Hot Docs Film Festival - Day 3: City of Ghosts, Shiners

By Jorge Ignacio Castillo

City of Ghosts (USA, 2016): Documentaries don’t get any timelier and pressing than director Matthew Heineman’s follow-up to Cartel Land. The filmmaker chronicles the struggle of a group of Syrians who, as a response to ISIS taking over their city, started the site called “Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently”, which would go on to win the Freedom of the Press Award.

Unless, let’s say, America’s citizen journalism (often an angry white guy with a blog and a lot of venom to spew), the RBSS journos risk their lives even outside Syria. The Islamic State has put a price to their heads and there is no shortage of fanatics willing to go hunting.

The footage is brutal and often hard to watch (the executions are horrifying and the indoctrination of children is plain sinister). The film excels at portraying the danger the reporters face and the value of the information they get out of the country. Anyone who wants to find out what’s at stake in Syria should look out for this doc.

4/5 stars. City of Ghosts will also play May 6th and 7th at the HotDocs Ted Rogers Cinema.

Shiners (Canada, 2016): This terrific doc takes on a trade that exists around the globe -shoe shinning- and uses it to shed light on different cultures and the way this activity is perceived. The formula is simple: Five different cities, one or two shiners per town.

In New York and Toronto, shoe-shinning is a hipster trend, a craft practiced by people who find the occupation soothing. In Tokio, it’s a science: The main practitioner has learned everything there is to know about leather and delivers footgear that looks better than new. In Sarajevo, it’s a matter of pride: A shoe shiner’s father never stopped working, even in the midst of war, and the son wants to honor him by continuing the tradition. In La Paz, there is shame involved, to the point shiners must wear masks to avoid recognition and possible discrimination.

The film is both illuminating and touching. Every subject has a compelling story to tell, even the clients. One only wishes a sixth city could have been included so the film could beat the ninety-minute mark.

3.5/5 stars. Shiners will also play April 30th and May 4th at the Hart House Theatre. 

Hot Docs Film Festival - Day 2: Mermaids, Blurred Lines, Brimstone & Glory

By Jorge Ignacio Castillo

Mermaids (Canada, 2016): A fascinating phenomenon per se, women who find personal fulfillment by becoming “mermaids” are a lot more common than expected. Mermaids focuses on three of them, each one going through a challenging journey: A transgender woman, a grieving sister and a bipolar Latina coming to terms with a history of abuse. Each one has discovered that rubber tails free them from all their burdens, however briefly.

Mermaids does a good job humanizing a potentially ludicrous practice: Midway through the film, director Ali Weinstein digs deep on what makes this women tick and finds gold. The documentary could have used some professional insight, but as it stands, it’s quite entertaining.

3/5 stars. Mermaids will also play Saturday, April 29th, at the Isabel Bader Theatre, Monday, May 1st, at the TIFF Bell Lightbox and Friday the 5th at the Scotiabank Theatre.

Blurred Lines: Inside the Art World (Canada, 2017): This academic doc by Barry Avrich (Stratford Festival’s mainstay director) is a good example of a compelling topic comprehensively researched. The matter at hand is the business of art: Billions of dollars change hands with little regulation and often with merely speculative purposes. The result is a mercenary market that shapes artists’ output and not for the best.

Avrich spares us any lecturing about how art and money are mutually exclusive. The filmmaker puts together an impressive array of interviewees, including contemporary figures like Marina Abramovic and Julian Schnabel, collectors, consultants, gallerists and museum directors. You won’t find any dealers, but there is a good reason for that. Blurred Lines benefits of a visually enthralling subject and delivers an agreeable experience, if a notch sterile.

3.5/5 stars. Blurred Lines will also play Saturday, April 29th, at the HotDocs Ted Rogers Cinema and Sunday, May 7th, at the Isabel Bader Theatre. 

Brimstone & Glory (USA, 2017): There isn't a better format to register collective madness, in this case, the National Pyrotechnic Festival in Tultepec, Mexico. The entire town lives for this event, even though very few have the education to create fireworks (most of the instructions come from tradition and trial and error) and many have lost limbs, if not their lives.

The event itself is at a whole other level of crazy. Most of the fireworks go off at eye level and in the middle of the crowd. Embers landing in people’s eyeballs are a common occurrence. Not surprisingly, the film is visually enthralling (director Viktor Jakovleski uses traditional and GoPro cameras to capture the action), although it could have used more research or characters to follow.

3/5 stars. Brimstone & Glory will also play Saturday, April 29th, at the Scotiabank Theatre and Saturday, May 6th, at the TIFF Bell Lightbox.

HotDocs Film Festival - Day 1: Bee Nation

By Jorge Ignacio Castillo

Bee Nation (Canada, 2017): The definition of a crowd-pleaser to kick off this edition of HotDocs, Bee Nation revolves around an event with tension, drama and personal achievement ingrained in its DNA: The First Nations Provincial Spelling Bee competition. The first ever for aboriginal community.

It’s Documentary 101: Director Lana Slezic pics a handful of kids from different First Nations communities in Saskatchewan and shows their lives and how they prepare for the event. The approach allows some distressing information to seep through, like the fact schools in reserves receive considerable less money per student and, forcing administrators to make some hard decisions regarding their curriculum.

The children Slezic picks as main subjects are all overachievers, but they have a personality of their own (for William, failure is devastating; Savannah is a model of personal drive). In each case, their parental figures see education as a way out, a chance to see a world beyond the reserve. Heartbreak is unavoidable (the winners of the provincial chapter head to Toronto to compete against private school kids with tutors), but makes for great cinema.

Bee Nation is a bit stately (it’s presented under the CBC Docs banner), but is worth your attention.

3/5 stars. Bee Nation will also play Friday, April 28th, at the HotDocs Ted Rogers Cinema, and Saturday, May 6th, at the Isabel Bader Theatre.

REVIEW: The Second Time Around: Maybe the Third One

This amiable senior drama could have used some teeth.

By Jorge Ignacio Castillo

THE PLOT: Katherine (Linda Thorson, The Avengers’ Tara King!) is a vivacious, music-loving septuagenarian who -following an accident at the opera- lands at a seniors’ home. Despite assurances from her daughter that it’s a temporary arrangement, Katherine couldn’t possibly be unhappier.

