXSW London Film Festival and won a Sundance award for directing for Khatami in the World Cinema – Director category.

The Things You Kill is more than just Oscar bait. It’s a story that gets you thinking. It gets you trying to make sense of the story after you leave the theatre long after.

VIFF 2025 Review: Calle Málaga

Jon The Blogcentric1 Comment
Carmen Maura (left) plays a mother who refuses to let her daughter sell her flat in Tangier, Morocco in Calle Málaga.

For this year’s Academy Awards, Morocco’s official submission for the Best International Feature Film category is a Spanish-language film: Calle Málaga. It presents a tense story set among beautiful scenery.

In Tangier, Maria Angeles is an elderly Spanish woman. She’s of descendants of Spaniards who fled to Tangier to evade the Franco dictatorship of Spain. After Franco died and democracy was introduced, many Spaniards returned back to Spain, but Maria remained with her husband and daughter. Over time, her daughter Clara returned back to Madrid, married, and had a family of her own as Maria stayed in Tangier at the Calle Malaga flats. Having her daily coffee, talking with her best friend who’s a nun who’s taken a vow of silence, watering her plants, and embracing the horizon at night, her life in Tangier is all she asks for.

One day, Clara returns to Maria. It first appears that it would be a happy family visit, but it’s something else. Since her divorce, Clara has been cash-strapped. Especially since she has to both work and raise her two children. It’s gotten so dire, Clara thought it best to sell Maria’s flat. Maria is crushed, but Clara thinks she did the right thing. Clara feels Maria will have a better quality of life being around her daughter and grandchildren. Besides Maria’s husband died 20 years ago and most of the people she’s known her life have either died or migrated back to Spain.

Maria protests but Clara reminds her the flat is in her name and she can do what she chooses. Clara states the only other option is for Maria to go to the Spanish nursing home in the city. Maria first chooses the nursing home. As she’s transported there, the house’s old belongings go for sale or for pawning so the empty flat can sell. Maria is not happy with her life at the nursing home. It’s missing all the vitality of her own life and she’s also very able to take care of herself.

One day, she fakes a situation where she’s flying to Spain to be with her daughter. The only other person who knows this is the cab driver who’s to pick her up. What Maria really does is move back to the flat that used to be hers. She returns and the neighbors are happy to see her back, but all her furniture is gone. To add to the frustration, the tenant holding the flat for sale lives on the floor below.

Her first goal is to make enough money to get all her furniture back. Her pension doesn’t pay her enough. What she decided to do is turn her flat into a café for friends to watch La Liga football games. In turn making a new friend with the young Khalid who’s helping her out with new visitors. It becomes a popular hangout. One day, she catches the tenant at the suite and puts him in a situation that she is to hold fort until it’s sold. She reminds him she’s in control. She gives her friend the nun quite the story.

Over time, she learns of the antique shop selling her furniture. She confronts the salesman named Abslam about getting her furniture back. She also tries to use her makeshift café as a chance to coax him into helping her further. Over time, it becomes more and she starts to feel love for the first time since her husband’s death. She learns that Abslam was never married. The romance grows and she has quite the story to tell Sister Josefa.

As time passes, it becomes evident Maria’s secret will run out. During one of her games, the tenant comes to visit and tells her the place is sold. She’s brokenhearted and doesn’t know what to do. Also that day, Sister Josefa dies. Maria sees her in her deathbed to tell her last feelings. The following day, the day before the new owners are to move in, Clara arrives and is surprised as she sees one of her mother’s parties. It’s there Maria confronts Clara tells of her choice. The film ends with no telling what happens the next day, but telling of how it appears things should be.

This is one story that’s not too heavy on its core social topic. The topic here is ageism. The daughter who has the flat in her name feels she can make decisions for the mother, but the mother is able to decide her life for herself. Maria wants Clara to know this but is afraid to at first. It’s over time she’s able to amass the courage to tell her. This is a common problem among families.

I’ve seen films or shorts of people who don’t want things to change at first and are unwilling to accept change, only to accept it and eventually embrace it in the end. Maria is different. This life in Tangier and her flat is the only life she’s ever known and the only life she wants to know. One would find this a bad thing for her not to accept change, but it’s her choice. Mind you the film is more about Maria’s refusal to change. It’s also about Maria finding vitality in her own age. Most people Maria’s age would feel they’re at the end of their life. Instead, Maria sees a chance for a new beginning. She may refuse to change her living situation but the changes she makes like her makeshift football café, her new young friend Khalid and her new love with Abslam add to her vitality.

This is a great film by director Maryam Touzani. The story she co-wrote with husband Nabil Ayouch is a nice calm story where the intensity is in the moments of heated discussions. It makes for a nice story about a woman and the life she feels she was meant to live. Instead of this story being a super-heated story about ageism, it’s a calm story about what is meant to be and is given a nice calm vibe.

Carmen Maura owns the film. Outside of Spain, Maura is most famous for her frequent collaborations with Pedro Almodovar. Here in this film, she handles her role with immense class and her personal charm adds to the film. Ahmed Boulane is also great as Abslam. Playing a man who feels love for the first time also adds well to the film. Also great is Maria Alfonsa Rosso as the mute Sister Josefa. Her performance with her body language adds to the comedic elements of the film. The best technical element has to be the cinematography of Virginie Surdej. The cinematography of the city images and the panoramic nature of Tangier adds to the story as it’s one of the best elements at telling the audience why Maria can’t leave her old life behind.

Calle Malaga tells a story about a woman who finds a purpose in her life in her age and finds a new life. It’s also a cinematographic delight to watch with the scenery adding to the storytelling.