FRAGMENTS OF A LIFE LOVED (2023) Hot Docs 2024

Director Chloé Barreau creates an autobiography of herself by taking all the footage she shot over the years with all the men and women she loved and intercutting it with interviews done by a third party, allowing her lovers to freely say how they saw her.

This is a film that the vast majority of us would never want to make. How many of us would ever want our exes to tell us what they really feel about us. Do we really want to know what happened from the other side? It's a scary thought but here it works.

Actually what works here is the that Barreau has created a film that while being very specifically about her and her relationships, it is also about all of us. Watching the discussions in the interviews I found that I felt to connected to everyone. Everything that was being said connected back to my life and loves in one way or another. In making a portrait of herself through the eyes and hearts of other people she has made a film about everyone watching.

If you ever pondered how you might be viewed by your exes or how you may have touched the lives of those who have traveled with you for some of your life, this film may provide some answers, and if nothing else it may raise some questions.

I was moved and intrigued. More importantly when it was done I wanted to go again because I had such a good time and  wanted to spend more time with these people. 

What an absolutely great film.

Recommended.

Marching In The Dark (2024) Hot Docs 2024

Sanjivani, is a widow struggling to raise her family and run her family farm. Not long before her husband committed suicide because of the crushing debt and the inability to make a go of the farm. Turning to the numerous women in the same situation as herself she begins to organize and create a community that can begin to allow the women to make a living and get ahead.

The plight of the countless farmers in India is terrible. They are being crushed by a system stacked against them, the buyers of the goods find any and every excuse to pay the famers as little as possible, and every other part of their lives is set up to take their money and keep them in poverty. It is a life I would wish on no one. The fact that there is an epidemic of suicides is not surprising. That the wives of the men are left behind to raise their children and try and turn it around financially is sad.

This is a bittersweet film. While we watch, and are happy  Sanjivani as she begins to move toward a better life and forms a community, we are still left hurt knowing that there is still along way to go.

Not to put too fine a point on this film kicked my ass. I was left broken by it. The final image of the film has haunted me for the last three weeks since I saw the film. The haunting image of sad resolve has appeared before my eyes numerous times each and every day, despite seeing numerous other films.

I honestly don’t know what to say except that Kinshu Surjan has made a truly great film. Not only is it a great portrait of a woman doing what she has to survive, but it sheds light on a terrible situation I’m certain 99% of the world knows nothing about. If we are lucky this film will get tractions and find the eyes and hearts of the people who can change this terrible situation.

Highly recommended, MARCHING IN THE DARK is a must see.

DEATH OF A SAINT (2024) Hot Docs 2024

Patricia Bbaale Bandak returns home Uganda to look into her past, and in particular the death of her mother when she was an infant. However  she is hampered by her father who really doesn’t want to revisit it and a cultural refusal to speak badly of the dead.

Extremely personal journey into the director’s life is something that is going to require a few minutes of readjustment. Looking and feeling at times like an odd home movie, the film has it’s own rhythms and pacing. I mention this as a warning to anyone who wants a film to go from first frame to the last. This is something else instead. It is a film with the rhythm and pacing of life. Things play out as they do in life not with in the confines of a director’s reconstruction of life.

Bandak wants us to understand her life and she creates the optimal forum for that by bring us truly into her world. In a way it’s a gamble, viewers who want bullet points and a fast pace are going to be disappointed. On the other hand those viewers who want to understand the film’s subject will  go into it and submerge themselves into the place that DEATH OF A SAINT TAKES US.

I’m not going to lie, I was antsy at the start. I wasn’t certain what Bandak was doing, but being a fan of documentaries that really get their point of view across, I belt in and was richly rewarded. The result was a trip to a place and into a life I never imagined.

This is a gem of a film and recommended.

Wendy Feinberg on THE CONTESTANT (2023) which hits Hulu May 2

 Wendy went to the opening night of THE CONTESTANT at  DOC NYC in November and filed this report:

The Contestant tells a wild and crazy true story of a Japanese young man nicknamed Nasubi, meaning eggplant in Japanese, because of his extremely long face. Bullied as a child, he becomes a comedian and in 1998 auditions for a reality show, “A Life in Prizes” in Tokyo. He is randomly selected and given the challenge of living totally isolated and naked in a room, surviving only on prizes he wins off of magazine sweepstakes. Unbeknownst to him, the show is being aired to millions of people on TV. I immediately thought of the movie The Truman Show with Jim Carey, actually filmed in the same year, but is a fictionalized story vs. a real live reality show. 

I would divide the film into two parts. The first consists of watching the bizarre challenge unfold, which in the film is mostly archival footage and commentary  25 years later by Nasubi, his family and the sadistic producer of the show, Toshio Tsuchiya. We hear an audience roaring with laughter as he attempts to survive naked in this small room, but in the theater you don’t hear much laughter from the audience. In fact, I found myself very uncomfortable watching Nasubi’s struggles to survive, actually contemplating suicide, at one point. 

The second part shows the aftermath of surviving 15 months alone and naked in this room. We watch Nasubi’s reaction at finding out that he was watched by millions of people. He struggles to find normalcy again and ultimately ends up helping in a cleanup after a tsunami in his hometown of Fukashima, helping in a cleanup after a major earthquake in Nepal and climbing to the top of Mt. Everest. 

If there is anything we can learn from this film, to paraphase Nasubi, it is that it's possible to take our weaknesses and turn them into strengths. I would recommend watching this film, only because it is so unbelievable that a show like this was aired on TV in Japan and found such great success in 1998. Yet, in The Contestant, we see this “naked truth” with our own eyes! By the way, although he is naked on the show, in true comic fashion, they used an eggplant to cover his private parts. 

Seguridad (2024) Hot Docs

Tamara Segura tries to un ravel her complicated relationship with her abusive father and the country she left behind, Cuba.