Things begin to look up when she meets Isaac (Stuart Margolin, The Rockford Files), a retired tailor whose incipient arthritis doesn’t prevent him from doing patch jobs for his housemates. After a rocky start, Katherine and Isaac tentatively embark in a romantic relationship, but at their age, the stakes are higher and the challenges, numerous.

CRITIQUE: A low-key drama with one too many troupes, The Second Time Around caters to a very specific niche, the one that flocks the 5th Avenue Cineplex in Vancouver and the Varsity in Toronto. The straightforward narrative has a clear drive (seniors being the driving agents of their own lives), and if you don’t mind predictability, it may satisfy. The one thing the film doesn’t deliver is fresh insight.

Linda Thorson and especially Stuart Margolin succeed at making the often stilted dialogue tolerable. It’s the younger cast members who are not as successful at making the script their own.

WHAT WORKS:

* Not only Stuart Margolin is the movie’s MVP. He gets to sing a couple of songs in Yiddish worth your attention.

* There is some chemistry between Margolin and Linda Thorson. The courtship features some charming, quiet moments, all too infrequent in modern cinema.

* The movie looks favorably at indulging and enabling our elders, a rather unexpected message for a film of this nature.

WHAT DOESN’T:

* The cinematography is very dull. The production design is particularly unimaginative.

* Most of the comedy falls flat and, when it doesn’t, it’s too gentle to register.

* You wouldn’t believe the number of 360-degree dolly shots this movie has.

RATING: **

RATING (CANADIAN CURVE): **1/2

The Second Time Around is now playing in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.

TIFF '16 -Day 9: Trespass Against Us, The Belko Experiment, Little Wing, The Net

By Jorge Ignacio Castillo

Trespass Against Us (UK, 2015): I would normally praise an A-lister for going back to his native land to do a cheaper movie, but Michael Fassbender is rather miscast in this mildly compelling drama. Fassbender is Chad, the second in command of a band of outlaws living in the forest. Chad is good at what he does and is one hell of getaway driver. He is also a family man and has slightly more common sense than his fellow thieves.

When it becomes clear his son is likely to end up as one of the inept criminals that surround him, Chad begins to consider the possibility of jumping ship. The only obstacle is his father (Brendan Gleeson), a powerful figure that keeps Chad under his thumb using putdowns and guilt-tripping.

It just takes one look at Fassbender to realize he is no shrinking violet, a detail that makes his character hard to swallow. He is not the only problem: Trespass Against Us often feels aimless, the premise is stretched over ninety minutes for no apparent reason. While we care about the outcome, the film could have use a rewrite and a less-chiseled star. Three stars.

The Belko Experiment (USA, 2016): Imagine The Hunger Games without the terrible romance, or Battle Royale without the mystique. It’s just an every-man-for-himself brawl set in corporate America, and it’s predictably nasty and entertaining. Three stars.

Little Wing (Finland, 2016): The issue of immature parents who lean emotionally on their children is a recurrent one in this edition of the festival. In Little Wing, the subject is treated matter-of-factly: A twelve-year old girl basically raises herself as her self-involved mother sees her more as a clutch than as a person. That is, until the kid goes missing. Too low key to cause a splash, but worth looking out. Three and a half stars.

The Net (South Korea, 2016): Controversial filmmaker Kim Ki-Duk (Moebius, Pieta) delivers his most traditional film to date, but one with edge to spare. Through the story of a North Korean fisherman who unwittingly finds himself south of the demilitarized zone, Kim depicts the two Koreas as the mirror images of one another. According to The Net, neither country can claim moral superiority, not quite the narrative we hear in the Western World. Three and a half stars.

That’s it for me folks. Four to five movies a day take a toll on you. See you at the movies.

For more #TIFF16 up-to-the-minute updates, follow me on Twitter at @jicastillo.

TIFF '16 - Day 8: The Girl with All the Gifts, Ma' Rosa

By Jorge Ignacio Castillo

The Girl with All the Gifts (UK, 2016): Between The Walking Dead and all the low-rent undead flicks, it’s hard to give a fresh twist to the zombie subgenre. The Girl with All the Gifts does its darndest to achieve it, but the surplus of ideas ends up hurting the outcome.

The film opens intriguingly enough. A group of inoffensive-looking children are treated like Hannibal Lecter by an overzealous military unit. One of the kids is the dependably polite Melanie (newcomer Sennia Nanua), who hangs pictures of a cat on her wall when no one is looking. Slowly we come to realize the children are partially zombified, but retain a semblance of humanity.

The matter of the kids’ right to be treated as people is one of the many issues the movie hints at, but doesn’t develop (likely, the novel that inspired the film is more thorough). One element I haven’t seen in other zombie movies is the suggestion that mankind is screwed anyway and we should just let it happen.

The Girl with All the Gifts may have been better suited for a TV series. As a feature, too much info falls through the cracks. Two stars.

Ma' Rosa (Philippines, 2016): I was not familiar with the filmography of Philippines most noteworthy filmmaker, Brillante Mendoza. Getting introduced to his work through Ma’ Rosa is akin to being thrown into the deep end of the pool: Gritty, relentless and depressing.

The drama follows 24 hours in the life of Rosa, a convenience store owner/crack dealer. Life in poverty has hardened the mother of three, and her relationship with her kin is punctuated by abuse. This day in particular her store is raided by the police, and the only way she can escape time in the clink is by ratting out her provider and put together a considerable amount for her “bail” (bribe).

The movie revolves around Rosa, but takes breaks to follow her children as they try to get the money in heartbreaking sequences. Also, we get to see the utterly corrupt police force try to make the most of the arrest (financially, that is). Brillante Mendoza employs a visual style very similar to late-period Michael Mann (handheld HD video), only in this scenario is more appropriate than say Miami Vice. Ma’ Rosa just looks chaotic, but has structural clarity and purpose. Four stars.

For #TIFF16 up-to-the-minute updates, follow me on Twitter at @jicastillo.

TIFF '16 - Day 7: Christine, Sand Storm

By Jorge Ignacio Castillo

Christine (USA, 2016): In 1974, Sarasota news reporter Christine Chubbuck responded to management pressures for more exciting stories by blowing her brains off on live TV. Since there is no mystery about her fate, this biopic focuses on the many factors that led her to take such drastic decision.

