Notes from Britain

Want to see a film and have a beer while at it in, in Britain? It will cost you. In Canterbury – a charming city just as you might expect, full of half-timbered Medieval buildings – I stumbled upon a little theater run by the British Curzon cinema chain. Curzon, as I've discovered, can play a lot of mainstream flicks, but this small theatre was a through-and-through arthouse. It had a great little lounge, serving up coffee, beer and wine, even pizza, and intimate screening rooms. It was a Sunday afternoon and I opted for The Lesson (Alice Troughton) with Julie Delpy, Richard E. Grant and Daryl McCormack. The film is a quiet Hitchcockian thriller set in a mansion in the bucolic English countryside. Delpy plays an aging matriarch and art curator, married to a high strung “Great Novelist” type (Grant), whose lives become mediated by an aspiring writer (McCormack). It’s a slow burn and captive enough though I had some difficulties with the presumption of the plot – did McCormack really have to be the fulcrum between Grant and Delpy’s characters? But my point is that it cost me a grand total of $33.75 (CAD) for one beer and one ticket to the film. It’s expensive in the UK! 

In London, I wanted to see the film Fair Play (Chloe Domont) “set in the cutthroat world of high finance” and an “erotic thriller.” Its subtitle is “Competition is Close.” It’s screening at, among other places, the Regent Street Cinema, when I walked by it last weekend. Great, I’ll go next week. Then I saw it opens on Netflix Oct. 13. (It was even advertised this way at the theatre.). My question: why go to a movie and pay relatively big bucks when I can wait a week and see the same thing online?

The London Film Festival kicked off last night – with gala opening Saltburn (Emerald Fennell), which got five stars in today’s Telegraph - and runs till Oct. 15. The festival looks to have a great line-up but I came upon it late and virtually all films have long been sold out. Maybe next year, if I come back to London, I'll be aware and book earlier. The festival’s centerpiece venue is the British Film Institute (BFI) (photo) on the Southbank, sandwiched between the National Theatre – where some of Britian’s greatest playwrights’ works are performed – and Royal Festival Hall, a famed orchestra space. This is the most spectacular building devoted to film I’ve ever been in. Besides having several screening rooms, there is a Mediatheque, where the public can relax in numerous deep cushioned pods and view 95,000 titles from the BFI’s archives. There's a film library. There’s also a spacious café and a sprawling bar. It’s a space made in film heaven.

            

Catastrophe, wittily, depicts the whole gamut of love and sex

Since I resubscribed to Netflix I have discovered, after the rest of the world, binge TV watching. But the question I have is – how could people sit through these TV series week after week, year after year, when now you can just sit down and watch them continually? Such is the case with the hit series, Catastrophe, which originally ran on Britain's Channel 4, a network that tends to broadcast edgier content. As is my rule of thumb with Netflix, I pick a show that looks interesting, watch it for one or two episodes, and if it doesn’t grab me, put it aside. But Catastrophe grabbed me straight away and turned into an almost weeklong delight of 24 episodes over four seasons, keeping me awake late at night. The series ran from 2015 – 2019 and has a pre-Covid feel about it. It stars Sharon Horgan, an Irish comedian, and Rob Delaney, an American actor, who both co-wrote every episode. Delaney as Rob is a Yank businessman in London who meets Sharon, a schoolteacher. They have a torrid fling without hardly getting to know one another. Sound familiar? That’s the likability of this absorbing story – the sort of honesty between two people, manifested in emotions that range from “love” to confusion, disorientation and sometime flat out stupidity as the characters try to understand one another, or don't. They are both alike and unalike. Sharon has more a bohemian streak while Rob is a stiff white-collar business type. But both are opinionated, witty and determined to put their own stamps on a relationship which generally meanders well but has its declining loops as they confront their own sometimes impossible personalities and forces around them - work, family, friends, the world. Sometimes they’re their own best friends, sometimes their own worst enemies. The dialogue is superb. So is the acting. And I wonder if in part it’s because the pair co-wrote it. Horgan and Delaney's characters are so in sync, regardless of their differences. It’s like they really are brother and sister or intimate partners. You can also tell the series was filmed in the pre-Covid era because it has guest appearances by Carrie Fisher (who died in 2016) and Chris Noth (Mr. Big of S&TC who got cancelled in 2021 due to sexual harassment allegations). Catastrophe screened on Netflix in Britain, where I watched it, and Amazon Prime bought the rights. Catastrophe - spare the gritty talk and references to bodily functions - just might be the  most searing, honest and funny television you’ll watch in awhile.

