The new films this week include several that are wonderful and some that are huge, but I also have to give a shoutout to one I've covered before.
Kímmapiiyipitssini: The Meaning of Empathy is a moving and thoughtful documentary about the ongoing drug overdose crisis. It's by Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, a talented up-and-coming filmmaker. It shows a more compassionate way to deal with victims that her mother, a medical doctor, introduced to southern Alberta by modelling Vancouver's approach. I gave the film 4 stars when it played at the DOXA festival. It's now back at the Vancity Theatre. Check out the notes here.
And read about these here ...
Eternals: 3 stars
Red Notice: 3 ½
Spencer: 4
Only the Animals: 4½
Lotusland: 2½
River's End: 3½
13 Minutes : 2½
ETERNALS: Chloé Zhao won a couple of Oscars for Nomadland and critical praise for The Rider, both quiet, character-driven dramas. So what's she doing directing and co-writing a Marvel movie? She says she's long been a fan of science fiction and anime and wanted to put more of a human spin on a superhero film. That's exactly where she's come up short here. Not her fault, really. There are just too many characters to introduce: 10 of them, with little time to get to know them. Plus there's a lot of backstory to relate. The result is a movie that's too long and feels like it.
The story from comic books written by Jack Kirby has a complex mythology about space beings, gods maybe, that thousands of years ago sent a band of superheroes to guard Earth against malevolent beings called Deviants. The Eternals drove them off, retired but stayed around, and reassembled when the creatures reappeared. Kirby imagined them as beings with an agenda. In the film, they're just hungry monsters. The Eternals have individual powers to fight them. Thena (Angelina Jolie) creates a sword out of thin air; Ikaris (Richard Madden) shoots laser rays out of his eyes, Kingo (Kumail Nanjiani) shoots fireballs (and became a Bollywood star during the downtime). And so on. There's a debate over the rules they live by. Eternals are not allowed to interfere in human affairs. Humans must learn from their mistakes, they're told. That main theme is soon cut short by the big battle that comes. The story is muddled, but the film is a visual treat and has a couple of firsts for Marvel, a sex scene and a gay character. (Fifth Avenue, Scotiabank, Marine Gateway, and suburban theatres.) 3 out of 5
RED NOTICE: Three of the biggest stars in movies right now in a Netflix film? And getting a very limited early engagement in movie theatres? What's up with that? COVID-19, that's what. Delayed twice from last year, picked up by Netflix, and on a few big screens now, this is a comic romp with no deeper purpose than good, old fun. Ryan Reynolds, a big fan favourite, Dwayne Johnson, biggest-earner, and Gal Gadot, wonder woman, tangle in something of a jewel heist caper. Dwayne is an FBI agent chasing Ryan and Gal, who are jewel thieves competing to be proclaimed the world's best.
The film imagines three egg-shaped jewel clusters that Anthony gave to Cleopatra, a Middle Eastern potentate who wants them all displayed at his daughter's wedding, and our three characters trying to find them, with an Interpol agent (Ritu Arya) watching them. Two eggs are found; the third's whereabouts are unknown (except to Gadot's character) and the chase, the competition, and the double-crossing are on. The film picks up a goofy tone and brisk momentum right from the start and never lets up. There's plenty of wit. Ryan and Dwayne trade very funny ripostes and Gal gets off one of the best threats ever: “And I also know your browser history.” Rumours say the film cost $200 million to make. It looks like that may be true. (Vancity, and four times at the Hollywood, plus theatres in the suburbs and around B.C.) 3 ½ out of 5
SPENCER: Kristen Stewart is not the first person I'd imagine to play Lady Diana, but she's absolutely believable in the part. She's got the accent, the looks quite often, and a sense of loneliness that is very moving. She's almost an outsider when the royal family gathers for a Christmas weekend at a huge estate in Norfolk. Charles is distant to her; the Queen is noncommittal, and Camilla, seen across the room of party guests, is furtive. A security assistant with a military background (Timothy Spall) is there to keep an eye on Diana and constantly remind her of the rules of protocol. She also has dresses chosen for her for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Her unease is palpable as it grows.
