Category Archives: Loved it

Chasing Coral, Director – Jeff Orlovski

Documentary, Hot Docs 2017, Loved it, Uncategorized

The best movie of the whole week. Jeff Orlovski came to Hot Docs with a film called Chasing Ice which documented the collapse of the world’s glaciers. The current chase is documenting the bleaching of the world’s coral reefs. In both cases we are introduced to the telling signs of climate change and the devastation it will cause even if we were to do what is necessary to cut fossil fuel emissions. This movie like Chasing ice is beautifully filmed as the director and the people who are the focus of the film travel around the world to conduct their research. As well as the films being visually stunning, Orlovski also introduces us to the researchers who have their own story to tell. The combination of cinematography and characters make the films informative and highly engaging.

In Chasing Coral we are given incredible underwater images of reefs in the Caribbean, near Hawaii and on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. Using time lapse photography we are shown the terrible damage even small changes in the water affect the health of the reefs and the speed with which it is happening. The problem we have with recognizing how fast climate change is occurring and how fast the damage it causes happens is the difficulty in filming the changes. In this film and in the previous film the researchers have tremendous difficulty collecting the necessary evidence due to the difficult conditions and because they are the first to try to film the changes. The films document that difficulty as well as the ultimate success. Not only are we the viewers stunned with the rapidity of change but so are the researchers. While they express hope that we can stop or reverse the damage, their faces betray their pessimism. They make it clear that this is not just about the decline of glaciers and coral reefs but about how those declines are going to result in more major changes that our society and civilization may not be able to survive. This film and the previous Chasing Ice are important for everyone to see. Chasing Ice is currently available on Netflix and Chasing Coral will also be available later this summer.

Brother’s Keeper, Directors – Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky

Documentary, Hot Docs 2017, Loved it, Uncategorized

Brother’s Keeper is a film that was released 25 years ago and was a landmark film in that it was an example of verité documentary style. The filmmakers followed the murder trial of a man accused of murdering his brother. The film focussed on four brothers who lived together in poverty and squalor on their diary farm in rural New York State. One day they awoke to find the eldest dead in his bed apparently having died in his sleep. The coroner however determines that it appears he was suffocated and suspicion falls on his brother who shared the bed with him. The police decide to charge the brother with murder. The case drew statewide and nationwide attention as the small community came to the defence of the brother and raised awareness of the whole trial. The directors decided it would make an interesting study and without knowing the outcome came and asked permission to follow the process over several months. The images of the three remaining brothers in their poverty and illiteracy facing off against the prosecution is difficult to watch but very powerful. We were lucky enough to have Joe Berlinger there for a Q and A which gave even greater insight to the making of the film. I will not tell you the end as this is a movie you all should see but the verité style combined with brilliant editing make the story moving. Politically relevant, and full of tension too. It is available on Netflix and it is worth your time to find it and watch it.

Bill Nye: Science Guy, Director – David Alvarado and Jason Sussberg

Documentary, Hot Docs 2017, Loved it, Uncategorized

I am guessing that many of you will know of Bill Nye, a nerdy American TV personality famous for his 1990’s kid’s science show “Bill Nye the Science Guy”. This documentary introduces you to the current version of Bill and his new initiatives and advocacy for science and a science based approach to issues of the day. I have always been a big fan of Nye and his goal to get children interested in science and being scientists but more recently he has moved on to a quest of challenging the war on science being waged by right wing politicians and evangelical and socially conservative Christians. The film takes us to the Ark Park and Creation Museum in Kentucky run by Ken Ham and a Christian organization known as Answers in Genesis. The two theme parks are attempts to debunk evolution and our scientific understanding of the origin of the universe and support the Genesis myth as fact. We follow Nye as he visits the two sites and confronts the nonsense of Ken Ham and the nonsense promoted at the two parks. The parks are promoted to schools and we see many children touring the sites and being indoctrinated. Nye laments this and argues for enhancing science education in public schools and the media. While this is part of his crusade we also see his efforts to confront climate deniers and push for acceptance of the science around climate change. Some of this is best content in the movie as he meets with leading climate deniers and defeats them in debate. Many have accused Nye of giving the creationists and climate deniers a platform by debating them in public but he argues that they already have been given platforms by the fossil fuel industry and mainstream media. They need to be confronted with the truth. Finally, we see his most recent role as the CEO of The Planetary Society, a non-profit organization that promotes space exploration through research and education. The organization was founded by Carl Sagan and Nye is honoured and humbled to have ben asked to lead it. The project we follow is the launch and deployment of a solar sail. The latter was a pet project of Sagan who argued it was a way for man to reach the nearest stars within our lifetime. Sagan’s initial effort failed and the launch craft crashed on take off but Nye succeeds in launching a prototype and opening the door to this innovative technology. All in all a hopeful, optimistic film about a leading advocate for science in a world increasingly plagued with fake news and oppression of science and scientists.

