CRITICALMASSCAST

It is still a bit early in year but my film going experience throughout the year tends to fall into three distinct periods: the Jan-April period that is really a toss up in terms of genre and quality, the May-August summer blockbuster season and finally the September-Dec period which is mostly dominated by festival films and Oscarbation. This list comprises obviously my picks from the Jan-April block – 30% of my final top 10 picks from 2011 (“Hanna”, “Incendies”, and “I Saw The Devil”) came from these 4 months so it will be interesting to see how my list changes towards the end of the year.   So here goes…

1. “Goon” (directed by Michael Dowse, written by Jay Baruchel and Evan Goldberg)

Basically a heartfelt story about identity which uses the realities of hockey culture to get its points across. I have always been a fan of Seann William Scott and he is hilarious in this: funny, sweet, stupid. Great turns by Toronto-born Allison Pill , Jay Baruchel and Marc-André Grondin (from C.R.A.Z.Y.!!!) as well. Satisfyingly Canadian…. Check it!

2.” The Cabin in the Woods”(directed by Drew Goddard, written by Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard)

Aside from just being a whole hell of a lot of fun to watch, “The Cabin in the Woods” makes a pretty cogent argument that there are still areas of metanarrative and mythology to explore and mine creatively in the horror genre. While the Scream film franchise of the late 90s, 2000s, and even 2010s concerned itself with the the “HOW?”, or the mechanics underlying the traditions and evolution of slasher film franchises (aka The Rules).  Goddard and Whedon use the story here to attempt to explore the concept of WHY we have constructed the archetypes and even visual imagery/cues constantly used to drive the horror genre forward.

The film has the good sense to prep us on all the character types that we all know/love? (the vapid big breasted blond, the testosterone crazed alpha male, the goof/fool/stoner, the scholar/egghead and of course the chaste virgin) and then totally fuck with the formula. It is both an interesting and a timely choice that the geeky/scholarly lens the screenplay used to explore the deconstruction is through the aesthetics of reality television.  The reality genre itself has become a veritable bread and circuses that indulges a lot of our primal drives, so using media manipulation as a precise instrument to examine the genre feels like an elegant and logical choice.

On to some of the performances: Bradley Whitford, Amy Acker and the amazing character actor Richard Jenkins all do great quippy work in helping to establish tone of this film and the universe of the film. The writing in fact plays to Whedon’s strengths: the characters are well written and textured without coming off as overdone (Kristen Connolly and Fran Kranz  display wit, comedy and empathy skillfully), the mythology feels well thought out and thematically the story seems to always be on the rails.  I have to admit though that the pandemonium of the film’s third act felt distinctly like a season finale from Buffy the Vampire Slayer but that was actually a pretty good thing and this of course is a Mutant Enemy production. I was not so much a fan though of the writers and/or producers trotting out a well known actress from the Sci-Fi realm to help dish out some unneeded bad-assery and perfunctory plot points to the film’s remaining survivors near the end of the film. This was especially annoying as she did the EXACT same thing at the end of “Paul” from last year this same time…. weird, and just completely unoriginal.  It did help though that her character had one of the best lines of the film when addressing the constraints and restraints of employing ritual sacrifice in a modern world to appease an ancient one…money in the bank.  All in all, this film was an incredibly fun watch and employed enough craft, world building (the facility’s gallery of dark creatures is a sight to behold) and story telling detail to have me coming back for a second watch a couple of days a couple days after I saw the advance screening.  Highly recommended.

3. “John Carter” (directed by Andrew Stanton, written by Andrew Stanton and Mark Andrews)

John Carter” was unexpectedly awesome. If you are a fan of unironic swashbuckling epics (particularly the serials and technicolor epics of the 30s/40s, especially those produced by Alexander Korda who worked on 1940′s “The Thief of Bagdad” and the earlier “The Four Feathers” plus the pulp adventure films of the early 80s like “Krull” and “Conan”), “John Carter” is your ticket to ride.

No surprise that the visual look of the film is helped greatly by a director (Andrew Stanton of WALL-E) who knows how to conceptualize environments that have both a fantasy feel yet occupy a concrete space in the familiar.  The elements of production design also display an obvious ambition and care: the colors feel peacock-lush, the costuming is appropriately theatrical and the Michael Giacchino score soars when it has to with the accompanying action.  The kinetics of the action at times mixes a video game-ish aesthetic with a faux stop-and-go animation style that is hard to describe but it somehow manages to work when it all comes together and gives the film a smattering of kitschy fun that feels alternately goofy and technologically complex.