As depicted in the film, Christine Chubbuck (Rebecca Hall, Vicki Christina Barcelona) was the smartest reporter in the room, with hopes to go to a bigger market. Christine was also struggling with depression, infertility and an unrequited crush on the news anchor (Michael C. Hall, Dexter).

The film is broad but successful at exploring all the elements involved in Chubbuck’s suicide. But the movie’s biggest asset is a powerhouse performance by Rebecca Hall, who builds a sympathetic character without betraying the integrity of the person who inspired it. If Christine wasn’t an indie struggling with distribution, I would call Hall a shoe-in for an Oscar nomination. Three stars.

Sand Storm (Israel, 2016): As problematic as the issue of arranged marriages is in the Middle East, there are only so many outcomes available to filmmakers. Sand Storm finds a less explored strain, but fails at distinguish itself from other similarly themed films (Academy Award nominee Mustang hit theatres just last winter).

The eldest daughter of a Bedouin family, Layla believes that because her father allows her to drive and pursue an education, she can pick her own beau. She would be wrong. Mere days after bringing the boyfriend home, she is engaged to a less than stellar individual from her community.

Layla’s stern mother, Jalila, appears initially as the villain of the piece (she is the first one to oppose the young woman’s relationship), but soon becomes clear she is a realist with a better grasp of her husband’s character. Jalila is also fighting her own issues, namely the arrival of a second wife, much younger than her.

Sand Storm brings attention to the limited opportunities women have in this environment and hints at the resilience of patriarchal tradition. Worth watching, if you haven’t been exposed to the subject before. Three stars.

For #TIFF16 up-to-the-minute updates, follow me on Twitter at @jicastillo.

TIFF '16 - Day 6: Deepwater Horizon, Mean Dreams, Manchester by the Sea, The Salesman

By Jorge Ignacio Castillo

Deepwater Horizon (USA, 2016): Given director Peter Berg’s previous output (the disreputable Lone Survivor), I was honestly expecting this movie would be on British Petroleum’s side. Thankfully, Deepwater Horizon sticks to the official story and slaps some action scenes for good measure.

Berg’s go-to leading man, Mark Wahlberg, is Mike Williams, the second in command at the ill-fated oil platform. Because of greed inspired BP directives, a number of security checks are bypassed, so when they finally agree to a checkup, all hell breaks loose.

Even though Berg goes way over the top with the jargon, the filmmaker does a good job explaining the events that lead to the oil spilling (the environmental catastrophe that ensued is only mentioned in passing). But for all the didactic exposition and superb execution of complex action sequences, the characters are one-trait ponies. Kate Hudson is in this movie solely to pace around the house and look worried (and gorgeous). Two and a half stars. 

Mean Dreams (Canada, 2016): In any other year, Mean Dreams would have shined among TIFF’s Canadian offerings. However, given the strong crop in display this festival, it comes out as pedestrian.

In a rural area near Sault St. Marie, two troubled teens fall in love. Jonas (Josh Higgins, Max) is the son of an impoverished farmer who must quit school to help with the land. To the house next door arrives Casey (Sophie Nélisse, The Book Thief), a sweet girl with a rageaholic father (Bill Paxton). They soon fall for each other, but Casey’s dad doesn’t approve of the relationship. Two caveats: The father is a police officer and has a drug business on the side.

Outside beautiful fall scenery, there nothing particularly moving about Mean Dreams: The lovers on the lam angle has been explored a thousand times and this film doesn’t have anything original to add. That said, Mean Dreams is competently made and Nélisse -who got started as one of Monsieur Lazhar students- is becoming a talent to watch. If nothing else, Bill Paxton’s scenery chewing is worth checking out. Two stars.

Manchester by the Sea (USA, 2016): Playwright, screenwriter and director, Kenneth Lonergan has a knack to capture the depths of an individual just by watching it go through their day. His dialogue never feels forced, but is revealing all the same. His movies are a low-key wonder.

Manchester by the Sea is only his third movie and the most complete one to date. Lee Chandler (Casey Affleck, never better) is a taciturn janitor sleepwalking through his life. The death of his brother takes him back to his hometown, a visit that troubles him for reasons that slowly come into focus. There is also a surprise in stock for Lee: He has been named his 16-year old nephew’s guardian, a task he believes he’s not up to, despite having an easy rapport with the kid.

As is tradition in Lonergan’s work, comedy and tragedy mix seamlessly. Teenage self-centeredness and Lee’s unsociable behavior lead to perfectly relatable (and often gut-busting) clashes. The writer/director doesn’t avoid the leg work and turns those minor indignities of everyday life into representations of inner turmoil. An early frontrunner for the Academy Awards, at least in acting and writing categories. Four stars. 

The Salesman (Iran, 2016): While Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami was celebrated for the lyricism of his work, Asghar Farhadi deserves credit for being the filmmaker who best has captured the country’s modern quandaries.

The Salesman is less well-rounded than Farhadi’s previous film -A Separation-, but is just as provocative. Emad, a teacher-cum-actor is forced to abandon his home when the shoddy building he lives in starts to fall apart. He believes he has found a bargain when a friend offers him another apartment, but not even a couple of nights after moving in his wife is attacked. A hunt for the perpetrator ensues, without the assistance of the police or the traumatized victim.

It’s never explicitly said, but the film strongly hints the assault was sexual in nature. Farhadi depicts a society unprepared to deal with crimes of this ilk, and men struggling to see women as their equals. That said, the picture of Iran is of a society much closer to the Western World than other countries in the region are. The Salesman may challenge some preconceptions, without losing sight of the problems that still affect the country. Three and a half stars.

For #TIFF16 up-to-the-minute updates, follow me on Twitter at @jicastillo.

TIFF '16 - Day 5: La La Land, Window Horses, Paterson

By Jorge Ignacio Castillo

La La Land (USA, 2016): Director Damien Chazelle’s follow-up to the superb Whiplash shows a filmmaker willing to explore outside his zone of comfort. Narratively, La La Land is pat, but the visuals, music and choreographies more than make up for it.