This is one of those films that seems to be one thing and then opens up into something larger. Segura’s tale about trying to connect to her father becomes a journey through her family’s history, what made her father become abusive, an exploration of the Cuban revolution, what it means to leave your home country and a few other things. It’s a film that wonderfully is opening doors every couple of minutes, with the result the film makes our eyes go wide as we are brought into a seeming never ending tale.

This is a great film.  It’s wonderfully curated ride through a the life of not only the director but her family and the country of her birth. It is a film that also transcends being just one person’s story, but one that we all can see ourselves in. Something somewhere in this tale is almost certain to click with you.

One of the best films at Hot Docs, it’s also one of the great finds of 2024.

Highly recommended.

Am I the skinniest person you’ve ever seen? (2024) Hot Docs 2024

Eisha Marjara makes a very personal essay about her battle with eating disorders. The disorder was the result of her and a sister’s decision to go on a diet and it's slide into a many year long battle with food and body image.

Even if you’ve seen other films on eating disorders this film is going to rock your world. Less a conventional film than the cinematic equivalent of sitting with a good friend who tells you about their life. There is no distance between you and the story. Even as Marjara uses footage from elsewhere it still feels firmly part of her story. Actually the use of other images expands the story into the larger tale of society and how it views people’s size.

I wasn’t certain going in what I was going to think. As I said at the top I was rocked because you not only intellectually understand the mind set, you physically and emotionally understand it because the mix of words and image paint a picture that bleeds off the screen.

AM I THE SKINNIEST… is a great film and further proof that the best films in any year are very likely to come in short form packages.

So This is Christmas (2024) Hot Docs

Documentary narrative hybrid tells the story of a small Irish town around Christmas.

This is the sort of off kilter film that develops a cult following and lives for ever in the hearts and minds who love off beat films. Most definitely set at Christmas time and containing talk about the holiday, the film looks and feels like something else. The lazy cheat explanation would be to compare it to the work of Wes Anderson, but the truth is that is only superficial, since director Ken Wardrop  gives the film a most decidedly bend that you can only get from having a deep love and passion for things Irish.

Made up of tableaus, voice overs and images of life this film is something one of a kind and delightfully unique.  Its so unique that it took me about a third of the film before I clicked with it. It’s not that there was anything wrong with it, more that Wardrop is doing things his own way and if you fight that the film can’t work it’s magic.

And magic it is. This lovely film is a rye look at the holiday and life in a small town. It’s a film full of the rhythms of an idyllic setting but viewed threw a slightly off window- one that gives everything a glow.

You will forgive me, but there is something special about this film that you need to experience and not read about. My words have failed me.

Do yourself a fovour, just see this little gem of a film

Evil Does Not Exist (2023) opens Friday

Ryûsuke Hamaguchi returns with a small story of a town that is about to change thanks to a corporation wanting to build a fancy camping site in their hamlet. The towns folk are just fine, but the corporation wants to do it, despite the fact their half-assed plans are going to result in pollution and destruction of their way of life.

Structured like a short story EVIL DOES NOT EXIST moves at it's own pace and goes through it's own turns. Running almost two hours it solidly fills the hours but it tells a narrative so light and fragile that you would think it would almost be a short - except that it needs the full run time to fully breath and set up it's story.

Certain to not click with some audiences, this is still going to thrill many. Hamaguchi knows this isn't a crowd pleaser and said so in his Q&A at NYFF, but he's okay with that. The reason, I think, that people won't warm to it is the short story like structure. What happens is something that you see in short stories or films but not in features. The ending is atypical for a feature (or novel).  If you can accept that you are good.

I really like Hamaguchi's films. While dealing with similar themes through out his films, more times than not are always different. Running whatever time they need and moving differently each time he is one of the few filmmakers today making films that reflect the story and not his personal style.

This is a small gentle gem of a film and while not as meaty as his other films it is still highly recommended.

Sharp Edge of Peace (2024) Hot Docs 2024

This is the story of the four women who were part of the four women who were part of the Afghani government's team that worked with the Taliban in order to maintain women's rights in 2021. We watch as they show struggle to maintain women's rights, and deal with a group who wants to crush them.

While the film was shot as events happening and no one could know how things were going to play out (though they could suspect). Knowing how it all played out makes this a bittersweet film. While we see the strength of the women and admire their tenacity, we are also kind of crushed because we know the Taliban lied and took away every right as soon as it was safe for them to do so.

This is a super film. It's a look behind the headlines and it fills us in on what happened when mainstream media stopped watching what the Taliban was doing. As such it is a warning about where the world maybe going as well as a ray of hope by revealing that there are good people out there who will fight the good fight and bring light into darkness. 

Recommended.

Lower East Side May 2-6

This just a quick pointer toward the Lower Eastside Film Festival that runs starting this week in New York.

This small festival may not program a vast selection of films, but what they program is choice. I’ve covered their selections many times over the last few years because they are always bringing special little films to New York.

This year I’ve actually seen all the films playing except the opening and closing films, which I going to review soon.

The new films I’ve seen before are: 

DANCING ON THE EDGE OF A VOLCANO
NATHAN-ISM
LOVE AND WORK

In addition to the new films they are also celebrating a few films on their 25th anniversary. All three changed cinema in their wake

CRUEL INTENTIONS is a teenage version of the oft filmed Les liaisons dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos which tells the story of a love hate relationship that destroys themselves and the people they are seeking to manipulate

BUT I’M A CHEERLEADER is about a cheerleader who is sent to a conversion camp by her parents who think she is gay and she ends up being converted.

AMERICAN MOVIE is the classic look at one man's attempt to make a film and having it go badly

If you can I suggest you check the website for a schedule and but tickets and go.

HELEN AND THE BEAR (2024) Hot Docs 2024

Helen Hooper met US Congressman Pete McCloskey in the 1970’s. He was 26 years older than her. They orbited each other and the fell together. They bonded over their unconventionality and their love of the wilderness. She had a several year relationship with another woman but always remained steadfastly in love with Bear. As he heads towards the end of his life Helen takes stock and looks back at her own life.

