childhood

The Tree of Life

by James McNally on October 10, 2011 · 1 comment

eOne released The Tree of Life on DVD and Blu-ray in Canada on October 11, 2011. Help support Toronto Screen Shots by buying it on Amazon.ca.

The Tree of Life (Director: Terrence Malick): When I first saw Terrence Malick’s long-awaited fifth film back in the spring, I simply couldn’t write about it. Certainly still in the top spot for my Film of the Year, it hasn’t become any easier to articulate my thoughts about a film so personal and yet so universal. I can say with certainty, though, that the film looks every bit as stunning on Blu-ray as it did projected theatrically, and that means that you should certainly add it to your collection.

The Tree of Life has been described as Malick’s most personal film yet, featuring a family very much like his own in a time and place very similar to where and when he grew up. At the heart of the story is a tragedy, the loss of a beloved child, and the oldest son’s remembrances of his brother, his own childhood, and especially his relationships with his mother and father. As young Jack (Hunter McCracken) leaves childhood behind for the turbulence of adolescence, he’s torn between the comfort of his mother’s (Jessica Chastain) unconditional love and his more conflicted feelings toward his strict father (Brad Pitt). There is an ever-present narrator, though the voices change. Sometimes it’s the voice of his mother, sometimes his father, and sometimes you wonder if it might even be God.

Quite apart from the remembrances of Jack (played as an adult by Sean Penn), there is an entire sequence visualizing the formation of the Earth and the beginning of life itself. Malick worked with special effects expert Douglas Trumbull to make these look as natural as possible, depending on computers only when absolutely necessary. The imagery is stunning throughout, both the special effects stuff and the warmly nostalgic cinematography by Emmanuel Lubezki, who worked with Malick on his previous film The New World.

The Tree of Life is Malick at his most Malickian, and by that I mean that plot and character are not revealed through traditional narrative, but more by the accumulation of details and impressions. Music is important and the camera sweeps around like a paintbrush on a canvas. The voiceovers can seem a bit ponderous to someone not expecting a film about the Big Questions, but if you’re prepared to be stirred emotionally, existentially and, dare I say spiritually, this film will simply knock you out.

The most helpful thing I can say about this film is that it’s a mirror. What you end up thinking or feeling about it will be very much determined by what you bring into the experience. That’s why I’m so excited to have such a beautiful work of art in such a pristinely presented package. The Tree of Life is a film that will deeply reward patience and repeated viewings, at least for me.

Tagged as: childhood, coming-of-age, spirituality

{ 1 comment }

The Hollywood Complex

by Drew Kerr on May 16, 2011

in Documentaries,Film Festivals,Hot Docs

The Hollywood Complex (Directors: Dylan Nelson and Dan Sturman): The Hollywood Complex looks at the trials and tribulations of aspiring child actors and their families who make their way to Hollywood every spring for television’s “pilot season,” when most networks and cable channels do casting for their shows. The film follows the stories of a handful of kids and their parents, who all temporarily reside at the Oakwood apartment complex in North Hollywood. The Oakwood specializes in housing young talent, providing a like-minded environment for its clientele and direct access to a network of acting coaches, workshops, casting agents, and photographers, all of whom sell hope, along with their specific services.

The bulk of the documentary, which was finished just four days prior to its world premiere at Hot Docs, chronicles each child’s struggle to stand out in a crowd of thousands. Shanna, 13, is just in from Colorado and a complete newbie to Hollywood, accompanied by her skeptical yet supportive mother. Cruelly, before Shanna has even gotten into the game she’s at a disadvantage, as we find out that the odds of landing a role for young teenagers or someone in their late tweens decreases significantly because of the abundance of kids in this age group who are competing for the jobs available. It’s an oddball spin on the “actresses over the age of 40 have a hard time finding work” axiom. The Casa family has five kids making the audition rounds, which makes for cramped enough accommodations at the Oakwood that one of them has to sleep under a table. Mama Casa says that she’s pretty open to having one of her sons take on any role, as long as it’s nothing that glorifies Satan. Then there’s the annoyingly precocious Megan, who exudes confidence and thinks it’s a good strategy to show up at one audition dressed in a garish, age-inappropriate outfit that is sure to make an impression. It doesn’t. Megan’s mom, also extroverted and quirky, tiredly admits that they’ve had somewhere in the neighbourhood of 40+ straight auditions with no callbacks. Perhaps in an effort to change her luck, Megan ends up changing her stage name to “Presley Cash.”

