Toronto is big in the movies that I review today. We recall Rob Ford, the scandal-plagued mayor, roaming the city with a prospective rapper, watching an immigrant family adjust and catch the major movie of the week, which was directed by a Torontonian. Yes, that’s a more distant connection, but we also get to British Columbia, Japan and a wedding in Georgia.
With these:
Elio: 3 stars
Trainwreck: 3
Boxcutter: 4
His Father’s Song: 3 ½
The Salmon’s Call: 4
Super Happy Forever: 3
Bride Hard: 2
ELIO: This one is perfect for a 10-year-old boy in your family (or within yourself) because it’s full of wonder, questions about the universe and the urge to find your place within it. It’s also a big next-step for Pixar. Can they possibly match their most recent success? Inside Out 2 was the highest-grossing film last year and, until it was topped by a Chinese film, the highest-grossing animated film ever. That’s a lot to follow up on and extra daunting because this one is completely original, not a sequel or part of a series, and therefore harder to introduce.
No worry. The Pixar name is an attraction itself and the film is glorious in its artwork and very engrossing in its story. Over-stuffed with ideas, though, some copying other space adventures, possibly to reflect the imagination of 11-year-old Elio (Yonas Kibreab). He’s fascinated with outer space and imagines what it would be like for him out there. He gets to find out fast.
At the space agency compound where (Zoe Saldana) his aunt and caretaker, works, he sends out a radio message asking space aliens to abduct him. He’s beamed up to an interplanetary organization called the Communiverse where he’s mistakenly thought to be the leader of earth, an impression he doesn’t correct. He meets a couple of ambassadors (Jameela Jamil, Matthias Schweighöfer), a friendly slug-like creature with teeth named Glordon (voice of Remy Edgerly) and then its father, a bombastic warlord named Grigon (voice of Brad Garrett) who is trying to take over. Elio offers to help stop him. The story gets a bit complicated around there, involving, among other things, a clone of Elio sent back to earth. But stick with it, the energy and inventiveness will get you through. Note that Domee Shi is a co-writer and co-director. She’s from Toronto and now a Pixar regular, having won an Oscar for a short film (Bao (2018) and a nomination for Turning Red (2022). (In theaters) 3 out of 5
TRAINWRECK MAYOR OF MAYHEM: This film looks back but will have you thinking of today as well. The story is about the turbulent reign of Rob Ford as mayor of Toronto back in 2013. He was tainted with scandal, allegations that he smoked crack cocaine (which he virulently denied but later admitted) and more. Loud yelling matches with opponents, attacks on the news media who he called liars but also video of drunkenness at a festival and him being unsteady and swearing at city hall.
And all the while, rumors of a video that shows him smoking crack. All that made him a ready target for late-night TV hosts, whose clips are included among many others here. Reporters, ex-aides, even his driver tell his story. Not his brother though. Doug Ford is busy being the premier of Ontario.
It's all entertaining to look back on until you think deeper. Ford was a cut-taxes, root-out-the-lefties type. He stirred up followers who come across like early MAGA folks. He railed against the media. Reporter Robyn Doolittle, who did much to investigate and expose him, is a major voice in the film. Ford didn't say "fake news" but is glimpsed in a photo with a man who does. At the same time, he's described as a man who always had time to talk to ordinary people, says his driver. So it's not just a negative picture. Shianne Brown, the director who is from England and originally watched this story from afar, gives some extra shades alongside the chaos. (Netflix, as part of a series on news events that became train wrecks) 3 out of 5
BOXCUTTER: Readers in Toronto will surely enjoy this. So will readers anywhere who are into stories about the struggles to make it in the music business. Principally in an alternate scene, rap in this case. "It’s a big aspiration these days," says one character in the film, because of the success that Drake and The Weeknd have had. Rome (played convincingly by Ashton James) wants that too. He’s currently working in a warehouse (cutting boxes open) but in his off-times recording in a friend’s makeshift studio. All he needs is a chance to be heard. When he hears that a top producer is to hold an event at a club, he knows that’s where he has to be.
Problem: his laptop gets stolen. It’s got his “tracks” on it, and he needs to let the producer hear them. He starts a frantic search to find them or, as a fall-back, tries to get copies made. The film gradually builds up the pressure on him, starting with the prospect of eviction from his apartment because of gentrification in his Toronto neighborhood. Continuing with his insecurity, which makes finding those “tracks” all important. Time is running out but a friend (Viphusan Vani) says don’t rush it. There are smaller ways to build a career. He can’t wait.
A young woman (Zoe Lewis) does support his urgent need and has her own artistic quest. She paints murals illegally on construction fences. The film depicts the drive and the ways of artists, which the director, Reza Dahya, seems to know well. He’s been a radio host, producer, engineer and artist manager. Toronto music people play small roles and the city itself and its neighborhoods feel alive in his film. (In theaters) 4 out of 5
HIS FATHER’S SON: Toronto is big in this film also, but quite differently. It’s an immigrant view that we get. In part, there’s the common story line: adjusting to the new society and listening to contradictory ideas from dad. There’s more, though, and that makes this film fresh.
