Category Archives: Arts Friday

#Cinema | Holiday Oscar Awards Season, Part 1 | The Streaming Oscars

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The Oscars are just around the corner and Netflix is bringing its A-game, with a collection of movies released or soon to be released that are not only eyeing the top prizes and figure in the conversation, but may come out on top.

Here are Netflix’s Oscar hopefuls for 2022.

Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog (débuts on Netflix, next Wednesday, December 1st), a neo-Western that won the Venice Best Director prize for Campion, currently tops a raft of critics’ polls in major cities across the continent.

Demonstrating her own strong, clear vision — not to mention superb control of her craft — Campion once again proves her ability to illuminate hidden truths and let the viewer see what was hiding in plain sight all along. Her first film in 9 years is a contemporary Western masterpiece imbued with the same pacing and style of westerns of lore. Campion takes her time, letting the story, based on the 1967 novel by Thomas Savage, reveal itself in languid style. Kirsten Dunst has a lock on a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nod, if not an outright win.

After sending up the financial crisis (The Big Short) and Dick Cheney (Vice), in Don’t Look Up director Adam McKay — who makes no secret of his progressive politics — turns his satirical eye to a less serious target: a global catastrophe.

A thinly veiled allegory for climate change, critics who’ve had an early look at the film praised its humourous satirical flourish — comparing it to Stanley Kubrick’s classic, Dr. Strangelove. Even for those critics who weren’t entirely won over by Don’t Look Up, there was appreciation for a film most found to be incredibly funny — perhaps too funny to find itself in the Oscar conversation.

Jennifer Lawrence plays an astronomy grad student and Leonardo DiCaprio her professor in this broadly comic film, as the two try to alert the world to an approaching comet. The cast, including Meryl Streep as the President and Cate Blanchett and Tyler Perry as TV hosts, makes this Oscar contender the starriest Netflix film of them all. (December 10th in theatres, Christmas Eve on Netflix)

Maggie Gyllenhaal’s buzzed about feature directorial début, The Lost Daughter (New Year’s Eve), leads the Gotham Award nominations, and has an outstanding performance by Olivia Colman,  making her a lock for a Best Actress nod.

Playlist critic Tomris Laffly opened his review of The Lost Daughter this way …

“With The Lost Daughter, director Maggie Gyllenhaal wears melancholy like a second skin. One of her generation’s most underrated actors, she moves through her films with a flicker of otherworldly woe; an organic ability that has routinely informed the highlights of her filmography, from the erotically manic ‘Secretary’ to the gritty ‘Sherrybaby’, and more recently, the wistful thriller, ‘The Kindergarten Teacher’. In other words, Gyllenhaal has always possessed an auteurial sway over the films she was in, putting on them her signature ethereal stamp.”

Gyllenhaal’s film is a story of self-ascribed transgression and of shame buried and turned bitterly inward, and it too, is made with such alertness to the power of cinematic language — particularly that of performance — that, according to the critics, even as you feel your stomach slowly drop at the implications of what you’re watching, you cannot break its spreading sinister spell.

A masterwork in perception and all that society places upon motherhood, what makes The Lost Daughter a rewarding picture, is in how the film shatters the binary distinction between a ‘good’ mother and the bad one.

There are 2 films already streaming on Netflix that are Oscar award worthy …

While some Netflix Oscar contenders, like In the Heights, have struggled, Tick, Tick…Boom!, helmed by Lin-Manuel Miranda, emerges with a terrific lead-actor performance delivered by Andrew Garfield, his performance so outstanding and affecting, Garfield seems a lock to sing and dance his way into the hearts of Academy voters, who will thrust him into the Best Actor Oscar race, an award come Sunday, March 27th, 2022 he might very well win.

