John Ware Reclaimed (2021)

John Ware's story is one Canadians, especially westerners, like to tell ourselves. It has been framed in a way that makes us feel less racist, especially in comparison to our neighbours to the south. Which is why Reclaimed is so fascinating. It manages to honour the real man while also deconstructing the myths, perhaps scratching below the surface of what life in the Canadian west was like for black people, a little more honestly than the legend of the black Alberta cowboy. 

Foggo's exploration is a fascinating and entertaining. She makes the history and story so accessible and engaging. Through telling some of her own story as a Black Western Canadian, and tying that into the search for a more honest story about Ware, she brings to light a slice of life for Black Canadians, Black Calgarians, Black Albertans. 

And the film also gives all of us a glimpse into our history. I learned a lot watching Reclaimed and there remains a lot to celebrate. Also a lot to learn from. 

John Ware Reclaimed

Starring: Fred Whitfield

Writer/Director: Cheryl Foggo

 

Falling (2021)

Falling is a part of a wave of films lately focusing on aging and dementia, and the relationships between the afflicted and their adult children caring for them. In this case the story revolves around a gay man, John, caring for his bigoted aging father, Willis, who is starting to lose his grip on reality.  For me the film tries hard to do a few things all at once but missed something for me that I wish had been a little more refined. 

Written and directed by Mortensen (who also stars), Falling leans hard into the bigotry of Henriksen's character, both in the present and in flashbacks to John's youth. The film portrays Willis as a cruel man, not in an overly simplistic way, but still quite a hurtful human being. He is homophobic, racist, and misogynistic, wielding his power position as a white man like a hammer against all around him while still showing us his humanity, especially in his relationship with his granddaughter. So Falling's journey ends up being about forgiveness and the way love and family make relationships complicated. The film is about overcoming all of the bad to reach to the good in each of us. 

All of that is well and good but for me the film never quite succeeds in that. Willis is just so abusive the film doesn't hold him accountable enough to make any redemption truly possible. The film keeps showing us his extreme cruelty and then circling back to how the family still loves him and the simple premise of his deserving that love. But despite Henriksen's amazing powerful performance, the film pretty much guilts us into making us care about him without truly earning it. The rest of the cast is forced to kowtow to him simply because he is family. So much of this is challenging and difficult, especially for audiences who may have experienced the kind of ritualistic abuse portrayed here. The film's message to them is one that makes them have to be the bigger person. So Mortensen's character is the typical magical homosexual trope. He is the upstanding, admirable gay man who puts up with it all and still cares for his abusive father. He is asked to take it and we are then to just care about his abuser. There is something truly upsetting about such a story. 

It's not that it couldn't be done. Redemption stories are powerful and possible. Even if it's not redemption, but a story of survival of abuse, a story like this can be done. But this story never quite gets through the difficulty of addressing the evil of this man and the sacrifices of those he hurts and jumps to the part where we are supposed to forget all that to see his humanity. 

There is a lot of discussion right now about whether or not straight men can play gay men (along similar debates with other human characteristics) and that's not what I'm getting at here. I do wonder however if Mortensen's straight experience blinded him in attempting to tell this story, to the effect and nature of the experience of homophobia so that his story lacks enough authenticity to make this narrative is successful. I don't think the film captures enough to make his character's arc work. 

It is not a terrible misfire it's just not quite there, never quite convincing enough. It all feels a bit surface. Despite how hard the film tries to pull strings, and the viciousness it uses to pretend at authenticity, the film remains rather placid. However Henriksen truly does excel in his difficult role, making as much as he can with the thinly drawn character. Linney is also incredible in the little bit she's on screen. 

I admire what Mortensen attempts here but it doesn't make it work for me.  I tend to be drawn to films that deal with difficult relationships but this one just never felt honest enough for me to buy into it or feel it. It feels like Mortensen developed the queer character as a gimmick, as a target for the abuse and bigotry of his father, as if it would be more powerful than if he was a straight man. But in doing so his identity is reduced to a stereotype (not that Mortensen plays him as anything other than a plain man) just there to elicit sympathy. And I prefer my queer characters to be more developed and complicated. Mortensen doesn't get there and neither does his film. 

So we are left with a rather simple story about how we can love people who hurt us, a story that there is some value in, but that this film doesn't do enough to earn. 

