Joanne

VIFF 2024 Review: Paying For It

Jon The Blogcentric1 Comment
Emily Le and Dan Beirne play a couple who try open love and go in unorthodox directions in the oddball romance Paying For It.

I first took an interest to Paying For It knowing it’s directed by Sook-Yin Lee. I had no clue of what to expect. Boy was I in for a surprise!

Chester Brown and Sonny Lee are a Toronto couple in a tough situation. They’ve had a romantic relationship together for years and do a lot together, but they haven’t had sex in a long time. Both Chester and Sonny come from two different worlds in the arts. Sonny is a video jockey on the music channel Max Music and Chester is an illustrator/author of cartoon books that detail his personal life. Sonny has a few friends at her place of work while Chester frequently meets with his work colleagues from the same writing community and has a close friendship bond with them. Sonny has a lot of success but Chester is struggling to make a name for himself. Chester is quite introverted and keeps to his circle while Sonny’s not afraid to meet new people.

Sonny recommends they try open love. Maybe they were or weren’t meant for each other and maybe they need time away to figure it out. Sonny being famous on national television has no problem finding other men. Chester on the other hand struggles. His author friends warn him jealousy will sink in pretty soon. Chester does become frustrated how Sonny is able to find many a nightly partner. It even reflects in his illustrations. Chester tries an unorthodox route advised from one of his writer friends: prostitutes. Besides, he’s given up on romantic love.

Over time, both find a lot of pleasure from what they get into but they struggle to find the one. Every other man Sonny hitches up with, he’s a great passionate lover but they’re not as fun as Chester and they don’t relate to her as well. Also at work, she learns one of her female colleagues is attracted to her. Meanwhile each prostitute and escort Chester gets involved with involves something complicating or some kind of discomfort. Many are willing to give Chester what he wants that night but most of them completely back off of any commitment. Some even have demands of their own. Despite it all, Chester is finding a quality in this he feels is missing in monogamy.

Simultaneously, both have difficulties and challenges at their own jobs. Sonny had no problem being a VJ while the alternative rock wave of the 90’s was riding high, but the wave has become a ripple and in came the tsunami of boy bands and other teenpop acts Sonny does not like introducing at all. Over time, Chester and his friends question about what’s going on with his many hook-ups and it affects the art for his latest literature. Especially since Chester hasn’t found ‘the one’ and it’s frustrating for him.

Then things change over time. Chester’s writing career and the careers of his writer-colleagues get a boost. Chester also spends the night with an escort who’s her own madam and it changes his life. Sonny, on the other hand, won’t be silent about the frustration with her job and her life, even on live TV. That eventually leads her to be dropped form Max Music. The two eventually reunite during a tragic moment. The death of her dog. It’s as they mourn together they learn they had something so special, no new love of theirs can replace that, even though they have to move on.

The film is about this complicated thing called love. I’m sure a lot of you look at the situation in your relationships and find yourselves asking why can’t we just love? Why do we have to make it complicated? This film itself is about that human fallibility of making love more complicated than it should. In this case, it’s not just creating the freedom of an open relationship but also the types of people both of them date during that time. Then there’s the mix of the two professions that are similar that they’re both in art or entertainment, but very different. Then there’s the talking with friends. The people they most trust to confide into and divulge their personal feelings. Then there are the changes in their lives. Then there are human idiocies and their attitudes. All that is what makes love more complicated than it should be.

Basically this is a story about a relationship that was doomed to end. Chester and Sonny are close, but complicated. The expired birth control should send that message. Eventually Chester and Sonny grew as different people and learned in the end, they were best as friends. Chester may have found a new love with an escort who’s her own madam but his relationship with Sonny made clear he’ll never have a closeness with another that’s the same. Sonny may have found men that were better at making love, but she learned they all made lousy partners. It was Chester who had no problem with her squirt gun or her dog or any of her other oddities. The ending gave a message I have seen often enough where two in a relationship couldn’t succeed as a couple but they could succeed as soul mates.

The film does give a lot of humor and in a lot of ways is somewhat biographical of both Brown and Lee. For those that remember MuchMusic during the 80’s and 90’s, you will remember Sook-Yin Lee as one of the VJ’s in the 1990’s. Yep, Canadian Generation Xer’s like me and early Millennials will have fond memories of her. Those of us who remember her from that and see the film will see the humor in how what’s happening in the film mirrors her own life and will laugh at the humor involved. Those who have read the book Paying For It will know that Brown and Lee were romantically linked and it detailed the complications. The film does some changes with the dates as it has the film taking place as Sonny’s career is bustling while Brown’s is struggling. In real life, Brown started his relationship with Sook-Yin in 1992, before she was signed onto MuchMusic and the relationship ended in 1996 just shortly as Sook-Yin’s MuchMusic fame took off.

