It Must Be Heaven (2019) Review

Title: It Must Be Heaven
Year: 2019
Director: Elia Sulieman
Country: Palestine
Language: French

Best known for Divine Intervention (2002), which won the Jury Prize at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival, Elia Sulieman is a Palestenian director who's cinematic style has been compared to Jaqcues Tati and Buster Keaton. I was at the Q&A for his film It Must be Heaven at the Toronto International Film Festival. Sulieman has a great sense of humour, saying "If you don't like this film, I have a brother...and he's big!" He also appeared to be a big film buff as he jokingly claimed he "stole from a lot of sources" for his movie. 

Elia Suleiman's unnamed character travels to different cities and finds himself in quite odd and hilarious scenes. 

A dash of Keaton, a sprinkle of Tati, and a pinch of Python can be found in It Must Be Heaven. It's an abusrd picture made of vignettes that comically compares Sulieman's hometown of Nazareth to the rest of the world (mainly France and New York). Each vignette starts with an observational shot, then shows Sulieman's reaction to it, and then edits back and forth between the two. The funniest can be seen in the middle of the film when police officers are trying to measure the length of an outdoor cafe and Sulieman is in the middle, quietly drinking his coffee. 

In It Must Be Heaven Sulieman is satirising the security and policing that happens everywhere in the world, while pointing out that the West take such matters incredibly casually. We take our freedom of movement for granted. The vignettes about the US demonstrate how preposterous it is that people can buy automatic weapons in the super-maket. Certainly can't do that in Nazareth. 

It Must Be Heaven is a healthy mix of comedy and politics. One can get something out of this film, even if they know nothing about Palestine. This is a picture that deserves serveral viewings and perhaps a trip to the library. 

Devil Between the Legs (2019) Review

Title: Devil Between the Legs

Year: 2019

Director: Arturo Ripstein

Country: Mexico

Language: Spanish

Early September 2019 my wife and I went to Toronto International Film Festival for the first time. We saw four films; Devil Between the Legs, A Hidden Life, Lucy in the Sky and It Must Be Heaven. Devil played at the Bell Lightbox at 9:15pm. I quite liked the theatre, as it had an elevator butler and very high quality seating. The distance between the seating and screen made it so pretty much every seat in the house was a good one. After Devil I was able to meet the director Aruro Ripstein for a Q&A. It was a memorable experience. 

Beatriz (Silvia Pasquel) and the Old Man (Alejandro Suárez) have been together for decades. A retired homeopathic pharmacist, the Old Man now divides his time between their Mexico City home where he shuffles around in his housecoat, raging against Beatriz, and paying secret visits to his mistress. Beatriz, when not bearing the brunt of the Old Man's tirades, sneaks out to take tango lessons.

Devil Between the Legs feels like what would happen if Luis Bunuel remade Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966). It's a bold and innovative picture that treads a fine line, narrowly avoiding being too offensive or off-putting to be enjoyable. Ripstein does what very few have thought of in cinema; put the erotic desires and impulses of a geriatric couple in their 70's at the forefront of this drama-comedy. 

Even if you're, like me, a bit confused about what to make of the picture, I can certainly attest that Devil Between the Legs is quite memorable. The cinematography and set design seem to be quite in sync with the deterioating condition of the couple throughout the film. The weird dynamics within the picture are complimented with a strong script that brings our characters to a more sympathetic and endearing light. A poor director/writer would have made us detest these people, but instead we see outselves within them. 

Mynarski Death Plummet (2014) Review

Title: Mynarski Death Plummet
Year: 2014

Director: Matthew Rankin

Country: Canada 

Language: N/A 

In my view, the most interesting "new" director on the scene has to be Matthew Rankin. Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba,Canada he is an expirimental filmmaker that, judging from his short films, social media, and website (http://www.rankino.com) has an eclectic taste for the strange. In addition to being nominated for several awards, his film Tesla World Light (2017) won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Short Film at the17th Jutra Awards. 

Mynarski Death Plummer (2014) is an avant garde film about the last few minutes about the life of Winnipeg's World War Two hero Andrew Mynarski. 

Rankin's short film is both innovative and familiar (to cinephiles). It has the aesthetic of a Dziga Vertov (Man With a Movie Camera) mixed with the immersive emotive storytelling of Douglas Sirk. Using a combination of trippy animation and camerawork reminiscent of the silent era, Rankin gives Mynarski immortality; making the hero's sacrifice a spectacle to behold. 