There are issues with the film which sometimes double as strengths.  The film features a dense mythology that engages the viewer in the expositional sequences but produces a bit of a saggy midsection and produces dialogue that calls a bit too much attention to itself, especially when trying to explain the dynamics of warfare between the different factions within the story. Addditionally, one of the main action sequences midway through the film reminded me rather forcefully of the Geonosan arena pit sequence of  Star Wars: Episode 2: Attack of the Clones which fell totally flat for that film.  In Episode 2 you felt that you had been randomly dropped into one of Lucas’ setpieces.  In “John Carter” the sequence feels more tightly woven into the narrative and helps to push the narrative forward into its third act.

Interesting to note that one of the screenwriters is none other than Pulitzer Prize winning (for the “Adventures of Kavilier and Clay”) author Michael Chabon.  Chabon also had a hand in helping to co-write the Raimi Spiderman films and he is a great fit for this kind of creative material in turns of its light comedy tone and goofiness.

4. “Once Upon a Time in Anantolia”(directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, written by Nuri  Bilge Ceylan, Ebru Ceylan)

Beautiful, atmospheric take on the police procedural taking place in the wilds of the Turkish countryside that surprisingly places more of its focus on the investigators rather than the investigation itself. The cinematography is masterfully handled- the film makes a wonderful transition from wide angled shots that dwarf the characters to focussing on every line and crease on the faces of the film’s long suffering characters. Wonderful watch and nice to see a mood piece that balances the elements of environment, character and plot beautifully.

5. “Pariah” (written and directed by Dee Rees)  This amazing debut film by director Dee Rees was shown some love at Sundance earlier this year and was an official selection at TIFF ’11 while also being a spotlight film for Inside Out’s continuing film series here in Toronto, Canada.  Rees very precisely details the ebb and flows of main character, Alike ‘s (played exquisitely by newcomer Adpero Oduye) journey of self discovery as a gifted Brooklyn teenager coming out and discovering her own voice and path.

Everything about the film feels fresh and vibrant: Oduye’s performance displays a complicated mix of earnestness, introspection and just plain exasperation in her dealings with her out-as-all-get-out best friend Laura (great extroverted turn by Pernell Walker) as well as with her long suffering mom trying to connect with her in a nicely restrained performance by comedic actress Kim Wayans.  The look of this film caught me by surprise as well and adds a lot in terms of mood and tone- it is no surprise that cinematographer Bradford Young won an award at Sundance for this film’s ambitious look.

6. “21 Jump St” (directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, screenplay by Michael Bacall based on a story by Michael Bacall and Jonah Hill)

Totally fun departure from the 80s series and it feels fresh and was a lot of fun to watch.  Not much else to say on this one, just check it out if you are in the mood for a good laugh- Ice Cube, Tatum, Hill, and Bree Larson all give great comedic performances.

7. “Chronicle” (directed by Josh Trank, screenplay by Max Landis from a story by Max Landis and Josh Trank) In “Chronicle”, three high school friends develop superpowers after making an alien discovery.  I LOVED “Chronicle”.  If you want to see how the battle between Superman and General Zod SHOULD have gone down at the end of Superman 2, check this one out.  Trank and Landis manage to use the cliches of the found-footage genre to help scaffold its storytelling by offering moments of introspection and balancing it with fantastic spectator-like visual moments. A great surprise to be sure.

8. “The Hunger Games” (directed by Gary Ross, written by Gary Ross, Suzanne Collins and Billy Ray)

A worthy adaptation by director Gary Ross of Suzanne Collins’ mega selling dystopian YA trilogy.  What I feel this film has most going for it is in the casting and performance.  Jennifer Lawrence continues to be revelatory for me as an actress.  Lawrence brings a sullen integrity to all of her scenes as Katniss Everdeen and plays well off of Josh Hut herson who does good work here as fellow District 12 tribute Peeta Mellark (yes, his name is Peeta and his family is comprised of bakers).  Hutcherson does a great job playing against alpha male sterotypes that we so often see programmed into films geared towards a young adult audience.  The supporting players are strong as well: Lenny Kravitz’s subtle touches as Cinna help bring some heart and Stanly Tucci as Caesar Flickerman, the host of the titular Hunger Games brings the appropriate reality television aesthetic to the film’s portrayal of a modern bread and circuses media experience.

I am one of the few people out there that didn’t mind the use of shakey cam during the opening stretches of the film and during the opeing of the games as I feel it adds the right sense of unease, tension, chaos and confusion, especially when inside the arena.  I don’t think Ross is a strong action director though as I feel the finale could have been done with a lot more visual flair and cohesion but the film definitely left me looking forward to the second film in the trilogy, “Catching Fire”.  As of this writing, the producers of the trilogy are looking for a director to replace Ross.  Cuaron, Cronenberg and Inarritu are being considered so it will be interesting to see what new vision we will see for the continuation of this trilogy.  I think Cuaron would be a great choice, but I think even an action director like Kathryn Bigelow would be awesome as well.