A Friendship in Tow/Toe, Director – Atsushi Kuwayama

Documentary, Hot Docs 2017, Loved it, Uncategorized

This was a very short ten-minute doc that was likely my second favourite of the 2017 Hot Docs Festival. Directed by a Japanese director and set on a long stairway in a hilly part of Lisbon it follows an elderly disabled Portuguese woman as she is assisted up the stairs by a young Japanese tourist. On the way they talk but the language difficulties make it a comedy of errors as they struggle to climb and understand one another. The conversation and the setting are the whole story so I won’t spoil it by detailing it but only to tell you it is humourous, human and lovely. The film ends as they reach the summit and part ways. Worth a watch if you get the opportunity. Here is a link to the trailer to give you a sense of it: https://sushikuwayama.com/ate-a-procima/

Kong: Skull Island – Director, Jordan Vogt-Roberts

Adventure, Great Trash, Loved it, Uncategorized

Okay… I guess many think “oh my God not another King Kong movie! Its been done to death”. There is some truth to this and I also thought this when I first heard about it but… It’s awesome. What changed my mind was the cast that includes Tom Hiddleston (the Night Manager), John Goodman (Argo, Trumbo and many others) Brie Larson (Room), Samuel L. Jackson (Snakes on a Plane) and John C. Reilly (The Lobster). Then a review from Eli Glasner who described it as a B-movie on steroids and others who called it Apocalypse Now meets Kong. I was sold and when I went I was not disappointed. Glasner was absolutely right and as soon as you suspend disbelief and get into the fun you will enjoy this movie. Hiddleston is great in the lead role and everyone in the cast is clearly having a great time. The special effects are also excellent. Set in the early 1970’s the story is about an expedition of scientists with an army escort heading off to a mysterious island in the remote Pacific. Once they arrive it is not long before they encounter Kong and not only Kong but a whole island of monsters from which they must escape. Brie Larson is a great Fay Wray, John C. Reilly adds comic relief as a World War II US pilot who crash landed on the island and has been there for more than 30 years. All in total fun and adventure. Enjoy.

Paterson – Director, Jim Jarmusch

Comedy, Drama, Loved it, Uncategorized

Paterson was a popular film at TIFF last year and one I couldn’t fit into my schedule which I now regret. I just saw it at a local review cinema and totally loved it. The cast consists of some not very well known character actors who turn in an ensemble performance that is captivating. Adam Driver plays a bus driver named Paterson in the small New Jersey town of Paterson. Yes, he has the same name as the town he was born in and has lived in all his life. The film follows a week in Paterson’s life, each day much the same as the next and giving us a glimpse into the day to day lives of our hero and his community. The unique aspect of our bus driver is his love of poetry and he himself is a poet, writing his poetry in a small secret notebook during his free time. As far as I could tell, Paterson kept his poetry to himself and shared only snippets to his wife. His wife urges him to make a copy of his work and he promises to do so but in the end never gets around to it.

The film’s charm lies in the dialogue and the quirky characters including Paterson’s flakey artistic wife, the bartender at his local pub and its customers, the conversations of the bus riders, and Marvin the English Bulldog Paterson takes for a walk each evening. The climax of the film, if one can have a climax in a film with no real plot, comes when Paterson’s secret notebook is destroyed and all his poetry is lost. He is clearly devastated but the emotion is hidden. He clearly wrote the poetry for himself and meant it only to record his personal view of life and the world. At the end of the film he has an unexpected encounter with a visitor to the town that reopens the door to his poetry and redeems his loss. A simple but moving end to a simple but remarkable look at an ordinary life. For an entertaining evening and a relaxing hopeful look at life, I can’t recommend this film more. Enjoy!

Fire at Sea – Director, Gianfranco Rossi

Documentary, Loved it, Oscar 2017, Uncategorized

fire-at-sea

Another amazing documentary and makes you wonder why only one film needs to win. Again it is a very long movie at nearly two hours which I feel stretches the patience of audiences and can take from the power of the story. This film is about Lampadusa, the small Italian island between Italy and Tunisia where many of the refugees fleeing Africa and the Middle East end up… if they are lucky. Far too many die in the attempt. The movie has no narration but simply shows images of the various characters: the refugees, a young Italian boy who is a resident of the island and a doctor who provides primary care to the islanders and serves as emerg doc and pathologist/coroner and primary care doctor to the refugees. Although the movie is long it is engrossing and as one reviewer said: You really don’t want it to end. It is unresolved and offers no solutions hopeful or not to the crisis of the refugees and work that the Italian authorities provide to serve and help them. As we in Canada see our own small crisis of for now only a few hundred desperate people crossing the border in freezing conditions, we would be well advised to learn more of the struggles current in the Mediterranean. They may well be visited on us at the enormous migration of populations continues in the face of war and climate change. The most powerful scene in the movie in my opinion is a scene in which the doctor shows an image of a young teenage boy covered in chemical burns caused by wearing clothes soaked in sea water and diesel fuel. They may well be fatal he says. He has seen terrible things. Dead children, pregnant women, babies born on the boats dead with their umbilical cords still attached…. He says his colleagues tell him that he must be immune to the horror after seeing so much but he pauses and says: It’s not true, will never be true. A powerful story.

