Lavazza Drive-In (ICFF) Film Festival July 2020

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Category: Cinéma - Movies

Published: Monday, 06 July 2020 15:42

Written by Gilbert Seah

The ICFF Lavazza Drive-In Film Festival July 2020

The ICFF (International Contemporary Film Festival) takes on a different format this month of July as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.  It is a new initiative with huge screen built at Ontario Place.  The Lavazza Drive-In Film Festival is a 12-night series, featuring a selection of the latest not only Italian but international films from countries most affected by the recent COVID-19 pandemic, including France, China, Russia, USA, UK, Brazil, India, Canada and Italy.  

Following the Toronto event, a continuation of the Focus on Italy series will take place in the city of Vaughan. 

After months of isolation, The Lavazza Drive-In Film Festival will provide Canadians the perfect opportunity to engage with the community once again, in a safe and physically-distanced manner. 

A portion of ticket sales will be donated to the Canadian Red Cross.  The event is presented in partnership with Ontario Place, the Embassy of Italy, Rogers Communications, Christie Digital, LiUNA, Rio Mare, the Istituto Italiano di Cultura a Toronto; is sponsored by Pizza Nova; and is supported by media partners OMNI and RAI. Please find official event poster attached.   

I have previewed selected films screening links provided courtesy of the ICFF, to aid you decide which films suit you taste.

See Promo clip:

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgxwJWhxQPDKJLNXQbzrxpKkRbTDt?projector=1

For complete list of films, dates and times, click on link below.  Prices are also listed under Box-Office: I Car 1 Person: $20 ; 1 Car 3-5 Persons: $60)

https://icff.ca/

CAPSULE REVIEWS OF SELECTED FILMS:

BACK TO MARACANA (Israel/Brazil 2018) ***

Directed by Jorge Gurvich

Itai is the young spoiled son of separated Brazilian father and Israeli mother.  He travels to Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro during the 2014 World Cup with his dad and grandfather both soccer fanatics.  Many will remember that Germany won the World Cup and Brazil lost them in the semi-finals, the setting of the film’s climax.  It is good to watch films that tie the World Cup results into it script like this film and the recent LES MISERABLES set during the day in Paris when France won the World Cup in 2018 (the day I myself was in action in Paris).  The film is both about the love of soccer and the family drama that ensues.  Despite the love for soccer. director Gruvich’s film shows the destructive elements of soccer fanaticism.  A good enough script aptly made into a film that is initially erratic but finally comes together at the end.  By the way, Maracana is the name of the stadium where the World Cup soccer matches were played.

Trailer: (unavailable)

(Opening Night Movie)

THE CUBAN (USA 2020) *

Directed by Sergio Navarretta

  The film about a frontline worker, Mina (Ana Golja) connecting with a dementia patient in a nursing home is especially relevant in the difficult times of Covid-19.  It highlights the important role a caregiver plays in his or her daily duties.  Mina goes out of her way to make THE CUBAN Cuban food while playing him Cuban jazz to awaken him out of his dementia. But the film does come with its cliches.  The hospital authorities frown on Mina’s acts, admonishing her that one needs to follow hospital procedures.  How does music connect with the brain?  The film shows, naively that the information get be obtained through Google, as Mina uses Google on her laptop to find her information.  But in the filmmakers aim to make a feel-good movie, THE CUBAN ends up with quite the few unbelievable segments.  The audience is led to believe that this old man with dementia can suddenly open up after eating Cuban food and listening to Cuban music and begin talking again like a normal human being.  The connectivity between Maria and him is also too good to be true.  They become fast friends.  Though the film won the Audience Award at the L.A. Pan African Film Festival, this manipulative feel-good film is almost, for film critics unwatchable.

Trailer: https://www.imdb.com/video/vi140361497?playlistId=tt7671124&ref_=tt_pr_ov_vi

I HATE SUMMER (ODIO L’ESTATE)(Italy 2020) ***1/2
Directed by Massimo Venier

What happens when 3 families accidentally book the same vacation house?  Aldo Baglio, Giacomo Poretti and Giovanni Storti  play 3 husbands who find their families in his predicament.  The families abhor each other but eventually bond to discover happiness and friendship.  Sounds corny?  It is but director Venier is in solid form with his 3 leads, whom he has worked with before.  Giancomo is a struggling shoeshop owner, Giovanni a dis-respected dentist and Aldo (the funniest) as the laziest of the lot who sits in a wheel chair for show.  The antics are funny enough, including a good one in which the three cannot agree how to call for a lost dog.  The wives have good lines including skinny-dipping and smoking joints as well.  Director Venier pokes fun particularly of stereotyped Italian behaviour adding subtle note to the comedic proceedings.  Director Venier demonstrates his skill at making comedy look so effortless as reties his tidy comedy to a wonderful feel-good climax.  Corny but everyone loves a bit of corniness in ones life.

