Well this was my last film of the festival and sadly it was
the absolute worst. Avoid this film at all costs. Alan Berliner makes very personal
documentaries many of which have received awards but most of which are films I would
have zero interest. I really don’t need to gain insight into the personality of
the film maker or his views or prejudices. This documentary was billed as being
about the end of newspapers and was to focus on the New York Times (NYT) as an
example. I was intrigued but as the film starts you realize this is a
documentary about Berliner’s collection of photographs he has cut out of the
NYT over the last 40 years. It is sort of weird that he did this and catalogued
them under multiple categories but nonetheless he really could have done something
better with the movie. The 1.5 hour film is almost entirely made up of these images
– hundreds of them – with Berliner talking over them about almost anything that
came to mind, like how he experienced tear gas exposure personally and advice
on how to cope if you are, to food choices to occasionally something about the
NYT. It was boring to the max. It also contained all sorts of sound bites he
has also collected which were unrelated to the photographs for the most part and
mostly were really irritating. For example he had several – well many pictures
of people screaming. So of course, these were accompanied by the sound of
people screaming. It was loud, annoying, unannounced and in some cases prolonged.
It was so loud and irritating that I had to cover my ears. I hope you are getting
the message – don’t watch this movie ever.
Like Jojo Rabbit this film has been somewhat polarizing in the critic world. With a 50% rating on Rottentomatoes one would think this is not worth seeing but I would beg to differ. The reviews of the critics are either very pro or very con and not much in between. I found the same to be true of the critical response to Jojo Rabbit. The division comes down to whether or not you feel satire is an okay response to events that have caused great harm or are undeniably evil. Fair comment but I think one needs to be more nuanced about the message. While the Nazis who are mocked in Jojo Rabbit might rightly be called the epitome of evil the film was intended as a warning to us all about how easily populist movements like Nazism and leaders like Hitler can rise to power. In the case of The Laundromat Soderbergh has taken a satirical approach to the release of the Panama Papers that exposed a small part of the international financial structures that allow the very rich to hide their wealth and avoid taxes. The ease by which money laundering is done and tolerated was well known but the Panama Papers made it very transparent for a brief time and represented only a small part of the overall problem. I am not sure how else one can take on this story without being satirical. The docudrama approach is narrated by Jurgen Mossack and Ramon Fonseca of the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca and played by Gary Oldman and Antonio Banderas. Meryl Streep is a recurring character who has been impacted by the international money laundering scheme after she is denied an insurance settlement after her husband is killed in a boating accident. She continues to pursue the people behind the scam.
The reality is that this scheme has had impact on ordinary people but the real crime is tax avoidance and the impact that has on the those of us who do pay our fair share. The people who fall with the release of the Panama Papers are very wealthy or well connected politically. The film uses a series of stories about individuals to highlight the nature of the financial scams but the point at the end is that despite the revelations nothing has really been done to resolve the problem and only a handful of very wealthy people were forced to resign their jobs or suffered financial ruin. Mossack and Fonseca themselves spent only 3 months in prison for their actions and continue to do the work they always did. I thought Oldman and Banderas did a great job of putting it in our faces. The scene where they are released from prison is great satire as they mock the viewer. Personally I would take issue with the critics that say the crimes were treated lightly by this film. Satire is all we have left when nothing of substance as been done to address the issues and I was definitely left angry at the lack of reform but got to at least cheer Meryl Streep at the end. I can’t tell you why I cheered or I would spoil the end but I will put myself in the positive column and urge you to see this film. It’s a Netflix production so should show up on your app soon.