Though only 8 minutes long, Mynarski Death Plummet hits you in the gut as it overloads your senses. Its a positively overwhelming, undeniably great film experience that seeks to put its audience beyond the norm of cinema. A visual feast, I found myself in awe of Rankin's psychadelic war-time spectacle. 

Rankin's short film was so enticing that I had to watch it five times in a row. It floored me. It is such a remarkable tribute to a hometown hero. For those attending the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival, I must advise you to see Rankin's first feature length film The Twentieth Century. I feel like eventually, 5-10 years from now,  people will be using the term Rankin-esque to refer to weird Canadian pictures.

Modern Romance (1981) Review

Title: Modern Romance
Year: 1981
Director: Albert Brooks
Country: US
Language: English

I watch movies like Modern Romance (1981) and thank the Lord that I didn't stay in the dating pool for too long. At 19 (2010) I met my wife at University, we remained good friends until we started dating at 22 (2013) , we got engaged when I was 24 (2015) and got married when I was 25 (2016). Since then I haven't had the desire to date or flirt; good riddens to that! Modern Romance shows the ugly side of fleeting feelings, in a fairly comedic way. 

Robert Cole (Albert Brooks) , a film editor, is constantly breaking up with and reconciling with long-suffering girl friend Mary Harvard (Kathryn Harrold) , who works at a bank. He is irrationally jealous and self-centered, while Mary has been too willing to let him get away with his disruptive antics.

I'd say Modern Romance is a fairly accurate portrayal of how neurotic behavior, combined with crippling insecurity, can destroy a person and their relationships around them. Brooks' goes farther than Woody Allen ever dared, creating a character that is incredibly familiar; you've either met this type of person in your own life, you've been that kind of person or you are that kind of person. I'd like to think I've outgrown Brooks', but I know a little bit of that neurosis creeps up every once in a while. 

While packing quite a deep punch, and having a small horror element, Modern Romance works incredibly well as a comedy. I love the songs throughout the film that keep reminding Brooks of his ill-matched romance. He turns on the radio and hears Along Comes Mary by The Association. He goes on a date with a different girl and She's Out of My Life by Michael Jackson plays. I've seen this gag plenty of times on The Simpsons and am happy to know that it stems from this film. 

Modern Romance is a great comedy; easily the best Brooks' made, even though I do love Lost in America, Defending Your Life, and Mother. All great comedies have a great deal of truth in their biting satire; this film depicts the true nature of people who are hopelessly stuck in hapless relationships to a tee. 

Defending Your Life (1991) Review

Title: Defending Your Life
Year: 1991
Director: Albert Brooks
Country: US
Language: English

Previously I've seen/reviewed Albert Brooks' Lost in America (1985) and Mother (1996). Enjoying them both tremendously as a great mesh of drama and comedy.  Defending Your Life (1991) was next on my random Brooks' list. I had high expectations for it and am proud to say that it exceeded them. The afterlife has never been so funny, while simultaneously being incredibly heartfelt.

Daniel Miller (Albert Brooks) is killed in a car accident and goes to Judgment City, a waiting room for the afterlife. During the day, he must prove in a courtroom-style process that he successfully overcame his fears. If he wins he stays in Heaven, if he loses he is reincarnated on Earth. At night he falls in love with a beautiful young woman named Julia (Meryl Streep).

My wife and I have said for many years that our ideal version of Heaven has a buffet, where the food tastes wonderful all the time & you can never get fat. This movie's version of heaven has exactly that! It's so blissful to see them eat to their heart's content! This is also the butt of many jokes "Do you want nine pies? I make you nine pies!" The writing is remarkable; never compromising the heart of the picture for Brooks' observational comedy. 

Defending Your Life is a lovely picture that will encourage you to be more courageous in your own love life. Perhaps you may spend more time with your loved ones and cease some grand moment with them. It's almost as good as It's a Wonderful Life (1946) in the way it sweeps you off your feet and puts your head in the clouds. 

I look forward to watching more of Brooks' filmography in the coming months. His comedy is remarkable; certainly a style of humour that doesn't droll or become boring with each passing film. Defending Your Life is a hidden gem in American cinema. 

Polyester (1981) Review

Title: Polyester
Year: 1981
Director: John Waters
Country: US
Language: English

Have you ever wanted to smell a movie, but didn't know how to? Well now you can! With Polyester John Waters (Pink Flamingos) provided scratch n' sniff cards to audience members. They would use these cards when the screen prompted them to. Sometimes you'd get a nose full of beautiful daisies, and other times you might get the unpleasant odour of skunks. Waters' creativity new no bounds. 

