VIFF media preview: Installment One

Hello readers I broke my VIFF 2011 cherry today and attended the media preview of the comically named "Honey Pupu" and before you ask, no, I have no idea why it has that title. Before we begin I just wanted to mention that I was led to believe by the festival website that this film was of the cyberpunk genre although aspects of this genre ring true the dystopian quality and the counter culture aspect it in fact seems far more hipster than cyberpunk. The film overall appears to be an exercise in "relational aesthetics" and word association, a spoken language based on Taiwanese characters translated into the English equivalent on a keyboard, storytelling, children's games and re-imagined landscape are just a few examples of this. The characters are all  regulars of an online message board and go by their online handles such as "Playing", "Assassin", "Cola" etc. This movie has several faults, the acting seems rough in parts and their isn't a plot. The characters seem to be adrift and attempting to come to terms with the speed at which the world is changing and find answers to what is love and how do you recover what is lost? be it in the form of your lover or your data, imagine trying to find a computer that can run a oversize floppy disk in the year 2010. I noticed a few people walked out during the film all around forty or older perhaps the film doesn't carry the same pertinence to people too far outside the age bracket of the cast... however I enjoyed it, so to each their own.

Slightly late, but here at last...

Hi folks sorry this week's review is a little late as the late great Douglas Adams said "I love deadlines I love the sound they make as they whoosh by." This week I will be reviewing "Hanna", "The Source Code" and Younger Brother's new album "Vaccine". These two movies and one album all have one thing in common they are all fusions of several genre's all with varying levels of success. Lets begin with the films.

The plot of "Hanna" is a very interesting hybrid of fairytale and spy drama. Before seeing the film I would never have imagined the combination but as Germany was one of the settings for the film it does make sense just recall The Berlin Wall and The Brothers Grimm. The heroine Hanna is played by young Irish actress Saorise(pronounced seer-sha) Ronan  to great effect in this film she seems more a creature of the wild than a young woman  here in fact when asked where she is from Hanna simply replies "The forest". There is no great personal discovery in this film Hanna shows up  gets revenge and grows up along the way. I liked the film but at times the violence seemed  excessive. Was it really necessary for Hanna and her father to kill quite so many Police Officers? The film also features an amazing soundtrack by The Chemical Brothers it's worth experiencing on that merit alone. If you like spy drama's you'll really enjoy this film.

"The Source Code" puts Jake Gyllenhaal into yet another time travel movie. Although this movie is good it has neither the edge or impact Jake gave us in Donnie Darko. The main premise of this film is the timeloop we've  seen this numerous times in TV and movies so I won't list them all but if you really have no idea what I'm talking about "Groundhog Day" is probably the most famous example of this. Added to that we have the "Army Hero" and "Damsel in Distress" cookie cutter characters. This is a well directed film even enjoyable to watch but it is also a merciless rehashing of cliche.. It's like a spice rack with only a half dozen spices the director settled for dumping them all in. Luckily it seems to have paid off for him, this movie was entertaining to watch it's just that watching it was far too much like the timeloop premise; I've seen it all before.

Younger Brother's new album "Vaccine" is a departure into the mediocrity for the electronica band. Formed as a result of Simon Posford and Benji Vaughan's attempts to make unclassifiable electronica Younger Brother has been one of my favorite musical delights for the last eight years. Their first album "A Flock of Bleeps" relied heavily on their backgrounds in Psytrance (Posford is still regarded by many as one of the gods of the genre) It was noted that there was a much more organic sound to the second Album "The Last Days of Gravity" as well as a more acoustic quality and experimentation with vocals. This third album is basically a alternative rock album with electronic elements which is kind of a shame with Posford and Vaughan relegated to keyboard and guitar respectively, I found myself really missing their talent here in the homogeneous mess the band has become in addition  the vocalist is of the school that believes emotion can only be expressed via a shrill emo-whine and you can understand why I wish iTunes issued refunds. I have no doubt many will love the new album and direction the band has taken I just shan't be among them to quote Hamlet: "Good-night sweet prince;And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest."

