(ASTÉRIX AND OBÉLIX: THE MIDDLE KINGDOM) (France 2022) ***1/2
Directed by Guillaume Canet
The French get it right with their latest live action comedy of the Belgium-French favourite cartoon comic books of Asterix and Obelix written by René Goscinny and illustrated by Albert Uderzo.This is the only film (there has been more than 15 such films, all animated except two other live-action) not based on the stories of the comic book or comic books and originally written for the film.
CONFESSIONS (English title: Confessions of a Hitman)(Canada 2022) ***1/2
Directed by Luc Picard
Starring and directed by Luc Picard, CONFESSION, based on the novel, is the no-nonsense story of Quebec's most notorious hit man Gérald Gallant. It plays like a biopic but the titles at the film's start are quick to emphasize that this is a fiction film based on true characters.
Gallant is one of the most prolific hitmen of our time, a paid assassin who worked for the biker gangs of Quebec from 1978-2003. Yet with twenty- eight murders and 12 attempted murders across 25 years, Gérald Gallant surprised and confused. How did a stuttering “average Joe” with fragile health and a modest IQ, living a conventional lower-middle-class life with a deeply religious wife in a quiet neighborhood, manage to outsmart both the most hardened criminals and the smartest lawmen for decades while continuing to ply his “trade”?
Gallant (Picard) was brought up by a tough and severe mother (there is no other person I hate more in the world, Gallant says of her) who did not hesitate to belittle him in the eyes of everyone. The stuttering man in fragile health suffering from heart disease, now leads a peaceful existence in a quiet neighbourhood with his wife, Pauline. Gallant loves her but carries on a passionate affair with another woman, Yet this uneventful facade hides serious sins. Gallant’s roadmap includes no less than twenty-eight murders and fifteen attacks, mostly bikers and high-ranking mafiosos. Gallant also works in conjunction with the police and doesn't hesitate to sell out those around him. Picard portrays Gallant as a despicable personality with no oils lying about his guilt and everything else.
This is also Quebec’s history where biker gangs terrorized the streets, and society had moved away from the traditional constraints of the Catholic church. The banality of evil has never been more forcefully depicted.CONFESSIONS has the feel of a real gangster movie.
CONFESSIONS OF A HITMAN captured Best Director at the Whistler Film Festival and a trio of Canadian Screen Award nominations.
CONFESSIONS premiered in Toronto at Cinefranco 2022 and premieres on VOD and Digital December the 2nd.
SAINT OMER (France 2022) **** Directed by Alice Diop
Fresh from winning a top prize and the Venice Film Festival, this is one extraordinary narrative debut by acclaimed documentarian Alice Diop. Her doc roots are evident in the film as there are lots of actors speaking to the camera just as interviewees do, especially in the long takes of the court sessions. The incidents are never shown on screen but unfolds in the words of the actors, and more effectively so. A young novelist, Rama (Kayije Kagame), is working on a contemporary retelling of the ancient Medea myth. In Greek mythology, Madea is a mother who murdered her children. Pregnant herself and increasingly uneasy, Rama’s own family history, doubts, and fears about motherhood are steadily dislodged as the life story of the accused woman, Laurence Coly (Guslagie Malanda), is gradually revealed. From a stern upbringing in Senegal to gradual isolation from family and society on her arrival in Europe, Coly’s experiences expose the traumas of racism and emotional manipulation that can remain unspoken while insidiously and irrevocably corroding a person’s well-being.
Never has a film with so much dialogue been so exciting and compelling. The courtroom drama played out by director Diop looks so much like a true crime drama. SAINT OMER where the baby was drowned is west-northwest of Lille on the railway to Calais, and is located in the Artois province. The town is named after Saint Audomar, who brought Christianity to the area.
SAINT OMER has been awarded the Best International Feature by the Toronto Film Critics Association.
TORONTO REEL ASIAN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2022
The Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival (Reel Asian), Canada's premier pan-Asian festival, announces its full 2022 programming lineup including its Opening and Closing Night Galas. From Canadian filmmaker Anthony Shim, Riceboy Sleeps (this year’s TIFF Platform Prize winner) and closing with Topline, created by this year’s Canadian Spotlight Artist, Romeo Candido, with a live musical accompaniment.This year’s lineup consists of 77 films from regions including Canada, the United States, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, India, Pakistan, Iran, Indonesia, Australia, Cambodia, Malaysia, Philippines and Singapore. Taking place November 9 to 20, 2022, this year’s Festival will welcome audiences back to more in-person programming while continuing to offer digital programming to a wider audience across the country.For the full programming lineup and ticket information visit reelasian.com.
“There has been a creative explosion of Asian talent both on screen and behind the camera this past year, as our collective storytelling gets stronger,” said Deanna Wong, executive director, Reel Asian. “This year, we are incredibly fortunate to be able to share an abundance of outstanding films with our audiences and also expand our offerings to both in person and digital experiences as we continue our commitment to showcasing the best in Asian cinema.”