The story is pure Hollywood lore: Mia is a small town girl (Emma Stone) struggling with getting her acting career off the ground. As she makes her way through Tinseltown, she encounters a jazz musician (Ryan Gosling) with whom she falls in love with. Opportunity doesn’t have a sense of timing and their careers get in the way of a fulfilling relationship.

La La Land is visually stunning and goes from feat to feat (the opening sequence set on a freeway is one for the books), yet it remains profoundly human. Gosling and Stone are top notch, both as song-and-dance partners and in the more dramatic sequences. The film features a coda so brilliant, it practically eclipses the rest of the movie. A strong candidate to best of the fest. Four and a half stars.

Window Horses (Canada, 2016): A phenomenal animated drama that proves you don’t need millions of dollars or Pixar-like precision to trigger an emotional response, Window Horses could be the surprise of this edition of TIFF.

Rosie Ming (voiced by Sandra Oh) is a young writer with little life experience who gets the surprise of a lifetime when she is invited to a poetry festival in Shiraz, Iran. It’s not entirely out of the blue: Rosie is of Persian and Chinese descent, and is curious about her absent father’s land. The culture shock is considerable, but more so the discovery of how little she knows about her craft.

An already captivating plot is further improved with the incorporation of traditional Iranian poetry and dollops of history. The film’s looks are deceptively simple (Rosie is a stick figure, but there is a good reason for that) and enables the participation of guest animators for the most lyrical sequences. There isn’t a weak link in this chain: Sandra Oh’s voice acting is on point, Don McKellar as a conceited German poet is a hoot and the narrative builds up to a powerful climax. Four stars.

Paterson (USA, 2016): Following a career apex (the superb Only Lovers Left Alive), Jim Jarmusch takes a step back and delivers a deceptively simple meditation on routine and art.

Not one to abandon his indie roots despite widespread recognition, Adam Driver plays the title character. Paterson is happy with his lot in life, a whimsical and loving wife, a pub that suits his sensibilities and a job (bus driver) that allows him to rove around his beloved city… Paterson, New Jersey. The only element that distinguishes him is his appreciation for poetry, both as a reader and as a writer.

Paterson flirts with surrealism, but never leaves the viewers hanging. For the most part, his approach is charming, like reencountering the leads of Moonrise Kingdom as teenagers with a rebel streak. Jarmusch’s attempt to achieve transcendence through repetition is daring, although the verdict on whether he succeeded or not may vary from one viewer to the next. Three and a half stars.

For #TIFF16 up-to-the-minute updates, follow me on Twitter at @jicastillo.

TIFF '16 - Day 4: Denial, Julieta, American Honey, It's Only the End of the World

By Jorge Ignacio Castillo

Denial (UK, 2016): A fascinating story that could be more at home on TV than on the big screen, Denial rises above pedestrian filmmaking thanks to the power of the material and strong turns by Rachel Weisz and Timothy Spall (Mr. Turner).

The court drama pits American historian Deborah Lipstadt against British rabble-rouser David Irving. Lipstadt accused Irving of fabricating and misrepresenting historic documents in order to support his belief that the Holocaust never took place. Rather unexpectedly, the neo-Nazi icon sued the academic for libel. Since in the UK the burden of proof lies with the accused, Lipstadt found herself having to demonstrate the systematic killing of Jewish prisoners during World War II.

The film is bursting with fascinating info (even when defeat seemed unavoidable, the Nazis went out of their way to hide all evidence of the Final Solution) and serves as a primer on Britain’s justice system. Just as important as the Lipstadt-Irving showdown are disagreements within the historian’s defense team. While Irving’s position is indefensible, the debate over calling Holocaust survivors to the stand is a riveting one.

Denial goes above and beyond to provide a fluid narrative and a traditional climax (a challenge in films based on real events) and not always succeeds. Nevertheless, movies of this substance shouldn’t be dismissed. Three stars.

Julieta (Spain, 2016): Pedro Almodóvar’s work for the last decade has been hit-and-miss. A telling sign is whenever he abandons traditional structure: His weakest films are his most indulgent (I’m So Excited, Broken Embraces). I’m happy to report Julieta is one of his best efforts, up there with All About my Mother, a movie that shares a similar DNA.

Julieta unfolds as a mystery within an enigma. We first meet the title character (Emma Suárez) as she bails from moving to Portugal with her boyfriend. Soon we are informed the reason is her estranged daughter. Extended flashbacks reveal how young Julieta (the stunning Adriana Ugarte) came to meet the father, a fisherman, and how her entire existence has been marred to a feeling of guilt.

I don’t wish to spoil the surprises Julieta has to offer. Suffice to say the emotional punches are consistent and land more often than not. A soberer than usual Almodóvar depicts guilt as a destructive force that reproduces itself. Julieta’s dad offers a nice counterpoint to the lead character: Move on or become consumed by remorse.

Julieta works in most aspects, except for the over the top, melodramatic score. Not even Greek tragedies call for such violin abuse. Four stars.

American Honey (USA, 2016): A fairly new phenomenon in American cinema is the portrayal of the impoverished regions of the country. From to Beast of the Southern Wild to Hell or High Water, there seems to be an appetite for social cinema that wasn’t there five years ago.

American Honey falls in this category. It’s a character study (another anomaly in American cinema) with sociocultural undertones, simultaneously hard and compassionate towards millennials. Star (impressive debut of Sasha Lane) is a teen on the run from an abusive home. She joins a group of adolescents who roam across the southern states selling magazine subscriptions. While they maintain the illusion of free living, the collective is ruled with iron fist by Krystal (a terrific Riley Keough) and the charismatic Jake (Shia LaBeouf). Star and Jake begin a clandestine relationship, placing the newcomer in an awkward and potentially dangerous position.

Director Andrea Arnold (Fish Tank) pushes the envelope further than expected and ties the proceedings to a feeling of hopelessness. American Honey is never boring, but it’s hard to justify a 163-minute length. The film is challenging, but compulsively watchable. Three stars.