Francine Fishpaw (Divine) is an upper middle class suburban housewife in Baltimore. Unfortunately for this "good Christian woman", her life is about to completely fall apart.

John Waters' Francine Fishpaw has worse luck than William H Macy in the Coen Brothers' Fargo. She is a perfectly innocent women with very simple goals, but unfortunately everything slowly falls apart. When you think it can't get worse for her it does. Polyester is a crazy movie that is equal parts uncomfortable and funny. You want Divine to stop suffering, but when even the dog hangs itself you can't help but roll over laughing. 

Polyester is a Douglas Sirk (Magnificent Obsession) melodrama turned up to 11. The acting is over-the-top, the falls are tremendous, the villains are dastardly, and the hero is hopeless. The film looks like it's going to turn over a new leaf and give Fishpaw a happy life, only to have the rug pulled from under her. Waters does a great job at exposing the dirty underbelly of the middle class in a most outrageous fashion. 

I enjoyed the film, even though I had one eyebrow raised the entire time. Polyester, as with most Waters' movies, is weird to the point of polarizing. Some people will hate it, and for some of the run-time I did, but I found it had a uniquely repulsive charm that had me glued to the screen. If anything, it's absolutely fascinating. 

Aladdin (1992 & 2019) Reviews

Title: Aladdin 
Year(s): 1992 & 2019 
Director(s): Ron Clements & Guy Ritchie 
Country: US
Language: English

Aladdin (2019) is a live-action remake of the animated Aladdin (1992) which has elements of Thief of Bagdad (1940) which itself is a remake of the silent Thief of Bagdad (1925) which was inspired by A Thousand and One Nights, a collection of many middle eastern stories that was first published in 1704. The genie, magic carpet, jafar, princess in distress etc. have all been told for hundreds of years and had a LONG fall to get to...Will Smith. 

Aladdin is both poor street rat and "diamond in the rough". Jafar is a villain who wants to enter the "cave of wonders" to get a lamp which evokes an almighty genie, but needs Aladdin to do so. Chaos ensues, Aladdin is in possession of the lamp & wants to use the genies' powers to make himself a prince so the princess will marry him. 

Much of Aladdin (1992)'s success is due to Robin Williams' portrayal of the genie. Disney Execs obviously believed this to be true, considering they marketed the hell out of his likeness. He's charming, funny and endearing. His genie appeals to children because of his zany adhd behavior and appeals to adults because of the random-ass celebrity impersonations. Groucho Marx in a 90's animated movie? Really!? 

The film itself is a nice compact 90 minutes that doesn't meander and gives every scene a reason to be there. The animation provides an epic feel to each song, Prince Ali in particular has quite distinct and powerful visuals. They really emphasize how important Aladdin is now that he is a prince. Jafar's voice actor creates a menacing and powerful villain. I appreciate his transormation into a giant snake near the end of the picture. 

Aladdin (2019) is terrible in comparison. Will Smith can't even carry Williams' bags. He's an unfunny dad-joke genie that doesn't do impersonations, doesn't improve Aladdin (Menna Massoud) and adds very little soul to his musical numbers. There isn't enough CGI in the world to improve the lazy Prince Ali number. Smith does not bring much charisma to this role. The effects from the 1940 movie are more convincing. 

Marwan Kanzari also lacks a great deal of acting ability in his role of Jafar. The 1992 animation elicits more fear than this possible Starbucks manager. Conrad Veidt would be spinning in his grave if he saw such lackluster acting of the same character. 

Aladdin (2019) also adds 38 minutes to its run-time, none of it improving the story even slightly. We get the Genie flirting with a human girl, a "girl power" ballad and a lot of filler that I've forgotten. Yikes! The changes don't improve the picture at all. Instead of a menacing snake Jafar turns into...a giant parrot? Huh? 

The only positive thing that I can say about Aladdin (2019) is that Naomi Scott is incredibly beautiful. I can certainly understand why Aladdin would want to move mountains for her & I would love to see more pictures that she is in.

Lacking any type of heart I'd avoid Aladdin (2019) and stick with Aladdin (1992) or the two Thief of Bagdad films. None of these "live-action" (although mostly CGI) remakes have been as good as the animation. All, except Jungle Book, have been  hollow and lifeless. 

