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przedAnother film fest, another year when I swear I'll keep up on the film reviews. I didn't manage any last year. (Last year sucked.) This year, I'm hoping to be better.
Going into day 5 of the fest, I've seen 8 films, all good, many great. Here's the roundup, in order seen.
Modern Whore
A funny, witty, smart kinda documentary, kinda film essay about sex work. Andrea Werhun has worked as an escort and stripper, as well as an actor and a film consultant. (She worked on Anora, and that film's director, Sean Baker, is a producer here.) Werhun tackles a lot of the misconceptions about sex work, while also not shying away from the darker side, and she's aided by friends who are both sex workers and activists and make the case why sex work is work and why sex workers deserve the same protections as any other worker. It's also pretty damn funny and visually gorgeous. (I'm a bit passionate about this cause, with early exposure to Susie Bright and other sex positive activists of the 80s & 90s, and I LOVED this film.)
Sirāt
A prize winner from Cannes, Sirāt follows a Spanish dad searching for his missing daughter at a rave in Morocco. When the army raids the rave, the dad and his young son take a chance at following the group of ravers they think might know where the daughter is, and end up on an ecstatic and harrowing journey. Really terrible things happen in this movie (I'm very serious when I say check Does the Dog Die) but it's also quite contemplative and beautiful, with the dad and son gradually being accepted into the raver's found family.
Youngblood
When I saw there was a Canadian movie about hockey, I had to go. I had high hopes for this one. The director made Black Ice, a very good about the challenges and racism that black players face in the game. And while it's a solid story, dealing with the toxic masculinity and violence that is often inherent in the men's game, I was very disappointed in the hockey scenes. The TV show Shoresy shoots its hockey scenes way more stylishly.
Carolina Caroline
When 19 year-old Caroline catches a con man running a grift at the small town Texas gas station she works at, she gets him to give the money back. Then she runs off with him and gets him to teach her how to run increasingly risky cons. This film starts off fun and whimsical, but when Caroline and Oliver start robbing banks, the stakes get higher and the danger becomes real. A fun little film that, with Samara Weaving and Kyle Gallner as the couple on the run.
A swirling anthology about Black history, made up on archival footage, interviews and created footage on a fictional future shipping line that moves Black people from the Americas back to Africa. Very much an experimental film, it throws a ton of Black history at you in a fire hose of images and music. You're either going to love it or hate it. I very much loved it.
Ky Nam Inn
Gentle story set in post-war Saigon. A translator arrives at a Saigon apartment building to work on a new translation of Le Petit Prince and is drawn into the lives of his neighbours. Especially the young widow who lives on the floor below him and earns her living making cooked lunches for the neighborhood, and the half-European, half-Vietnamese boy who works for her. Beautifully shot and a really lovely story.
Rental Family
Brendan Fraser continues his comeback with this story of an American actor struggling to make a living in Tokyo who stumbles into the business of hiring himself out as a surrogate family member/friend to lonely people. After some initial reluctance (he nearly backs out of an assignment as the fake groom for a lesbian who wants to give her family the straight wedding they expect so she can immigrate to Canada with her wife) he starts making real connections with his clients. This is sweet and touching.
The Furious
This is the absolute best martial arts movie I have seen in a long time. Possibly ever. The cast is stacked with some of the best martial artists working today, and the fight choreography is imaginative and brutal. If you like martial arts, I HIGHLY recommend this.
Going into day 5 of the fest, I've seen 8 films, all good, many great. Here's the roundup, in order seen.
Modern Whore
A funny, witty, smart kinda documentary, kinda film essay about sex work. Andrea Werhun has worked as an escort and stripper, as well as an actor and a film consultant. (She worked on Anora, and that film's director, Sean Baker, is a producer here.) Werhun tackles a lot of the misconceptions about sex work, while also not shying away from the darker side, and she's aided by friends who are both sex workers and activists and make the case why sex work is work and why sex workers deserve the same protections as any other worker. It's also pretty damn funny and visually gorgeous. (I'm a bit passionate about this cause, with early exposure to Susie Bright and other sex positive activists of the 80s & 90s, and I LOVED this film.)
Sirāt
A prize winner from Cannes, Sirāt follows a Spanish dad searching for his missing daughter at a rave in Morocco. When the army raids the rave, the dad and his young son take a chance at following the group of ravers they think might know where the daughter is, and end up on an ecstatic and harrowing journey. Really terrible things happen in this movie (I'm very serious when I say check Does the Dog Die) but it's also quite contemplative and beautiful, with the dad and son gradually being accepted into the raver's found family.
Youngblood
When I saw there was a Canadian movie about hockey, I had to go. I had high hopes for this one. The director made Black Ice, a very good about the challenges and racism that black players face in the game. And while it's a solid story, dealing with the toxic masculinity and violence that is often inherent in the men's game, I was very disappointed in the hockey scenes. The TV show Shoresy shoots its hockey scenes way more stylishly.
Carolina Caroline
When 19 year-old Caroline catches a con man running a grift at the small town Texas gas station she works at, she gets him to give the money back. Then she runs off with him and gets him to teach her how to run increasingly risky cons. This film starts off fun and whimsical, but when Caroline and Oliver start robbing banks, the stakes get higher and the danger becomes real. A fun little film that, with Samara Weaving and Kyle Gallner as the couple on the run.
A swirling anthology about Black history, made up on archival footage, interviews and created footage on a fictional future shipping line that moves Black people from the Americas back to Africa. Very much an experimental film, it throws a ton of Black history at you in a fire hose of images and music. You're either going to love it or hate it. I very much loved it.
Ky Nam Inn
Gentle story set in post-war Saigon. A translator arrives at a Saigon apartment building to work on a new translation of Le Petit Prince and is drawn into the lives of his neighbours. Especially the young widow who lives on the floor below him and earns her living making cooked lunches for the neighborhood, and the half-European, half-Vietnamese boy who works for her. Beautifully shot and a really lovely story.
Rental Family
Brendan Fraser continues his comeback with this story of an American actor struggling to make a living in Tokyo who stumbles into the business of hiring himself out as a surrogate family member/friend to lonely people. After some initial reluctance (he nearly backs out of an assignment as the fake groom for a lesbian who wants to give her family the straight wedding they expect so she can immigrate to Canada with her wife) he starts making real connections with his clients. This is sweet and touching.
The Furious
This is the absolute best martial arts movie I have seen in a long time. Possibly ever. The cast is stacked with some of the best martial artists working today, and the fight choreography is imaginative and brutal. If you like martial arts, I HIGHLY recommend this.