This looked like a fun romp particularly with Donald
Sutherland and Mick Jagger as supporting actors. The director wanted to make a
Hitchcockian thriller about an art forgery that goes wrong in a very creepy
way. The idea was to build the story and tension slowly so that you and to some
extent the characters really had no idea where things were headed. The trouble
is that the result was incredibly boring up until the final 20-30 minutes. The
story opens at a lecture given by the lead actor – Claes Bang — and ultimate
villain of the piece. The scene is clever and points to the issues of truth and
fiction that the director wants to play with. Enters the female lead Elizabeth
Debicki who comes to seduce him but you really have no idea why she is there or
why she chooses him or really anything. At any rate for the next hour or so we follow
these two around as they plan a trip to interview a famous artist played by Donald
Sutherland. It takes literally forever to get there. Boring would be too nice a
word. The only thing that makes you think Hitchcock and only when you look back
is that the lead occasionally hints that he may not be all he seems. Still
boring. The pace picks up at the very end as Jagger and Sutherland enter the script
and the screen. Jagger is a rich art collector who is hosting the artist
Sutherland on his estate in hopes of acquiring a new masterpiece. Sutherland
however is playing his own game and while he pretends to work on new creations
is actually doing nothing. When this is revealed to Claes Bang he loses it and
decides to burn the studio and steal a blank canvas labelled Brunt Orange Heresy
on which he intends to paint a fake creation and sell it as the real thing. The
action does pick up all in a rush as there is a murder (of Elizabeth Debicki)
as the psychopathic nature of Claes Bang’s character is revealed for what it
is. Still it all is very contrived and does not make up for the boredom of the
first 2/3rds of the film. I will say that the few scenes with Sutherland and
particularly Jagger are fun but maybe not worth the wait.
After the terrorist strike on Sept. 11, 2001 the US reacted with
an enormous effort to shut down Muslim terrorist organizations. There was
definitely a belief that the actions of the terrorists had to be met with
equally ruthless reaction and that this had to happen to protect the US from
any further attacks. Hundreds of
suspected terrorists were captured in an effort to stop attacks and hunt down
Osama bin Laden. The CIA instituted black sites in other countries and established
a prison in Guantanamo that would all be outside US legal jurisdiction.
Questioning of the prisoners included what was euphemistically called enhanced
interrogation techniques but was actually brutal torture. While the CIA moved
on there were those in the US Senate who suspected what was going on and wanted
to stop it. A senate investigator named Daniel Jones was the one who hunted
down the evidence and brought it forward. This film documents this endeavour in
dramatic form. Daniel Jones is played by Adam Driver, Senator Dianne Feinstein is
played by Annette Bening and Dennis McDonough, the White House Chief Staff was
played by Jon Hamm lead and excellent cast. This was one of most shameful episodes
in recent US history and the film does and excellent job of following its development
over more than a decade. There is some graphic film of the torture itself which
I could really have done without, but the director has made a film that reminds
me of All the President’s Men and similar political thrillers. Although the
whole thing was about research and report writing it was a real edge of your
seat thing. Worth your time although not likely Oscar stuff.
The Q and A was a treat. The director came out with Jon Hamm
and although Adam Driver was not there we got the real thing – Daniel Jones. It
was a good talk with good questions from the audience and Hamm was a major wit
that had us all laughing. Maybe the best line was when an audience member asked
Jones how the writing of the report and its ultimate release has affected his
life. His response: “Well they made a movie about me.” Not many can say that.
I was attracted to this film by Hugh Jackman in a non superhero
role and in part by the story. The film dramatizes an ugly event in the public
education system in New York. Based on a real story it chronicles the years
long embezzlement of funds by senior administrators and how easily they are able
to do it and cover it up because of their senior positions and the academic success
they brought to the schools over which they had authority and the communities
in which those schools existed. Jackman is superb as the evil administrator who
is manipulative and greedy. (I really liked him last year as Gary Hart in The
Front Runner and he does even better here.) What jackman’s character does not
anticipate is a young student with ambitions to become a journalist who slowly
but inevitably exposes the crimes. The remarkable thing is that the exposé is first
published in the student newspaper and only after that picked up by major media
like the New York Times. Jackman and his accomplices in crime are arrested and
convicted. End of story. The interpersonal aspects include the fact that Jackman’s
character is gay and, in the closet, although he has been living with his
partner for 30 years. In the course of the film and completely unrelated to his
crimes he starts an affair with a young man in Las Vegas that he eventually tries
to join when the embezzlement scheme starts to collapse around him. In the end
we have a great acting performance that left me thinking so what? There did not
seem to be any point to this film other than to dramatize a crime and the
ending was literally pointless. Even the affair with the guy in Vegas was
irrelevant. I think the film would have been far far better if the focus had
been on the young student who brought the crimes to light and the impact her
work had on her but that all seems a sidelight to the story. So unless you are
a huge Jackman fan you can give this film a miss.