This is one of the great romances I’ve run across. It’s the story of two people madly in love with each other after roughly fifty years together. There is oneness in their togetherness that only comes from deep affection and happiness in the company of another person. You can see it in every look, motion, touch and word. It’s the sort of a relationship that we all want to aspire to but few of us ever achieve.

I love this film. I love that I went in and was certain it was going to be just a typical bio, and was beyond delighted when the mix of interviews and journal entries turned it into something truly special. This film is glorious. It is one of the great romantic films of the last couple of decades. Documentary or narrative it doesn’t matter, as depiction of love this film is among the best. It is what it should be a deep entwinement of two souls despite everything, one where smooching isn’t required, but just being with a person, where a word or a touch moves our heart.

By the time the film ended I was misty.

God, it’s wonderful

Highly recommended.

THE STRIKE (2024) Hot Docs 2024

This is the story of the hunger strike at Pelican Bay SHU, and across California in 2011 that brought an end to the wholesale warehousing of inmates. It is told by the men who were at Pelican Bay and participated in the strike.

This is a super film. Focusing not just on the strike, but also on how and why the  prison was built, how it affected the men who stayed there and their loved ones, this is film that really makes you understand how there is a problem with how we deal with the people who commit crimes. It’s a film that doesn’t lecture, but instead is like sitting in a bar with a friend and having them tell you their story. Its put together in  a way that doesn’t just throw facts and figures at you but makes you think and change your mind. Where other film tell you things but still leave you disconnected, this is a film that connects you and brings you waves of emotion as we see what happened and how these men changed the world.

This is such a good film.

No matter where you stand on criminal justice you need to see this film because it makes the discussion one you can relate to on a personal level.

Highly recommended.

BEETHOVEN’S NINE: ODE TO HUMANITY (2024) Hot Docs 2024

Even allowing that I am a sucker for Ludwig Van’s 9th, Larry Weinstein’s film about it and humanity still left me misty.

Using Beethoven’s 9th Symphony as a backbone, Weinstein decides to tell us about the lives of nine people who embody what he feels are the qualities that the composer was trying to celebrate in setting the poem that makes up the fourth movement to music. It is a journey that goes into all sorts of unexpected places.  Indeed at the start of the film Weinstein warns us that the film we are seeing is not the one he was intending to make. Once we make the journey to the end we completely understand what that is.

I truly love this film. The marriage of sound and image and subject made my heart soar. While anyone would have lifted me up on their own, Weinstein’s expert marriage of the three makes this a film that will make your heart soar.

It is an Ode To Joy In the best sort of a way.

You will forgive me for not going into great detail but quite frankly the best sort of joy is the sort you find yourself.  I love this film and I want you to experience it as close to the way I did as you can.

One of my favorite films of the year.

Mabel (2024) SAN FRANCISCO FILM FESTIVAL

MABEL is a sweet little film. 

It tells the story of Cassie, a young girl who love plants. She is not that good with people. He life is thrown into turmoil when her family moves from Virginia to upstate New York. Raising her cranky level, Cassie starts to warm to people when one of her teachers starts a botany club.

MABEL is  90 minutes with good people. Yes the film covers some territory we’ve seen before, but the cast is so good and they make their characters so likable that you can’t help but fall in love with them. You genuinely want to spend time with them which is rare these days. Too many filmmakers make films about annoying people or people that they don’t like, but that’s not the case here. Nicholas Ma likes the people on the screen so we do to.

While this isn’t going to rock the pillars of heaven, it is going to make you smile, which is something we can all use these days.

Recommended.

PRATFALL is playing in LA and on VOD and is worth seeing

PRATFALL stars Chloé Groussard and Joshua Burge  as Joelle and Eli. Eli is reeling from the loss of his mother and his girlfriend in short order. Unable to fully cope he has become an insomniac. He collides with Joelle a French tourist who is lost in Central Park and wants to see the city.

I'm kind of stuck on how to review this film. It's not that the film is bad, it is far from that, rather there are couple of things in this film that if I discuss them may make it seem I hate the film, which is far from the case. The reality is this is a really good film that is going to delight anyone who wants to see a film that could never get made in the studio system.

What makes the film so difficult to review is that Joshua Burge as Eli is a tough fellow to be around. A guy who has been through the ringer and then some , Eli has a perpetual thousand yard stare and is clearly a broken individual. You pity him, and you kind of like him, but he can be rather off putting in the extreme. I knew several guys like Eli and it made me sit up.

Frankly it's one of the best performances I've seen this year. If Burge and the film were a bit bigger and could get a campaign up and running I could see the performance getting some year end love. On the other hand it's possible that this masterful turn might keep voters away. Which is a bitch since by the time the film ends Burge has broken our hearts in the best sort of way. Burge's performance is the reason I love small inde films, it's the performances that are closer to real than we normally get.

The other thing that makes it hard to review PRATFALL is how it is shot. Because this is almost not a narrative but a character study director Alex Andre has shot pretty much the entire film as a series of close ups. We are firmly in the faces of Joelle and (especially) Eli the entire film. There are few if any wide shots, instead we are always up close and personal with the two main characters. A face or two faces fill the screen. It's claustrophobic. I know why it was done, however at the same time it can make the film tough to watch as we want to disengage with what is happening and take stock, that isn't possible.  This film is literally in your face and it can be tough to watch.

That said if you are adventurous and if you can go with the film on it's own terms PRATFALL is worth a look, especially for Joshua Burge's performance.

CHASING TIME (2024) Hot Docs 2024

You need to see this on a screen as big as possible. I don’t say that lightly, I say that because the images here will knock your socks off.

This film is a portrait of  Extreme Ice Survey project, photographer James Balog and a kind of follow up to the 2012 film CHASING ICE about the diminishing glaciers across the globe. -Balog and his crew have been creating a visual record of the loss of ice and doing so in spectacular style. 