Miranda, who starred as playwright Jonathan Larson in a theatrical performance of the Broadway play, directs Tick, Tick…Boom! with a deep understanding of the passion, struggle, and ebullience of an artist committed to an art form celebrating the power and the pressure of the world both artists love most. A must-see, Tick, Tick…Boom! is a heart-filling work showcasing two musical geniuses: Larson’s musical legacy, and Miranda’s unparalleled artistry.

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And then, of course, there’s VanRamblings’ favourite indie film of the year …

In our November 5th review of Passing, British actress Rebecca Hall’s remarkable directorial début we wrote this …

“From the very first frame, Passing grabs your attention, in this piercingly sad story of characters who can’t escape the confines of their lives. The vulnerability of Irene and Clare’s smallest gestures and experiences, delicately conveyed by Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga and magnified by Eduard Grau’s judicious close-ups — a tear rolling down a cheek, the slight bow of a hatted head in the presence of a white man, a stolen glance of desire — under the genteel mask these women show to the world lies a roiling unease about their true desires, their barely hidden secrets, and their place in the world.”

Tessa Thompson is a lock for a Best Actress Oscar nod, while Rebecca Hall will likely be nominated, and perhaps win, as Best Director & is a certainty to win the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar at the 2022 Academy Awards ceremony.

Neither Apple nor Amazon have any intention of being left out of the mix …

Apple has Joel Coen’s rip-roaring The Tragedy of Macbeth (débuts Jan. 14, 2022), starring Denzel Washington, as well as CODA, the heartbreaking Sundance sensation that could catapult newcomer Emilia Jones into the Best Actress — and Marlee Matlin, into the Best Supporting Actress — awards race.

One of Amazon’s choice Academy Award Oscar contenders is The Tender Bar, the new film directed by George Clooney, and starring Tye Sheridan as an aspiring writer with an absent father, with Ben Affleck playing the young man’s bartender uncle. The script, by William Monahan (The Departed), is based on the memoir by J.R. Moehringer. (December 17th in theatres for a brief run, then come January 7th, on Amazon Prime)

Amazon’s Being The Ricardos takes a chance on recognizable actors playing beloved Hollywood icons, but as Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem may very well overcome the enduring memories of generations of TV viewers. Aaron Sorkin wrote and directed this drama about the Ball-Arnaz relationship and the making of I Love Lucy. (December 10th in theatres, December 21st, on Amazon Prime)

For those of us older folks who grew up with Lucille Ball, who was the most beloved actress on television in the 1950s and 1960s, there’s a ready-made, built-in audience for Being The Ricardos. How the film does with the younger crowd we’ve yet to see — but word out of Hollywood is that Javier Bardem is a lock for a Best Actor nod, and in all likelihood Nicole Kidman has a Best Actress Oscar nod all but wrapped up. Aaron Sorkin will be up for an Oscar, too.

C’mon back next Thursday for Part 2 of VanRamblings’ Oscar / holiday season movie preview, when we’ll write about Steven Spielberg’s much anticipated new film, and Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film — both of which are shoe-ins for Oscar attention. We’ll also write about a couple of under-the-radar international films that could feature in the main Academy Award categories.

#ArtsFriday | Passing | Searing, Heartbreaking, Tragic Cinema | #Netflix

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Début film by Rebecca Hall (left), Passing, stars Tessa Thompson (centre) & Ruth Negga

A complex examination of race and sexuality set against the backdrop of a 1920s-era Harlem Renaissance that celebrated Black novelist Nella Larsen captured in her seminal 1929 novel, Passing, marks British actress Rebecca Hall’s assured feature directorial début — a certain 2022 Oscar contender, having taken New York by storm last month at their annual New York Film Festival, and already up for a passel of Gotham Awards — will be available on the Netflix streaming service this coming Wednesday, November 10th. “We’re all of us passing for something or other, aren’t we?” muses Tessa Thompson’s melancholy character, Irene Redfield.