Jojo is the name of a young German boy growing up in Nazi
Germany near the end of World War II. In order not to cause any trouble his mother
has allowed him to join the Hitler Youth and he in on the surface a proud Nazi
and keen to get better. He has an invisible friend in a caricature Adolf Hitler
(played by the director Waititi) who visits him in times of crisis to encourage
his devotion to the fatherland. However, Jojo is not really into the whole Nazi
thing. He is asked to prove his devotion by killing a rabbit during a Hitler
Youth training day and he can’t bring himself to do it earning him the name Jojo
Rabbit. While home alone one day he learns that his mother, played by Scarlett Johansson,
is actually part of the resistance and is hiding a young Jewish woman in their
house. Jojo is conflicted as he grows to be friends with the young woman and
realizes that Jews are not the monsters he has been led to believe. All this
sounds very dramatic and serious but Waititi is a great satirist and the film manages
to be very funny while wrestling with very serious issues. It successfully makes
mockery of Hitler, Nazis and anti-Semitism while not minimizing the destructiveness
of the kind of populist politics that led to the rise of the Nazis. The
audience at the Elgin gave the film a huge standing ovation and the Q and A was
excellent. When asked about the theme and his satirical approach, Waititi said
that the he felt it was important that the issues of populism and anti-Semitism
needed to be brought forward again and again because as a society we very
quickly and easily forget the horrors that come with this kind of politics. He noted
a recent survey that found over 60% of millennials in the US could not say what
Auschwitz was or what happened there. That in itself is frightening. I thought
the film was a huge success and it is interesting how it is being received.
While the audience was clearly loving it and making it a challenger for the People’s
Choice Award, many reviewers have panned it. A quick look at rottentomatoes.com
gives it a 55% rating based on 11 reviews: 6 loving it and 5 not so much.
Clearly it is a controversial way to take on the issues but my bottom line is
that it does it very well.
As many of you know I am big fan of Fred Rogers and I loved
the documentary that came out last year. I am also a fan of Tom Hanks, but I was
not sure a dramatic film about Fred Rogers would work or that anyone could
capture his unique character. My fears were unfounded. The film is excellent,
and Hanks does a remarkable job of capturing him on and off camera. The story
is not focussed on Rogers himself but rather on a journalist who is struggling
with many personal problems and is assigned to write a short 400-word piece on
Rogers for Esquire magazine as part of a series on American heroes. He resists because
he sees himself as a serious investigative journalist and has zero respect for
some guy who entertains kids. As the film progresses, we learn more about the
journalist’s family and his deep anger and hatred for his father. He reluctantly
heads off to interview Rogers and slowly is drawn into his character and authenticity.
I will not go into the details of the relationship that grows over time but
needless to say it is worth your time and is a very honest and challenging film.
One spoiler, the journalist ends up not writing a 400 word profile but rather a
10,000 word article that headlined Esquire in 2017. I highly recommend you see
this and try to see the documentary Won’t You Be my Neighbor. Director Heller
recommended we all see both films even in conjunction if possible. I totally
agree and also read the Esquire article you will find here:
I was not expecting the turn this film took but I thoroughly
enjoyed my time. In what I took to be a police procedural is in fact a tribute
film to classic whodunits from Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot to Columbo. The
cast is amazing including Christopher Plummer as the victim, Daniel Craig as
the detective and suspects including Michael Shannon, Don Johnson, Jamie Lee Curtis
and Chris Evans among others. A crime novelist is found dead in his study. Police
arrive with private detective Craig to investigate if it was suicide or…..
murder. Craig is convinced he was murdered and knows someone in the family is
guilty but as the investigation proceeds the twists and possible motives spin
out. The script is hilarious, and nothing is taken too seriously by the writers
so we are all laughing along as we try to piece together the clues. We get flashbacks
to the night of the murder with Christopher Plummer playing the victim as he gives
all family members a reason to kill him. I confess the dialogue was rapid fire
and I really need to see it again to fully appreciate the whole story. We had a
great Q and A with insightful questions that led to some great insight into how
the film was made, what was scripted and what was ad lib and directorial
decisions. Finally it included a great story from Jamie Lee Curtis about one of
her very first on screen appearances with Peter Falk in Columbo. If you see me I
will tell you the story. Its hilarious. In conclusion I think this movie has a
good chance to make the People’s Choice Award but if not you should still try
to see it. Rian Johnson was asked if Craig would be back in a sequel and his
answer was to shrug and recommend we tell all our friends and acquaintances to
go see the movie when it is released and … we will see. So since Craig needs a
new job after 007 lets support this new direction.