It’s Only the End of the World (Canada, 2016): I think I have Xavier Dolan figured out. Because of his early start as a director, he only trades on emotions. Rationality or any thinking matter have no place in his movies. This is all well and good for a couple of films, but the continuous praise has stunted his evolution. His latest is frankly unbearable. The most impressive francophone cast imaginable (Vincent Cassel, Marion Cotillard, Lea Seydoux, Nathalie Baye) is wasted on having them yelling at each other. Also, they play no recognizable human beings. Only Dolan’s stand-in -Gaspard Ulliel- survives this smorgasbord of overacting, mostly by staying quiet. One star.

For #TIFF16 up-to-the-minute updates, follow me on Twitter at @jicastillo

TIFF ’16 - Day 3: Queen of Katwe, Personal Shopper, American Pastoral, Moonlight, Boundaries

By Jorge Ignacio Castillo

Queen of Katwe (USA, 2016): A calculated risk for Disney, Queen of Katwe fits among the uplifting sport movies the House of Mouse puts out every year, but it’s also distinctive enough to stand apart. The biopic is set in Uganda, has a mostly African cast and is directed by Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding, The Reluctant Fundamentalist), a filmmaker with a knack to capture cultural nuances without been patronizing.

The Queen of Katwe in question is Phiona Mutesi (newcomer Madina Nalwanga), an illiterate teen struggling to survive in the slums of Kampala. She falls in the radar of an outreach volunteer (David Oyewolo, Selma) who teaches underprivileged kids to play chess. Turns out Phiona is a prodigy, but no matter how much natural talent she possesses, when you live under the poverty line, basic necessities take priority.

Real life is unwieldly and Queen of Katwe fails to find structure in Phiona’s life. While the beginning and the ending feel particularly strained, the middle flows nicely. Though the narrative is problematic, the film scores in other aspects: The cinematography by Sean Bobbitt takes full advantage of the colorful setting and shows landscapes seldom seen in movies. The acting is top notch: Nalwanga is a fresh presence and is well supported by Oyewolo and Lupita Nyong’o, who despite not looking as someone who had two teenage daughters, makes the role believable out of sheer force. Three stars. 

Personal Shopper (France, 2016): After the superb Clouds of Sils Maria, it seemed the association of director Olivier Assayas and Kristen Stewart could be fruitful. Based on the follow-up, the assumption is incorrect. In Personal Shopper, Assayas obeys his worst instincts (self-indulgence, abrupt introduction of major plot points late in the movie) and leaves Stewart adrift in a morass of genres.

A personal assistant for a French model, Maureen (Stewart) is still grieving the death of her twin brother. They had made a pact according to which he would visit her and tell her about the other side. Despite many indications her sibling is trying to make contact, Maureen is still waiting for a clearer sign. She seems to be stalling and using the agreement as an excuse not to move forward with her life.

Midway through, this ghost story becomes a thriller with a body count. The gimmick is too on the nose and is less interesting than an average episode of Law & Order. Assayas -who also wrote the script- can be an infuriating filmmaker: For every Clouds of Sils Maria or Carlos, we have to put up with half-baked dramas like Personal Shopper and Summer Hours. It’s a shame, given that Kristen Stewart brings her A-game to this flick. Two stars.

American Pastoral (USA, 2016): Two films based on Philip Roth’s novels are expected to hit cinemas this year, not a small feat given how poorly previous adaptation have fared (The Human Stain, Elegy). The most high-profile of them is American Pastoral, the literary classic many accomplished filmmakers have flirted with but ultimately abandoned. Who could be up to the task? Ewan McGregor, that’s who.

McGregor pulls double duty as director and lead. He is the Swede, an all-American athlete turned pillar of the community. In paper, the Swede has a dream life, married to a former beauty queen (Jennifer Connelly) and father to a brilliant child. Perfection, however, carries the seed of its own destruction: At the height of civil unrest in the Sixties, Swede’s daughter (Dakota Fanning) becomes a radical and is the main suspect in the bombing of a postal office.

American Pastoral has two things going for it: Pitch perfect casting and the strength of the source material. Not only McGregor, Connelly and Fanning are the ideal Levov family, David Strathairn is a great choice for Nathan Zuckerman, Roth’s recurrent leading man. Predictably, strong material falls by the wayside, but it’s a remarkable debut. Four stars.

Moonlight (USA, 2016): Another drama arriving with considerable buzz, Moonlight is a solid character study that doesn’t quite live up to the hype, but comes close.

The film chronicles the life of Chiron (aka Little, aka Black), a gay African-American man at three critical junctures of his development. First we meet him as a nine-year old: Considered a ‘soft’ kid, Little is picked on regularly by his classmates. Unable to find solace at home, he finds a father figure in the local drug dealer. Later, we see Chiron as a shy teenager, ashamed of his sexuality and frequent target of bullies. Lastly, we reencounter him as a grown up. All the traumas and experiences of Chiron’s childhood and adolescence have come together and shaped a man filled with self-loathing and reluctant to follow his sexual nature.

All three vignettes are harrowing, but in the end, the film lacks the final emotional punch that could have made it memorable. Regardless, Moonlight has tremendous value both as unflinching dissection of a long-standing problem in the community and for the depiction of a kid with few choices who is unable to rise above the obstacles in his path. Three and a half stars. 

Boundaries (Canada, 2016): How is this for a bold move: A film about trade with a side of emotional turmoil. Chloé Robichaud follow-up to the superb Sarah Prefers to Run is an audacious -if flawed- take on the imbalance between developed nations and those with no other assets than the natural resources. The “women trying to combine professional and personal life” angle is old and Boundaries doesn’t have anything new to add, but for those craving some political science and economics in their entertainment, this film is catnip. The star power of thinking-man goddess Emily VanCamp doesn’t hurt. Three stars.

For #TIFF16 up-to-the-minute updates, follow me on Twitter at @jicastillo.

TIFF '16 - Day 2: Free Fire, Elle, Snowden

By Jorge Ignacio Castillo

Free Fire (USA/UK, 2016): Ben Wheatley is without a doubt one of the most interesting contemporary filmmakers at work, but his filmography is far from immaculate. He often engages in self-indulgence and glamorization of violence.

Free Fire embodies both of Wheatley’s main flaws. In fact, more than a movie, Free Fire feels like an exercise in style, following the infinitely more complex and ambitious High-Rise.