9. “Miss Bala” (directed by Gerardo Naranjo, written by Gerardo Naranjo and Mauricio Katz) This film was a bit of a struggle, but well worth the journey in the end.  Originally a Contemporary World Cinema selection at last year’s TIFF, “Miss Bala” is director Gerardo Naranjo’s impressionistic take on the drug war film.  I had expected something a lot more conventional so I felt my perspective on the film has to keep up with the morphing tonality and stylization of the film.  What starts out as a meek and mild story about a young woman’s aspirations to enter a local beauty pageant with a best friend quickly reconfigures into a rabbit hole nightmare of drug lords, high speed chases, suspense, and unimaginable loss.

Naranjo finds a rythm though and the performance by Stephanie Sigman who plays the protagonist Laura displays a nuanced and heartbreaking take on a young woman who sees her hopes dashed and then reconfigured in a way she never could have imagined.  A must see for those in the mood for something narratively unconventional at theatres or on-demand.

10. “Love in the Buff” (directed by Ho-Cheung Pang, written by Jody Luk and Ho-Cheung Pang)

“Love in the Buff” was a fun discovery I made at the AMC on Saturday morning- AMC actually has a nice variety of international cinema so it was a pleasure to catch this gem.  A sequel to Pang’s “Love in a Puff” from 2010, “Buff” follows a 30-ish Hong Kong couple, Cherie (Miriam Yeung) and Jimmy (Shawn Yue), as they struggle to maintain their relationship, first as live-in lovers and then while seeing other people in Beijing.

Yue and Yeung’s chemistry is totally palpable and while there isn’t much exposition to give you some grounding, their relationship and individual personalities feel nicely textured.  Yeung’s character Cherie  is definitely the more interesting of the two who realizes over the course of the film how fundamentally she has been changed by her relationship with Jimmy, a nerdy man-child more occupied with his advertising job than with the domestic obligations and joys of a real relationship.  The film also gave me a peek into an urban China that is becoming ever-more Westernized and looks to be an enticing playground for young singles.  Yeung’s performance was the standout for me as she single-handedly seemed to carry the film’s themes and sense of heart so ably on her dramatic shoulders.  Fresh, funny and totally worth a watch by fans of romantic comedies looking for something a little different.

God Bless America is Bobcat Goldthwait’s new dark comedy starring Joel Murray, about a man driven over the edge by today’s culture.  It’s release here, on the 10th anniversary of 9/11, feels like no accident.

God Bless America bursts out of the gate with a lot of great satire and a lot of guts, easy targets yes, but done in a cutting way that felt an amped up Mike Judge film, and it generates just as much genuine clapter as it does laughter.  It does preach to a receptive crowd. Well, it swallowed everything it had to say with gusto to start and it gradually tapered off.

It starts to fall apart once Tara Lynne Barr show’s up. She’s shrill, unconvincing, too rehearsed (like a Kevin Smith film, you hear the author’s words coming out of an actor’s mouth rather than a real character), and generally if you’ve seen James Gunn’s “Super” Ellen Page has done this role already and 1000x better.  Her screen presence is just plain annoying and a humongous anchor on the film.

Once the film gets moving into the shooting spree it really tanks. It wants to have it’s cake and eat it too, and the laughs die down because the film won’t properly commit to it’s opinion.  It gives no clue if we are really supposed to keep cheering or if they have been corrupted and are hypocrites, etc..  It starts to get Boondock Saints kind-of-questionable and it certainly does not seem to have any grey area in there by design.  The characters never change. They just start killing and the film assumes we will go along with it because we laughed at it when it was just their fantasies at the start.

If there was a right wing version of this film people would be horrified, and it could be very easily done to a very accepting audience.  Bobcat says the movie is not political but there is just enough in there to inspire such a reaction.  It is definitely “You know what grinds my gears” level blunt and even beyond Trey Parker/Matt Stone preachy.  One scene in the office is a more memorable sermon than the extended one in Red State, and more effective too, because it connects with the actual audience watching the film.

The audience continued to cheer and cheer as Frank and Roxy verbally and then physically (and not so often creatively) attack the Tucker Max reading, 16-and-Pregnant watching ilk of the world, and eventually, anyone who get’s in their way, which is confusing.  When the murders are in Frank’s fantasy, it’s amusing.  When it gets acted out and the plot doesn’t progress or take on a properly sinister tone to match it, it just becomes contradictory and cuts against any message the film has, and scary for all the wrong reasons. It undermines it’s own satire.

That said, there were still flashes of funniness through this trod, even though the filmmaking also starts to get questionable around here with scenes that go on way too long, some bad writing, and using music montages as a crutch (no wonder Richard Kelly produced this thing).

