2006-02-01

It's only a week and a half after the fact this year. I present to you my reviews of the 10th annual local Canadian film fest, which I've volunteered at for the past three years.

C.R.A.Z.Y.

Excellent coming-of-age/coming-out film about Zac, a boy growing up in a strict Catholic French-Canadian family in the 1960s and 1970s. The lead actor who plays Zac from ages 15 to 21 is amazing. The film smoothly switches back and forth from humour to drama--sometimes within a few seconds--and though the film covers a lot of emotional territory, it�s never sentimental. The soundtrack ranges from the Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Jefferson Airplane and Pink Floyd to French singer Charles Aznavour, Patsy Cline, and a Montreal boys� choir. The acting is all first-rate�-I had no problem believing that these people were supposed to be a family�-and the set design perfectly evokes the Quebec of the 1970s.

Grizzly Man

Holy shit, what a bucket full of crazy. This documentary by Werner Herzog is a posthumous look at Timothy Treadwell, a troubled ex-addict who one day had an epiphany and decided to live with grizzly bears in a remote part of Alaska every summer for 13 years, until he and his girlfriend were killed and eaten by a grizzly. For the last 5 years of his life Treadwell brought a film camera with him and Herzog deftly mixes Treadwell�s often-amazing footage of the bears with present-day interviews of Treadwell�s friends, critics, and former lovers. Although there are some beautiful shots of wildlife and wilderness, this movie is really about human vanity, self-centredness, and obsession.

Grizzly Man is currently available on DVD.

The Dark Hours

I neglected to notice that the poster for this movie advertised the award it had won at the �Dead By Dawn� Horror Film Festival, so I was not quite prepared for its level of gore. Let�s just say that by the time we got to the digit amputation by pliers, I was a wrung-out mess. The movie is a suspense thriller about a psychiatrist who works with violent criminals. I won�t ruin it for you by telling you too much more, but I will say that the movie maintains a very good level of tension, the acting is good, and despite being a pretty low-budget film, the production values are comparable to a high-budget Hollywood movie. I thought this was much better than the similarly-themed Gothika, for example. Not my kind of film, but I can appreciate that it was well-made.

The Life and Hard Times of Guy Terrifico

This is a Spinal Tap-style mockumentary (yes, that word makes me cringe but it�s so descriptive) about a fictional Canadian folk-blues-country-rock star from the 1960s/1970s. The story is that Guy Terrifico was born in small-town Alberta to Ukrainian immigrant parents and then grew up to become a brief shining star on the North American music scene, only to die young under mysterious circumstances. There are some great cameos here from the likes of Kris Kristofferson, Merle Haggard, Jim Cuddy from Blue Rodeo, Levon Helm from The Band, and Ronnie Hawkins. There are some great performances by the actors, particularly Natalie Radford as Guy�s girlfriend/wife, and the �archival� footage looks authentic and blends in nicely with real archival footage of, for example, Kris Kristofferson accepting his award at the Country Music Awards. My main issue with this movie is that it�s too long. There are some truly hilarious bits here, but unfortunately the film is not as sharp as it could be, because the pacing drags in spots. It�s like the filmmakers were having so much fun they couldn�t bear to part with any of the footage. I find it hard to believe the movie is only 86 minutes long; it felt a lot longer and that�s not a good thing. With some better editing, I think this movie has real potential--the ending has a good payoff, but the middle sags and drags too much.

Where the Truth Lies

This movie by Atom Egoyan is based on a novel by Rupert Holmes, the same Rupert Holmes of �The Pina Colada Song� fame. I admit I had never heard of that song but apparently it�s quite famous. Anyway, Rupert can write a good mystery (I�ve read his other book, Swing, and it's very entertaining) and here Egoyan does the story justice with beautiful cinematography and some great performances by Kevin Bacon, Colin Firth, and Alison Lohmann. The story is set in the 1970s, with flashbacks to the 1950s. The main characters are a pair of comedians who become entangled in the unsolved murder of a young woman, and the young journalist who resolves to find out the truth 20 years later. Those of you who have only seen Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice, or Mark Darcy in Bridget Jones� Diary should be prepared to see a more sinister version of the man in this film. (Still a handsome devil, though--at least until he starts sporting the unfortunate 1970s 'stache.)