That's it folks I hope you enjoyed this weeks installment. See you next week.

Beauty and Bloodspray.

Dear readers welcome to this weeks installment of the Critical Canadian This week the reviews stand in stark contrast to one another: "Biutiful" and "Hobo with a Shotgun". As always I hope you enjoy reading them.

 "Biutiful" directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu is a melancholic meditation on beauty. Javier Bardem play's Uxbal a small time hustler and sometimes medium in Barcelona. Uxbal  learns early on in the film that he is in fact dying of cancer and that he has very little time left. The films title encapsulates the thesis of the film that beauty is subjective, fragile, and temporary just like our lives. Javier Bardem was a shrewd choice for this film his appearance and visibly broken nose would seem to preclude beauty, but Javier is in fact one of the most beautiful male leads working today (guys if you doubt me just ask your mother, your sister ,or girlfriend, they'll set you straight.) The downside to Javier being in this movie is that I doubt a few months from now whether I will even remember the other cast members in this wonderful movie which is unfortunate as each and everyone of them shows compelling flashes of beauty even mired in the the gutter as they often are. You can't see "Biutiful" fast enough if you ask me.

"Hobo with a Shotgun" is a return to classic grindhouse film. It features excessive, sadistic and plentiful shotgun assisted fatalities also it sports one of the worst scripts of all time. I find it interesting how the progression of the slasher genre is a parallel progression of how pornographic film evolved. Rutger Hauer very convincingly plays the "Hobo" it's amazing what thirty years have done to the man he barely resembles the actor who played Roy the replicant in "Bladerunner". If you like slashers featuring blood fountains and somebody screaming every five minutes this is your movie. I say skip it.

Welcome back, Critical Canadian, welcome back.

Welcome back readers I had to take last week off due to bruising all the ribs down my left side. Expect the reviews to be every week Friday at 11pm PST.  The Critical Canadian is becoming a podcast featuring exciting bonuses! Stay tuned for that.

The film "Dogtooth" inhabits a very interesting space. It takes place, for the most part, behind the walls of a mansion in Greece the kids are home-schooled and on the surface are polite and well mannered. However, that is about as far as normalcy extends in this film. The father has gotten it into his mind that outside world is corrupt. Therefore, he has to domesticate his family to prevent the world from corrupting them. This is when the situation begins to spiral wildly out of control. This movie really asks the question: How much of what our parents taught us is true? The movie is Funny, chilling and thought provoking well worth the watch.

"Another Year" centers around a very rare thing a happily married couple in this world of one night stands, social networking and self indulgence it seems we so rarely get it right. This film is a great example of how being around such people can be an oasis in the maelstrom of existence. Few of us are as wonderful people as Tom and Gerri, but I think that it is worth striving to be more like them caring, calm and gentle like your backyard at dusk in the summer warm and comfortable. This film made me smile. I'd recommend watching it with someone you love. Thanks, Kat and Simon for suggesting I watch this movie it was great.

I am going to  confess something to you readers. I know you may have a hard time believing this, but I did not  have strictly pure intentions when I went to see "Sucker punch" in fact, my motivation was along the lines of Emily Browning is gorgeous, and I wouldn't mind watching her put on sexy outfits and look angst ridden for two hours while workmen replace the drywall at my house. Needless to say I wasn't expecting much in the way of a script, and I wasn't disappointed the story is essentially a troubled young woman is institutionalized in a mental hospital by her evil stepfather where she becomes a magical stripper..... no, I'm not kidding. Script aside the visuals are fantastic the director "Zack Snyder" also directed "The 300" and you really do see some amazing eroticized violence I was surprised at a few of the choices not to exploit the actresses in the film the character baby doll is clearly established as being twenty years old when she is checked into the hospital and during her numerous acrobatic moves that cause her skirt to flip up and expose her knickers, they are black and preserve some small sliver of her scant modesty this transmutes the film from exploitative to merely exhibitionistic. However, it does definitely fall short of empowering which I can tell was what they were aiming for. My advice is to wait for it to come to Netflix or DVD and watch it with the sound off terrible, terrible dialogue.

