Here's an annual event worth watching for. The European Union Film Festival is on again and runs to the end of the month and offers a wide selection. You would do well to check out the offerings at euffonline.ca some of which will play at The Cinematheque and two Toronto venues and all of which will also stream anywhere in Canada. Notice they debut in the middle of the night and stay available for 48 hours.
I've written about, and lauded, two of the films previously. Mandibles is a French comedy about two dolts and a giant fly and Extracurricular, from Croatia, is about a school incident that's exploited by a politician.
I review a third film below and all these right here:
Belfast: 4 stars
Maria Chapdelaine: 4
Clifford the Big Red Dog: 2 ½
Home Sweet Home Alone: 2 ½
Inventory (from EUFF): 4
BELFAST: The audience voted it tops at the Toronto Film Festival and now it's a favorite for multiple Academy Award nominations. It could set records there. Those facts alone make this a must-see. Luckily the film deserves it with its warm heart and humanity. Kenneth Branagh directed and wrote it based on his own memories of growing up in Belfast just as the “troubles” were starting up. It's a nostalgic view that we get from his stand-in, nine-year-old Buddy (Jude Hill). With Jamie Dornan and Caitriona Balfe as his parents and Judi Dench and Ciarán Hinds as his grandparents, he remembers a happy family, much more than the hostilities rising up around them.
His dad is under pressure by the Protestants to join their fight against the Catholics. He advises Buddy to never join anything. He's also got tax problems and has to go away for long periods to find work. That's a small recognition that high unemployment was a major cause of the troubles. It's not on Buddy's radar though. Home and family is. And the movies he loves attending. Wonder where Branagh got that from? There's even a tricky reference when Buddy reads a Thor comic book. Branagh directed a film about him years later. The cast here is first-rate. The family briefly considers moving (Discover A Home in Vancouver, reads a pamphlet) but rejects the idea with the pronouncement “This is our home.” Could be the tagline for this amicable film. (International Village, Fifth Avenue and three suburban theaters) 4 out of 5
MARIA CHAPDELAINE: It's a time-honored classic in Quebec and an exaltation of Canada. The land, the weather, the struggles of the pioneers to live and tame them are gloriously shown in beautiful wide-screen photography. Meanwhile, the other difficulties out there beyond the population centres are rigorously shown: chopping the trees, clearing the land, hoping for visitors, treacherous travelling during storms. It's the best representation of rural life I've seen in some time. And that's only the background. The main story up front has Maria, grown up to marrying age, having to choose among three suitors. Each offers a different future.
It's the fifth time the story has been filmed based on a novel from 1913 and it feels universal. People are struggling with what nature throws at them while one girl is becoming an adult. Sara Montpetit has more presence than talk as the shy Maria. Her suitors are a dashing adventurer and logger (Émile Schneider), a modest neighbor (Antoine Olivier Pilon) and an emigrant (Robert Naylor) who has moved to Boston. He says Maria is better suited to a bustling city than a remote farm. Sébastien Ricard and Hélène Florent play her parents and represent two other elements of pioneer life, his resolve and her sense of duty. It's a rich, evocative film. Long but engaging all the way. And very well acted. (VanCity Theater) 4 ½ out of 5
CLIFFORD THE BIG RED DOG: Children will likely find this film enjoyable alluding as it does to love for pets, accepting differences and even fear of abandonment. And mostly for the frisky tone it bears. It's based on a popular Scholastic book series by Norman Bridwell and that should sit well with parents and their kids. Also John Cleese is in it, not for long but more than once. He plays a magical animal dealer (named Bridwell) who Emily (Darby Camp) and her uncle (Jack Whitehall) discover in a park and who sells them a cute puppy with bright red fur. Remember that word magical, because in the morning the dog is the size of a horse.
How do you explain that to mom who is away for the weekend? Kids are amazed. As one puts it “The biggest nobody in school has the biggest freak.” But an evil scientist (Tony Hale) is interested. He's trying to breed larger animals for food and the dog may hold genetic information he can use. That sets up what the movies like: trickery, manouevring, car chases and a rousing finish before a crowd on Freedom Day. Also, empathy and courage. It's brisk under Walt Becker's direction, but quite formulaic. (International Village, Marine Gateway and suburban theaters) 2 ½ out of 5
HOME SWEET HOME ALONE: It's been 10 years without yet another sequel to the massive and enduring hit from 1990. But Mikey Day from Saturday Night Live took up the challenge, co-wrote the script and with his pal Kenan Thompson in a small role. Dan Mazer directs Archie Yates, who was so good in Jojo Rabbit, playing the lead.