Most importantly the film is  visceral warning about the dangers of global warning. Only idiots can argue with the evidence that Balog presents before us.

This film is stunning and a must see.

XIXI (2024) Hot Docs 2024

After graduating from film school in Europe director Fan Wu decided to travel across Europe instead of taking the good girl track. While at a dance festival in Berlin she discovered Xixi a Chinese improvisational dancer. They became friends and after several years Wu turned her correspondence and footage into a portrait of the dancer.

This is as close to a subject as you are going to ever get in a film. From the opening moments we are “in the face” of Xixi. At the start it is literal as we go with her to pick up her daughter and later we are tied to the hip as we go through her days.  The result is a enlightening film  that truly lets us walk in the shoes of another.

I really liked this film a great deal. While the seeming lack of boundaries can be a bit jarring, I love that the film doesn’t shy away. We really get to know Xixi and everything about her life.

And we also get to know about Fan Wu as well. Its clear that the two women are sisters and have a connection to each other. Listening to them speak to each other this is not a relationship of biographer and subject but just two friends hanging out. It is this closeness that allows us to get so close to Xixi and what makes this film something special.

Worth a look.

Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story (2024) Hot Docs 2024

ANY OTHER WAY: THE JACKIE SHANE STORY is not a film you should go into expecting a warm and fuzzy feeling. While the film does give us a portrait of a great singer you probably haven’t heard of before, it is also a portrait of a woman who while on the verge of having it all slid completely off the radar. It is a very bittersweet tale.

Jackie Shane  was a rocking blues performer. Her star was rising and then she disappeared. Where she went and why is explored in the film.  Part of the reason is due to the complications to her being trans. In the late 1960’s and early 1970’s that was something that many people did not want to deal with.

I was moved.

In a lot of ways this is one of the best documentaries I’ve seen in years. Telling me a story that I hadn’t heard before, it tells it like it is and doesn’t really sugarcoat it or turn it into something that it isn’t. It’s a film that stays true to its subject and her story. The result is a film that moves us as it’s making us think and leaving us troubled - Shane should have been huge.

However if you don’t want to be troubled and just want to hear some great blues see this film.

A Mother Apart (2024) Hot Docs 2024

Portrait of Jamaican-American artist, performer  poet and LGBTQ+ activist Staceyann Chin,who has been struggling with the notion of how to be a good mother. It’s a struggle that she has been wrestling with she was abandoned by her own mother decades before.

While I know that this is a great and moving film, I am also very aware that I am the wrong person to be writing up this film. This is a film about mothers and daughters and how they view each other and while I can get some of that being a person with parents, the fact that I am not a woman diminished some of the resonances that I should have felt.

That said, A MOTHER APART  is kick ass film. It’s a film that in exploring the relationship between mothers and daughters the film also forces us to consider how we connect to our parents and children. It’s a film that asks a lot of difficult questions but also raises a great deal of hope.  It’s clear that even though Chin‘s mom wasn’t there she still found a way to grow and thrive. As the film says some times the bumps are a way of parenting.

I loved this film. When it was done I was emailing the ladies on my email list to tell them to put this on their must see list.

Recommended.

Listen Carefully (2024) Fantaspoa 2024

 

A man discover his new born is missing and the people who took her tell him, over his baby monitor, that the only way to get her back is to follow what they say. He is then sent on a wild chase across the city.

This is the second film at Fantaspoa  where the main character has to follow directions being given them by an unknown source. Like that other film this one suffers from the fact that we've been here before. This isn't to say that the film i bad, more that it isn't anything special.

Give the film points for having a good cast and being well made, but it's not quite flashy enough to remain memorable.

Worth a look on a slow night but nothing to chase after.

Disinvited (2024) Fantaspoa 2024

Carl, an annoying man decides to crash an event in the desert where he wasn't invited. When he realizes that the people at the event are in danger he has to decide whether to save himself of the people who don't like him.

Uneasy mix of comedy and thriller never really finds its footing. What exactly is this? I'm not sure and I'm not sure it knows either. Complicating matters is the fact that most of the people are not really likable. It's hard to feel suspense when you really don't care about the people on screen.

At the same time the sequences the filmmakers have created work well on their own. I just wish the film could have sewn them onto a narrative thread that didn't feel like it it was grinding gears.

RACING MISTER FAHRENHEIT (2024) Dallas Film Festival

Portrait of billionaire and motorcycle enthusiast Bobby Haas who decided to build Mister Fahrenheit, a side car motorcycle that was designed to break speed records. However as they were preparing to race the bike, life intervened and tragedy struck.  Uncertain what to do, the team digs in and decides to move forward.

What you get out of RACING MISTER FAHRENHEIT will depend on what you are going into the film for. If you are looking for a film that is a celebration of the life and achievements of Haas then this film is for you. The film is a wonderful celebration of the man and his achievements. On the other hand, if you are looking for a film that is going to go into detail about the bike and the effort to break a speed record you are going to be disappointed, because while that is here, it’s pushed aside by Haas’ story. Considering what happens it's understandable.

Understandable but less compelling.  This doesn’t make the film bad, it’s just okay instead of great.

I AM GITMO (2023)

Award winning film is a look at the prison at Guantanamo Bay through the eyes of an innocent man who was sent there because one of his neighbors sold him out for money in Afghanistan.

While the film is set up to tell us what the experience of being at Gitmo is like it doesn’t really work because the film is set up from the first frame to be a polemic against the prison. I am not for the prison and I should think it should be shut down, however this film plays it almost like an exploitation film and as a steady stream of poor behavior. We get to see every form of torture and interrogation techniques that we know American officials are using in a greatest hits sort of a way and is less then affecting because it’s too much.

