Windsor Jewish Film Festival opens with winner

I was surprised, even a but shocked, at how few people turned out at the opening night last night at Devonshire cinemas for the Windsor Jewish Film Festival’s first screening. The last time I was there for opening night was in pre-Covid 2018. That year the fest opened with two screens - Cinema 2 and 12 to accommodate the overflow crowds. Last night I attended the slightly larger Cinema 2 and had expected a massive lineup. It wasn’t there. Before the lights went down there was still only a scattering of people in the theatre, perhaps a quarter full. This was very disappointing after screenings in 2018 were almost filled to capacity. I put it down to post-Covid, a lot of people still too frightened to go to the cinema - or not in the habit - mask-wearing or not. Meanwhile, if mask-wearing was a concern, there are no rules at Cineplex though it seemed all staff wore them. This differs from the upcoming Windsor International Film Festival’s (WIFF) May 12 – 14 series at the Capitol Theatre where mask-wearing and 50 per cent capacity along with vaccine checks, are mandatory as per the theatre’s health and safety protocol. Four films are on offer.

Last night’s WJFF opener, Tiger Within (2020, Rafal Zielinksi) is a charming, well-acted film starring veteran – and in his final role - Ed Asner. Up against him is Margot Josefsohn as Casey. The unlikely screen friendship finds Asner, an aged Holocaust survivor, living alone in LA, and accidentally meeting Casey, a cynical teen goth. I’d been expecting something sappy but this film wasn’t that at all. From the opening with inventive artwork unfolding into Casey’s onscreen character, and the brush strokes occasionally accentuating key moments in the movie – a technique I hadn’t seen before but which works – the film’s predictable plot line develops in an unpredictable way and that’s to its strength. Asner is almost unrecognizable due to age, a convincing German accent and superb acting. As Samuel he imparts, incidentally, life lessons to the wild and emotionally cold and depressed Casey, where a true-life spirit finally ignites. Josefsohn’s performance is also very believable. 

But I was disappointed by a film I caught at Devonshire just before the WJFF’s opening. This was the much hyped The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (Tom Gormican) starting Nicholas Cage. Reviewers had touted the movie as Cage’s comeback after a series of ‘meh’ outings in Joe, Mandy and Pig, equating it with the dual character roles in 2002’s Adaptation (Spike Jonze). The first half hour of the movie is good with Nick, playing himself – or yet even a more extreme version – in anguish over a new film role. He’s a self-obsessed star whom ex-wife (Sharon Horgan) and daughter (Lily Sheen) can barely tolerate when they’re not bored by his narcissism. Nick’s flown to Mallorca Spain on the promise of getting $1 million to attend a super fan’s birthday party. Thinking the fan, a film buff and wannabe director, Javi (Pedro Pascal), wants to make a buddy movie but which is “character-driven” “nuanced” and “layered” – ha, a send up of art film pretensions - Nick is caught up in an international kidnap plot and enlisted by CIA agents. From here the movie descends into a yawn fest; Adaptation it is not. By aiming to be cleverly hilarious by playing up Cage’s eccentricities the film overshoots and lands in a miasma of derivative run-of-the-mill action flicks.