Trailer: https://www.imdb.com/video/vi1533919001?ref_=tt_pv_vi_aiv_1 (no Eng sub-titles)

MAGARI (IF ONLY) (Italy/France 2019) ****
Directed by Ginevra Elkann

IF ONLY the kids’ divorced parents are back together again.  The three children are boys Seb and Jen and the youngest girl, Alma from whom gives the point of view of the story.   They spend 2 weeks with their Italian dad (Riccardo Scamarcio) in Italy before moving permanently to Canada with their French mum and stepfather.   Do not let the family label of the film put you off.  As much as I myself, dislike sappy family films, MAGARI is a totally charming film from start to finish that will grab your attention and glue you to the plot.  Director Elkann knows how to work the emotions of the audience as in the film’s most moving scene where the three children embrace in a group hug when realizing that their father wants to abandon them.  The film, set in the 70’s where there are no cell phones and Marcello Mastroianni was still hot in demand as an actor, is shot in both French and Italian with English, Italian and French subtitles.  Clearly, the best film of the Lvazza Drive-In Film Festival.  Pack your whole family into the car and go see this one.

Trailer: unavailable 

THE PEANUT BUTTER FALCON (USA 2019) ***
Directed by Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz

Written and directed by Tyler Nilson and Michael Schwartz, THE PEANUT BUTTER FALCON gets its inspiration from Mark Twain’s THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN.  The setting is around the Mississippi River where crab fishing is common and boats motor around the high grown reeds.   Tyler (Shia LaBeouf) is a crab fisherman who is upset with his work and lifestyle and acquaintances.  The other character is Zak (Zack Gottsgen), a teen with Down’s Syndrome.  He is sent to a home under the care of a sympathetic social worker, Eleanor (Dakota Fanning). Zak escapes with the aid of a resident (Bruce Dern) with Eleanor in pursuit.  Zak dreams of becoming a wrestler and hopes to travel to a wrestling school conducted by his hero, with the professional name Salt Water redneck (Thomas Haden Church).  Gottsgen as the Down Syndrome kid is utterly winning and charming in his naive and goofy way, holing his own and often stealing the limelight from LaBeouf and his other co-stars.  The impressive and authentic setting soundtrack brings together bluegrass, folk songs, and spirituals, for a mix of contemporary and timeless. 

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACze83fG4wM

SHEEP WITHOUT A SHEPHERD (China 2019) ***1/2

Directed by Sam Quah

Re-make of an Indian/Malaysian film DRISHYAM, SHEEP WITHOUT A SHEPHERD is the Chinese box-office champion in 2029 that looks like the typical Hollywood action flick where a protagonist has to fight thugs to save his family.  The father in this case is a Chinese living in Thailand.  His daughter has been taken advantage of by the Thai son of a politician and police chief and accidentally killed by mother and daughter.  So, it is up to father, trying to bring his estranged family together as well as protect them.  Why the film is set in Thailand is a mystery, perhaps to give the film a more exotic flair.  It is odd that this apparently backed u Chinese production puts down a corrupt government, though it be the Thai, which likely could stand in for the Chinese government.  It is not the typical action flick where the father is a martial-arts champion fighter.  He is in this film, an ordinary man using brain instead of brawn trying to save his family, a scenario that includes two surprise plot twists that makes the film more credible.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BSXUkUkwA0

TOMORROW’S NEW DAY (Domani e un Altro Giorno) (Italy 2018) **

Directed by Simone Spada

TOMORROW’S A NEW DAY is a drama with a little comedy that tells the story of two friends, the taciturn Tommaso and the exuberant Giuliano - the former lives in Canada, while the latter is in Rome.  When Giuliano, who is seriously ill with lung cancer, makes an irreversible decision, Tommaso overcomes his fear of flying and visits him in Rome to spend their last four days of friendship together. The two are not alone: the third star is the Giuliano's dog, called Pato.  The film is light in the way Giuliano dismisses death the way Tommaso seems to be uptight about everything else.  Director Spada’s film unfortunately is full of melodrama as can be clearly observed by the many hugging scenes.  Dying man teaches boring life long friend how to live and living man teaching the other how to die.  How more cliched can a film get?  The film is a difficult watch in the way an upcoming death is dealt with. 

