She Monkeys (Apflickorna)

Posted on August 20, 2011 by James McNally
She Monkeys (Apflickorna)

She Monkeys (Apflickorna) (Director: Lisa Aschan): We are introduced to Emma just as she is joining an equestrian gymnastics team. Even though she’s the new girl, it’s clear she’s just as competitive and strong as Cassandra, the team’s unspoken leader. It doesn’t take long for a powerful mixture of competitiveness and sexual attraction to bring the two young women together, and for the rest of the film, we’re never sure if the sparks are going to throw them into a passionate love affair or drive them apart as hated rivals.

At home, Emma lives with her father and her young sister Sara. It’s significant that there is no mother in the home, because Emma has clearly filled the female power vacuum there. Young Sara is keenly aware of her own powerlessness and begins acting out in an effort to change that. After being humiliated at the swimming pool for not wearing a top, her acting out becomes overtly sexual. Her clumsy sexual advances on her much older cousin Sebastian are creepy and endearing at the same time.

She Monkeys (Apflickorna)

Meanwhile, Emma and Cassandra are falling in love. When Emma flirts with a boy, Cassandra humiliates him, and strangely, Emma joins in. But when Cassandra tries to take their relationship too far, Emma hesitates. Cassandra has sparked a sexual awakening (and a dreaded loss of control) in her that she never wanted. Her conflicted feelings only intensify when, despite her strength and balance, she fails to make the team. The line between love and hate can be pretty thin, and a desperate act of jealousy leads to an ambiguous conclusion.

I loved the fact that the male characters in the film are all at the mercy of these powerful women, but that the women are unsure of how to use their power. The young actors playing Emma (Mathilda Paradeiser) and Cassandra (Linda Molin) are both good, but it’s Isabella Lindquist as Sara who is a standout, holding up her important subplot ably as a child clutching at the power of her sexuality far too early.

The balance of power, between who is in control and who is being controlled, shifts so often and so subtly that this is a film that will require repeated viewings to tease out all the layers. Overall, She Monkeys is a nuanced examination of female power and a fine feature debut.



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Montréal World Film Festival 2011

Posted on August 16, 2011 by James McNally

Without even realizing it, I’ve created a new tradition. For the third year running, I will be spending a few days in Montréal seeing films at the Festival des films du monde. The Montréal World Film Festival, as it is known in English, is celebrating its 35th edition with a wide-ranging program of almost 400 films from more than 70 countries. The festival takes place from August 18th through 28th, though I’ll only be there from August 19th through 23rd. Here are some films that are catching my eye so far:

  • A Boatload of Wild Irishmen (Ireland/UK, 2011, Director: Mac Dara Ó’Curraidhín): An exploration of the life and work of Robert Flaherty (1884-1951), one of the pioneers of documentary filmmaking.
  • She Monkeys (Apflickorna) (Sweden, 2011, Director: Lisa Aschan): Sexual rivalry between teammates on an equestrian vaulting team, good notices out of Berlin and Tribeca.
  • Brand (Austria, 2011, Director: Thomas Roth): Brand, an author, falls in love with his terminally ill wife’s nurse and blunders into a dangerous spiral of passion and jealousy.
  • Calvet (UK, 2011, Director: Dominic Allan): The story of Jean Marc Calvet’s transformation from violent criminal to acclaimed artist.
  • Dirty Hearts (Corações Sujos) (Brazil, 2011, Director: Vicente Amorim): Tensions arise in Brazil’s Japanese community after Japan’s surrender in World War II.
  • Only Son (Fils Unique) (Belgium/France/Luxembourg, 2011, Director: Miel van Hoogenbernt): A man is forced to live with the father he hasn’t spoken to in 10 years, bringing back painful childhood memories.

As always, tickets are a bargain (10 ticket booklets are still just $65!) and it’s a perfect appetizer for TIFF.

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The Hedgehog (Le hérisson)

Posted on August 15, 2011 by James McNally
The Hedgehog (Le hérisson)
The Hedgehog (Le hérisson) opens in select US markets on Friday August 19, expanding over the following weeks. Check your local listings.