Aladdin (1992)

Aladdin (2019)

Spider-Man Far From Home (2019) Review

Title: Spiderman Far From Home
Year: 2019
Director: Jon Watts 
Country: US
Language: English

Spider-Man Far From Home has put its director, Jon Watts, in a tough position due to its place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Not only does this need to be a worthy successor to Homecoming (2017), but it also has to be a pallette cleanser from the heavy Avengers: Endgame, while also providing audiences a taste for things to come. This is quite a tough challenge and I don't envy the film-makers' position. 

Peter Parker (Tom Holland) attempts to woo MJ (Zendaya) on his class field trip to Europe. Meanwhile "the elementals" are wrecking havok and a new "superhero", nicknamed Mysterio (Jack Gyllenhaal, is attemptinig to take down these creatures.

Coming off the time-travel multiverse Endgame, Far From Home feels like a much more grounded and light affair. The villain and their grandiose scheme often feels secondary to the romantic comedy unfolding between MJ and Peter. One could argue that the film's structure does not reveal itself around the action, but around the teen-romance. 

Far From Home owes a lot of its story to the hit television series Scooby Doo Where are You? (1969) The villain's motivations, the nefarious trickery and even the big reveal are very reminiscent of that show. I half expected Mysterio to yell "and I would have gotten away with it too! If it weren't for you meddling kids!" We can only hope more films are inspired by Scooby Doo.

The film is a great building block for Phase Four, showing us a fraction of what we could expect and leaving us with a tremendous taste for more. Far From Home is as endearing as it is entertaining. It surpasses every Spiderman film before it. 

10 Best Criterion Editions

10 Best Criterion Editions

The Criterion Collection is a home video company known for distributing amazing editions of your favourite classic and contemporary films. The impressive picture quality, sound quality and supplements of each release cannot compare to more mainstream blu-rays & dvds. Criterion is vastly superior compared to its competition, unfortunately this also means they're more expensive ($30+) 

I've been collecting Criterions since, well, a decade ago. In 2009 my friend gave me their parents' copy of Rashomon. I remember being bewildered that people made dvd's of 1950's Japanese movies. "What is Criterion!?" I did some research and, out of curiousity, bought The Seventh Seal and was blown away by it. "I need more!" 

Throughout this decade my collection has increased and decreased dramatically, mostly depending on my financial situation. I credit Criterion for jump-starting my love for cinema, as there would be a tremendous amount of films I would not have seen without them. 

Currently they have a streaming service called Criterion Channel. I would recommend it for people who don't have the money to buy a decent collection. However, when you do have the $$$, here are my top ten Criterion recommendations. 

10. It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, World 

9. The Apu Trilogy

.
8. On the Waterfront 

7. Persona 

6. Seven Samurai

5. Bicycle Thieves 

4. Three Colors Trilogy

3. Dekalog

2. The Essential Jacques Demy

1. Ingmar Bergman's Cinema

Detective Pikachu (2019) Review

Title: Detective Pikachu

Year: 2019

Director: Rob Letterman

Country: US

Language: English

At 9 years old, I was the right age for the Pokemon craze that shook North America in the late 1990's. I played Pokemon Blue for Gameboy Colour daily, constantly traded cards on the playground, and obsesssively watched the original anime. When Pokemon: The First Movie hit theatres in 1999 I demanded we go on day one, and was excited to get a promotional mewtwo card for doing so. Detective Pikachu is the perfect film to fuel my nostalgia.

Ace detective Harry Goodman goes mysteriously missing, prompting his 21-year-old son Tim (Justice Smith) to find out what happened. Aiding in the investigation is Harry's former Pokémon partner, Detective Pikachu (Ryan Reynolds)

The first "live action" Pokemon movie, fans of the franchise have been waiting for a film like this for two decades. The realistic style of the Pokemon is the film's greatest asset. These incredibly detailed designs are based on the artwork of RJ Palmer, a fan turned concept artist, who was discovered when a production designer stumbled upon his work on the internet. The CGI in Detective Pikachu is spectacular as it gets every teeny detail, down to the way the pokemon's hairs move in the wind, down to perfection.

I love the neo-noir atmosphere. It wraps a more modern screenplay with the sensibility of classic Hollywood films like The Big Sleep. While there are many references, such as Seinfeld's "Serenity now", we aren't encumbered by them and the film maintains a fine balance of comedy and drama. The screenplay does a tremendous job at foreshadowing and keeping the audience on its feet. The film is light enough to appeal to children, but doesn't dumb down its material and thus engages adults as well.

The pokemon who appear in Detective Pikachu are fairly well known in the mainstream and thus even adults in their 40's who don't have the nostalgia I do for the franchise will like the film. It's a good movie, I wish I had movies like these as a kid.