I confess this movie was not exactly what I expected from Michael
Winterbottom and Steve Coogan. My favourite film collaboration these two have
done is The Trip which is a very funny road trip movie that all should see if
you haven’t. Greed, although full of absurdity and humour has a very serious
message. Basically the message is that its time to cut capitalism and
capitalists off at the knees. The sooner the better. Steve Coogan plays a
hugely successful High Street billionaire who has made his fortune in the
fashion industry but also by taking advantage of all the lack of rules and
regulations that favour the rich. The main plot line is about his plans to celebrate
his 60th birthday with a huge Roman Empire themed party on a beach
in Greece including building a fake amphitheatre to host a gladiator fight with
a real lion. Everyone is to dress up as Roman aristocrats or slaves and party
all day and night. As preparations proceed over the days leading up to the
party flashbacks take us back to his origins as a student in private school,
his initial start financing of various fashion start ups and his realization
that the way to make money in fashion is to take advantage of the poverty level
wages and horrendous working conditions in countries like Bangladesh and Myanmar.
We have scenes of Coogan facing down a parliamentary enquiry showing the
impotence of our politicians to stop the abuse and we watch as Coogan abuses
everyone around him as he marches relentlessly forward. David Mitchell of the
Mitchell and Webb Look plays a writer who has been hired to write a sympathetic
biography of Coogan’s character but who becomes increasingly horrified at what
he learns about this ruthless capitalist ripping off everyone around him for
his personal gain. Nonetheless like many others around Coogan he proceeds to do
his job and paint a sympathetic picture of the man.
I know all this sounds extremely serious and scary but in
fact Winterbottom manages to do all this with a brilliantly satirical script
that keeps you laughing as you watch in horror at what is unfolding and it may
be needless to say, but the lion who we visit several times in his cage during
the film plays a key and cathartic role in the climactic scene. The closing credits
include a series of statistics about the incredible inequality between the
greedy rich and the very poor that the system we live in maintains and
encourages. It helps give perspective to what you just watched. We were lucky
to have Winterbottom and Coogan at the showing for a brief Q and A during which
they emphasized the message of the film. Coogan and Michell were my two
favourite actors in the film. I was particularly impressed by Mitchell who I have
only seen in sketch comedy before but who showed some really acting depth. The
rest of the cast are also great including a group of actual Syrian refugees who
now settled in Greece were playing the role of recently arrived refugees occupying
the beach where the party was to be held and really annoying Coogan by their
presence.
This is movie I will watch again because the dialogue is
rapid and full of wit. I missed some of it that I dearly want to catch on a
second viewing. Great fun and a great message. I highly recommend this one to
all.
Took a break from TIFF to go the Hot Docs cinema and see
part of a remarkable German TV documentary series. We saw two episodes from the
series which highlights some of the world’s great art museums with a focus on some
selected works they exhibit. Each episode is an hour and is hosted by a really bright
and funny British art historian and academic. He hosts from a darkened production
room with multiple video screens that reminds you of something like the Tardis
from Dr. Who. Meanwhile you are entertained with great video of the museums and
the artwork they contain described by a host who is present and takes you to their
favourite paintings or sculptures and give their reasons for liking them. The
hosts are not artists or art experts but rather from other artistic fields. In
the case of these two episodes a modern dance choreographer for the Musee d’Orsay
and at The Uffizi a fashion designer. The descriptions are therefore more about
how the art impacts the viewer rather than a boring art lesson. The series looks
at the museums themselves and their history and design and rather than looking
at all the amazing art contained within we look in detail at a handful of great
works. I really enjoyed the two episodes and look forward to the whole series being
more generally available on one streaming service or another. If you enjoy museums
and art keep you eyes open at the Hot Docs schedule for further episodes.