Additional by-products of the film’s focus are examinations of celebrity culture, the ugly side of show business, and the lengths that mothers and fathers will go to for their children. I expected to see some examples of the proverbial “stage moms,” or parents who were just attempting to live vicariously through their kids, but there was really no evidence of this in the film (at the post-screening Q&A session the directors said they were surprised at how little of it they encountered). The fact that none of the families we see appear to come from an affluent background only adds extra emphasis to their struggles and the gamble they’re taking. In one scene, we see a mother rummaging through a recycling bin with one of her kids in an effort to scrounge up bottles that will give her a little extra cash. The well-known sleazy side of show business rears its ugly head frequently, with the two best examples being one scene where a young child going up for a role as a dying patient on House is encouraged to watch YouTube videos of real kids who are dying, as well as another scene where a casting agent deciding on a young girl for a role says that he needs one with “no titties.” That line elicited a mass groan from the theatre audience.

Directed by Dylan Nelson and Dan Sturman (Sturman brought his excellent Soundtrack for a Revolution to Hot Docs’ Doc Soup series last year), the film is a revealing and somewhat disturbing look into a segment of show business where children are commonly objectified for our entertainment and treated as a commodity, and are willing participants (along with their parents) while doing so. The Hollywood Complex should be imperative viewing for any kids and their parents seeking fame and fortune.

Official site of the film

Tagged as: #hotdocs11, childhood, children, hollywood

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Babies

by James McNally on May 7, 2010 · 1 comment

in Documentaries,Film Festivals,Hot Docs

Babies (Director: Thomas Balmès): I’d been enchanted by the trailer since I first saw it a few months ago. Described by its producer and originator Alain Chabat as “a wildlife film [about] human babies,” this documentary observes four babies in different parts of the world as they grow from birth to their first steps. Ponijao from Namibia and Bayarjargal from Mongolia live in wide-open rural environments while Mari from Tokyo and Hattie in San Francisco grow up in more structured urban settings. The film is strictly observational; there is no voiceover and any parental dialogue is purposely kept in the background. What the film accomplishes well is to allow us to compare these four developing infants and note the similarities and differences in their growth. We also get to see differences in parenting styles, which gives the film some of its humour. For instance, the rural kids seem much more free to explore their environments and their relationships with animals grow out of necessity, since their families’ livelihoods depend on livestock. While the urban parents seem more involved in their children’s lives, there are fewer opportunities for unstructured play and accidental discoveries.

The different locales are all visually interesting and the static cinematography and long scenes allow the audience to immerse themselves in the perspective of each baby. Since the focus in each scene is on the baby, and never on the parents, you come to feel you’re actually watching each character grow and change as the film progresses.

While I thoroughly enjoyed Babies, I think it may be challenging for some audiences. To put it bluntly, I think the actual film may seem too highbrow for a mass audience while the basic concept may turn off the arthouse audience as too commercial. Which isn’t to say it won’t make bags of money, at least for a documentary. But some of my colleagues found it boring, and lost patience with its long scenes and rather linear narrative arc. Mind you, none of them are parents. Neither am I, for that matter, but I found the children charming and was fascinated to see them literally figuring out problems as we observed. I think the “cute” factor will draw a lot of people on the film’s opening weekend, but its slow pacing and lack of dialogue may lead to some less-than-positive word of mouth, which would be a shame. For the patient and child-friendly viewer, Babies delivers its fair share of rewards.

8/10 (8/10)

Tagged as: #hotdocs10, childhood, children

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Antoine

by James McNally on May 1, 2009

in Documentaries,Film Festivals,Hot Docs

Editor’s Note: I’ve decided to begin posting some reviews of films screening at Hot Docs 2009 early, hopefully helping anyone attending make some decisions about what to see. Antoine is screening on Tuesday May 5 at 7:30pm at the Royal Cinema and Wednesday May 6 at 4:30pm at the Cumberland Cinema.

