Seen in February

Sex, drugs and dance clubs in Anora.

Now that the Celebrity Super Bowl, AKA, The Oscars is done, I'll address what we saw this month. Out of 11 films, 4 were actually seen in a theatre. Though when Sean Baker, 4-time winner for writer, director and editor of Anora took the stage and implored people to see movies in theatres, I may have blushed a little. Of the four Best Film nominees that we saw, we only experienced one in the theatre and rented the other three. Despite being Canadian, I think the trek outside in the deepest darkest days of winter proved our downfall. In warmer times, we're a bike hop away from all the screens, but in winter, that trudge outside is one dog team too many.

The Brutalist, in name and runtime.
The Brutalist
Great film, but not great enough to justify the runtime of over 3-1/2 hours (or maybe its commendations). It never had a chance of winning the Academy Award for editing. I will say the film looked fantastic and along with memorable performances, it had a very memorable score. László Toth (Adrien Brody) is a Hungarian Jew who escaped post-war Europe to go to America, where he would find menial labour jobs while waiting for his wife (Felicity Jones) and her niece to join him. Toth is also an accomplished architect but without connections, he depends on a cousin who has not only anglicized his name but married a Catholic and left his Jewish past behind him. Through a small contract to improve a personal library, Toth comes to the attention of a wealthy industrialist (Guy Pearce) who discovers his credentials and engages him in building his own major project. Thus begins the tortured relationship in which commerce literally screws the artist. The film, in many ways, feels like it is trying too hard to be an art film. There are so many avenues it follows that are unnecessary to the main theme, and, to be honest, it spends too many moments paying homage to other films that it becomes the bloated runtime it is now known for. There's also a lot of chatter from architects that talk about how much the film gets wrong from an architectural history point of view, which misses the point of the film. It's not about "Architecture/Architects", it's about filmmaking or more broadly when artists and commerce clash, which misses the point about architecture. So yes, I'm saying this is a film about an architect by a filmmaker, who misunderstands architecture being reviewed by architects who misunderstand filmmaking. It's like the ego of the two professions prevents them from realizing how wrong they both are. When we saw this in the theatre, there was a 15-minute intermission. It didn't need an intermission. It needed an intervention.

Odd things happen in Winnipeg.
Universal Language
Odd. Funny. Canadian. This film is an absurdist treat from Matthew Rankin, who also made the equally eccentric The Twentieth Century. There are several storylines that overlap: a man quits his government job in Quebec and travels to Winnipeg to see his aging mother, a tour guide leads people around Winnipeg but only stops at sites he finds interesting and two young girls find money frozen in the ice on a sidewalk and seek ways to liberate it. The oddest thing about this film is that though being set in Canada, the bulk of the dialogue is in Persian or Farsi (the language of Iran) and it's set in a sort of invented version of Winnipeg where Tim Hortons serves tea from samovars in the Persian style instead of coffee and the currency found frozen in the ice isn't a Canadian bill but a "Riel". Not easily seen but more like Easter eggs sprinkled throughout are plenty of nods and winks to Iranian cinema. In the end, it's a circular journey through an oddly endearing film that is as silly as it is unique.

Odd things happen at a G7 Summit.
Rumours
Odd. Funny. Canadian. Another curious Canadian confection this time with not one, but three co-directors, Guy Maddin and brothers Evan and Galen Johnson. The film focuses on a G7 summit in a rural area of Germany where the leaders find themselves unable to even craft a "provisional statement" about their summit, never mind surviving what appears to be an existential crisis happening around them that leaves them stranded in a remote forest. It's another absurdist view of the world, particularly of politics set within an original take on a zombie apocalypse horror film. These world leaders are most hapless in the face of a crisis yet are determined to complete their only objective, the provisional statement about their co-operative efforts, which are of course, useless. There really isn't much to this film other than the joy of watching the total incompetence of these powerful individuals chosen as our leaders. In the end, the only talent they have is rhetoric, which may be a salve to the masses but never really solves anything. It's also fun to watch Cate Blanchett as the German leader, Roy Dupuis as the tortured Lothario who is the Canadian prime minister and Charles Dance who plays the American president as a sort of Joe Biden figure but with a curious British accent.

The Only Girl in the Orchestra
Netflix
Short but oh so great. In fact, it won for Best Documentary Short film. It focuses on Orin O'Brien, who as a double bassist (and aunt of the filmmaker), was the first female member of the New York Philharmonic.