Not helping things is the fact that the performances are very weak. I don’t know if it’s because the script is so intent on spreading it’s message and the actors have nothing to work with (there are no characters as such), but everyone feels like they are reading their lines with no emotion. It’s awful. It’s not like the actors are phoning it in, but more there is nothing for them to do but spout pat lines. By the time one of the characters throws a coffee cup in frustration the film has long expired.

While I know this is a story that needs to be told, this is not the one that should be telling it.

BASTARDS OF SOUL (2024) Dallas International Film Festval

The group the Bastard of Soul was on the cusp of exploding across the pop world. They were so set to be HUGE that director Paul Levatino filmed the recording of their last album and several shows. It was going  to be what everyone dreamed of… And then the unthinkable happened, front man Chadwick Murray died, sending everything crashing down.

This is a great, but very bittersweet film. Joy and wonder of the band before the tragedy fills our hearts early on. While we know early that there is going to be a turn, there are moments when we forget and if we don’t forget then we hope it won’t happen. Sadly it does and the film shifts into one about trying to pick up the pieces and go on.

I was moved.

Watching Murray’s wife trying to explain coming to terms with the loss just as their baby was being born broke my heart. There is also a lot of sadness  generated by the band who’s shot at stardom got short circuited.

This is a truly great music doc. In a year that has already had some great music docs, this is one of the best.

Honestly this film is so good that it had me frantically emailing friends telling them to cover it, as well as sent me looking for the music.

If you love great films, especially ones about great music BASTARDS OF SOUL is a must see.

Beyond The Raging Sea (2024)

Finding a film like BEYOND THE RAGING SEA is the reason I continue doing Unseen Films. Because I am writing on film I get all sorts of people putting films on my radar I would ever have seen otherwise. Such was the case of this film, which I got information on and watched one afternoon when I wanted to go off the board of highly promoted films.

The film is the story of Omar Nour and Omar Samra two Egyptian athletes, best known for mountain climbing, who decided to take part in a race where they row across the Atlantic Ocean unaided. They want to bring the plight of the refugees fleeing across seas greater attention. It does not go as they ever expected, and they would end up with a tale that illustrates the dangers of traveling great distances in small boats by sea and as such it’s one gripping tale.

Made up of a lot of talking heads and just the right amount of footage shot before, during and after the race,this is a film where you start the film thinking it’s going to be a run of the mill tale  and by the you’re on the edge of your seat, dying to know how this comes out. I’m not saying what happens but it kept me riveted for the entire run time and made me wonder when, not if, Hollywood was going to try and turn it into a blockbuster.

This is a great story expertly told. 

You need to see this… and when you do you will be telling your friends to see it.

Highly recommended.

Slam (1998) is rereleased Friday

25 years ago SLAM played Sundance and won the top prize. Now it’s back in a newly restored version and I am left to wonder why this film slid out from view for so long?

This film kicks serious ass.  Looking fantastic in a new restoration, the film has renaissance man Saul Williams as a young man who deals with the life by competing in poetry slams. It real and raw, and despite the fact I knew it wasn’t a documentary I kept slipping into thinking it was.

Few films of the last quarter century feel this alive. This is a living breathing document not only of the time it was made but the modern age, the anger and uncertainty of the life it shows hasn’t changed. Watching it is like watching lightning dancing around inside a bottle.

How is it that this film seems to have been slipped off the cinematic radar.

Watching the poetry slams was a visceral experience. You can feel the urgency bleeding off the screen pulling us into the moment by our throats. These moments are so arresting that they highlight the films only real flaw, out of place audience reaction shots during the slams.

This film is a stunner. Anyone who loves their cinema alive and vital and charged like a live electric wire must see this film.

BA (2024) Fantaspoa 2024

This is a bittersweet supernatural fantasy has a father becoming the personification of death to remain with his daughter, however since he is death he can't let her know.

I went into this Fantaspoa film thinking it was going to be a straight on horror film, and instead it became a horror film of a different sort, one about the loss of the ones we love and the shortness of our time on earth. The result is a film that is greater than the scary poster implies.

This is the best sort of film, one about the people on the screen. The film works works because this is not so much a film about monsters, but about a father and daughter who love each other. Its a film about family and what we do to keep it together. Sure there are supernatural bits, but ultimately this is a well plotted family drama.

Writer director Benjamin Wong needs to be applauded for giving us something more than a scary movie. I was moved by BA. I wasn't expecting to be forced to think and consider weightier issues other than who lives and who dies. Instead I was forced to ponder life in a way that I wasn't used to doing. Wong beautifully takes the framework of a horror film and uses it the way the best films of the genre do and that is to shine a light on life in new and unexpected ways. Recently I was belittled on line because I said horror films should be more than just a series of jump scares and I was asked what horror films should be if not things that make us jump via a sudden loud noise. My answer was to mention films similar to BA where the dread is rooted in real fear  and not based on some one leaping out to say "boo". 

While I suspect anyone who wants jump scares every five minutes will be disappointed in BA, those looking for a truly creepy film that is more than a rollercoaster  are going to fall in love with it and the wonderful father daughter relationship at it's center.

Highly recommended

DANCING VILLAGE: THE CURSE BEGINS (2024)

DANCING VILLAGE: THE CURSE BEGINS is a prequel to KKN DI DESA PENARI​. It is also the first film shot specifically in IMAX from South East Asia.

A young woman is instructed by a shaman that she needs to return a bracelet from where it came. Traveling with a cousin and some friends, she ends up in a mysterious village where strange things are happening. It soon becomes clear that she must join the ceremony to find the next guardian who will spend the rest of their life dancing.

Full disclosure, I did not see the previous film so I was viewing this with no knowledge of the earlier film. I say that because you need to know that if you choose to see the film you'll be perfectly okay. Additionally while I know the first film is supposed to be based in part on a "true" story (a Twitter thread), I don't know if this film is entirely fictional or has any basis in the original "true" story.