This is a great alternative comedy from director Sook Yin-Lee. It is a very personal story to her and she’s able to show the comedy in it in this story she co-wrote with writer Joanne Sarazen. She’s also able to make some of the changes in chronology work for the flow of the film. There were some elements of shock in the film, but the story and settings made the shock humor work. Emily Le is great as Sonny Lee. She’s great at doing the comically side of the story as well as some of the more serious moments. She may not be Sook-Yin’s twin as far as personality goes but she knows how to do it well. Dan Beirne was also great as Chester Brown. I myself never knew Chester or read his works so I’m judging his performance for how well Dan did his role. Beirne was very good at playing an introvert engaging in a sexual activity most introverts wouldn’t normally try and it changes him. His awkward traits made the character and the story. The addition of the other supporting characters like Chester’s writer friends or Sonny’s ‘other men’ also added to the storytelling and the comedy of the film.

Paying For It isn’t just a sex comedy full of sex humor and some shock humor. It’s also quite a smart comedy about a couple that could no longer be but have a special bond. It’s even a comedy that tells about our own idiocies when it comes to love.

VIFF 2024 Review: Bird

Jon The Blogcentric1 Comment
Young Bailey (played by Nykiya Adams, right) is a 12 year-old girl seeking her own identity and away from her father (played by Barry Keoghan) in Bird.

The first film I saw at 2024’s Vancouver Film Festival was Bird. It’s the latest film from renowned British director Andrea Arnold. How well does it make for a film?

Bailey is a 12 year-old girl living in the slums of North Kent. Despite living in bad conditions, she likes taking pictures and videos whenever she notices beauty. Especially beauty in nature. Bailey lives in a slummy house with her father Bug. Bug is what you’d call a ‘kidult.’ He even takes her home from school on a scooter. One day Debs, a woman his father only dated briefly, moves into the home. She’s also shocked and unhappy to find out he wants to marry her. She’s so unhappy with it, she won’t wear the pink outfit her father wants her to wear at the wedding. That leads Bug to get abusive on her, and Bailey runs off.

Bailey runs a long distance away from her neighborhood. She doesn’t only want to be away from her father but everyone she knows. Bailey finds herself in a field where horses are raised. It’s the perfect place to be alone and be captivated by nature. Suddenly she sees a stranger in the field. It’s a man in a dress who dances around like a crazy you’d see on the street. When Bailey comes face to face with him, she wants to avoid him. She later learns this man calls himself Bird and he has a message to deliver.

Bailey returns to her neighborhood but wants to avoid her father. She wants to stay at the flat with her half-brother Hunter and his girlfriend. Hunter is friendlier to Bailey than her father, but she can already tell Hunter is a bad enough influence. She tries to meet up with school friends but learns some are engaging in gang activities. She noticed another thing too. Bird is in her neighborhood. She meets face to face with him by chance. She also sees Bird from Hunter’s apartment. Bird stands atop the porch of the nearby apartment, just standing on top. She fears Bird might jump.

Over time, Bird and Bailey develop a friendship. She also learns that Bird is trying to look for his long-estranged father. One night Bailey decides to spend some time at her mother’s place after watching Bug snort cocaine. She happily meets with her younger step-siblings but learns that her mother’s new boyfriend is extremely violent and very threatening. It’s after he threatens Bailey that she has to run out.

Over time, things get better for Bailey. On the morning Bailey menstruates for the first time, Debs is able to talk to her about menstruating and give her some tampons. Another day, Bailey is able to take her younger siblings from her mother’s side out to the beach. She makes a great mother figure. Also while she herself is in the water, she finds herself in a moment of freedom.

Bug brings Bailey and all of his friends for a wedding rehearsal. Bailey is uncomfortable there. That day, she agrees to help Bird fulfil his goal of meeting face to face with his estranged father. It will be a long bus ride to a town very far out but Bailey is willing to help him. Once in town, Bailey and Bird finally get to the location of Bird’s written message. The father doesn’t notice Bird. Bailey steps in to insist to the man who has a new wife that Bird is his long-lost son.