The Hedgehog (Le hérisson) (Director: Mona Achache): Based on the best-selling novel The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery, this 2009 film is finally getting a theatrical release on this side of the world. Alas, it’s only in the US for now, but I figure that I have at least a few readers outside of the Toronto area.

Precocious and bored, 11-year-old Paloma decides that on her 12th birthday, she will end her life. She’s sick of her parents and older sister and their comfortable bourgeois lifestyle. She compulsively films them with a hand-me-down video camera and protests that she doesn’t want to live like a goldfish in a fishbowl. She’s incredibly bright and wants more from life, but doesn’t see a way to get it.

Ms. Michel, the widowed janitor of the luxury building where she lives, seems like she might be a kindred spirit, but she’s extremely private. Everything changes on the day that Mr. Ozu moves into the building. This cultured older Japanese man pays no attention to the class differences and petty jealousies of the other tenants, striking up conversations with both Paloma and Ms. Michel within days of his arrival.

An offhand remark involving a quote from Tolstoy (Mr. Ozu begins the quote and Ms. Michel finishes it) kindles a deeper curiosity and before long he has asked her to dinner. If you haven’t guessed already, Renée (as we discover is Ms. Michel’s first name) is the hedgehog of the title. As described by Paloma, she is prickly on the outside, but only to hide her inner elegance. No, I’m not sure how a hedgehog could be described as elegant, either, but it’s a memorable description. Paloma begins to spend more time with Renée and tells her that as a janitor, she has found a “perfect hiding place,” as if the older woman had simply chosen to be a building janitor out of a panoply of other career options.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barbery

Our trio of characters are all highly intelligent and lonely outsiders, and so naturally they come together, but everything seems just a bit too neat. An 11-year-old like Paloma, who draws and paints at a high level, plays Go and speaks some Japanese could really only exist in a novel (or a movie). Renée is another variation on the crusty character who really has a heart of gold. Worst of all, Mr. Ozu is the Franco-Asian equivalent of the “magical negro,” an exotic character who dispenses wisdom and brings the other characters together while we really know nothing about his own motivations.

But while the film is schematic and (mostly) predictable, it remains enjoyable, mostly for me due to Josiane Balasko’s performance as Renée. A veteran comic actor (she played the Jennifer Saunders’ part in the French version of Absolutely Fabulous) and an accomplished director in her own right, she portrays a lonely woman’s bewilderment at being desired with subtlety and grace. I also loved the occasional use of animation to illustrate some of Paloma’s inner struggles.

As someone who has not read the source novel, I can’t comment on whether it is a faithful adaptation, but based upon the amount of voiceover narration by Paloma, I expect that the novel would allow us similar access to the inner lives of both Renée and of Mr. Ozu. As well, because Paloma’s story seems to be the central thread, I wasn’t certain whether I was watching a film aimed more at the adolescent set than at a more general audience.



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TIFF 2011 Preview: Monsieur Lazhar

Posted on August 10, 2011 by James McNally

Continuing my series of previews of films playing at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, I’ve chosen another Canadian film, announced yesterday at TIFF’s press conference. Director Philippe Falardeau knocked me out a few years back with C’est pas moi, je le jure! (It’s Not Me, I Swear!), a nostalgic portrait of a young troublemaker that managed to be sweet even as it detailed some rather horrific misbehaviour. I’m hopeful that Falardeau’s new film, Monsieur Lazhar will be able to blend the sentiment and the grit just as effectively. It will have its Canadian premiere at TIFF, after playing internationally this week at the Locarno Film Festival.

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Like his previous film, this one is also an adaptation. In this case, it’s from Bachir Lazhar, a play by Evelyne de la Chenelière. Algerian immigrant Bachir Lazhar takes over an elementary school class still grieving for their previous teacher, who has committed suicide. Gradually, we discover that, in addition to helping his students work though their grief, Monsieur Lazhar is dealing with his own personal tragedy.

Falardeau is again working with children, but I trust that he’ll portray the students as real characters, working their way through unfamiliar and frightening territory. As someone who trained to be a teacher, I have always loved films about teachers and their students, from corny stuff like Les Choristes (The Chorus) to more gritty stuff like Entre les murs (The Class) and Être et avoir (To Be and To Have). And isn’t it strange that the first three films that came to mind are all in the French language as well.