The Q&A was of course, hilarious. Bobcat is quick and sharp.

Overall GBA is VERY memorable for both good and bad reason and is sure to provoke extreme reactions.  It resembles Super, Taxi Driver, S.F.W., and of course, Bonnie and Clyde.

God Bless America screens: Sunday September 11-AMC 6, 1:30pm and Friday September 16-AMC 7, 6:30pm

- Corey Pierce

Aaaand we’re back! This week, we’re joined by two of our favorite CMC contributers – Mark & Mindy – on our look back at the best films 2010 had to offer.

Greg’s Top 10: The Big Picture, Inception/Monsters/Mr.Nobody, The Illusionist, Mother, The Secret in Their Eyes, How to Train Your Dragon, I Am Love, Black Swan, Last Train Home & TRIGGER

Ryan’s Top 10: Catfish, The Kids Are All Right, Inside Job, Winter’s Bone, Toy Story 3, Inception, Blue Valentine, The Social Network, Somewhere & BLACK SWAN

Cindy’s Top 10: Cairo Time, Easy A, The Kids Are All Right, Trigger, The Debt, The Conspirator, Inception, The Social Network, Little White Lies & THE KING’S SPEECH

Mark’s Top 10: Machete, Toy Story 3, The Kids Are All Right, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows, How to Train Your Dragon, Winter’s Bone, Inception, The Social Network & THE KING’S SPEECH

Mindy’s Top 10: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo/The Girl Who Played with Fire, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I, Easy A, Toy Story 3, The Good, The Bad, The Weird, I Love You Phillip Morris, Mother, The King’s Speech, Inception & MICMACS

 
DOWNLOAD LINK

Intro Music: TLC – Creep
Outro Music: Phoenix – Love Like a Sunset Part II (OST ‘Somewhere’)

Total run time: 52:54
File Size: 76.2MB

10. Cairo Time
9. Easy A
8. The Kids Are All Right
7. Trigger
6. The Debt
5. The Conspirator
4. Inception
3. The Social Network
2. Little White Lies
1. The King’s Speech

Honourable Mentions: Beginners, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, How to Train Your Dragon

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10. The Big Picture (‪L’homme qui voulait vivre sa vie‬), directed by Eric Lartigau
A surprise find at TIFF this year, French director Eric Lartigau’s adaptation of Douglas Kennedy’s acclaimed novel is a superb rumination on the mysteries that collude both human identity and destiny.  The film’s real gem though is the great character study work performed by lead actor Romain Duris who plays successful Parisian lawyer and family man Paul Exben.  Duris, a heartthrob in his native France who established himself as a household name with his 2005 turn in the crime-drama The Beat That My Heart Skipped does serious work here as we witness how his character’s moment of madness transforms him into the man he was really meant to become (he kind of pulls a reverse Tom Ripley so to speak).  The film itself, both fast-paced and beautifully patient, with all the nuanced exactitude of a Patricia Highsmith novel, manages to hold itself together as the audience travels with Paul from the urban environs of Paris where he lives a stifling family existence to the lush, overgrown sprawl of Montenegro in Eastern Europe, where he makes his escape.  The film’s slower second act finds Paul essentially becoming a lone-wolf,  gradually cultivating a name for himself as an emergent and gifted photographer in a small local community.  A lot of the film’s dark humour comes from him balancing his need to remain below the radar while his photographic work spawns a life of its own by achieving greater amounts of attention and acclaim.  The art of photography is used to great practical effect as well when one considers the existential metaphor of what happens behind and in front of the artist’s lens.  Captivating in both its well-plotted mystery and artistic craft, The Big Picture had me thinking about how forces both internal and external shape and effect the focus of our everyday lives. Laurent Dailland’s cinematography and the score by Evgueni and Sacha Galperine also go a long way in maintaining atmosphere and pace.  If you were a fan of Guillaume Canet’s French export Tell No One from a couple of years ago you will probably find some love in your heart for this film- check it out if you can.

Jared Leto and Diane Kruger star in Mr. Nobody

9. Mr. Nobody/Inception/Monsters (three-way Sci-fi tie), directed by Jaco van Dormael/Christopher Nolan/Gareth Edwards

I grouped these three films together because even though they feature very different narratives, they all accomplished the same feat for me as a movie goer:  they brought movie Sci-fi up to a new standard in the sense that that they brought deeply personal stories to a genre that is frequently characterized by CGI whiz-bangs, spaceships hovering over cities, with the occasional alien probe thrown in for good measure.  In a nutshell- it was hard to find a film this year, Sci-fi or not that wasn’t based on some prior intellectual enterprise, be it a graphic novel, some originating film (Tron, anyone?), television show, etc.  Instead, these three films managed to mix and meld genres in new and interesting ways…