1978, Boston. A group of IRA members intents to purchase a number of automatic weapons from a shifty South African dealer at an abandon warehouse. The already tense exchange shifts into hyper-drive when men at both sides of the transaction succumb to the pressure.

The impish shoot’em up is undeniably entertaining, even though Wheatley fails to establish a visual geography to better follow the dispute. A number of recognizable actors (Cillian Murphy and Armie Hammer as the pros, Sharlto Copley and Sam Riley as the hotheads, Brie Larson as the liaison) are game to some down-and-dirty action, but Free Fire is just a minor detour for a filmmaker who can be more than another Tarantino clone. Three stars.

Elle (France, 2016): Perennial provocateur Paul Verhoeven has been very quiet lately. Outside a more or less traditional WWII flick (Black Book) and a forgettable short, the man who turned Hollywood on its head in the nineties has kept a low profile since.

His latest, Elle, is perhaps a career best. Verhoeven mixes genres with remarkable dexterity and is still capable of building a complex protagonist: The credits haven’t even finished rolling in when Michele (Isabelle Huppert, never better) is raped at home by an intruder. Reporting the attack is low in her list of concerns: Her son is about to move in with his pregnant girlfriend even though he may not be the baby’s father, her videogame company is developing a product that could make or break her business, and her long-time jailed father is up for parole.

You would think Michele is on the edge, but she remains in control and more together than everyone else around her. So much so, that the idea of being powerless becomes a thrilling one. You can figure out where this is going.

A layered mystery with a dollop of black comedy, Elle is very wrong in the best way possible. A contained Verhoeven is as good as his most debauched self, with the invaluable assistance of Huppert in a bravura performance. Four and a half stars.

Snowden (USA, 2016): It has been a long while since Oliver Stone was last relevant. His last few movies have gone from goofy (W.) to flat (World Trade Center). Even his attempt to be commercial (Savages) lacked the pizzazz his best efforts had.

While not entirely a return to form, Snowden is at least a fully shaped film that makes clear why the actions of the NSA contractor are worth our appreciation, regardless of the authorities’ scorn. Stone gives Edward Snowden the hero treatment: A former soldier of conservative tendencies appalled by the liberties the American government takes with civil surveillance. As the titular character, Joseph Gordon-Levitt does a remarkable job matching the man himself, from the voice pitch to the deceptive composure.

Snowden does a much better job than Oscar-winning documentary Citizenfour filling in the audience on the programmer’s trajectory and his motivations. Once again though, Snowden’s partner Lindsay Mills gets the short shift, in spite of a spirited performance by Shailene Woodley. It’s never clear why Mills has stuck through thick and thin with the whistleblower. Love only gets you so far. Three and a half stars.

For up-to-the-minute #TIFF16 impressions, follow me on Twitter at @jicastillo.

TIFF '16 - Day 1: Toni Erdmann, Werewolf, The Commune, Neruda

By Jorge Ignacio Castillo

Toni Erdmann (Germany, 2016): A Cannes sensation, Toni Erdmann has already been celebrated as one of the comedic achievements of the decade, even making its way into the 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century list, according to the BBC.

Guess what. It’s overrated.

Don’t get me wrong, Toni Erdmann is far from a bad movie, but the 160 minutes-long comedy doesn’t deserve such unrestrained praise.

Winfried, a music teacher and incorrigible joker, tries to reconnect with his daughter Ines, a serious businesswoman on assignment in Rumania. The prankster fails in his first attempt, so he brings out the big guns, namely his alter ego, Toni Erdmann. The character is an obnoxious bore, but at least gets a reaction from Ines, noticeably depressed but unaware of it.

The deadpan comedy of Toni Erdmann is pleasant, even sharp at times, but the length is absurd. The film aims to criticize European corporations that favor efficiency and rules over the human factor, hardly a groundbreaking topic. I could be missing something, but it wasn’t the transformative experience I was expecting. Three stars. Toni Erdmann will be distributed in Canada.

Werewolf (Canada, 2016): A terrific feature debut by Ashley McKenzie, Werewolf is a gritty look at a couple of heroin addicts trying to ‘get better’ in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. While not the most original idea, the film is interesting as it shows the two leads navigating Canadian bureaucracy as they try to attain a degree of normalcy through job assistance and low income housing.

Even though they face similar obstacles in the rehabilitation process, Nessa and Blaise have different luck. While the former follows the (often patronizing) rules imposed by people in position of authority, the latter becomes easily frustrated and lands in a vicious circle that prevents him from getting better. The relationship suffers because of this and as painful as it sounds, cutting a loved one loose is sometimes the only way to survive.

McKenzie used non-professional actors for Werewolf and the strategy pays off handsomely. Andrew Gillis and Bhreagh MacNeil give fresh and unassuming performances, captured in tight, oppressive shots. As predictable as the film’s path is, it doesn’t make it any less harrowing. Three and a half stars. 

The Commune (Denmark, 2016): The Danish keep on killing it at finding new angles in family dramas. In The Commune, we see a marriage fall apart as they try to assimilate the new limits of personal freedom during the swinging 70’s. The moral of the story? Never a good idea to deal with emotional issues rationally. Three and a half stars.

Neruda (Chile, 2016): Not quite a biopic of the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, this is like The Fugitive without the urgency (then it goes meta). There is a good idea at the center of Neruda, but director Pablo Larraín crams so much info, it gets lost in the shuffle. Two stars.

For #TIFF16 up-to-the-minute updates, follow me on Twitter at @jicastillo.

REVIEW: How to Plan an Orgy in a Small Town: Not Really a Manual

The ensemble comedy goes for edgy, but comes short.

By Jorge Ignacio Castillo

THE PLOT: Years after escaping her conservative hometown, Cassie (Jewel Staite, Firefly) returns to attend her mother’s funeral. While her mom gained some notoriety chronicling the joys of living in Beaver Creek, Cassie also made a living as a writer, but in her case a sex column that has led to a publishing career.

Her return puts her face-to-face with her old nemesis, mean girl Heather (Lauren Lee Smith, The Listener), who resents Cassie portraying the municipality as a land of uptight, sexless zombies. Unexpected news give Heather the opportunity of proving Cassie wrong and serve her own agenda: An no-holds-barred bacchanal. Unfortunately, their circle of friends is ripe with sexual dysfunction and arrested development for a proper execution.