Ms. Hall’s choice of material for her début as writer-director is elevated by her evident personal investment in the story, having learned years ago that her American maternal grandfather was Black passing as white for most of his life. That intense personal connection pervades every lovingly composed shot of a work that takes a subtle, unwavering approach to the film’s subject matter, that resonates at a moment Black Lives Matter has exposed the simmering racial divides within society.

The story takes place in 1929, as Harlem resident Irene (Thompson) carefully navigates her way through a sweltering New York City summer day, tucking her face inside her hat so as to all the better, well, maybe not hide exactly, but at least obscure her face so that her black skin isn’t as evident to the privileged white locals surrounding her. Feeling self-conscious about being out of place, she’s shocked to run into Clare (Negga), a school friend with whom she had lost contact, now married to a wealthy (and avowedly racist) white man, John (Alexander Skarsgård), who has no idea that his wife is black. Clare “passes” for white, allowing her entree into an upper-crust American society that contemptuously shuns people of colour.

Inviting Irene up to her hotel room, upon returning to her home, there’s a marked visual switch from Clare and John’s suite, an airy space drenched in white light, to the more textured look inside the Harlem brownstone where Irene lives with her doctor husband Brian (André Holland) and their two boys. The action flashes forward to the autumn, when a letter from Clare, postmarked New York, indicates she has moved back to the city as she had hoped. Irene is hesitant to open it, but Brian is more curious, arching his eyebrows at Clare’s florid description of “this pale life of mine,” as she gently chides Renie for exposing her “wild desire” for another life.

Shot in luminous black-and-white by cinematographer Eduard Grau (a choice that, given the material, might sound gimmicky, and is not), Ms. Hall also opted for a boxed-in 4:3 aspect ratio, all the better to heighten the film’s constant tension and the sense that its piercingly sad characters can’t escape the confines of their lives.

From the very first frame, Passing grabs your attention with its striking aesthetics. Most notably, as mentioned above, the desaturated black-and-white cinematography and 4:3 aspect ratio that recalls both vintage photography and classic cinema. The period-appropriate costumes and production design — stylishly rendered by the production designer Nora Mendism, and the costume designer Marci Rodgers — gives a strong sense of a time and place when flappers lived their best life. To add an elegant finishing touch, the intermittent piano refrain of Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou’s Homeless Wanderer, and the gorgeous score composed by Black composer Devonté Hynes, provides a further nostalgic nod to the Jazz Age.

Passing tingles through the vulnerability of Irene and Clare’s smallest gestures and experiences, delicately conveyed by Thompson and Negga and magnified by Eduard Grau’s judicious close-ups. A tear rolling down a cheek. The slight bow of a hatted head in the presence of a white man. A stolen glance of desire. Under the genteel mask these women show to the world lies a roiling unease about their true desires, their obvious and barely hidden secrets, and their place in the world.

And it’s through this discomfort that Passing transcends its mannered trappings to resonate with us as a poignant and powerful exploration of the human condition.

Arts Friday | The Much Anticipated Autumn Film Festival Season Underway

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In 2021, wherever a film festival may take place, appropriate COVID protocols will be in place, including mandatory masks in the screening rooms and common areas, and proof that cinephile patrons have been vaccinated.

The pandemic – particularly given the ravages of the COVID-19 fourth wave – will probably mean, and has meant at the Telluride and Venice film festivals, prejudiced attendance numbers at fall film festivals. As was the case in 2020 – and once again will be so in 2021 – films on offer will be made available for home viewing, with a small number of films  available exclusively for in-person screenings. In other words, in order for film festivals to “work” in 2021, festival directors have adopted a “hybrid model” to satisfy the viewing demands of their loyal patrons.

At Telluride and Venice, major film studios made their star-driven, Oscar contending film slates available to these two prestigious film festivals, as will be the case in Toronto – which got underway yesterday – and later this month in Gotham City, at the 59th annual New York Film Festival, which will share half their slate with VIFF.

At Telluride and Venice, Hollywood stars turned out in all their finery, engaging in post screening discussions with audiences, sitting in rapt & appreciative attention.