In Van Dormael’s story about parallel universes and destinies, Jared Leto stars as the titular Mr. Nobody, the last mortal alive about to die in 2092 after humanity has discovered the secrets of immortality embedded directly in our own genetic code.  In his recollections on past lives to an eager reporter we see three possible avenues his life has taken, each populated by a different love interest, one played by Sarah Polley, another by Linh Dam Pham, and his one true love played by the exquisite Diane Kruger.  Mr. Nobody manages to throw in the complications and joys of how people fall in and out of love, a travelogue voyage to Mars, and even a refresher course in big bang and quantum theory.  As for the aesthetic touches, Mr. Nobody features an incredible soundtrack that features artists both old and new school (The Eurythmics, The Pixies, Buddy Holly and Otis Redding) along with the truly hypnotic production design of Sylvie Olivié.   In the end I found I had discovered a deeply resonant story that was an odd mix of Sci-Fi adventurism and art-house introspection.

Christopher Nolan’s Inception took the Philip K. Dick approach and brought together a stellar cast including Leonardo Di Caprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Ken Watanabe, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Michael Caine, and Cillian Murphy to explore the world of the human psyche through dreamscape.  Along with Hans Zimmer’s propulsive score and video-game rule internal logic, Nolan managed to craft an engaging heist film, built mostly on practical effects (take that CGI!!)

Finally, British director Gareth Edwards do-it-yourself filmmaking prowess (in addition to serving as director he also helmed the writing, cinematography and special effects work on an operating budget of $15, 000) went into crafting a story that takes place because of an alien invasion, but manages to not really be about the invasion at all.  Instead, Monsters treated me to a social sci-fi story that was a great mix of Richard Linklater’s Before Sunset set within a third world dystopia.

8. The Illusionist, directed by Sylvain Chomet

Featured in the Special Presentions Programme at TIFF, I got a chance to see Sylvain Chomet’s bittersweet follow-up to 2003′s The Triplets of Belleville in his new animated masterwork, The Illusionist. There was something both special and strange about seeing this film in one of the few stage theatres (The Elgin and Winter Garden Theatre) here in Toronto that has managed to stubbornly resist complete modernization as The Illusionist is a such a poetic contemplation of how endemic moving forward is to the human condition.  The story, based on an unproduced script by the late, great, French actor- director Jacques Tati (M.Hulot’s Holiday, Playtime) tells the story of a travelling magician who realizes that his act has fallen out of time as rock and roll and mainstream consumerism begin to take hold in the 1950′s .  As the story unfolds, the titular Illusionist meets up with a young chambermaid who could use a bit of magical realism in her life as well and the two characters venture off as traveling companions until their relationship hits an inevitable crossroad.  Sumptuous in its animation (it feels like a big screen pop-up book with humourous sight gags happening in the foreground/background of the many static shots) and atmosphere, The Illusionist comes highly recommended to ardent fans of animation and coming-of-age narratives.

7. Mother, directed by Bong Joon-ho

Bong Joon-Ho’s crime-drama, Mother brought to life the story of a mother, a small town herbalist and acupuncturist who will go to any lengths to catch the killer who has framed her mentally challenged son of a brutal murder.  South Korean cinema has been pulling off the terrific trick of melding film genres compellingly  (check out 2009′s Castaway on the Moon or 2003′s  Save the Green Planet! for reference) and Mother, while quite linear in structure, manages to bring horror, crime procedural, mystery and dramatic elements together in brilliantly new and unexpected ways.  I loved this film for its beautifully dark cinematography (by Kyung-Pyo Hong) and the steadfastness of Korean actress Hye-ja Kim whose turn as the mother figure is captivating.  In the film’s final act her role as the film’s unlikely moral centre and protagonist helped to craft one of this year’s most beautiful scenes of destruction and chaos seen on the big screen.  The final frame of this film left me haunted and enchanted, and I won’t forget it for years to come.

The Secret in their eyes stars Soledad Villamil (left) and Ricardo Darin

6. The Secret in Their Eyes (El Secreto de sus ojos), directed by Juan José Campanella

Winner of last year’s prize for Best Foreign Film at the Academy Awards, this film had some pretty big shoes to fill as it beat out my favourite film of 2009, Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon in the same category.  It is fair to say that The Secret in their eyes exceeded expectations as being one of the most satisfying romantic dramas of the year. Despite the fact that the characters and plot revolve around a brutal rape and murder in 1970s Argentina, the evolving friendship and romance between Soledad Villamil and Ricardo Darin who play law professionals trying to solve the murder, is beautiful to behold.  The director, Juan José Campanella, adept at both film and television (30 Rock, Strangers with Candy, Law and Order) work brings out incredible performances in his actors and conveys a sense of nuanced menace to many of the action and suspense scenes, one of which features one of the most incredible CGI tracking shots I have ever seen on film.  Kudos go out to an amazing supporting cast as well, namely Guillermo Francella who plays Darin’s hapless and wise law clerk and Javier Godino who plays the film’s calculating killer.    Highly Recommended.