Antoine (Director: Laura Bari): Six-year-old Antoine Houang will steal your heart. Blind since birth, Antoine nevertheless approaches the world with endless curiosity and enthusiasm. A poet in a tiny body, he spends his days playing a game of “private detective” investigating the disappearance of a certain “Madame Rouski.” Bari shoots the entire film from a kid’s-eye perspective and never intrudes. But she takes cinema verité to another level, resulting in a lush voyage into a precocious imagination. Although Antoine cannot see, the film itself is filled with bright colours and unforgettable images. The adventurous Antoine runs, skates, rides horses, (pretends to) drive a car, and more. Bari, an educator, collaborated with Antoine over a two-year period and let him choose the detective game as a structuring device. Her film was both a creative endeavour and an attempt to learn more about the process of personality formation in children. But that’s not explicitly spelled out in the film, nor need it be.

Entering Antoine’s world means you will listen as he takes calls from the elusive Madame Rouski on his cellphone, as he recalls his memories and his “non-memories”, and as he gathers his friends Mäelle and Juliette to help him investigate the case. A true collaborator on the film, Antoine chose sounds to record and is often seen wearing his headphones and carrying his microphone around. In between updates on the “case,” we see Antoine at home and at school, where he’s integrated in a regular Montréal classroom.

Some might wish this was a more traditional documentary, with more focus on his family or his teachers, but I was swept away by the intelligence and joy of this little boy and didn’t want to leave the world of his vivid imagination. That being said, the passing of time in the documentary (ie. the seasons, his sixth birthday, the end and beginning of the school year) pulled me out of the “plot” a little, and made me wonder how a child of his age could sustain a game for so long. It was only later that I learned that the game was something worked out between him and the filmmaker. That also makes me wonder a little bit about some of the incredibly poetic things Antoine says. I want to think that it’s all him, but it seems too incredible.

Nevertheless, Antoine is a remarkable boy, and Bari has made an absolutely delightful film. Much like Juraj Lehotsky’s Blind Loves (review), she has collaborated with someone without sight to bring their imagination to life, and the result is something both visually beautiful and incredibly moving.

Official site of the film

9/10 (9/10)

Tagged as: #hotdocs09, blindness, canada, childhood, children, Montréal

{ Comments on this entry are closed }

Enfances (Childhoods)

by James McNally on March 28, 2009 · 1 comment

in Directors,Film Festivals

Enfances (Childhoods) (Directors: Yann Le Gal, Ismaël Ferroukhi, Corinne Garfin, Joana Hadjithomas, Khalil Joreige, Isild Le Besco, Safy Nebbou): This very interesting idea, brought to realization by French director Yann Le Gal, brings together six short films, each concerning a pivotal moment in the childhood of six great film directors: Fritz Lang, Orson Welles, Jean Renoir, Jacques Tati, Alfred Hitchcock, and Ingmar Bergman. I hadn’t heard of any of the segment’s directors before, but three or four of the segments were outstanding. My favourite is the story of how Fritz Lang, at the age of ten, discovers a family secret that changes his politics and his whole outlook on life. Also excellent was the recollection by Jean Renoir of how his friendship with a peasant child who teaches him how to hunt and steal gives him an appreciation for the injustice of class distinctions. The segments on Welles and Hitchcock, though good, were perhaps the weakest. But the segment on Jacques Tati was perhaps the closest in spirit to an actual Tati film. The gangly Tati is too tall to fit into his class photo, so he wanders off into the school on an almost wordless adventure. The way he ends up in the photo is pure physical comedy. The segment on Bergman rounds out the film, and if I’d been more familiar with his work, I might have appreciated it more.

I really enjoyed the way each segment not only told a story from the director’s life, but was also directed in their signature style. Although these omnibus films are always bound to be uneven, these six stories moved along at a great pace and made for a very enjoyable (and hopefully enlightening) experience.

Official site of the film