Above is a clip of Japanese-English director Will Sharpe’s The Electrical Life of Louis Wain, a whimsical Victorian biopic starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Claire Foy — which, it was announced at the annual Vancouver International Film Festival media conference has been selected as VIFF40’s opening night film, on October 1st.

“Movies are a distraction from reality,” says a character in Paolo Sorrentino’s Hand of God — which débuted at Telluride — a sprawling, funny-sad, autobiographical coming-of-age story. That’s a good thing. Reality is drab and painful — “lousy,” according to the film’s English subtitles — and film provides a much needed respite.

The break-out Oscar contenders that débuted at Telluride include …

Cyrano, a lovely new telling of the classic story of Cyrano de Bergerac, which had its world première at Telluride, and took that film festival by storm — with guaranteed Oscar nods all around;

https://youtu.be/MUnsoxe7K4g

The North American première of Spencer, the mesmerizing new drama starring Kristen Stewart (a guaranteed Best Actress Oscar nominee) as Princess Diana; and

The crowd-pleasing King Richard, a drama charting the rise of tennis superstars Venus and Serena Williams, expected to launch Will Smith into the Oscar race for his portrayal of the girls’ demanding dad and coach, Richard Williams — a loving, egocentric father who, it turns out, did know what was best for his daughters.

Céline Sciamma’s exquisite Petite Maman — which débuted at the Berlinale, and has been set as VIFF40’s closing night film (cuz it’s VIFF programmer, Curtis Woloschuk’s, favourite film at VIFF this year, he told VanRamblings earlier in the week — don’t tell anybody, though, cuz it’s a secret) — a delicate film full of surprises. Sciamma, whose Portrait of a Lady on Fire was a VIFF standout in 2019 (at the pre-pandemic VIFF festival), examines female intimacy from a different angle.

Nelly and Marion (played by young twins named Joséphine and Gabrielle Sanz) are 8-year-old girls living in similar houses in the woods. They strike up a friendship tinged with elements of fairy-tale supernaturalism, magical realism and time travel. The twists packed into the film’s compact 72 minutes arrive gently and matter-of-factly. The intense emotions they leave behind — this is one of the quietest tear-jerkers you’ll ever see — are at once familiar and wholly new.

Soon, the sane and responsible among us will be fully vaccinated and in possession of our province-issued vaccine card — making attendance at movie theatres, restaurants, bars and pubs safer and more enjoyable for the vast majority of us.

As much as COVID’s fourth wave will keep us in its troubling grip, for the most part it is the anti-social unvaccinated amongst us who will bear the malignant brunt of the coronavirus — for the rest of us, a return to a near normal state of being holds promise for our immediate future, and the prospect of an autumn movie-going season sitting amongst our brothers and sisters inside a darkened movie theatre.

Arts Friday | Netflix Debuts ‘Worth’ Today

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A week Saturday marks the 20th anniversary of the tragedy that was 9/11.

Sara Colangelo, the award-winning writer and director of the 2018 film, The Kindergarten Teacher, brought her latest film, Worth, to the Sundance Film Festival in January 2020, Now, some 19 months later, Netflix makes Worth available on their service — the film starring Michael Keaton and Amy Ryan.

Following the horrific 2001 attacks on New York City’s World Trade Centre and the U.S. Pentagon, Congress appointed attorney and renowned mediator Kenneth Feinberg (Michael Keaton) to lead the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund.

Assigned to allocate financial resources to the victims of the tragedy, Feinberg and his firm’s head of operations, Camille Biros (Amy Ryan), faced the impossible task of determining the worth of a life to help the families who had suffered incalculable losses. When Feinberg locks horns with Charles Wolf (Stanley Tucci), a community organizer mourning the death of his wife, his initial cynicism turns to compassion as he begins to learn the true human costs of the tragedy.

Available now on Netflix.