Falling

Starring: Lance Henriksen, Viggo Mortensen, Terry Chen, Laura Linney, Hanna Gross, Paul Gross, David Cronenberg

Writer/Director: Viggo Mortensen

 

Adu (2021)

This beautiful little film about migration, borders, and the humans caught in the middle is fascinating and powerful. Calvo weaves multiple stories together into a layered and effecting narrative that makes us look at the issues of human movement in new ways, or makes Eurocentric audiences see new perspectives anyway. All of this is told in a truly engaging story that weaves adventure into its very real world and important story.

A strong cast, centred around Oumarou, the young actor in the titular role, brings this story to life. He is asked to do some powerful acting for such a young performer and he's remarkable.

Adu's story is a powerful one and it is well told, showing the way intersecting journey's are drawn into the drama surrounding migration, the worlds of Europe and Africa coming together. Putting a human face on these issues is important and the film manages to do that, putting many faces on the many different parts of this journey.

Adu

Starring: Moustapha Oumarou, Luis Tosar, Alvaro Cervantes, Anna Castillo, Jesus Carroza, Zayiddiya Dissou

Director: Salvador Calvo

Writer: Alejandro Hernandez

 

Malcolm & Marie (2021)

Malcolm & Marie is a movie that almost dares you to review it. Its plot centers on a director on the night of his film's premier and at one point he goes into a long rant about a positive review. There is a great deal of animosity directed toward the act of criticism itself, but also not. So much of Malcolm & Marie is about something and then not about it. It is the story of a couple having an argument, an almost real time, bordering on destructive argument that they survive, at least we think they do. And it is glorious.

It's not glorious because watching people fight is fun. In fact Malcolm & Marie is painful for much of it as the fight feels extremely authentic (yes I used that word) often hitting close to home for the viewers being things they have either said or had said to them. Watching two people who love each other, express their pains and frustration, often doing so in hurtful (a generous word sometimes) ways, is hard but extremely satisfying and powerful.

Zendeya and Washington are both extraordinary, the former especially creating an iconic performance. She is electrifying on screen. Her character is so multidimensional the audience has so many ways to interpret her, all of which could be legitimately defended. She is the kind of character you can't pin down or classify. She is the kind of character audiences could discuss for hours. 

Returning to what I said at the beginning I loved how the film manages to be "about" things (as in having the characters discuss topics) and then not being about them as the film manages to sort of then dismiss the topics as just topics and perhaps not the meat of the ideas. The discussions are often really maneuverings the characters make around each other, at each other, into each other. Neither character comes out of this evening unscathed but the film ends with a wonderfully ambiguous resolution that leaves everything in question. For me, and the sorts of questions I love to have films propose, I found this electrically exciting. 

Levinson (who is the son of Barry Levinson) makes beautiful choices in how to film this story from the gorgeous black and white aesthetic to the way he isolates the characters in each frame. His script self-consciously names what he is doing technically with making the film as his has his characters discuss film making techniques. So we think about what we are watching. It's a fascinating choice. So much of Malcolm & Marie gets us to think specifically about what is going on and not be passively watching it.  

For me that is what sold it. Malcolm & Marie grabbed me and wouldn't let me look away, wouldn't let me absolve my responsibility as a viewer. This isn't light viewing, escapism. Perhaps it is the opposite of escapism.

Malcolm & Marie

Starring: John David Washington, Zendeya

Writer/Director: Sam Levinson

 

American Skin (2021)

The premise of American Skin is wonderful. A father whose son was shot by police during a traffic stop takes the police captain hostage and puts him on trial for what happened. Unfortunately the script is rote, filled with cliches, hitting us on the head with its messages. Everything about the film is obvious in a way that strips it of its power. This could have been a bold, challenging film. Instead it's simplistic and hackneyed, minimizing the impact of the story.

Characters in American Skin are mostly archetypes with little depth. Parker's own character, the centre of the film, on which everything depends, is the perfect everyman, not the multidimensional human that the film needs him to be. Others in the film all spew rhetoric. They are just mouth pieces for the "debate" the film presents, not actual characters. They each take turns saying the typical things that people say in these discussions. I never came across a moment where I was surprised or taken aback by some insight presented. It felt like the script was just ticking the boxes we all expected.

American Skin offers some moments that approach powerful truth. The story of this man is one that is all too real and if Parker had been able to capture the honesty of that experience instead of focusing on the talking points American Skin could have been something truly rich. But Parker doesn't go for that. He spells everything out for us letter by letter, and gives us exactly the predictable ending we would expect. It is an ending that doesn't feel like it holds any of the emotional weight that it wants to.