Trailer: https://www.imdb.com/video/vi4067867161?playlistId=tt8664050&ref_=tt_ov_vi

Hot Docs 2020

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Category: Cinéma - Movies

Published: Thursday, 14 May 2020 16:05

Written by Gilbert Seah

HOT DOCS (Virtual 2020) 

(article with be updated with intro and more capsule reviews)

ALL THAT I AM (Alt det jeg er)(Norway 2020) ***
Directed by Tone Grøttjord-Glenne

Emilie is a young 18-year old returning home to be with her mother and other siblings after living in foster homes for many years.  This is the tale of Emilie as she speaks out of the difficult sexual abuse she underwent under her stepfather who was eventually jailed.  ALL THAT I AM is a quiet and slow paced film that is by no means less effective.  Director Tone reveals her subject as an ordinary teen but with not with a ordinary past.  The past haunts her.  The film’s most difficult to watch segment is a quiet one where a young Emilie speaks of the abuse how he came into her three to four times a week.  It is the voice of a child on the background of the screen showing snowing outside.   Sexual abuse has never been more disturbing when examined from the victim’s point of view.  Well worth a watch.

Trailer: (unavailable)

BULLETPROOF (USA 2020) **
Directed by Jeff Chandler 

BULLETPROOF begins with an re-enactment (actually a poorly executed one) of a school shoot out.  From homecoming parades and basketball games to lockdown drills and active shooter workshops, the landscape inside the American education system has drastically changed. Chandler’s film weaves together incredibly uncomfortable moments that have become the new normal, Bulletproof is a cinematic meditation on fear and violence that asks the questions: What does it mean to be safe in school?   But his film is quite a boring affair that appears aimless.  One really wonders what the real message of the film is.  The film does not really shock or educate in terms of exposing information that audiences are not already familiar with.   Lynne Ramsey’s film WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN, though fictional challenges audiences more thus being more effective.

Trailer: (unavailable)

CAPITAL IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY (New Zealand/France 2019) ***

Directed by Justin Pemberton

Adapting one of the most groundbreaking and powerful books of our time, CAPITAL IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY is aimed to be an eye-opening journey through wealth and power, that breaks the popular assumption that the accumulation of capital runs hand in hand with social progress, shining a new light on the world around us and its growing inequalities.  The film begins with a brutal look at the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union, emphasizing beatings of protesting citizens in the process.  The music brightens up the mood to modern America and then back down to the depressing18th Century, where it is emphasized repeatedly how the ownership of land is owned by only too few of the wealthiest.  Permberton’s doc is an entertaining one, though too eager to please wth many pop-culture references coupled with interviews of some of the world's most influential experts.

Trailer: https://www.imdb.com/video/vi1268956697?playlistId=tt5723056&ref_=tt_ov_vi

iHUMAN (Norway 2019) **
Directed by Tonje Hessen Schei

iHUMAN examines the explosion of A.I. Artificial Intelligence, the opportunities and challenges it brings and its impact on the global community.  A.I. is a very relevant and interesting topic that unfortunately is not given a proper treatment by Norwegian director Tonje Hessen Schei.  A.I. as taken in the film from anything from robots to information gathering, with whereas leading AI textbooks define it as a narrower field of the study of "intelligent agents": any device that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chance of successfully achieving its goals i.e. a machine that learns from itself.  Director Schei includes in her film, conferences and lectures by famous people  including psychologists and scientists/engineers.  Still, there is nothing really eye-opening in the film that audiences don’t already know from the news of the world.  She also seems obsessed by impressing her audience with technology flashing lights and the like.   The film warns more on the evil of A.I. than its benefits.

Trailer: (unavailable)

THE PAINTER AND THE THIEF

THE PAINTER AND THE THIEF is a new documentary that shows the odd and personal relationship between a famous Czech painter, Barbora who moved to Norway and finally made it famous with her paintings before two of her best works were stolen from the art gallery.  The film’s premise: an artist befriends the thief who stole her paintings.  She becomes his closest ally when he is injured.  But then when her paintings were never found. The tables turn. The Norway and Oslo settings makes a welcome difference.  One question that audiences would wonder is which parts of the doc actually take place in real time and which are re-enacted.  The film proves the point that how detestable and unlikeable people might be they are still are lost souls that need to find solace.