Click on the jump to read my top 5

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The Cast of "Peter's Friends"

Before we record and post our first anniversary show and final episode for 2010, we thought it would be fun to post our holiday show from last year where Ryan and I waxed nostalgic on the holiday films nearest and dearest to our Christmas hearts.  Some of the films we cover include: Peter’s Friends, The Holiday, A Christmas Carol, Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, Love Actually and even the He-Man and She-Ra Christmas Special... and that is just for starters!!

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Total Run Time: 53:18

File Size: 51.2 MB

Welcome back to CriticalMassCast for our special episode that focuses on the Harry Potter film franchise in light of the penultimate blockbuster release of Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows: Part 1!!

Cindy and I sound off on the acting craft we have seen evolve in the careers of Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint alongside such established British thespian greats as Michael Gambon, Maggie Smith, Gary Oldman and Alan Rickman.  Afterwards we dabble into a bit of chat on Special Effects in the films and discuss the role changing genres and mentorship have played in shaping the biggest franchise in film history.

Remember to stay in touch with us!!  Send us your comments/questions to criticalmasscast[at]gmail[dot]com or feel free to leave us a review on iTunes!!

Opening: Teaser Trailer- Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone

Score selection #1: “A Window to the Past”- Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban OST (John Williams)

Score selection #2: “Buckbeak’s Flight”- Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban OST (John Williams)

Score selection #3: “Harry in Winter”- Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire OST (Patrick Doyle)

Closing selection #4: “Obliviate”- Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows OST (Alexandre Desplat)

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Total Run Time: 59:43

Total File Size: 57.3 MB

Star Wars is a movie that has become ubiquitous. George Lucas created a story that grabbed a generation by the scruff of the neck and immersed them in a fantastical adventure and they fell in love. And like any devoted lover they have become rather protective, maybe even possessive of the characters and story.

The People vs George Lucas looks at the love/hate relationship between George Lucas and his fans. The man created a universe that is so beloved and yet many of the fans feel betrayed by Lucas’ attempts to perfect them by producing Star Wars Special Edition and the prequel trilogy.  Through interviews and fan interpretations of Lucas’ various films Alexandre Philippe slowly lays out the case against George Lucas. He even likens Lucas to the character of Anakin Skywalker in describing his rise to ‘power’ and his subsequent ‘fall’ from grace.

The list of grievances against Mr. Lucas is long. It begins with him changing the cantina confrontation between Han and Greedo so that Greedo shot first; to the addition of Hayden Christianson at the end of Return of Jedi as the ghost of Anakin and the creation of the most annoying film character of all-time in Jar Jar Binks. There seems very little in Mr. Lucas’ favour except for the fact that Star Wars is his story. It was his imagination that created it and to most it would seem his to do with as he pleases. Star Wars fans beg to differ. They see Star Wars as their story that they collectively share.  George Lucas, a man who once despised the movie studios for their lack of artistic vision, has become equally as ‘corporate’ himself. He became as one fan put it “the evil genius of marketing”. He created lunchboxes, action figures, bedsheets, t-shirts and plastic lightsabres. Though you can say he demonstrated capitalism at it’s best people ate it up. If it hadn’t been successful the Star Wars action figures would have died a slow and quiet death. They didn’t. In fact the opposite was true. They were so popular they couldn’t produce them fast enough. They sold empty boxes promising to ship the toys as soon as they had made them.

Though the bulk of this movie is spent pointing out Mr. Lucas’ mistakes it does not end in this way. In a round about way you come to terms with the idea that though you may not like how he’s used his universe it is still his universe. The nature of art is that it can be inspiring as well as polarizing but in the end it belongs to its creator.  For all his flaws and mistakes he like Anakin finds redemption at the end of this documentary. It is his vision and imagination that has awed and inspired generations of fans. It’s true that without him there would be no Jar Jar Binks. Sadly there would not be a Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Leia Organa, Chewbacca, C-3P0 or R2 D2 either.

- Review by Cindy Alexander

Nine years in the making, Ditteke Mensink’s romantic and alluring historical docudrama, Farewell has finally made its way to the Hot Docs festival.  This documentary was an unexpected treat- after unsuccessfully waiting close to an hour in the rush line to get a ticket for the critically lauded documentary biopic ‘Bhutto’ – I decided to take a chance on Farewell based on the synopsis and glimpses of the archival footage displayed in the official trailer for the film.  Indeed, culled entirely from stunning archival footage from the maiden voyage of the Graf Zeppelin in 1929, Farewell tells the story of Lady Grace Drummond- Hay, a British journalist and star reporter working for U.S. newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, who was the first woman to travel around the world by air.