I saw Studio 58's production of "1984" last Friday on opening night courtesy of my uncle,(Thanks Uncle Len!) It's a faithful adaptation of Orwell's book the acting was superb and the actors playing Julia and Winston were very comfortable in the many scenes where physical contact was required if I were to quibble about anything it's that the actor playing Winston Alex Ferguson was, in fact, a little too handsome, whereas I thought Julia was well played by Amy Hall-Cummings arrogant, slightly petulant and sexual. I'd highly recommend you go see it. "1984" runs until April 3rd at The Cultch.

A return to stimulation...

Hello, Readers welcome to this weeks critical analysis. This week was the most banal I've had in years I won't bore you with the details, I'll just say that because of this it was necessary to imbibe a vast plethora of media, as a result I have a meaty review for you. I hope you enjoy it.

"Breathless(Ddongpari)," is the first film of director, "Yang Ik-Joon", who also plays the lead "Sang-Hoon" an incredibly violent and unapologetic debt collector. I wanted to take a moment to convey just how violent this movie is, the beatings are savage and seem to take an eternity, you almost want to scream at the screen for him to stop as his switches arms to continue pummeling. That is the point in this film the violence is not glamorous it's base and savage. Korean cinema genre seems to specialize in the archetype of anti-hero. The Korean films  "Old Boy" and "The Man From Nowhere" are other excellent examples of main characters we cannot sympathize with, but still feel for. Sang-Hoon doesn't change as person during the course of this film he stays the violent thug he was at the beginning. I applaud the directors decision to dodge the cliche, of prodigal son. I enjoyed this film and you will too readers, if you can get past the violence.

I have read everything that ,Vancouver based author William Gibson, has ever written and I have been eagerly anticipating the release of  "Zero History," his newest novel, for sometime now. Gibson's work focus's mainly on technology and culture and how people adapt to living in between creating vibrant sub and counter culture's. This book is definitely of that genre and is set in the same world as "Pattern Recognition" and "Spook Country" a near mirror version of our own. I, like many other Gibson fans prefer his early works of "Cyberpunk". During my reading of the book I noticed that certain words were used to evoke the presence of various cultural ideas: "Steampunk", "Tesla" "Banksy" and "Oligarch" this felt backwards to me these terms should have been less talismans for summoning the images and instead be inferred from the actual content. However this may have been intentional as advertising is an important concept within the story, so then I suppose we're just left with a stylistic qualm. It really did remind me of a salesman dressed in a loud sports coat gesticulating wildly while talking at machine gun pace, all smoke, no mirrors. I'd say give it a read, but you will be disappointed if you're expecting a return to the "Cyberpunk" nirvana of Gibson's early work.

I've seen some strange films in my time and "Rubber" is definitely one of them. At face value it seems to be about an inexplicably animate tire coming to terms with life, obsession and destructive psychokinetic powers This is not how ever what this movie is about. This movie is about the act of viewing a performance so familiar to all of us: suspension of disbelief. This film is in many respects closer to a high art film however unlike high art which tends to take a complex subject and reduce it to a simpler form it instead opted for the better option of taking the concept and explaining it simply in a way we can understand and immediately grasp.  That of B-horror movie. I'm not certain the movie was completely successful in what it was trying to convey, but at least it wasn't elitist and inaccessible. I liked this film, it's interesting and novel.

I hope you enjoyed this installment of the critical Canadian see you next week.

Swirling Chaos

Hello Everyone.  This week  I will be delving into the realm of Chaos and sunshine, I will be reviewing "Californication". It's going to be fun folks.