This is a gorgeous looking film that is more creepy than scary. While there are some scares, the film seems more interested in creating an oppressive mood and a feeling of unease that builds through the course of the film rather than scaring us every few minutes. There is nothing wrong with that if you know it going in. I suspect that is the result of the film  having the structure of similar films about trips to isolated villages where weird things happen. As I said that I realized that I need to add that you shouldn't let that keep you away from DANCING VILLAGE simply because where it goes on this trip is what is important. The payoff is worth the trip

If there is any flaw in the film it's the two hour run time. Taking a leisurely pace,  seemingly the better to allow for IMAX images, DANCING VILLAGE can seem a little slow at times. As good as the film is it seems like more than once the film gives itself over to moments for the large screen presentation just because of IMAX. That  said understand I did not see the film in IMAX and it is entirely possible the film play better in that supersized format. (Then again the first film runs just under three hours in it's extended form)

As it stands, DANCING VILLAGE: THE CURSE begins is a solid horror film that works on it's own terms. It's good enough that I've added the original film to my watch list on Prime.

Uncropped (2023) Opens Friday

 

UNCROPPED was one of my favorite films of DOC NYC and probably 2023 as well.

A low key portrait of photographer James Hamilton the film is full of great pictures (which look incredible on a big screen) and great stories that will make you laugh and smile and wonder why you never thought to do that.

The film is a more or less straight telling of Hamilton’s life as he sits around with and without friends and tells stories.  We hear of his faking getting a press pass at a rock festival, fumbling his way into getting jobs at various magazines, his time at the Village Voice and so on. Along the way he tells stories about meeting various celebrities (he just called up Alfred Hitchcock and ended up going to tea) shooting celebrities (he loves to get candids that reveal more than the cleverly posed picture) and tales of life itself. In fact there are so many stories here that you are going to watch this film two or three more times just to try and remember them all.

I loved this film.

This is my favorite sort of biographic documentary, the one where it feels like you’re hanging out with your really cool friend and he’s just telling you really cool story after really cool story.

You need to see this- preferably on a big screen if possible,

MARISA & GOMOSO (2023) Fantaspoa 2024

A young woman who used to be on a children's show meets up with her former co-star who now drives an Uber. They then begin an affair.

This foul mouthed comedy has moments and some laughs. Mining similar ground as Peter Jackson's MEET THE FEEBLES the film is an exploration of what if the character we loved as kids were real people. 

The problem here is that the film covers similar ground as FEEBLES and count less sketch show comedy bits. While the "new" material, a lot of it the racy, is good, the problem is that we've seen variations of this before. There is enough material here for a great long short. However as a feature it's more miss than hit.

You'll forgive me if I sound disappointed, but I am. There is enough great here I really want it all like that.

Art College 1994 (2023) opens Friday

Liu Jian's follow up to the animated neon noir HAVE A NICE DAY is going to either thrill you or bore you to tears. Based on the director's time at China's Southern Academy of Arts the film follows a number of students as they create their art and ponder the universe.

One of my must see films of last year's NYAFF disappointed me. Having loved the director's previous film, this follow up  bored me silly.  

While part of the problem is the film's over length, the real problem is that the self absorption of the characters got to be too much. The film is full of deep discussions of art, of meaning and subjects that drunk students in a philosophical mood might talk about, and not much beyond that. While I'm certain this is what is was probably like at the Academy it's all so one note that after awhile I was talking to the screen asking it to get on with it. At times this feels like a social media post you can't scroll past.

It doesn't help that the fragmented nature of the narrative and multiple characters never allows things to build. Too much is thrown at us that doesn't go anywhere. The result, unlike the director's previous controversial film ART COLLEGE 1994 just sort of is. The final sequence about a painting a professor doesn't approve of should have played like a played like a poke in the eye to authorities who tried to ban Jian's earlier film, and instead it was a sequence that didn't go anywhere or have emotional power. It should have been an exclamation point and instead it just was.

While not bad, it never soars and worse, it never justifies it's two hour running time.

HOT DOCS 2024 Curtain Raiser

Hot Docs starts this week and we are better for it.

The Canadian doc fest is one of the highlights of the year, highlighting any number of documentaries that will be on everyone’s radar come the end of the year.  This is 11 days of really great stuff (I know I've seen a bunch of it).

If you are anywhere near Toronto you need to go and see something or several somethings.  

Because of the way things are falling, and my need to to get ready for a vacation this week I am going to keep this short. However because I want to point you in the direction of some good stuff I’ve got a few recommendations (full reviews will follow):

FRAGMENTS OF A LIFE LOVED is a glorious look at the arc of a life through the director's exes. It will change how you  see yourself and those around you.

SEGURIDAD is the story of a young woman trying to come to terms with her father, her country of birth and life itself. It's going to make you think.

MARCHING IN THE DARK is a bitter sweet tale of a widow forced to rebuild her and her family's life after her husband commits suicide because of the crushing debt he incurs running the family farm. It' story you need to hear.

HELEN AND THE BEAR one of the best romances of the last decade and best films of 2024- that's all you need to know.

BEETHOVEN'S NINE: ODE TO HUMANITY is a celebration of the symphony and humanity. I was moved to tears.

And I want to mention two films I'm not writing full reviews of because I can't get longer pieces that do the film justice - I recommend both of them.

FAMILY TREE is the story of several black families in the American south who are working to save the forest that the own. It's a wonderful tale of families and the communities they belong to doing the right thing and changing the world.

WILFRED BUCK is a portrait of the  legendary First Nations leader -Wilfred Buck. Told in a variety of styles the film is not only just a portrait of the man, but also his world and spiritual view. It’s a stunning film that will open up your mind to a way of life that you probably never considered before- recommended.

For tickets and more information go here

Files of the Unexplained (2024)

 

Netflix eight part examination of mysterious things is unexpectedly low key. Going in the opposite direction of most other documentaries on the same subjects. It’s a series that cuts through the hype in order to give us the stories with people who were there or who are connected to people who were and as such open our eyes to possibilities as well as stripping away a lot of the bullshit.