Hay was the only woman among a small gang of her male international journalist counterparts from all over the world who participated in the historic flight in August 1929 where the airship started from Lakehurst, New Jersey and arrived back in 21 days after stops in Friedrichshafen (Germany), Tokyo and Los Angeles.  But what would life be without a little romance?  Mensink punctuates the historic events (both in the air and on the ground) very nicely with a romantic subplot involving fellow journalist and real-life Hearst reporter Karl H. on Weigand.  Mensink has taken journal entries from Drummond-Hay’s account of the trip and has done a great job of weaving the real world politics of the time, a musical score (composed brilliantly by Paul M. Van Brugge), plus the majestic imagery of the archived footage and has composed a great work of experimental historical drama.  The personal character of Drummond-Hay was also pretty fascinating to watch.   The opening passages of the film help to introduce us to the motivations of our main protagonist and it is pretty easy getting on board (along with the help of voice actor Poppy Elliot’s sumptuous narration) with a woman trying to make her way in a man’s world- by using her gifts as a writer and the spectacle of the moment to really test her skills as a writer by getting her stories on the front pages of Hearst’s newspapers.  Some will say that a story like this was made for big-screen Hollywood entertainment, and that may be true, but there is an irresistible verisimilitude that has been created and crafted for this film that truly makes your heart soar.  Highly recommended.

- Review by Greg Ashman

A watercolour drawing from the Andrea Dorfman documentary 'Flawed'

Criticalmasscast Review of Flawed/Small Wonders- by G. Ashman

Small Wonders and Flawed are both intimate and timely entries to the Canadian Spectrum program for the Hot Docs festival.  Presented together, Flawed first presents a 12-min personal story told in gorgeous drawings done in black ink and watercolour by filmmaker Andrea Dorfman with accompanying narration.  The drawings help to keep the story light and visually interesting while Dorfman presents her philosophical take on self-esteem, growing-up, relationships, personal identity and even cosmetic surgery.  Flawed asks the deceptively complex question, “Why would you want to see yourself as ordinary when you can be extraordinary?” The documentary cleverly grounds this discussion in picture postcards sent back and forth between Dorfman and her future husband when they were starting to get to know each other at the beginning of their long-distance relationship: with Dorfman in Toronto and her cosmetic surgeon boyfriend in Halifax, Nova Scotia.  While one can see the potential of this story being expanded into an intriguing feature-length take on cosmetic surgery for children (which is apparently a huge reality), Dorfman instead takes a more insular take on her subject matter and grounds it in her own musings on childhood and adulthood insecurities regarding physical beauty.

Small Wonders is a documentary both directed and narrated by filmmaker Tally Abecassis.  Presented at a feature length of 52 mins, Abecassis’s subjects are allowed more screen time to let their personal stories breathe a bit.  The documentary focuses on the small Mom and Pop stores you encounter all the time in your neighbourhood that you know should probably be collapsing under the strain of stratospheric rents and the economic realities of the big box stores but still manage to stay afloat.  How can these businesses possibly endure?  What is their economic formulae for their continued success and/or survival?  Abecassis does a great job of breaking down (with a lot of genuine tenderness) the sense of tradition, identity and dignity these various shopowners reap from their occupations.  Touching and heartbreaking, the various portraits that are revealed are indeed wondrous: Whether it be ex-cassanova Peter who operates his watch repair business out of the corner of a barber shop or hardware store owner, Jae-Gil, a former motorcycle-riding tomboy who finds her store suddenly surrounded by (12!) big box stores these stories are inspiring and offer intriguing glimpses into a quickly dwindling element of modern urban and community culture.

Official Trailer for Small Wonders:

It is an interesting time being a consumer of big budget film entertainment these days. 3-D technology has both quickly and seamlessly become a force onto itself. It is feeling more and more natural to grab a pair of 3-D goggles along with your snacks and let the film you are watching take you along for the ride. Now my thoughts on 3-D technology in film are mixed but I am not going to stand on my soapbox and reprimand 3-D technology for completely sapping movies of their creative life while preaching false event-film status for the sake of grasping an extra two or three dollars out of your pocket- I have heard now that some New Yorkers have to cough up to $20(!) before taxes for a single adult IMAX 3-D ticket. Wow, looks like I managed to get a mini-rant in there anyway….