Am I Ok?
Crave
What if you think you're straight but unlucky in love, but then discover you're actually gay, and unlucky in love. Lucy (Dakota Johnson) is a woman who has never found love, perhaps because she was looking at the wrong gender, while her best friend Jane (Sonoya Mizuno) seems to be the one on track with a successful career and relationship. We see their roles slowly switch as Lucy explores dating other women, as Jane struggles to keep up with a new promotion that would see her move from LA to London. It's lightly comedic and sweet.

Animated stand-up.
Tig Notaro: Drawn
Netflix
The first animated stand-up special. If you know and enjoy Tig Notaro's comedy, you'll love this. If you don't, then you really should try.

They Cloned Tyrone
Netflix
A Sci-Fi Comedy Blaxploitation flick where a small-time drug dealer, Fontaine (John Boyega), discovers a secret society has actually cloned him and they are also controlling their black community through drugs in fried chicken and grape soda. Fontaine is aided in his discovery by small-time pimp, Slick Charles (Jamie Foxx), and sex worker, Yo-Yo (Teyonah Parris). This film fits with similar fantasy comedies like Sorry to Bother You and Get Out. If you were intrigued and entertained by those, you'll probably like this. Though I would say, despite the stellar cast and promising premise, it feels like it could have been a little funnier and slightly darker.

Nathan & Zydeco Cha Cha and The Dirty Dozen Brass Band
Koerner Hall
A live show. I've added it here as an experiment. The musical stylings of New Orleans were brought to Toronto just before the start of Mardi Gras by these two venerable and iconic acts. The music was lively on a cold winter night and most unusual for this venue, people were dancing in the aisles.

The happy couple.
Anora
A sex worker marries the son of a wealthy Russian oligarch's son after a couple of weeks of sex, drugs and good times. Whoops. Mikey Madison won the Academy Award for her role as Annie (Anora), who while dancing and dishing out sexual favours at the club, meets a wealthy young man who she marries on a sex and drug-fuelled getaway to Vegas. It seems like Annie's in denial about her life as a sex worker but feels like she's made it with her newly found prince who showers friends with money the way most people shower with water. Yet she's no pushover and never backs down from what she feels is right even when her new husband, Ivan's (Mark Eydelshteyn) parents fly to the US on their private jet and send their local heavies to end the marriage. I'm not sure what this film says, other than these young women who do this kind of sex work, may feel empowered both by how men desire them and the quick cash they earn but eventually will have to face the reality that they've never really had much power to begin with. It's interesting how a year ago, many film critics argued that too many films shied away from nudity, sex and adult themes. How much difference a year makes. Presumably, these same critics didn't realize that there'd be a bumper crop of plenty of nudity and "adult situations". Be ready for what you wish for I guess.

The Monkey
Horror-comedy based on a Stephen King short story. A windup toy drummer monkey brought home by a philandering father for his twin sons, Bill and Hal (played by Christian Convery as kids, and Theo James as adults). After the boys' father goes AWOL, their mother (Tatiana Maslany) struggles to find joy, and when the brothers initially find the Monkey, they don't really understand the implications. After a string of gruesome (though intended as comedic) deaths, their own mother is a victim of the fate brought on by invoking the "toy" through its windup key. Hal and Bill hide the garish Monkey in a well on their aunt and uncle's property but it never really leaves them. I know that horror is one of the few genres of film to make cash in theatres these days, and for whatever reason, the more gory, the funnier it is… I guess? I'm not sure you get dark comedy if your idea of funny is someone explodes when electrocuted. This particular gag/death pushed the levels of implausibilty beyond gore, humour or intelligence and was where the broken reality felt insipid, exploitative and dumb.

28 Weeks Later
Disney+
Do you remember 28 Days Later, about a virus that spreads quickly and turns the infected into violent, raging zombies? This is just as freaky and clearly sets up films to follow.

Fire Saga, needed to be just 20% funnier to get my vote.
Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga
Netflix
Silly. Fun. Funny, but not as silly or funny as I hoped it would be. Lars (Will Ferrell) and his band partner, Sigrit (Rachel McAdams) are a prog-pop duo from Iceland who dream of reaching the Eurovision Song Contest. This is an odd movie in that it both celebrates and parodies this European kitschy talent competition.