This is the weekend when Diana decided to rebel, and quit her marriage and the stultifying rules of royalty. The film shows that progression strongly, though how much is imagined is a question. She hugs a scarecrow in a field because it reminds her of her father. She sneaks into the abandoned house next door because she grew up there and imagines scenes of herself as a little girl. It's a different picture of Diana than all those TV movies gave us. Her psychological state is drifting. She's moody and acts out. She imagines Anne Boleyn as a confidante and herself as just as much of a victim. Pablo Larraín's film is almost surreal, more of an impression than a true picture. Naturally. So much of it is conjecture. You'll find both comic and heartrending elements here, which makes this film uneven, though well-presented. (International Village, Fifth Avenue, and some suburban theatres.) 4 out of 5
ONLY THE ANIMALS: Here's a film you can thoroughly enjoy, especially if you like puzzles and mysteries. It is so cleverly constructed that you're bound to be grabbed by it. At the centre, there's a woman gone missing in rural, cold and snowy France. What's happened to her is revealed bit by bit through other people's stories. It's a bit like the classic Rashomon where different people have different interpretations of the same events. Here, the people have just a small connection, some just having crossed paths with the main story. Big or small, the evidence accumulates.
It's hard to tell more because the pleasure is in watching the story reveal itself. No spoilers, but note that the woman is a businessman's wife from the city visiting a farming region. There's a waitress, a lonely farmer, a barmaid, a social worker having an affair, her husband trolling the internet, and a PC user in Africa delighting his friends with his surfing. A gendarme investigates and TV has reports now and then. How are all these connected? Brilliantly by director and co-writer Dominik Moll. Based on a novel. (Vancity Theatre.) 4½ out of 5
LOTUSLAND: Vancouver's high housing prices, a crisis for some, have been well-covered by the newspapers for several years now. If you've read them, you won't find much new in this documentary. If not, this is a fairly good overview as told by many of the usual voices. Jim Pattison says Asian buyers discovered us after Expo86. Ian Young of the South China Morning Post says many came through devious means and some of it was dirty. Shachi Kurl of the Angus Reid Institute reports what people have told her pollsters, that they're priced out and “miserable.” Attorney General David Eby says something should be done about it.
The film puts most of the blame on foreign money and quite a bit on money laundering, which it says has added $30,000 to the cost of a house. It lets people blame Ottawa and hardly mentions Vancouver's role. The city welcomed the foreign money and allowed huge houses to be built that nobody can afford. Now it wants apartment buildings on residential streets. A real estate guy says build, build. But a Chinatown activist says: Why build more houses that people can't buy. The film by Attila Luca covers all the angles, but in doing so, ends up with no discernable attitude of its own. Saturday's screening includes a panel discussion that might add some. (Vancity Theatre.) 2½ out of 5
RIVER'S END: This is a documentary with bite. It's all about California, claims to be relevant around the world, and even with doubts about that, carries a potent message. Water is an endangered resource, it says, largely because as the sunny state shows, competing interests are after it. The film explains the water fight that was shown in the 1974 film Chinatown. In that film, Los Angeles grabs water from a farming area farther inland. It's happening again, but this time from a region near San Francisco where two rivers feed a delta and agriculture has thrived for decades.
There's a plan to build a tunnel and pipe the water south to L.A. The film speaks up for the farms and for the salmon in the waterway to the Pacific and for the whales that feed on them. FOX News mocked the activists for putting “two-inch fish” over people and Donald Trump repeated the same. The film covers much more, including the power wielded by agricultural interests to get water. Almond growers are among the most demanding users and anybody who buys produce from California, basically, most of us, should be interested. (Available on demand from Apple TV/iTunes and other platforms.) 3½ out of 5
13 MINUTES: That's the amount of time four families in Oklahoma have to get to shelter when a giant tornado comes in. But it takes almost an hour to arrive in this film, so authentic are the filmmakers trying to be. They're trying to hold the exciting stuff and first let us get to know the people who are going to be blown around by it. Concentrating on how it impacts real people is an admirable goal, but it does cut the thrills. And why is this the time to have a young man finally tell his parents he is gay? Why is this the time for a young woman to tell her boyfriend she's pregnant, and he responds that he doesn't want anything to do with the baby because he's married and already has two children? There's also the wife of an immigrant without papers and a far-more relevant couple, a TV weatherman and his emergency responder wife.
Director Lindsay Gossling and co-writer Travis Farncombe are both Canadians. He's a longtime storm chaser himself and that adds to the authenticity here. They filmed in an Oklahoma town known for tornadoes. And when the storm finally arrives, it's hair-raising with its power and destruction. But then it's gone, like real tornadoes come and go. The film is educational by showing both the mistakes and wise moves people make. Good intentions. So-so movie. (International Village and Cineplex Langley, with video-on-demand streaming to come Nov. 19.) 2½ out of 5
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