CRITIQUE: The concept behind How to Plan an Orgy in a Small Town is far superior to the execution. Comedies can work two ways: Featuring one-dimensional characters and being actually funny (see Airplane!), or by creating complex types whose interactions lead to humorous and even enlightening situations (see Annie Hall). Orgy relies on simpleminded characters (the henpecked husband, the harpy wife, the over-sexed best friend) and mistakes wit with shock.

The film disguises itself as edgy, but stripped of all crassness, Orgy is rather dull. The sexual politics here are equally problematic. Attraction is barely in the picture: Most treat the orgy as going to the dentist. Reasonable emotions like jealousy, regret or curiosity are either paid lip service or not portrayed at all. As presented in the movie, homosexuality is something you can be peer-pressured into.

Perhaps the biggest sin of Orgy is misusing a cast that seems game for anything. Written and directed by Jeremy LaLonde (Sex After Kids), the film takes the most obvious road every time and fails to provide any insight on its source of inspiration.

WHAT WORKS:

* Lauren Lee Smith does wonders with the thinnest of materials. Doesn’t get to save the movie, but at least seems human.

* Ennis Esmer is a good sport.

WHAT DOESN’T:

* The film’s number of nonsensical plot points is off the charts. Characters have sex with people they despise, some go to extremes to hide secrets they later reveal to passing acquaintances, others overcome serious sexual dysfunction within days with no professional assistance.

* Cassie is maddeningly inconsistent. A secret is revealed midway through the film that basically invalidates her entire background and we are expected to suspend disbelief.

* Characters don’t need to be likeable to get the audience behind them, but at least they should be interesting. Everybody is miserable here and no good reason for us to care is provided.

RATING: *1/2

RATING (CANADIAN CURVE): **

How to Plan an Orgy in a Small Town opens today in Toronto, Halifax and in VOD.

HotDocs ’16 - Day 8: Bobby Sands: 66 Days

By Jorge Ignacio Castillo

Bobby Sands: 66 Days (Ireland/UK, 2016): This sprawling documentary about IRA member Bobby Sands’ hunger strike not only covers every day of his protest, but also his background, the organization’s history, the political context and the deterioration of his body. It’s precisely the desire to cover every nook and cranny of Bobby Sands’ brief but remarkable existence that hinders the outcome.

Some context: In 1981, Sands led a hunger strike to complain against the elimination of the Special Category status in Northern Ireland prisons, a classification that separated IRA members from the general jail population. The Thatcher Government remained steadfast in their refusal to acknowledge them as political prisoners, despite public and international pressure.

There are many angles in Bobby Sands: 66 Days that could have become a documentary in their own right: Bobby’s election to Parliament in absentia, the historical relationship between Irish insurrection and hunger strikes, the physical effects of fasting are just a few. The film’s insistence in combining all these issues leads to an overstuffed product that bombards the audience with facts that fail to register. The recreation of Sands’ days in jail is borderline cheesy and adds little to nothing to the narrative. 2/5 stars.

Bobby Sands: 66 Days will also play on May 7th.

HotDocs ’16 - Day 7: Life, Animated

By Jorge Ignacio Castillo

Life, Animated (USA, 2015): An interesting approach at depicting autism without delving on the cause, Life, Animated is smart enough to limit its scope to one individual and avoid generalizations.

The documentary revolves around Owen Suskind, a 23-year old preparing to move on his own. Owen has a moderate autistic disorder and although functional, he is easily overwhelmed by his surroundings. As a child, Owen was on the verge of shutting down, but his parents noticed he used Disney movies to understand emotions and took advantage of it to open channels of communication with him.

Now an adult, Owen still pop animated features regularly, but more as a source of comfort than as a map of the world. As his reality grows more complex, the once reliable Disney movies don’t quite cut it and Owen find himself in uncharted territory.

Using the fly-on-the-wall strategy and animation (Owen came up with a script of his own, populated exclusively with Disney sidekicks), the documentary delivers a positive portrait of living with autism, a rarity as of late. It takes a village and loving parents, but the result justifies the effort. 3.5/5 stars.

Life, Animated will also play on Thursday, May 5th and Saturday, May 7th.

HotDocs ’16 - Day 6: Under the Gun

By Jorge Ignacio Castillo

Under the Gun (USA, 2016): The Katie Couric-Stephanie Soechtig team seems hell-bent on exposing America’s malaises. In Fed Up (2014), they exposed the role of the food industry in the US obesity epidemic. Now they are going after a bigger fish (if possible): The gun lobby.

Using the many mass shootings down the border –particularly Sandy Hook and Aurora- as starting point, the documentary dissects the relationship between congressmen and the gun lobby, the NRA and weapons manufacturers, trade shows and crime, and gun owners and the organization that allegedly represents their interests.

There is nothing intrinsically new about American society’s trouble with guns, but the documentary presents the problem with remarkable clarity. Manufacturers develop close ties with the National Rifle Association; the NRA promotes a paranoid agenda (“the government is coming for your guns!” even though is legally unable to do such thing); people run to buy more weapons. The fact most gun owners would support background check legislation changes nothing. Or so it seems.

Not surprisingly, no NRA representatives, congressmen or gun-makers would speak on camera (to do so would be acknowledging there is a problem), but it doesn’t matter. Rationally, Under the Gun makes an ironclad case for the need of legislation. Too bad most people react emotionally to the matter. 4 ½ / 5 stars.

Under the Gun will also play Thursday, May 5th and Sunday, May 8th.

HotDocs ’16 - Day 5: Ants on a Shrimp/De Palma

By Jorge Ignacio Castillo

Ants on a Shrimp (Netherlands, 2016): Much like documentaries about climate change, after a while all food-centered docs start to look the same. There lies the brilliancy of filmmaker Maurice Dekkers, who cares more about discovering what makes his subject tick than cater to foodies.

Dekkers’ subject is a doozy: Chef René Redzepi, the man behind the best restaurant in the world, Noma. In 2015, Redzepi moved his entire team from Copenhagen to Tokyo for a few months to build an entire new menu and serve Japanese patrons for a few weeks. There were 58,000 people on the waiting list.

