Many of today’s movies are keyed to three events, Easter, all this weekend, Canada Film Day, just passed but with ample new choices to join in, and Earth Day, coming Monday. No need to wait though. The films are playing already along with a crowd of other newcomers.
Amazing Grace: 4 ½ stars
Breakthrough: 3
The Grizzlies: 3 ½
Bella Ciao: 2 ½
Penguins: 4
Teen Spirit: 3
Invisible Essence: The Little Prince: 3
High Life: 2 ½
The Curse of La Llorona--
AMAZING GRACE: What could be more perfect for Easter? Here’s one of the great singers, Aretha Franklin, for an hour and a half performing the gospel songs she loved. She was in her prime, just 29 years old, at the time, recorded over two nights in a small Los Angeles church. It’s both a concert and “church,” as the emcee cautioned the audience. And it’s thrilling; the music is uplifting and ecstatic. The audience responds with religious fervor more than a few times. You can even glimpse Mick Jagger bobbing along to it as he tries to stay out of the camera’s view. Aretha, backed by a local choir, is moved to deliver the spiritual power of classic songs like What A Friend We Have in Jesus and On the Rock Where Moses Stood, recent works by Carole King and Marvin Gaye and, of course, the title song.
The event happened 47 years ago. The songs appeared on a double LP, the biggest seller ever for Franklin and for gospel music. But the film sat in limbo, first because of technical faults (accredited to Sydney Pollack, the director, but now corrected) and then because Franklin sued to stop its release (money reasons apparently). But after she died last year, her estate allowed it to be shown and we have one of the great concert films. Franklin sings with grace and during the most intense sections is seen dripping with sweat. I thought she stretched out Amazing Grace too much with her vocal flourishes but the same approach is absolutely stirring in the closing song, the 10-minute long Never Grow Old. Religious or not, see this one. (5th Avenue) 4 ½ out of 5
BREAKTHROUGH: The facts are there. Three teenage boys broke through the ice on a frozen lake in Missouri four years ago. Two came back up; one was underwater for 15 minutes, showing no signs of life when he was pulled out and given no chance of recovery by the best doctor in town (Dennis Haysbert). Even his family’s pastor (Topher Grace) had no hope. Not his mother though (Chrissy Metz) who prayed at his bedside until he responded. His pulse came back and he recovered. He didn’t even show the brain damage the doctor had predicted. How could than happen?
The mother was sure God had listened to her. That fits; she and her husband (Josh Lucas) are devout Christians. They adopted the boy in Latin America when they were there as missionaries. A first responder who pulled the boy out of the water said he had been ready to give up when he couldn’t find him but a voice said to him “Go back.” Nobody else heard it. Viewers of faith-based films know exactly what happened and this film is so well-acted and written that the message is easy to accept. If you’re a believer. The mother wrote the book, Roxann Dawson directed the film and who at Eastertime is going to question it? (International Village and suburban theatres) 3 out of 5
THE GRIZZLIES: Behold. A Canadian movie that will charm and entertain you, that tells a true story and explores a genuinely appalling reality we should pay more attention to. And it’s all true. Back in 1998 Russ Sheppard arrived in a tiny Inuit village in Nunavut to teach at the highschool. (He’s now a lawyer in Cranbrook). He found the students distracted, often truant and abusing drugs. Suicide was common; the highest rate in North America according to some. His solution: boost their self-respect by forming them into a sports team. Lacrosse is Canada’s national sport he told them. Not interested, most said. But he did get them involved by working on two alpha males (on the advice of a female student who became the team’s manager).
We see a lot of practicing, little actual game time but in a time compression that feels much to fast they’re off to a national competition in Toronto. You’ve seen stories like it before but this film doesn’t deliver the ending you expect. It’s more real than that and its mission not the usual. It shows us dire living conditions, violent homes, parents marked by residential schools, bored teens and a teacher trying hard to understand and avoid coming off as a white savior. Ben Schnetzer plays him and interacts with a strong cast of Inuit actors (Emerald MacDonald, Paul Nutarariaq, JamieTakkiruq and others) as well as actors we know from elsewhere (Tantoo Cardinal, Will Sasso and, from three Twilight movies: Booboo Stewart). It’s taken 10 years for director Miranda de Pencier to make it happen and it’s worth it. (5th Avenue and International Village) 3 ½ out of 5
BELLA CIAO! Commercial Drive is the star of this film by Carolyn Combs. She lives just off the street, knows it and manages to represent its diversity very well. It’s a nexus where Chileans, Italians, indigenous and many other people come together creating a cultural energy that you’ll find nowhere else in town. Combs captures some of that dynamic although the film is too scattered and leisurely to really get us involved.
At the centre is Constanza wracked by traumatic memories of the rise of Pinochet back in Chile and played by Carmen Aguirre who is from Chile herself. She’s stuck in a wheelchair, which is stolen at one point, ready to stop taking her meds and take a trip up the mountain. That’s too close a parallel to the antifascist song the film is named after. It’s sung in one scene, but not explained so the connection is obscure. But a true Vancouver experience follows immediately: Ross Barrett leads a band marching and playing a rousing version of it.
