Violence and style from John Wick, bios of two history makers and two modern love stories

THE CHARMER: People who’ve worked to help immigrants arrive and adjust will recognize this immediately. The story isn’t that common but it happens and it’s genuine. A man under threat of deportation (in this case from Denmark back to Iran) is looking for a woman to marry so that he can become a citizen. He’s good looking and personable, haunts a favorite bar and is successful at getting one-night stands but not marriage. “You’re rushing it,” one tells him. He has to. His visa is running out and he’s working illegally as a furniture mover.

Some films play that as comedy. Here it’s social realism; a psychological drama that gradually turns darker. He’s menaced by the husband of a former conquest. His best new prospect is the daughter of an Iranian immigrant and she understands exactly what he’s trying to do. She plays along with it, up to a point. Then a huge complication is revealed. The story is well-told by writer-director Milad Alami and well-acted by Ardalan Esmaili, as the man, and singer Soho Rezanejad, as the woman. They’re all immigrants from Iran themselves and seem to know the scene. What we get in the film certainly feels real. (Cinematheque) 4 out of 5

BLACK MOTHER: This is a tone poem in film celebrating at least two mothers. First there’s the real mother of the man who made the film. Khalik Allah is an American cinematographer (he shot Beyonce’s  TV film Lemonade and shot, edited and directed this one).  His mother is from Jamaica and that island is a second mother here. We get a celebration of her people, their history, their religious life and the land and the food it produces. “We are blessed,” somebody says.

The film frames its observations in three sections that it calls “trimesters.” It ends with a birth. We get a lot of sights and information along the way. About slavery, the church that came along with it, the maroons who escaped and lived apart, the plantations that grew up, how people chased away the Chinese in the 1960s, how the Rasta movement created pride. Reggae is mentioned a bit, “the weed” a lot and prostitution several times as a fall-back for poor women.  “You work for yourself,” one says. For almost the entire film, voices are separate from the pictures. We don’t see who’s talking, and the effect is both timeless and lyrical. A collection of vivid impressions. (Cinematheque) 3 ½ out of 5

THE BIGGEST LITTLE FARM: If books like The Secret Life of Trees can be a hit so can a film like this. For some people anyway. It’s sort of a secret life of farming, full of insights and information and shown in beautiful crisp cinematography. Even if you’re not working the land yourself, it’ll delight.

The farmer and his wife here are John and Molly Chester who move to a 200-acre piece of land near Los Angeles and try to bring it back to life. It’s been deadened by monoculture farming. A friend advises that “diversity” is the answer. They need a range of crops, planted to prevent erosion and survive drought, and they must have animals, ducks and chickens. We watch them work at it for seven years, have some successes and feel as many setbacks.  The coyotes get at the chickens. Slugs get into the leafy plants. Maggots get at the fruit. There are gophers. Chester shows us his response to every problem, and they don’t involve guns or pesticides. He gets different things that grow and live there to work together. Even pests can be useful. This film is enlightening and with its breezy narration enjoyable too.  (International Village) 4 out of 5

JT LeROY: A fascinating real-life story but a lackluster production. It could have been compelling, touching as it does of celebrity, feminism, fame and literary pretension. Unfortunately, touching on them is all that it manages to do. And it gets tedious as it does so. Strange to report that about a film that depicts a notorious literary deception with fine stars like Kristen Stewart, Laura Dern and Diane Kruger.

Dern plays a San Francisco punk author who wrote a “memoir” about the son of a truck stop hooker, had her sister-in-law impersonate the author for interviews and appearances and pretended to be a brash British publicist when the book was made into a movie. That all happened and the film should have been compelling in telling it. Kruger plays the Italian director who previews it at Cannes. Dern is riveting in both her impressions. Stewart, charged with playing an introverted mumbler comes across as exactly that. The film focuses on her because it’s based  on the real memories of her character, although Dern’s character is far more interesting. She developed the LeRoy persona and his story while taking phone-sex calls and phoning a suicide hot line. “Nobody gives you anything. You have to take it,” she insists. Some fervor of that kind might have helped. (VanCity Theatre) 2 ½ out of 5

Also now playing …

A DOG’S JOURNEY: Dog lovers, here’s another treat for you. It’s a sequel to A Dog’s Purpose, which came around two years ago and made big money, especially in China. (Maybe that explains the presence of heartthrob Henry Lau in this one). Dennis Quaid is the biggest name in the cast and a new dog is in the lead, along with three others I’m told (I haven’t seen the film). I also get conflicting reports on how much this one will have you weeping. For good measure there are also sub plots about a failed singer, a teen girl, her neglectful mother and (shudder) cancer. There’ve got be tears. (International Village and suburban theatres)