 "Californication" now in its fourth season is based around Hank Moody (played by David Duchovny) and his attempts to win back Karen the love of his life and mother of his daughter Becka. Standing in Hank's way, is "The swirling Chaos" which consists of  sex, booze and the city of LA itself, a city that doesn't really place much value on love.  This show is a very pertinent as it deals with issues that affect all of us like divorce, failure to live up to other people's expectations and the fact that a person may be talented, but totally unable to live a productive life. In the show we really get a chance to see Hank differently through the eyes of every character  from Becca his daughter who begins the show absolutely adoring Hank, and then as she grows up begins to question whether Hank really respects women. To Karen who saw such promise in young Hank and is made so cynical by the reality of him: womanizer and drunk. To Charlie his manager and best friend who having looked after Hank for years now needs Hank to look after him in turn during his own mid-life crisis. To Hank himself who having tried for years to escape California and return to New York no longer even mentions the possibility of escape his life is in LA now and it's a toss up which will ultimately kill Hank the booze, the smokes, or the city.

As far as the acting goes Duchovny plays Hank, with humor and sensitivity having had certain parallels to the character in his own life having struggled with sexual addiction and in a way I'd say this is his catharsis. Another standout performance is by Madeleine Martin who plays Becca. I enjoyed how she plays a troubled teen far wiser than Hank much preferable to just angst ridden and dumb. This is a SHOWTIME show which means that it is a showcase for the core characters and the bulk of the writing goes into them and it shows, so the quality usually wobbles a little throughout a series The series is worth watching for its frank and often funny sex scene's even if you don't really care for the acting. This is a personal favorite and I feel a bit bad being so harsh on it. Check it out.

Well that's all I had time for this week. I hope to put out more content next week, see you then!

Charlie sheen, irrational fear, and everything you never wanted to know about your mother.

Welcome back. As I'm sure, some of you tuned into the Oscars last week.I wanted let you all know that your favorite critic managed to win himself a three month pass to  "MUBI", by making more accurate predictions than Roger Ebert, go me! Anyway this week I thought I'd change up my review method just a tad and as I reviewed so many movies last week I'm going to review. One Film, "Incendies". One book, "The Zombie Survival Guide"  and finally the best television show of 2010, "Boardwalk Empire". Enjoy.

 The best way I have of describing "Incendies" is this: All of us have mothers, who all had lives, both before , and presumably, after we were born. Assume your mother has died and left you a mystery , and assume to solve it you must delve into the uncomfortable area previously discussed add in a religious genocide as a starting point and you begin to grasp the territory this movie inhabits. It is not a narrative, but a reconstruction of a life that has passed, and a story that could never be told. Haunting stuff.

"The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from The Living Dead" is perhaps the most cutting satire I can recall reading in recent memory. It takes the form of survivalist manifesto and revised history to examine the fear so prevalent in America today. By putting these fears under the blanket of "Zombie " anxiety over the possibility of terrorist attacks and alien invasion, not to mention simple racism ,become even more comical, picture Charlie Sheen folks. The author Max Brooks, is the son of Mel Brooks and his influence is apparent. This is not a book you will find yourself guffawing to, but you may find your self chortling to it, and it will definitely make you smile.(Thanks for the movie recommendation mum!) 

In case you didn't already know, The board game monopoly is based on Atlantic city of the twenties and this is the setting for "Boardwalk Empire." It is the time of vaudeville, the speak-easy and prohibition. The sets and costumes are typical of an HBO production, flawless. The characters are complicated and definitely not two dimensional stand out performances by Steve Buscemi as Nucky Thompson ,Treasurer/shadow boss of Atlantic City, Kelly Macdonald as Margaret Shroeder a suffragette and Michael Shannon as Nelson Van Alden, the scariest prohibition agent of all time, make this show sensational. Not to be missed and I can't wait for season two.

Well folks, we have come yet again to the end of my post. See you all next week.