The first story is the Pascagoula UFO incident where two fisherman were taken aboard a UFO. We hear from one of the men as well as the family of both. While there has been a great deal over the years, this episode includes  discussion of the fact there were witnesses as well a secret tape made by the police  where the men talk about how rattled they were about what happened- as opposed to saying that they have to keep their story straight.

The second story is on the Myrtles Plantation ghost, It looks into the stories of the haunting, its credibility as well as pondering whether we should be making old plantations tourist spots. It’s an unexpected turn.

The look at the Yuba County 5 looks into what exactly happened to the five friends who disappeared after a basketball game. The film explores what might have happened to them (their car and some of their bodies were found 70 miles into the forest in the wrong direction from home)  by talking to their relatives who knew the men best. Having seen several YouTube pieces on the story it made the tragedy of what happened even sadder.

The piece on the US government’s cover up of UFOs is really good and nicely low key. While it covers some subjects, such as Rendlesham Forest and the recent UFO hearings, the episode if way too short (it’s just over 30 minutes)

The piece on Lake Lenier in Georgia is a creepy tale of a man made lake that is supposed to be haunted by the people who died in it. I was bothered by it and as such will probably never go.

The piece on Mount Shasta is a good cursory look at some of the stories connected to the Native American holy site. While the film ponders if the mountain contains a doorway to Lemuria, there are other stories to tell and I would love to see further exploration next season.

The Blobs of Washington is a good look at these weird blobs that fell from the sky and made everyone they came into contact with them sick. It’s a good look at a mystery that almost certainly was man made.

The final episode is the story of a bunch of feet that washed ashore on the coast of the Salish sea. While it’s a creepy story, and expertly told, I’m siding with the some of the mundane explanations.

I had a blast watching this series. I ended up going through the series in two days during the time I should have been watching other things.

If you want a rational and reasoned alternative to the over the top that History and other outlets give the same stories this is a must.

2 Short Reviews of features that came my way PROTANOPIA(2024) and QUEEN OF KNIVES(2024)

 

PROTANOPIA
This horror film was shot not too far from my house. It’s the story of a man whose sister goes missing and begins to have dreams of a mysterious house. The dreams set him on a collision course with the owner of the house.

This is a frequently creepy horror film that has some wonderfully bizarre sequences. I like the film, it reminds me any number of early 80’s horror film I used to drive to right after I got my drivers license.

If I was to complain about anything is that the camera work in the more convention/non-horror sequences is rather bland and unimaginative. It wouldn’t have been noticed but the surreal sequences that the difference stands out.

Quibble aside it’s worth seeing.

QUEEN OF KNIVES
This is a nice and unconventional family comedy drama about the dances that the members of a family have with their partners and each other.

Currently on Amazon and other streaming platforms, this is a sweet little film. Don’t let the fact that I’m giving the film a short write up fool you, this is a small gem. It takes a typical family comedy and spices it up so that it really is worth not only a couple hours of your time but also a few dollars of your money.

I really liked it. Finding an off the main road gem is why I continue doing Unseen Films.

Dark My Light (2024) Fantaspoa 2024

A police officer with a crumbling marriage has to deal with serial killer that has been stalking his beach side community.

This is a deliberately shot and deliberately paced film that doesn't really work. The glacial pace and the odd presentation make it hard to get into (and I won't talk about the WTF genre shifts). The pacing allows our minds to wander and the presentation makes it hard to connect to.  While eventually learn the reason for why it seems off, but by the time it happens we really don't care. 

It also doesn't help that this really isn't a serial killer film but the tale of a man trying to make his relationship work. There is no real suspense. There is another genre operating here which I won't go in to because it's inclusion  just confuses everything and reminds you of other, better, films.

I was disappointed. 

A miss.

Blood For Dust (2023)

I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a film where the score literally does all the heavy lifting. Nick Bohun‘s score for BLOOD FOR DUST  score begins with the first frame and it thunders on to the last.  Even when the film has rare moment of silence the score and it’s beat is rumbling through your head. This doesn’t mean that Bohun‘s work is bad, it’s not. It’s everything you want in a score, setting the mood and enhancing the action. It’s actually good enough that it should be up for awards. The problem is that director Ron Blackhurst has slathered it so heavily over his film that I don’t know what I think of the film.

The plot of the film has a traveling salesman losing his job and jumping at an opportunity presented by a friend. He quickly finds out its transporting drugs and guns for a very bad guy. Things do not go smoothly

Beautifully shot in amber tones that make the film look and feel like the modern film noir it is, this is a film that has images which will haunt you. You feel the desperation and sadness in every image.

Unfortunately Blackgurst‘s choices don’t really work leaving us strangely unmoved by what we are seeing. Beginning with the over use of the score the film works over time to try and pull us in but the more it does it keeps us outside. The film becomes an exercise in style over content where we are left wondering why it isn’t working. Everyone is dour and down trodden. No one smiles, they only grimace. While the cast is game and disappear in to their roles (it took me a moment to recognize Kit Harrington and Josh Lucas) they aren’t given much to do other than look unhappy. They are good at it but there are no characters just frumpy people. They pull if off real well but they don’t have any real range.

Not having range is something that haunts the film from the get go. The film begins with a suicide and just stays bleak and unhappy. There is no thrill ride or decent into the depths because we’re there. The film is so lacking in light we know that it isn’t really going to get better because in this world life sucks. Shiny Happy People don’t exist even as a song.

Ten minutes into the film I was wondering why I was watching because I knew nothing was going to really change, miserable people were going to get through a miserable situation and still be miserable.

Unless you have to see every film noir, I’d skip this.

SELF DRIVER (2024) Fantaspoa 2024

Desperate to make money a cab driver signs up to be part of a fleet of drivers using a new app. The trick is that in order to make money you must follow its directions and do so within its time frame.