Despite all the economic implications for the consumer, 3-D can stand as a great tool to enhance the art of filmmaking. Most recently, the animated Dreamworks masterpiece, How to Train your Dragon- a film that is steadily reaping in the dough as it benefits greatly from outstanding word-of-mouth- was built from the ground up with many of its most thrilling sequences originally conceived in 3-D format. The extraordinary feeling of flight and naturalistic lighting effects (given a boost from consultant cinematographer Roger Deakins) would not be what they are without having the ability to feel some sense of three dimensional immersion. The film manages to pull off all of these amazing aesthetic touches- without casualties to its narrative and characterization- everything seems to work hand-in-hand. Other animated films like Henry Selick’s Coraline also used 3-D to great effect. Having the ability to really see up close all the dark macabre complexity of Coraline’s “other” world is definitely fascinating once it leaps off the screen as we tag along for the adventure alongside the title heroine. Now, 3-D technology employed in live-action entertainment is definitely more of a mixed bag. In animation you can pretty much have 100% control of the environment the viewer sees on screen but I think filmmakers are having a harder time making efficient use of this technology in “real-life” environments (take a look at the recent Clash of the Titans) . Sometimes it really works, though only in select scenes of big budget blockbusters- watching Brandon Routh catch a plummeting 747 in 2006′s otherwise lackluster Superman Returns or the climactic magical battle in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix between Dumbledore and Voldemort in the vaulted halls of the Ministry of Magic are truly spectacular sequences to behold for sure. No director as of yet has been able to pull off the great fully realized live-action 3-D experience yet- but there are signs that this may be changing with news that some masters of the traditional medium are taking chances on 3-D with their upcoming films. Recently, directors Martin Scorcese and Werner Herzog announced that they would be applying 3-D their artistry with their upcoming efforts. Scorcese will be adapting Brain Selznick’s astounding Caldecot-winning George Melies inspired picture book, “The Invention of Hugo Cabret”, while Herzog will use 3-D to explore France’s Chauvet Pont d’Arc Cave, an archaeological site containing the world’s oldest known cave paintings in his latest documentary. Both feature interesting environments- The Invention of Hugo Cabret, for example is an engaging combination of prose and lovingly detailed charcoal drawings. Set in 1930s Paris, the plot centers on a 12-year-old orphan named Hugo, who lives in a train station and must finish what his late father started by solving the mystery of a broken robot. The matching of a great storyteller with a great story could help us witness some of the best uses of 3-D to date…

The reason I bring up the effect current 3-D technology is having on the current landscape of cinema is that the film I wish to take a quick look at is a film that made similar and significant technical leaps in its own time and still stands as a great piece of entertainment. Premiering in 1940, The Thief of Bagdad: An Arabian fantasy was the creation of master producing impresario Alexander Corda and starred John Justin, Conrad Veidt, June Duprez, Rex Ingram as the Genie and the incomparable Sabu as the title thief. I recently discovered this film in its Criterion Collection incarnation on DVD and was immediately drawn to the material as it reminded me of the old-school Sinbad the Sailor and monster Stop-and-Go animated epics I used to enjoy as a child on Sunday afternoons. The film is actually a remake of the 1924 Douglas Fairbanks swashbuckling epic of the same name and was revolutionary for bringing a number of new technical innovations to the big screen such as large scale (and beautiful) matte paintings and blue screen projection. The film is also a marvel of small and large scale modelling and is lush in its technicolour presentation. Technicolour was still a new technology at the time and the fantasy Arabian setting of the film is perfect for indulging an audacious colour palette- and it just fits this environment full of magic, rich storytelling and compelling characters. The film tells the tale of an Arabian prince, played by Justin who is tricked into abandoning his throne by his Svengali-type vizier, Jaffer, played by the formidable Conrad Veidt who previous to this film, came to stardom in the silent film The Cabinet of Dr.Caligari and here he plays the villain to delicious effect. His talents as a silent film star play really well on the big screen- and his interactions with Justin and Duprez are priceless. The thing I really like about this film is how unaplogetically it indulges itself in the realm of filmic fantasy. The Disney version of the Aladdin tale might have brought the animated version of this tale to us in the 1990s, but Korda and company managed the task of bringing all the magic of that story to film audiences fifty years prior, and with the film making tools of that period. Watching a flying carpet sail high in the skies above Bagdad, to seeing the title hero crawl across a giant spider’s web with his stolen treasure in a dark cavern are the scenes that classic adventures are made of. Match all that action with an endearing hero (young ones will love Sabu’s playfulness in the role), a budding romance between prince and princess (Duprez and Justin manage to fall in love in one scene, but hey) and Rex Ingram’s exuberance as the mischievious genie- and you have a recipe for great entertainment. To quote Roger Ebert in his 2009 review of the fiim : “This 1940 movie is one of the great entertainments. It lifts up the heart”.

- Posted by Greg