Far from the neurotic autocrats in most cooking shows (looking at you, Gordon Ramsay), Redzepi is soft-spoken and unflappable. How does he stay at the top of his craft? He challenges himself consistently. He doesn’t care for adapting Noma’s menu to Japan. Redzepi rather discover what’s unique about his new surroundings and turn it into a dish.

Redzepi’s capacity to think outside the box leads to spectacular discoveries (scallop fudge, deep fried fish sperm). More than a mere doc about food, Ants on a Shrimp presents us a genius at work at the peak of his powers. 4/5 stars.

Ants on a Shrimp will also play on Wednesday, May 4th.

De Palma (USA, 2015): For a movie about one of the most interesting American directors, made by two renown indie filmmakers –Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow-, De Palma is a letdown. Outside of voluminous amounts of trivia (the kind you could find in IMDb), there is little insight about what makes De Palma tick.

The documentary goes through De Palma’s filmography movie by movie. While it’s undeniably entertaining to find out that Sean Connery had to be begged to do another take of his death scene in The Untouchables, the fact De Palma barely pays lip service to his Hitchcock connection indicates Baumbach and Paltrow didn’t quite press the director into revealing more substantial information.

Without any other testimony, De Palma feels like a glorified interview, with top notch archive footage, but minimal production effort. Heck, even the framing is off. 2/5 stars.

De Palma will also play on Tuesday, May 3rd and Friday, May 6th.

HotDocs ’16 - Day 4: Tower/The Apology/Aim for the Roses

By Jorge Ignacio Castillo

Tower (USA, 2016): A gripping mix of animation and archive material, Tower is an oral recount of the events in Austin in 1966, in which a gunman killed 16 people and wounded over 30. Thanks to abundant footage (the shooting lasted over an hour and a half, allowing considerable coverage), director Keith Maitland reconstructs the entire standoff. Every blank is filled with animation, a strategy that translates into growing tension and uneasiness.

The film is anchored by a pregnant woman who was shot early on and left bleeding in plain sight. Nobody could approach her as the sniper would have had a clean shot of any good Samaritans. While every POV in Tower is riveting, this one in particular is the clincher. The parallels between the events from fifty years ago and today’s mass shootings are not lost on anybody. The “good guys with guns” trying to take down the shooter ended up endangering those with the skills to do it successfully. 4.5/5 stars.

Tower will also play on Monday, May 2nd, and Friday, May 6th.

The Apology (Canada, 2016): During the Asia-Pacific portion of World War II, Japanese troops regularly kidnapped female teens to use them as sexual slaves (“comfort women”). The despicable practice has never been officially acknowledged, despite some mild international pressure.

The documentary follows three survivors (or Grandmas, as they are known in their countries of origin) from Korea, China and the Philippines. Their lives were defined by the actions of the Japanese army, and two became barren as a result. Now in their eighties and nineties, they still haven’t found peace: While one is a resolute activist who visits the Japanese embassy weekly to demand an apology, another is still gathering courage to tell her family about her past.

The Apology does a superb job depicting these women’s lives and how they cope with what happened to them. It’s not nearly as effective from a journalistic perspective, as there is little effort put on explaining Japan’s refusal to admit any wrongdoing, let alone looking for a path that would force the government to apologize. 3/5 stars.

The Apology will also play on Sunday, May 8th.

Aim for the Roses (Canada, 2016): A tale so bizarre it can only be true, Aim for the Roses tells the story of two men with a soft spot for gonzo spectacle. First we have Ken Carter, the foremost Canadian daredevil who in 1976 decided he wanted to jump the St. Lawrence river. Yearning to leave a mark in history, Carter was consumed by this obsession. He didn’t have the best technicians or engineers to support his dream, but that wouldn’t stop him.

Three decades later, musician Mark Haney created a concept album for solo double bass inspired by Carter’s escapades. Just to make his task harder, Haney translated the numbers related to the jump into music, and turned ads into lyrics.

I won’t tell you about the outcome of either undertaking (although some may be privy of the info). Suffice to say it’s rather unexpected. Director John Bolton mixes archive footage, first-hand testimonies and an in situ staging of Haney’s opus of dubious quality. The combination somehow works and provides one of the best times you’ll have in HotDocs this year. 3/5 stars.

Aim for the Roses will also play on Monday, May 2nd, and Friday, May 6th.

HotDocs ’16 - Day 3: Gulistan, Land of Roses/Spaceship Earth

By Jorge Ignacio Castillo

Gulistan: Lands of Roses (Canada, 2016): Proof that a great subject doesn’t necessarily make for a good documentary, Gulistan, Land of Roses has numerous opportunities to rise above the genre and squanders them all. In theory, the film is about female Kurdish squads battling ISIS, but you never see any fighting taking place. This is not necessarily a problem if the portrait of the guerrilleras were fascinating enough. Unfortunately, director Zayne Akyol never comes close to discover what makes these women tick beyond boilerplate answers.

Some morsels of valuable information do come across: The battlefield helps the female fighters avoid their expected fate in Kurdish society (subservient, hopelessly dependent). Another source of motivation is that if ISIS soldiers are killed by a woman, they’ll never get to (their idea of) heaven. These valuable bits of info get lost among a lot of waiting around, training sequences and pointless dialogue. The virtual absence of a dramatic arch seals the deal: Gulistan: Land of Roses is a bore. 1/5 stars.

Gulistan Land of Roses will also play on Wednesday, May 4th, and Sunday, May 8th.

Spaceship Earth (Canada, 2016): The problem with climate change documentaries is that after a while, they all look the same. The “we are doomed” narrative has become so repetitive is not actually helping the cause any longer. Spaceship Earth tries to distinguish itself by using the Marshall McLuhan metaphor of the planet as a shuttle and us as the crew, but it’s not enough.

While the film covers a fair variety of issues (melting glaciers, water acidity, the Koch brothers), it all comes down to energy. Sustainable sources cover less than 2% of the population’s needs (coal is still 30%!) and lack of political will is stalling progress on this area. Spaceship Earth is filled with interesting data presented in a cohesive fashion and in a pretty package, yet it misses the “wow” factor that would have allowed the film to break from the pack. 3/5 stars.

Spaceship Earth will also play Sunday, May 1st, and Saturday, May 7th.