The big film this week should be Nope, Jordan Peele's 3rd one. But again, the publicists in Canada didn't preview it widely. One of my favorite sources, The Wrap, compiled some of the early American reviews and found many were positive, although some were confused too.
Peele, who gained huge praise for his first two films, “Get Out” and “Us,” for using horror movie ideas to explore race relations, has turned to alien invasion movies this time, you know like those space monster films from the 1950s. There's a flying saucer in the trailer landing on a California farm owned by a Black brother and sister played by Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer. What happens then? Don't know yet. The Toronto critics may know.
Meanwhile, we have a bunch of smaller new films, to consider.
Becoming a Queen: 3 ½ stars
Costa Brava, Lebanon: 4
Karmalink: 3
Fire of Love: 4
Gulliver's Return: 2 ½
BECOMING A QUEEN: It's a big and colorful representation of Toronto's vibrant summer event, now known simply as Carnival. Caribana it used to be called and has long ago grown from a 3-day to a 3-week festival celebrating Caribbean culture. It peaks next weekend, July 28 - Aug 1, and so this film comes absolutely on time. We get the history, the feel of what takes place and a personal drama as one young woman tries again to be crowned queen of the Carnival.
Joella Crichton has won it nine times, seven of them in a row, and she's going for her 10th. Nobody has done that before. It'll also be her last. So, there's a lot at stake. It takes months of preparation, support from her family and artistry from Kenney Coombs, the family friend who designs what's called her costume.
It's more than that. It's like a parade float, or a giant peacock feather display. She'll have to push it along and at the same time gesture out to the crowd. Enthusiastically, of course. She'll be marked on that, as well as the look of the "costume" standing high above her. We learn that Carnival originated in Africa, came to the Caribbean and now Toronto's is the largest outside of Trinidad. Joella, originally from St. Vincent, explains how it lets her connect to her culture and at the same time that it celebrates strong, powerful women. Chris Strikes, with a background in music videos, has done a good job as director to bring all the glitz, the rhythm and the information together like this. (Available digitally) 3 ½ out of 5
COSTA BRAVA, LEBANON: Anybody who was ever involved in a back-to-the-land movement or longed to escape an environmental horror will find this film resonates. And in more than one way. It's set in Lebanon but could be anywhere. Maybe on an ordinary street with a six-storey apartment building going up next door. Even if you've only heard about such things, you'll feel for the family in this story.
The mother and father used to march in demonstrations in Beruit where there was garbage in the streets, pollution in the air and “a living hell everywhere”. They got tired of “passive resistance” and they moved to a peaceful countryside piece of land. “We had so many dreams and they wore us out,” the wife (Nadine Labaki) says. That's nothing compared to what comes at them.
Giant trucks, bulldozers and excavators arrive one day and start tearing up the land beside them. They're building a landfill, a giant garbage dump. The national president, who they used to demonstrate against, is there to make a speech. A young construction worker sympathizes and says that corruption and foreign money is behind the project. The husband (Saleh Bakri) wants to sue but can't find a way.
Worse, it was his idea to go there and that sparks fiery tensions with his wife who had been reluctant and gave up a singing career to go there. “Where will we run away this time?” she asks. They're trapped. Their two daughters make do but they can't. It's a universal story, perfectly crafted by writer-director Mounia Akl and, though the ending feels too easy, very compelling. (Only two cities so far: Ottawa, the ByTowne, and Vancouver, the VIFF Center. Watch for it.) 4 out of 5
KARMALINK: This one is intriguing. It'll be a bit hard to find but try. You don't often see science fiction and Buddhism connected like this. The novelty alone is an attraction. Mix in reincarnation and the search for enlightenment as well as urban mistreatment of the poor and you've got an unusual film. It's Cambodia's first science fiction film but is made by an American (Jake Wachtel) who taught in a film school there (Phnom Penh) and put his two best students into his movie.
One, 13-year-old Leng Heng is having dreams about his past lives. In one, a boy steals a valuable Buddha statue and Leng is convinced it exists. If only he can find it he can help his community. The people in his neighborhood are being evicted to make room for a giant building project,including a new bullet train to Beijing. Leng is joined by a young girl named Srey Leak, known as someone “who can find things.” Repeated dreams, some with a bit of artificial help, get closer to what happened to the statue, particularly around a certain tree. The science fiction aspect includes virtual reality and a device attached to one's forehead that injects “nanobugs” into your brain and separately a device that can read your memories about your past lives. Technology and Buddhism together? The film creates striking visual contrasts too as when slums and gleaming high rises regularly appear in the same visual. The drama falters a bit but the film stays interesting. (Major VOD platforms like Apple TV and Google Play). 3 out of 5
FIRE OF LOVE: It's been around at documentary festivals but is worth mentioning again because it's come back in general release. Well, at three theaters, so far. But the story is remarkable and true and the visuals are amazing.
Katia and Maurice Krafft study volcanos. We see them at Etna, Stromboli, Mount St. Helens, and many others as they're erupting, or as soon as they can get there. The film from each is stunning. They get close as lava is flowing or fiery sparks fly overhead and debris falls around them. They climb down into the crater because, as he says: "I always like to do what people forbid me to do." The two are from France, got together at Viet Nam war protests and found they had a common interest in volcanos. They started studying them full time because they became "disappointed in humanity". The information in the film and their dedication is excellent. (Montreal, Toronto—Bell Lightbox—and Vancouver—International Village) 4 out of 5
GULLIVER RETURNS: This is a film you really try to like. It's animated, made in the Ukraine (though in English and with help from some Hollywood veterans) and is based on an idea by the gutsy president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, presumably back when he was still an actor and TV personality. It's surprising though how much of his current predicament is echoed in this story. The land of Lilliput is once again under attack by a larger nation, Blefuscu. Gulliver is asked to return because he had helped fight off a previous assault.
When he gets there, he finds much has changed. Time, for instance. By royal decree, it moves much faster. He hasn't aged but people think it's 40 years since he was there. A prophecy said he'd be back. The doofus king, who had promoted the image that he's a giant, is disappointed that he's just a regular guy and orders him executed. The king is also judge, prosecutor, jailer, executioner and any number of officials. That's pretty well all that's left of Jonathan Swift's bitter satire about people failing to use reason. What's left is a sub-par action film. The story gets silly and the animation is very ordinary. When the Blefuscu armada and 10,000-man army arrives, Gulliver shows that it's not size that makes a giant; it's spirit and courage. You can just hear Zelenskyy's thinking there. Too bad the film doesn't support that properly. (Available digitally and soon on DVD) 2½ out of 5
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