The two return back to Kent appearing disappointed things didn’t go the way it should have. Bailey and Bird spend the night over at their mother’s place, hoping her violent boyfriend is not there. Unfortunately, he is there during the night and he assaults her mother. When Bird steps in, Bird becomes his latest punching bag. The fight escalates that it goes outdoors. Bailey notices something shocking. Bird sprouts feathers, like a bird. When the man attempts to assault Bird, Bird fights back like a bird! After beating the man unconscious, Bird flies off with the man in his claws like a bird carrying their prey. Bailey is shocked by it all.

Months later, Bug marries Debs in a court. Bailey is there in the pink outfit. That evening, the wedding happens at a bar consisting of singing performances from Bug and his friends. As Bailey takes a break from the events, she notices Bird paid a visit, wings and all. It’s a meeting of parting where he thanks Bailey for her help and bids farewell. The ending sends a message of a new beginning.

One of the focuses of the story is the difficulty of a 12 year-old girl trying to find herself. Being twelve is not easy as one is going from child to teenager. It has its own difficulties for girls. Imagine being a 12 year-old mixed race girl living in one of England’s ugliest slums and with toxic family situations and a neighborhood full of bad influences. You can imagine it would be difficult. A girl like Bailey would definitely be prone to the frustrations. Despite that, Bailey and her imaginative thinking are sources that can lead to something hopeful in the future. In fact that brief scene at the beginning of the cruise ship passing by being seen from her window is one sign Bailey is sensing something is better for her out there.

It’s her belief in something better and something hopeful in the future that keeps her going. It’s also her meeting with Bird that she helps to develop a stronger sense of herself. It’s very hard to believe that meeting with an eccentric like Bird would be the best thing for her. It’s through Bird that she’s able to discover that better things for her are out there. It’s as she helps Bird with his situation with his father that she’s able to be a stronger figure to her own family. She’s also able to show she’s a loyal friend by being determined to help Bird reunite with her father and it’s through her friendship with Bird she learns things about herself she never knew.. To think it was a chance meeting of two strangers who would be the least likely to form a friendship that turned out to be the best thing for Bailey. One who uses her imagination for her pictures and videos and the other who lives and dances out his imagination. It’s as Bird gains his wings, Bailey is able get her sense of self. Also the end of the film is both a moment of goodbye and a passing of the torch.

The story plays out well. It keeps making Bailey the prime source of the story, as it should, and it showcases her growth and her maturity over the time. It also showcases the troubles and the difficulties she goes through in both her personal life and the lives surrounding those she associates with. There are a few times when the story isn’t as steady or scenes not as fluid as it should be. Sometimes the story itself can be made confusing. Nevertheless it does all come together at the end. It makes sense that Bailey’s growth coincides with the engagement of Bug and Debs and ends with their marriage. The addition of Bird as an influence on her life also adds to the story of Bailey’s growth.

This is a good unique film from British director Andrea Arnold. Arnold first burst on the scene 20 year ago when her short film ‘Wasp’ won the Oscar for Best Live-Action Short Film. Since then, her films like Fish Tank, Wuthering Heights and American Honey have caught a lot of attention. Her latest film which she both writes and directs is a story that has a lot of ironies and twists, but it’s also smart and touching. It’s a story that shows Bailey for her uniqueness and for her common traits as a 12 year-old girl. It’s not that often a filmmaker is willing to do such a story. It’s great to see Andrea do it. Making the story work is young newcomer Nykiya Adams. This is her first acting role and having a fish actress in the role of Bailey works for the film. Nykiya did a great job in holding the film together as she did in her role as Bailey. Barry Keoghan did a great job in his role as Bug. It’s hard to picture Barry playing a thug from the slums but he masters the role and plays Bug well with his stupidities and vulnerabilities. Also excellent is Franz Rogowski. He played a believable eccentric with animalistic type of behaviors and kept Bird from looking wooden. The music added in the film also added to the quality of the film. It helped with the angry energy at times.

Bird is a unique coming-of-age story of a twelve year-long girl from the slums and her friendship with a person she’d be unlikely to befriend. It’s a unique story of a chance encounter that changes her forever.

VIFF 2014 Review: Still Life

Jon The Blogcentric1 Comment

Still Life is a story of a man who's as alone as the deceased subjects he works with.
Still Life is a story of a man (played by Eddie Marsan) who’s as alone as the deceased subjects he works with.

Still Life was the last film to do with the VIFF that I saw. It was a surprise that I saw such a downer film as my last one but it wasn’t a complete downer. In fact it has a lot of good elements worth watching.