Disparate scenes like that pop up regularly. There’s a native youth (Taran Kootenhayoo) who is into petty thievery and searching for his missing sister. A stoned woman prances by now and then. Costanza’s daughter tries for a second job at a coffee shop. A homeless man is surprisingly articulate. The film is like a mosaic. Parts of it work beautifully but the script bounces around too much to keep us drawn in. (VanCity Theatre, Fri, Sat and Sun) 2 ½ out of 5
PENGUINS: “Meet Steve” the narration by Ed Helms starts and a lone penguin moves by with a comic waddle. It seems that yet another wildlife documentary is being marred by anthropomorphizing the animals. Actually this year’s Disney film timed to Earth Day is super entertaining and you don’t mind the human attributes cited. Not even the several times the narration purports to tell us what the penguin is thinking. It all helps to tell the story and there are far more substantial plusses to outshine the faults.
Steve is an Adélie penguin, the species unique to the Antarctic, smaller than the better known Emperors and named after a French explorer’s wife. They spend winters out at sea and walk a hundred miles on land in the spring for mating season. Steve, the comic figure he is, is late, has trouble finding bare land to pile up stones and then difficulty attracting a female. His quest plays a bit like a teen romance film. When he gets a mate, he has to help keep the eggs warm through a blizzard, safe from the ravaging skua birds, fed (by regurgitation) after foraging for food while avoiding whales and the gross elephant seals. There’s such a playful tone to all this it feels like a TV sitcom. Careful with younger kids though. There are some very strong predator attacks late in the film. They’re scary. Overall, you’ll be delighted and constantly wondering how did they ever get these pictures? Stay through the end credits and you’ll get a few answers. (International Village and suburban theatres) 4 out of 5
TEEN SPIRIT: Here’s a perfectly safe film about the music industry. Nobody is mean-spirited and the tone is bright and sparkling. There’s no profanity and of the explosive cut-throat competition that we know exists there, the worst is a short argument about an agent’s percentage. The rest is one girl’s climb to fame through an American Idol-like contest. That may not be the way it happens these days but it’s entertainment not authenticity you’re after. Elle Fanning, directed by Max Minghella (son of Anthony), deliver that.
She’s a mild-mannered girl on the Isle of Wight who sneaks out now and then to sing at a pub. Mom doesn’t know. Then a star-making TV show called Teen Spirit holds auditions, a grizzled old former opera singer (Zlatko Buric) offers advice and to be her manager and before you know it she’s off to London to compete in the big time. No surprise that. You know the story is going that way and absolutely refuses to offer up any surprises along the way. A snag or two maybe, like a dodgy contract offered by another agent (Rebecca Hall), but no detours from the story line. The big surprise is how well Elle Fanning presents herself on stage. She can sing. The highlight for me was her version of Robyn’s hit Dancing on My Own. (International Village and suburban theatres) 3 out of 5
INVISIBLE ESSENCE: THE LITTLE PRINCE: It’s one of the best selling books ever, translated into 300 languages and dialects, and one of the most popular works of French literature. Much of that I knew. What I didn’t know was that it was written on Long Island in New York. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the author and aviation enthusiast was living there at the time. His agent had suggested he write a children’s book and it seems he may have been inspired by a young boy in Quebec.
The film by the Toronto director Charles Officer reveals all that plus the background, the symbolism and the meaning of the book through an eclectic group of commentators. They include filmmaker, Mark Osborne, New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik, a poet, a choreographer and some surviving relatives. The title alludes to a central idea in the book, that the really important things in life, can’t be seen, only felt. It’s about the failure of the imagination in the adult world, says one. A universal message of peace, respect for others, love and compassion, say others. About “loss of innocence” says Florence Richler, Mordecai’s widow. All of that, and for many an affirmation, a guidebook to an ethical life. The film includes clips from various productions of the story in this brisk and fascinating overview. (VanCity Theatre) 3 out of 5
HIGH LIFE: If you want everything that’s raised in a film to get an answer, this one is not for you. In fact, I don’t imagine it’s for many people at all, even though it’s been getting extravagant praise from many. (“Best film” wrote one Globe critic.) I don’t see it that way. It’s slow and moody and stiffly arcane and singularly concerned with how horrible people can be to each other. It’s a first English-language film by Claire Denis who is known for atmosphere more than storytelling. Here she spins out mood galore, mostly of the downbeat kind, gets very good acting from Robert Pattinson, Juliette Binoche and others but has us wondering what’s the point.
Pattinson and a daughter are alone on a spaceship, trying to survive. In flashbacks, we see there were others and in one we learn why. They were criminals who avoided death row by joining a scientific expedition towards a black hole in outer space. They weren’t told they’re never coming back. Binoche plays a doctor assigned to take care of them but quietly enabling on-board pregnancy and childbirth for the women. Potentially useful for the future of space travel, you say? Maybe, but the film doesn’t explore futuristic ideas. It’s all about inhumanity to others, brutality and, in one particular room, a cold, emotionless view of sex. Oddly, there may be a hint of optimism in the film’s last moments. Not sure, though. (Scotiabank) 2 ½ out of 5
Also now Playing …
THE CURSE OF LA LLORONA: This one wasn’t previewed hereabouts and that’s not a good sign. But it comes from the people who brought us the Conjuring movies. That might be hopeful. It’s a horror movie telling the tale that has been used to scare Latin American children for ever. La Llorona is a weeping woman who drowned her children and seeks to replace them. She stalks the dark; so don’t stay out too late.