American Skin

Starring: Nate Parker, Omari Hardwick, Larry Sullivan, Theo Rossi, Beau Knapp, Shane Paul McGhie,

Writer/Director: Nate Parker

 

The Dig (2021)

Sometimes a movie just doesn't grab you. It can be shot well and can feature great performances and yet it still may not resonate. For me that was The Dig, a movie about, yes, digging. The Dig is headed up by Carey Mulligan playing an old soul beyond her years, and Ralph Fiennes subtly breathing life into his curmudgeonly loner. It is gorgeous most of the time, shot with the English sun lighting everything. And we watch them dig.

Yes I know there is more than that. The characters build relationships through their passion for their project and it is life changing for them. But I could just never muster the energy to care about... their dig. The Dig is a true story about the discovery of an important Anglo Saxon burial site and its treasures. But little about the people coming together to excavate is captivating. 

Not to say that everyone involved doesn't do great work here. These are great actors and they are all wonderful here. But no matter what they did, they never brought me into their passion. Perhaps those who love archeology might get more out of this, but I'm not sure that's the point. I wanted them to help me see what was driving them, to make me feel it. I never did.

The Dig just passed me by. I was never put off by it but never captivated either. Maybe it will have more connection for others but it just didn't work for me.

The Dig 

Starring: Carey Mulligan, Ralph Fiennes, Lily James, Ben Chaplin, Johnny Flynn, Ken Stott

Director: Simon Stone

Writer: Moira Buffini

Strangers on a Train (1951)

There is an amazing pedigree on the film Strangers on a Train. Based on the book by Patricia Highsmith, adapted (in part) by Raymond Chandler, and of coarse directed by Hitchcock, Strangers comes from a number of masters. It is a tale of doubles, duality, and dark desires.

On the one hand Strangers is about a murder, but really the film is about obsession. While Bruno plans out what is apparently the "perfect crime" that isn't what is disturbing about this film. It is Bruno's obsession with Guy that is so compelling. Guy is an everyman but also a man who is hiding things. And Bruno is an outsider, someone who should from his position in society be riding high, but due to his own oddities remains just outside. And it is the coming together of these two "strangers" where the seed is planted, a seed which could destroy them both.

Granger plays Guy so perfectly. Guy is a man desperate to keep his secrets hidden. Although I understood Granger himself lived fairly openly as a homosexual man in the real world he still lived in a time when the gay experience was one of hiding. Strangers was made in the era of the McCarthy hearings when men were outed and their lives ruined for it. There is a palpable energy to Granger's portrayal of Guy, the everyman next door who is so worried he'll be found out (although his character is not queer, the subtext is palpable). Paired with this is Walker playing so perfectly the evil man who would exploit that for his own desire. It's a deal with the devil, even thought the deal itself is never made.

As this plays out Walker's Bruno becomes more and more obsessed with Guy and the film becomes sort of a stalker film with a very terrifying realness to it. Bruno is a man who doesn't back down, even up to the end making it so Guy is never safe as long as he's alive. There is something truly terrifying in that, even if Hitchcock's ending wraps things up a bit to pat. Another terrifying element is the fact that we must wrestle with the contention that Guy may actually want Bruno to go through with his initial threat. What does it say about us that the character we identify with might have, even briefly, entertained the killing of his pregnant ex? Hitchock plays her as unlikable as possible so we are complicit potentially as well. Sure Guy admonishes the suggestion of the double murder, and so do we, but we all think about it...

The two are played as mirror images, doppelgangers, to show this connection, and Bruno becomes a shadow that Guy cannot disconnect himself from. He's there every time Guy turns around. It is paranoia inducing. And that is where so much of the magic of this film lies. Hitchcock film is so wonderfully, from the murder framed in the victim's glasses reflection to the way the camera studies Granger's face as he stresses himself almost to death. It is all fascinating to watch.

I think there is something this film captures in the guilt we all feel about whatever little thing we've done that doesn't sit well with us. One could make the case, the film almost does this, that Guy really isn't to blame. Yet he still almost destroys himself, still blames himself. Perhaps that is something we can all relate to.

Strangers on a Train

Starring: Farley Granger, Robert Walker, Ruth Roman, Patricia Hitchcock, Kasey Rogers

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Writers: Raymond Chandler, Whitefield Cook, Czenzi Ormonde