13th: From Slave to Criminal with one Amendment – Director, Ava DuVernay

Documentary, Loved it, Oscar 2017, Uncategorized

shorts

This is a very powerful documentary although very long. The latter element may excuse it from winning but that should not discourage you from watching it. It is a Netflix production so easily available. The title refers to the 13th amendment to the US Constitution that outlaws slavery but specifically excludes criminals from this protection. The film argues very convincingly that the current US obsession with punishing crime by imprisonment is simply one step in the process of ensuring people of colour and particularly blacks are kept oppressed and enslaved. The film opens with Obama’s statement that while the US holds 5% of the world’s population it holds 25% of the world’s prison population and the black population makes up a highly disproportional number of those prisoners. Prisoners are kept increasingly in privately run prisons which little oversight of conditions. Prisoners are now a key part of the US labour force hired out to firms from agriculture to Victoria’s Secret, although the latter company stopped the practice when it was revealed and customers objected. Still the US economy is increasingly reliant on this labour source not unlike the American south was reliant on slaves prior to the Civil War. Part of the problem with this film is its attempt to tie together two related stories. The first is the clear effort of the US to keep people of colour oppressed and in many cases enslaved. This goes back the Jim Crow laws following the abolishment of slavery and more recently the use of the criminal justice system to maintain that oppression. The second part is the whole US Criminal justice system and the corporatization of the prison system. Imprisonment is an increasingly capitalist driven process rather than justice driven and it is not just blacks and people of colour that suffer. While this adds complexity and length to the film and I think hurts the narrative it is a hugely important film and a must see for all. It won the BAFTA award and deserves a shot at an Oscar as well.

Hidden Figures – Director, Ted Melfi

Drama, Loved it, Oscar 2017, Uncategorized

Great movie! I really enjoyed this film. You can just sit back and enjoy a remarkable story about three black women who, in the early 1960’s, did the mathematics that let John Glenn orbit the earth. Math? I hear your cry. A movie about math? Well yes and a true story too. The film is set in Virginia at the NASA space center in the middle of the racist US south. It tells the story of a team of black women mathematicians who solved the problems of launching a manned space vehicle into orbit and brought it back to earth safely. John Glenn’s historic flight was totally dependent on the work of these women who were locked away in a segregated work room and posed the mathematical problems that needed solving before there were computers to do the work. They were called the computers and checked the work of the all male scientists working in another area of the centre. The breaking points came when the mission planning team needed someone who knew analytic geometry, that elevated one of the women to work with the male team (humiliating the men) and then the installation of a new IBM computer (which would take the jobs of the team of female computers) stalled. Again, it was the women who stepped up, learned the programming language and saved the installation and their jobs at the same time. One of the remarkable aspects of the film was the accepted segregation policies at the work place including washrooms, drinking fountains and coffee urns. It is an aspect of life at the time that we now find unbelievable but was common place at the time and is confronted during telling the story. The cast is great: Taraji P. Henson, Janelle Monáe, and Octavia Spencer play the lead roles and are supported by the likes of Jim Parsons (Sheldon Cooper) and Kevin Costner and Kirsten Dunst among many others. The cast won the Screen Actor’s Guild Award for Best Ensemble Cast. Interestingly the film to win the SAG Ensemble Cast award has also won the Oscar’s Best Picture nearly 50 percent of the time. So….if you were looking for a dark horse candidate to beat out Manchester by the Sea or Moonlight this might be it.

Hacksaw Ridge – Director, Mel Gibson

Adventure, Drama, Loved it, Oscar 2017, Uncategorized

I have to admit I was sceptical about this movie when I went to see it. Mel Gibson has been, let us say, controversial in recent years although I have always been fan from the days of Gallipoli, Mad Max, and Lethal Weapon to name but a few. My philosophy has always been to like the actor’s roles if not the actor’s real persona (i.e. Tom Cruise, Matthew McConaughey etc). But Directors are something else. Gibson however dazzles in this film. A warning to those who do not like graphic violence or depictions of battle, you may not enjoy some of the scenes. The film tells the true story of Desmond Doss, a conscientious objector in the Second World War who enlisted and served as a medic. He refused to carry a weapon which cost him much respect from his fellow soldiers and commanders during his training and initial deployments. At the battle of Hacksaw Ridge on Okinawa, he redeems himself in the eyes of his comrades. As the marines were beaten back by Japanese troops he remained at the top of the ridge and single handedly rescued 75 wounded soldiers one by one including his commanding officer. He is the only medic to receive the Congressional Medal of Honour for bravery under fire. The story of his struggle and the respect he won for his bravery and his refusal to carry a weapon and kill others is exciting and moving. At the end of the film some of the characters who are alive are interviewed and lend reality to what is a remarkable film. It has five nominations including Best Picture, Best Director and three technical awards for Sound and Editing all deserved. The fact that it has not received any acting nominations is somewhat disappointing. I thought the performance of Andrew Garfield as Desmond Doss and Hugo Weaving as his father were superb. The editing nomination is also well deserved as you sit on the edge of your seat during the rescue of the 75. Clearly Mel has learned something after all these years of film making.