This is an okay drama/thriller/dark comedy that suffers from the limitations imposed it via the low budget and that almost the entire film is inside the car. I don't blame actor Nathanael Chadwick who is in pretty much every shot of the film. Yes, the film is his story, but at the same time writer director Michael Pierro never makes us feel as though there is any connection to the world at large or anything beyond the same repeated angles. The repeated angles is understandable but the sense of the cab operating in any sort of world is never really established. It might have worked if the app didn't seem to be more deus ex machina where it should have been something closer to real. I never felt this was anything other than a movie.

And please forgive me for complaining about the lack of the cab being connected to the world but there have been a number of recent films set almost entirely in cabs or cars over the last few years and they largely played better because there were attempts to put the cab into a real world. 

To be honest I would be curious what Pierro will do when he doesn't tie himself to a single location.

As this stands, SELF DRIVER is a missed connection.

Abigail (2024)

Alisha Weir gives a performance for the ages as a centuries old young girl with a blood lust 

A group of people are brought together to kidnap the daughter of a rich man. Each are promised a share of the 50-million-dollar ransom. It goes off without a hitch... until they realized that they are trapped in the house with a hungry vampire.

This film is a blast. This isn't really scary, since the brightly lit halls and set up doesn't leave much room for spooky stuff, rather it's more a tense action thriller because we don't know where this is going to go or how the living is going to deal with the plans of the undead hunter. However, you classify it, ABIGAIL delights with its bloody (very bloody) charms.

This film is near perfect from top to bottom. the performances are top notch, and everyone is invested in the mayhem. The effects are fantastic, to the point I'm not sure where the practical and CGI start and end. For example, a throw away bit with changing teeth amazed me and was the subject of a post screening discussion - was it practical or CGI? We weren't certain. Best of all the script insists on going its own way messing with us because we think we know the rules, but the film resets the table. It also realizes that this is funny and scary and plays up both sides as needed.

Wow.

This is a film that you react out loud to. At the screening I was at people were talking to the screen, laughing, screaming and generally having a grand time. People applauded.

While I'm not going to give you details, lest I spoil anything, I will say that odds are you'll guess some of what happens before it does, one or two turns are charted so you'll see them coming ahead of time, but you won't care because this isn't the of a film that is all about the turns. This is a film that survives on characters and joy in mayhem.  You'll like the characters, even the bad ones and you'll want to see who lives and dies.

Delightfully the film doesn't do things most horror films do these days. It doesn't over do on the jump scares. They are kind of pointless after a certain point in the film. Additionally, there is no gotcha ending. Yes, there is a possibility for a sequel (and I hope it never happens) but it doesn't need to telegraph it in a bogus ending twist. This is just a standalone film.

Actually, this film's plotting s wonderfully fair. Everything largely lines up there are no out of left field turns which is really nice.

Destined to become a classic because it's so much fun and endlessly watchable, ABIGAIL is highly recommended.

Little Empty Boxes (2023)

Director Max Lugavere' takes us on the journey of his mother’s slide into dementia.

Full disclosure at the outset because I know it affected my feelings for the film, I have seen a number of films on dementia. I know the concentration of seeing the films has affected how I see what I see on screen.

LITTLE EMPTY BOXES is a good film. On its own terms it is a good look at how one family handles their matriarch’s slide into dementia. Because the film was put together by one of the family members we get access that is usually lacking in other films. Even if there are moments where the people on screen are seeming to ponder why these moments are being filmed.

Where the film wobbles is when the film tries to go a bit wider than showing what the film tries to go a bit wider with some of the discussion about what may have been behind the dementia. The moments aren’t bad but it feels like some of the discussions should be in a different film with a different focus. It doesn’t kill the film but it makes the film feel like it’s searching for something.

If there is any real problem in my eyes it’s the final text cards which close out what happen to ----. While it lets us know what happened it feels like that’s yet another story.  And to be honest I think it was that summation that made me feel less satisfied about the other threads.

My quibbles aside this is worth a look.

Truth Vs Alex Jones (2024)

When Alex Jones went on trial for spewing lies about the Sandy Hook massacre, HBO some how was allowed to film the trial. The resulting footage forms the backbone of this excellent documentary on the case and the cottage industry of naysayers who refuse to see the truth and instead see a grand conspiracy behind every blade of grass,

Chilling tale of one man who is making a fortune running rough shod over the lives of grieving parents. This is a film that doesn't just show us what Alex Jones did, but also shows us what happened in Sandy Hook so there is no doubt as well as showing us the crazies who were feeding nonsense to Jones.  It's a film that shows us the big picture and explains to us how it all came to be.

The level of stupidity of people these days is frightening. Fully a quarter of the people in the United States think that Sandy Hook was a made up event. Several years ago I waded into the nonsense (see here) and I came  face to face with people who don't know how to fact check, and just make false assumptions on pieces of the truth. Watching the film we are exposed the insanity of some of the people feeding Jones bullshit. One man insists that the reason he knows it was fake was there were no trauma helicopters to transport the wounded. When he is told that there were no need because the victims all died , he still insists that  there should have been helicopters.

It's chilling.

I was left shaking my head. Are we really this stupid?

Apparently.

This is a sad portrait of the dangers of stupidity.

MASTERGAME (2023) Fantaspoa 2024

Loosely based on Stefan Zweig’s The Royal Game, MASTERGAME is a two pronged tale built around games of chess. One concerns a pair of refugees fleeing Soviet tanks in Hungary in 1956 and the other concerns a priest being tortured to disclose a valuable treasure. I shan't say more because there are some twists and turns would be to spoil the fun.

Moving as an almost breathless pace MASTERGAME grabs our attention from the start and just goes. We don't have time to consider where it's going because we are moving at a pace that doesn't allow out minds to wander. I was hooked early and carried along.

The flm is great looking and beautifully acted. Every one on every side of this film is fully invested in it and so when the denouncement comes and we see what is going on we take it in stride. 

This is a gem of a film and I can't wait to see it again now that I know what its all about,

Recommended.