It's pretty well the same as the first. Kid gets left behind when his family goes away on a trip (to Tokyo this time) and has to protect his house from intruders. They're not burglars this time. They're a married couple looking to retrieve an antique doll they think has been stolen from them. There's a painful series of traps waiting for them: billiard balls, hot sauce, heavy weights, a mean-looking water gun and more. They get thrown down a staircase, have their feet set on fire, walk barefoot on Lego pieces and drink an erupting diet cola. There are reminders of earlier films, including the cop who comes to investigate an alarm. He's the brother of Kevin, the kid in the first, and he's played by the same actor now grown up. That's for the fans. For most of us, the humor in the film is belaboured and you might think twice about letting your kids learn from the mayhem. (Disney+) 2 ½ out of 5
INVENTORY: This is the kind of surprise I like to find every year in the European Union Film Festival. It's low-key and very engrossing; a blend of dark comedy, thriller and mystery. It's from Slovenia (which is just south of Austria) and a debut feature from Darko Sinko, a director known for short films. It explores what one bizarre event can unleash in a person's life.
Stage actor Radoš Bolčina plays a very ordinary man, a university employee with few friends and not much in his life, except for a wife who is also ordinary. Sitting reading in the kitchen one day he's startled by the noise of two bullets that come through the window. The police can't figure out who would do that and have him list everyone he knows who might hate him and who he might hate or even just knows. The list is short and produces no answers so he investigates on his own. The trail leads him to surprising spots and people and odd results. The fact that he's been shot at makes people suspicious of him. He must be involved in something. For him, it becomes an inventory-taking of his whole life and a revelation of what people really think of him. For us, it's a very cleverly constructed and imagined film. (Cinematheque tonight Friday, and also streaming tonight and Saturday). 4 out of 5
GAZA MON AMOUR: Don't expect a grim slog of a story set in and about that troubled part of the Middle East. This is almost a romantic comedy; there are only fleeting references to the politics and the discord there. They're in the background and significant but are mostly context for the main story, the romance. An elderly fisherman (Salim Dau) is in love with a woman who runs a dress store (Hiam Abbass) but is too shy to tell her so. While he struggles with that problem, he goes out fishing, which is heavily controlled by Israeli rules. He sells his catch in the market.
One day he pulls an ancient statue of Apollo up from the ocean floor and that leads to all sorts of trouble. The Hamas police throw him in jail for illegal possession of antiquity. (The story is inspired by a real event that happened in 2013). The statue has an erect penis which breaks off when he tips it over (I don't know if that's part of the 2013 story). He puts it in his pocket which leads to jokes you can readily imagine and more double-takes from the police. It's amusing and deadpan. The two stars and the two directors, Ahmad Nasser and Mohammed Nasser, understate it all nicely. The film is Palestine's official submission to the next Academy Awards. (Buy or rent at AppleTV) 3 ½ out of 5
SIN LA HABANA: Vancouver's Film Festival named this the best Canadian film of last year. I don't. I find its plot line too conveniently constructed and some important details breezed over too fast. There are strengths though: the story draws on real matters and there's imagination in how writer/director Kaveh Nabatian, an Iranian-Canadian filmmaker based in Montreal, presented it visually. He got on to the story on a trip to Cuba and probably noticed, as I did when I was there, that some tourists are there to find a spouse, and some locals see that as a way out.
Ballet dancer Leonardo is one after he's passed over for a major role and is stuck teaching dance to tourists. His girlfriend Sara, a lawyer with ambitions to get to Canada, suggests a plan. Seduce one of the students, Nasim from Quebec, marry her, get to Montreal and then sponsor Sara to come, too. It's not easy making that happen. His job in a meat plant doesn't pay enough. He has to ally with a sneaky guy who goes down to Cuba to marry Sara to bring her North. Nasim is an Iranian Jew whose parents disapprove and she gets pregnant. All the while real immigrant issues are downplayed. There's no culture shock or even strong reaction of these people from the tropics to cold and snow. I'm not too convinced. (Rent or buy from AppleTV or Microsoft) 3 out of 5
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