Trailer: https://www.imdb.com/video/vi1709882905?playlistId=tt11296058&ref_=tt_ov_vi

THEY CALL ME DR. MIAMI (USA 2020) **

Directed by Jean-Simon Chartier

If the title this of this doc sounds cheesy, the film and the subject follows suit.  So, THEY CALL ME DR. MIAMI should be taken as a silly entertaining watch and not as a film that is more serious delivery a message or change the world.  Dr. Miami, otherwise known as Dr. Michael Salzhauer is a famous L.A. plastic surgeon practising in Miami who has used social media to further his practice.  But since he posts ugly surgical operations as well as promote himself as a demi-God,. He infuriates his peers in the plastic surgery field while enhancing his practice.  It is suggested at there is a 2-year wait for new patients.  His line: “I am falling in love with myself again…” says it all.   After 30 minutes of watching this egomaniac, even the silliness becomes a bore.  At one point, he plans a 3-storey mural himself with a sceptre on a horse.

Trailer: (unavailable)

Welcome to TIFF 2020

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Category: Cinéma - Movies

Published: Wednesday, 24 June 2020 17:21

Written by Gilbert Seah

What will TIFF 2020 look like?

Click on link below....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5RxiL6CwlQ&feature=youtu.be

Film Review - Resistance

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Category: Cinéma - Movies

Published: Tuesday, 31 March 2020 16:06

Written by Gilbert Seah

RESISTANCE (UK/France/Germany/USA 2019) ***

Directed by Jonathan Jakubowicz

(Note: Though set in France, thee is hardly any French spoken.)

The closing credits read that we should not forget the WWII efforts of the RESISTANCE workers.  With that, one would find it difficult to fault a well-intentioned film that pays tribute to the Resistance fighters of the Nazi Regime.  Still, RESISTANCE is a flawed, if earnest look at too many stories told in a WWII setting.

The first and foremost is the story of the world’s most famous mime of all time, Marcel Marceau.  I was unaware that this person served in the Resistance saving thousands of Jewish children.  Thanks to writer/director Jonathan Jakubowicz for bringing the information to light.  Jakubowicz researched his material from many books - on Marceau, on Klaus Barbie, the French Resistance as well as from the testimonies of contemporary survivors. 

RESISTANCE is clearly about paying tribute to Marceau and the Resistance fighters who have saved millions of children from those damned Nazis.  The story is told from the point of view of Marceau, who is also a talented theatre performer and painter.  His painting skills allowed him to forge passports.  Marceau falls in love with a local girl, Emma.  They get pulled into helping Jewish children.  They soon realize that the Nazis will get the children sooner or later and the only option was to move the children out of Occupied France.  Unfortunately, the film swings from one premise to another.  At one point, it is about Mareau’s entertaining skills, next it is a WWII action flick, then it attempts a biography of Marceau and then a tribute to the resistance fighters.  Of those mentioned, the latter stands out and forms the at least satisfying climax of the film.

Where the film works, is when it gets a bit emotional though the sappiness is thankfully held back.  The debate between Marceau (Jesse Eisenberg) and Emma (Clémence Poésy) is particularly moving.  The opening segment where a young girl Elsbeth (Bella Ramsey) watches her parents killed by the Nazi’s and Marceau’s mime performance at the end are worthy of mention.

Eisenberg, the Oscar nominated actor (for THE SOCIAL NETWORK) with the motor-mouth surprisingly speaks much slower in this film, for obvious reasons.  Eisenberg speaks English with an odd Jewish slant, as do all the Fresh actors in English.  The Germans speak German.   Eisenberg could be better in this role but the script does not allow him to excel as in THE SOCIAL NETWORK.   Eisenberg does ok with the miming, but he is not that good.  But who can blame him?  No one could ever be better than Marcel Marceau.  Ed Harris has a cameo as General George S. Patton but his performance lasts no longer than 5 minutes.   Matthias Schweighöfer, who also is one of the film’s co-producers plays Klaus Barbie, the ruthless Gestapo agent who is shown with a nice quiet side with his family.

RESISTANCE feels pretty depressing, especially if watching during the COVID-19 self-isolation/lockdown all over the world.  One can feels for the Jewish isolation with regards to fear of an outside incontrollable threat.  RESISTANCE opens on iTunes March the 31st, so you will be able to see it.

Trailer: https://www.imdb.com/video/vi3863133977?playlistId=tt6914122&ref_=tt_ov_vi