CAPSULE REVIEW OF SELECTED FILMS:
DREAM PALACE (South Korea 2022) **
Directed by Ka Sung-moon
DREAM PALACE is the name given to the new block of apartments the developers are hoping to sell.Into her new apartment comes a troubled Hye-jeong, a single mother and her son, but they face rusty running water that the developers refuse to solve.Hye-jeong had previously left a protest group of closely knit families, mourning the victims of an industrial accident, to which she also lost her husband. To move on with her life, she buys a sparkly new apartment with the settlement money, but things go awry when she notices the unit's construction defects that render her and her son without any usable water. When she attempts to get the problem fixed, an unexpected group stops her in the act: her new neighbours. Beyond being ostracized and called a traitor for accepting the settlement money, Hye-jeong must now stand up against her It take a while before director Ka lets the audience know what is going on.The film lasts almost 2 hours, and meanders around with Hye-jeong running all over the place like a chicken with its head cut off.One wonders what is the real aim or message of the film.Ka’s film is watchable as he got Asia audience to sympathize with his protagonist but he could have come up with a shorter and more effective story.
NOISE (Japan 2022) ***1/2
Directed byRyūichi Hiroki
This marks the Canadian Premiere of NOISE, a reflective and compelling drama, playing like a whodunit mystery set on a Japanese island community which is based on a manga by Tsutsui Tetsuya.The central family is the Kieto family who owns a fig plantation that employs most of the island’s aging community.The female mayor is all out to obtain funds to open a new hospital that will attract more residents while making her more famous.The mayor is a loud mouth lady who abuses those under her.When an accident takes place and a rehabilitating criminal is killed, Kieto and other islanders attempt a cover up.The coverup gets more and more complicated with more and more people involved as two mainland policemen uncover the real truth about what happened.The film occasionally feels like a satire on Japanese community.The mystery and interesting enough to keep the film going though it fizzles out at the end with the twist in the plot occurring a little too early.
(Nov 10 at 8:30 PM, TIFF Bell Lightbox)
RICEBOY SLEEPS (Canada 2022) *** Directed Anthony Shim
A South Korean mother and son struggle with their new life in 1990s Canada and the growing rift between them, in Anthony Shim’s assured second feature. After losing her husband, So-young (Choi Seung-yoon) relocates to Canada with their young son, Dong-hyun (Dohyun Noel Hwang as a child, Ethan Hwang as a teenager) in tow. There, they must fight for acceptance and respect. Dong-hyun is brutally bullied by his classmates, and he isn’t helped by the timid, distinctly Canadian racism of his teacher and principal, who consider the family “troublesome.” At work, So-young battles loneliness and racist and sexist comments.There are many issues tackled in Shim’s film - racism; bullying; mother and son relationship; ancestry; mental health among others - but none so well resolved.The film’s best segments demonstrate the importance of family. In the film’s best scene, Dong is in Korea having drinks for the first time with his uncle and grandfather even though he is just 15.RICEBOY SLEEPS had its world premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival where it won the Platform Prize.
(Wed, Nov 9 • 7 PM • Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema)
SOME WOMEN (Singapore 2021) *** Directed by Sun Wong
SOME WOMEN is a film from Singapore that the government does not like as it showcases a seedier side of the island state with red-light transvestite areas like Bugis Street.Peter Bogdanovich’s film of a ex-soldier operating a brothel in the same area was banned in Singapore.Bugis Street has now changed as the film informs. I n this reflective documentary, director Quen Wong turns the lens toward the intimate and vulnerable in her own life as a trans woman in Singapore, making time and space to honour acts of looking and being seen, moments of being fearful and working to communicate, and reflecting on past decisions in order to make new ones. Though gentle and quiet, these gestures are powerfully earnest, and refreshingly honest.Against the context of a conservative nation-state, Some Women also uses dialogue and gathering to address a fuller spectrum of queer life on the island, threading Wong own story with recollections and perspectives from other generations of trans women, through the accompaniment of Sanisa and Lune Loh. These moments in the film archive and celebrate trans and queer folks’ evolving strategies for survival, protest, celebration, and continuance. A realistic and educational look at trans life in an otherwise unseen side of Singapore.(Note: This reviewer lived his first 17 years in Singapore.)
(Sat, Nov 12 • 2 PM • TIFF Bell Lightbox)
STAY THE NIGHT (Canada 2022) *** Directed by Renuka Jeyapalan
STAY THE NIGHT begins with a girl, Grace denied a promotion at her job, the reason given being that she is not outgoing enough.The following scene shows Carter Stone, a NHL player demoted.Both end up at the same bar in downtown Toronto.It does not take a genius to guess that what follows is a romantic comedy between these two very different persons. When reserved, late-bloomer Grace (played by KIM’S CONVENIENCE’s Andrea Bang) gets passed up for a major promotion at work, she tries to break out of her shell by pursuing a one-night stand at the club.Her choice in partner, Carter Stone (Joe Scarpellino), an NHL player at a crossroads, is having an equally rough night.After an initial meet-cute and disastrous attempt at a hookup, the two walk Toronto’s wintry streets, wandering from bar to skating rink to office, slowly but surely finding common ground as the night progresses.
STAY THE NIGHT bares some differences from the typical romantic comedy.There is no silly obstacle that is revealed, like a secret not told, that has to be resolvedso the couple gets back together.The familiar Toronto locations are immediately recognizable though the filmmakers appear keen on changing the names of bars or banks in the downtown area.Another variation is that the couple is different racially, as Grace is Asian.Grace is 27 and has never had sex, but the word virgin is never used as it putsstigma over her character.The two do make a workable chemistry.
The film opens in theatres in Toronto, Vancouver and Ottawa on Friday, Nov 18th and then will be available across Canada on VOD on Dec 2nd
LES FEMMES EN OR (Two Women) (Canada 2025) *** Directed by Chloé Robichaud
Violette and Florence no longer understand what's happening to them. Respectively on maternity leave and off...