The family is from Iran. Dad (Gus Tayari) works in a clothing store and Mitra Lohrasb plays his wife. Their son Amir (Alireza Shojaei) is a culinary instructor in a French restaurant, which makes dad wonder why he’s not working with Persian food. “I thought you wanted more than just OK,” he says. Initially, that’s about it for a generational conflict because an intriguing problem arises and takes over. An uncle has died and left a large inheritance to a second brother. It’s Iranian tradition, the dad says, to name only one to inherit, but it is really for both boys and, in fact, the whole family. Not so fast. We eventually learn there’s a lot more to it than that.
The film slowly tightens up the story line after what seems to be a fairly standard immigrant story with a familiar message. “Mix what you do with where you’re from,” says one character. The first son figures out the answer to a misunderstanding from the past (rather too quickly I’d say) and argues with dad. “I’m not like you,” he says. “I don’t quit.” Writer/director Meelad Moaphi is an immigrant from Iran himself, now living in Toronto, and his film feels authentic. (In theaters: Toronto now, Vancouver next week, other cities later) 3 ½ out of 5
THE SALMON’S CALL: We hear it often said that salmon is an intricate part of the life of Indigenous people on the West Coast, throughout all of British Columbia, in fact. This documentary shows what that means, exactly and splendidly. It features beautiful imagery, and the Indigenous people interviewed articulate the profound significance behind the images. “Salmon is my life,” at least one person says. It’s more than just a food source; it’s key to the culture, and the perseverance with which the salmon fight their way back from the ocean to where they were originally spawned parallels the people’s efforts to re-connect with their culture. Stirring words well backed by elders, chiefs and activists in this film by Joy Haskell. She’s from the Dakelh First Nation, better known as the Carrier people in central B.C.
One fisherman cites the respect the people show the salmon. The first one they catch is always eaten right away or given away. That’s to honor them and recognize how important they have been to Indigenous people forever. Several women talk about the methods they learned from their grandmothers for preparing and cooking them, or preserving them by drying them. Children eat dry salmon as if it is candy.
Getting back to the old ways helps people to re-connect. Fish farms are a menace and, as a chief from Campbell River points out, the fish are “no longer plentiful.” It’s a good overview of the resource, the people who depend on it and the key role the salmon play not just for people, but also bears, whales, plant life, even trees. The film is a call to keep alive that knowledge and to take inspiration because, as one observer says, “They fight so hard to be here.” (Available across Canada via streaming--and later broadcast-- from BC’s Knowledge Network) 4 out of 5
SUPER HAPPY FOREVER: It’s like an antidote to the overly noisy films that always come along in the summer. This one from Japan is delicate and quietly moving with touches of nostalgia, in the sense that the main character is trying to return to a happier time. That would be before his wife died. He returns to the resort where he met her five years before and searches for one symbol of that happier time: a red cap that he misplaced back then. Naturally, the hotel can’t find it in its lost and found, not so many years later. But revisiting the resort may help him overcome his grief.
He is Sano (played by Hiroki Sano). Yoshinori Miyata plays Miyata, the pal who came along with him and, in an extended flashback, Nairu Yamamoto plays Nagi, the woman he met there so long before, married and lost. He admits there were problems; that she had accused him of being distant and cowardly. No elaboration on that because the film concentrates on thinking back and hoping that reliving what he recalls about their first days together will overcome his grief. Bobby Darin’s version of Beyond The Sea (“We’ll kiss just as before”) compliments the emotions the film is stirring up. Very well as a matter of fact, under the direction of Kohei Igarashi, who with this his fourth film is getting known in film festival circles. The title refers to the name of a new-age therapy group. Sano and pal meet two women from there but don’t pick up any message from them, except possibly: cherish your memories. (In theaters, various dates: Montreal and Halifax already, Vancouver today, Charlottetown in two weeks) 3 out of 5
BRIDE HARD: Haven't we seen this story before? Yes, only three years ago in Shotgun Wedding. In both films, criminals hijack an opulent wedding celebration and get pay-back from some of the guests. Here, Rebel Wilson is the main resistor when mercenaries led by Stephen Dorf attack. Equal opportunities for women are great, but Rebel armed with a bazooka doesn't really convince.
Nor does the film in general. Rebel is one of the bridesmaids for her long-time best friend Betsy (Anna Camp). The Maid of Honour in fact, until she's demoted. That's because, now get this, she's secretly a secret agent and wanders away at one point to look for a lost device. She gets a chance to redeem herself by fighting off the attackers.
Their mission is quite muddled, something about a safe that holds a dossier that may prove that the father of one of the guests had been wrongly convicted of something. Why attack right now? To look good. The wedding is being held at a lavish estate in Georgia and that brings lush visuals, but only that. The humour is weak, the story is only as expected. It emulates, or is that spoofs, the Die Hard films, even with its title, and an actor who was in one of those movies. Simon West directed. Years ago he made one of my favorite action flicks, Con Air. This is a comedown for him. (In theaters) 2 out of 5
Comments