Metal: A Headbanger�s Journey

In the interests of full disclosure, I should mention that I have had the pleasure of meeting Sam Dunn and Scot Mcfadyen, the filmmakers behind this wonderful documentary�-they flew all the way from Toronto to attend our festival and do an audience Q and A after the screening. However, even if I hadn�t met them, I still would have given this film a rave review. Dunn and Mcfadyen have made a movie that will appeal to heavy metal fans and non-fans alike. The movie takes an anthropological approach to examining the roots and culture of heavy metal music. There are excellent interviews with such music icons as Alice Cooper and Dee Snyder (of Twisted Sister), as well as sociologists and musicologists who provide insight into topics like gender and metal music. In one memorable segment, the filmmakers even interview some scary neofascist Norwegian church-burning metal musicians. Not only is the content interesting, smart, and entertaining, but the pacing of the film is also excellent�not once did I feel bored or that the movie was lagging or overlong. I look forward to the sequel, which will examine metal in a global context.

La Vie Avec Mon Pere

This French-Canadian film is an unexpected heart-warmer. It starts out as a slightly farcical comedy about two grown sons dealing with the return of their eccentric novelist father, but becomes a more serious and thought-provoking film about the difficulties of caring for an aging parent, escaping family roles and expectations, and becoming the person you want to be, rather than who you think you should be. I particularly enjoyed the character of the father, played with great enthusiasm by Raymond Bouchard.

Water

I�ve read some reviews that compare Water unfavourably to director Deepa Mehta�s previous films in the �Elements� trilogy (Earth and Fire). However, I�ve never seen those movies, so I have no basis for comparison. I thought Water was moving, beautifully filmed, and well-acted. The story is set in 1930s India and revolves around the plight of widows isolated from society in an ashram. The movie begins with a father talking to his seven-year-old daughter, asking her if she remembers getting married (she doesn�t) and telling her that her husband has died and now she is a widow. Sorrowful, yet mindful of religious and cultural tradition, the girl�s father takes her to the widows� home and leaves her there, where she cries for her mother. Well, where do you go from there? Mehta introduces us to the women in the widows� home: the often-cruel �head widow,� who pimps out the young widow Kalyani (played by Lisa Ray), who is the only one of the women allowed to keep her head unshorn. The women live in poverty, unable to earn money by any means other than prostituting out one of their own. Things get complicated when a local Brahmin scholar, back from his British university, happens to meet and fall in love with the lovely Kalyani, who, as a widow, is not allowed to remarry. The movie tackles huge issues such as systemic sexism that Mehta argues is actually based not in religious belief but in economic expedience. Gandhi himself makes an appearance, giving us an idea of the climate of social and political change bubbling beneath the surface of Indian society, but at the end of the movie a sober footnote informs us that though the film is set in the 1930s, there are still 30 million widows in India living in poverty, like the women in the movie. As my friend pointed out after the credits rolled, this is approximately equivalent to the population of Canada.

Whole New Thing

This film by newcomer Amnon Buchbinder won several awards at the 2005 Atlantic Film Festival. Apparently loosely based on Buchbinder�s childhood, Whole New Thing is about the chaos that is unleashed when Emerson (Aaron Webber), homeschooled 13-year-old child of hippie parents, is enrolled against his will in the local middle school. Despite his initial (and continuing) misgivings about the institution of school in general, Emerson forges a bond with his English teacher, Mr. Grant. (Daniel McIvor). When Emerson develops a crush on Mr. Grant, it sets in motion a chain of events that can only be described as very stressful. At least I felt stressed while I was watching. The movie�s strengths are the strong acting skills of both Webber and McIvor; the relationship between the two is very believable, especially McIvor as the teacher who appreciates Emerson�s intelligence but is disturbed by the boy�s amorous attentions. McIvor handles a delicate subject with a lot of humour. He could have played Grant as either a creep or a curmudgeon, and fortunately chooses instead to play him as a multilayered character: definitely no pedophile, but instead someone who is flattered as well as bemused and horrified by the romantic attentions of his student. The ending doesn�t provide a lot of closure, but that fits with the story; after all, Emerson�s only 13 years old, and he has a lot more rabble-rousing to do and headaches to cause his parents.

Posted by polarcanuck at 4:22 p.m.

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