The film begins with John May doing his job. He’s a council case worker in South London who looks for relatives of those found dead and alone. It’s not an easy job to do. In fact it’s very hard sometimes when he deals with relatives who want nothing to do with the deceased. Not even their own children. He arranges funerals for them even if he ends up being the only one attending and gives them a respectful burial. He even takes the pictures of those whom he was the sole attendee at their funeral and puts them in his own personal album.

Problem is John himself is an ‘alone’ person living by himself in an apartment with no real contact with neighbors. His job which he’s been doing for 22 years appears to be his only real purpose or his only interaction. However the news breaks one day. The company’s changed ownership and he’s about to be laid off by the new owners, feeling his services to those he buries are too ‘costly’ and are making the move to ‘efficiency.’

John wants to make his last case work especially since the deceased, Billy Stoke, lives in the same apartment as him. He comes across a photo album that shows pictures of his daughter ending in her teen years. He tries to get more information like from two people on the streets who used to drink with Billy. He finds out that Billy used to live in Truro. He meets with people who knew him like his ex-wife and former co-workers but none are interested in paying their last respects to Billy.

Finally John meets his daughter Kelly but she doesn’t want anything to do with Billy either. John proceeds with having a tombstone made and finding a burial spot. Just when John thought it was all over for him, he gets a call from Kelly. Kelly hears all that John has done and is happy about it. She even invites John to come see her on the weekend, to which John accepts and appears to finally come to life. Then comes a moment no one expects. It appears to set up for a very sad ending but instead ends on a positive note that appears appropriate.

It’s a question whether the film was trying to convey a message about lonely people or not. Mind you it does touch on a lot of things such as some who left other relatives estranged, some who lost all their friends because of their surly attitude or some who just have no one. There’s one scene that catches my eye and that’s where John looks over the photo album of those he arranged a funeral for. As each picture was seen, it reminds you that those people that died alone with no other loved ones used to be a somebody to others some time ago in their life. Sad how life made a turn for the worse for them. It is good to see someone like John May out there who does give such people found dead and alone a dignified last respects. Another scene that stands out is when John arranges Billy’s grave at the cemetery. Soon he sees the people that are to replace him and what they do is just simply cremate the bodies and pour the ashes in a mass grave. No funeral, no last respects, no nothing. Hey, it’s more ‘efficient.’ It only makes what John’s always been doing look like the right thing.

The most surprising thing about this film is that this first appears to be the downest of the down films ever made. It has all the making for it: a story of a man who has no family and friends trying to give a respectful last respects to those who died alone. The film does have a morbid feel to it and even John looks like the walking dead at times. What kept it from being a complete downer were some humorous moments. They were easy to spot. The film had a way of making humor of certain moments come unexpectedly like John at the intersection, John eating that shepherd’s pie after being told what Billy did after he was fired or even when a drunkard pours liquor on Billy’s coffin as a farewell. Even the scenes near the end as John is seen smiling to Kelly gives the movie an unexpected warmth and a welcomed warmth. That scene as John sees Kelly off was that moment where John appeared to truly be alive. Even the ending added to the quality. It didn’t end suddenly fluffy and happy like so many Hollywood movies would do.  The audience would first think this will be the saddest ending in all of movie history added to the quality. Instead it doesn’t as it ends with an ending that will have you saying: “Yes, very appropriate.” To this day, the ending of Kids remains the most depressing film ending I’ve seen.

This was a very good film written and directed by Unberto Pasolini. He takes what would normally be a very down topic and makes a very good and very watchable story about it. This has to be his best work since his production work on The Full Monty. Also good to see he didn’t give a fluffy ending that was still positive despite the circumstances. It’s not to say that it didn’t have its imperfections. Like we don’t know exactly why John himself is all alone. Did his parents die? Was he ostracized? Was he so fixated on his work, he ignored everything and everyone else around him? There’s that lack of clarity.

Excellent acting from Eddie Marsan. For all intents and purposes, this was his film. He does a very good performance of a character who actually feels like the walking dead. Only he adds humorous elements to him and makes him into a 3D person rather than a stock character he can easily become. The supporting actors were also good as a whole however it’s Joanne Froggatt who’s the one with a role with the most dimension. The only other standout is the music from Rachel Portman. It does a good job of creating the mood.

Still Life is a surprising film in more ways than one. It makes a film about loneliness with a protagonist being its epitome and actually makes it quite watchable rather than completely depressing.

And that does it for reviewing VIFF films. I didn’t have time to see them all. In fact there some I had a chance for but I was either ill or too exhausted to see. Anyways it made for an exciting festival. My wrap-up of this year’s VIFF coming soon.