There’s something moving in seeing not just the transmission of knowledge from teacher to student, but the formation of emotional connections as well. In many cases, teachers act as surrogate parents for children who have less-than-ideal family lives. Falardeau points out something with which I agree very strongly:

[T]here is…another dimension quite dear to me that surfaced in the film, although it wasn’t in the play. It’s the entire question of the codification of relationships between children and adults in schools. Over the years, we have established rules that forbid adults from touching children, no matter what the circumstances, even if it is just to “put sunscreen on their back,” as the gym teacher character comments. We very well understand the reasons behind these rules and what’s at stake with them. But the result is that teachers, parents and even the children walk on eggs whenever it comes to showing a certain form of affection or closeness. The question is extremely delicate and constitutes a pivotal moment in the film. I think the film speaks a great deal about this, imperceptibly at first, until the end where the subject matter becomes explicit.

In my opinion, the filmmakers from the province of Québec have been creating Canada’s strongest cinema for a long time now, and I’m very much looking forward to seeing more from Falardeau and other young directors from “la belle province.”

SCREENINGS:

  • Sunday September 11, 9:45pm – TIFF Bell Lightbox 2
  • Wednesday September 14, 3:30pm – AMC 7
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The Change-Up

Posted on August 5, 2011 by James McNally
The Change-Up
The Change-Up opens Friday August 5th at the Varsity, Scotiabank and Silver City Cinemas in Toronto.

The Change-Up (Director: David Dobkin): There’s an offputting and rather absurd conservatism at the heart of the body-swapping genre. It’s as if the purpose for the whole thing is to learn some valuable life lessons. Sure, there’s a bit of time for hijinks, but in the end, it’s all about loving the life you have. When it’s time to get back into your own skin, you’re supposed to accept it. In fact, in just about all of these movies, the characters can’t wait to get back to their slightly improved normality. What makes this such a dishonest trope is that all of the fun happens when they’re breaking the rules of their everyday lives.

The Change-Up plays with this formula for just about half of its running time, and for those 45 minutes or so, it borders on subversive. Some of its moments of anarchy are exhilarating. But in the end, it plays it safe.

Dave Lockwood (Jason Bateman) is a high-achieving corporate lawyer who spends too much time at the office and not enough talking to his beautiful wife (Leslie Mann). He’s a dutiful father, though, helping out with his young daughter and infant twins. He flirts with the gorgeous law associate at his office (Olivia Wilde), but there’s nothing about him that indicates he’ll really break out of this safe pattern.

Until the night he goes drinking with his old pal Mitch (Ryan Reynolds). Though they’re just about polar opposites, they’ve somehow managed to stay friends. Mitch is a wild-living barely employed actor who has coasted on his good looks and who seems to be enjoying his extended adolescence. While urinating together into a fountain after their night of drinking, each wishes for the other’s life, and the next morning, they’ve magically switched bodies. Time for some fun, right?

The scenes of Bateman (playing Reynolds) screwing up Dave’s job and abusing his children are gleefully transgressive, and both actors have fun with Reynolds’ potty-mouthed vocabulary. But when it comes to the sexual adventures that form a large part of Dave’s longing to change lives, the film chickens out. In the end, the nuclear family and monogamy triumph, not to mention that other good ol’ American value: hard work. There’s even a wedding at the end, in addition to an anniversary party and a career promotion.

Which isn’t to say I didn’t enjoy most of The Change-Up. Bateman and Reynolds have great chemistry, and Leslie Mann makes what could have been a shrewish stereotype into an almost real character, albeit one who resists the explanation given to her in favour of a continuing state of harried befuddlement at her husband’s new antics.

A subplot involving Mitch’s estrangment from his father (Alan Arkin) exists only to balance the character’s “difficulties” with relationships, but it’s far from convincing. Who wouldn’t prefer smoking dope all day, acting in softcore porn movies and sleeping with the most inappropriate partners? Oh, right, I almost forgot. There are life lessons to be learned.


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