Good news! New theatre proposed for Silver City site

Anyone who has passed by the old Silver City site (photo left) in south Windsor lately knows how depressing the look of the former cinema is,  with giant boards now presumably bocking a gash in the side of the derelict building, which has been heavily vandalized. But there's hope for the site yet - and as a new first class theatre! Prominent Windsor developer Joe Mikhail is proposing to revitalize the building and has been speaking with another theatre chain of doing just that. But that chain won't come to Windsor unless there are substantial financial incentives. So Mikhail is asking the city to waive the increased taxes that would result if the buiding is redeveloped - amounting to almost $2 million over 10 years. The city offers just such an incentive through its Community Improvement Plan (CIP) grants. Mikhail said he would offer some free rent to the cinema chain as well. Mikhail has developed the big box retail area that surrounds the site and is worried that if a new "first class" cinema is not built those other retailers, including several restaurants, will pack up and vanish. In  a letter to the city he makes an emotional plea. “We would be much better off to simply take down the property and reduce the property taxes to vacant land,” he said.  However, “it would be the wrong one for the city and its need to have a second venue for entertainment” other than Devonshire Mall's Cineplex. (Tecumseh/Lakeshore also has Imagine.) Mikhail said the theater in fact was a catalyst for attracting other commercial to the south Windsor "big box" retail district more than two decades ago. Who knew cinemas could be such magnates? “The theatre introduced Costco to the area, which lead to a majority of huge boxes to follow," he says. "Its draw created a reason for Walker Road to become the dominate retail sector in the city, which then allowed residential growth to multiply.” Ominously, Mikhail said a current “major retailer” has already indicated that “if the theatre is not open, they will move their store outside of Windsor.” And more would follow. “With the relocation of this space, all restaurants in this area will also move or be forced to close," he said. "Other big box in the area will likely look at following this move towards Tecumseh. It would not be difficult to see the city’s tax base on Walker Rd. would diminish considerably.” The developer has the support of city planning staff. Now the matter goes before the city's development committee and then city council. 

The Media City Film Festival, Windsor’s internationally renowned experimental film festival, moves to mid-autumn this year, almost immediately following the city’s more mainstream (not quite the right term but you get my drift) film festival, the Windsor International Film Festival (WIFF). The experimental festival, now in its 26th year, features filmmakers from around the world, many renowned in the genre of inventive and creative cinema. The festival runs Nov. 7 – 11 and more than 50 films and digital works will be screened. WIFF runs Oct. 26 – Nov. 5. Last year Media City was held earlier in the calendar year. Both festivals stake out the Capitol Theatre downtown as their home bases.

As I puruse Netflix's movie lineup for the first time in two years my opinion is mixed. Perhaps it's my choices but I'm watching films that straddle a middle ground between made-for-TV flicks and theatrical cinematic efforts. I'm calling them "Netflix films" though I know Netflix has peoduced weightier works. Examples are Plus One (Jeff Chan & Andrew Rhymer, 2019) and Can You Keep a Secret? (Elise Duran 2019). There's nothing wrong with them, it's just that you'd like a little more to chew on.  

Back to Netflix but with a twist

A combination of late summer ennui, the lack of things to do generally, the fact I’ve exhausted much of the film inventory on the Criterion Channel, and general boredom, forced my hand and late Saturday afternoon I returned to Netflix, after dropping the screening service two years ago because I found its content so lackluster. But I don’t have to fork over the $10-plus I used to pay. I signed for the $5.99 plan - with advertising – and it’s obviously  a hell of a lot cheaper. The ads? Not a problem at all. They’re 30 seconds or under - mainly one at a time - rather unobtrusive, better produced than TV ads, and you’re immediately returned to the programming. And they’re spaced within tolerable limits. What a diff from the next subscription level at $16.49! I really recommend this plan. My previous dislike of Netflix was that there were too few interesting movies. But more and more first rate moves are now being made exclusively for Netflix. And for the first time I’m watching TV series – yes “binge” watching. My rule-of-thumb is to watch the first episode and then decide whether to discard. I’ve done this with Pieces of Her, The Diplomat, The Marked Heart, Ginny & Georgia and The Mess You Leave Behind. I’ve stuck with all six episodes of the acclaimed Brit political thriller Anatomy of a Scandal, eight episodes of The Tailor (photo), a drama from Turkey. And it appears I’m sticking with Maestro in Blue, a mystery from Greece, having completed two of the nine episodes. I had to break out laughing, however, that Netflix now gives caution notices for “smoking.” While there is also a “substances” warning, more to the point would be an “alcohol consumption” warning since so many of these series feature the protagonists consuming copious amounts of spirits and wine. I’ve also started turning on subtitles, mainly because I find it so hard to understand what many characters are saying, particularly in Brit shows! But I’m of two-minds. While improving understanding of the story, subtitles also read like a script and the actors’ dialogue seems more stilted, as if they’re really acting. As well, I wonder if this will become a crutch and when I see a film at a regular theatre I’ll be disappointed there aren’t subtitles and I'll lose my comprehension acuity. Coincidentally, on Sunday the New York Post had a big article on how so many Netflix viewers are now using subtitles as they watch a movie, and most of them are young! https://nypost.com/2023/08/19/how-subtitles-are-changing-global-television-habits/  And another irritation, the foreign series I’ve watched are all dubbed. This is tolerable but also annoying since the dubbing emotionally doesn’t always match the body language and can seem artificial. 

Barbieheimer - I saw them both

Ok, I went to see Barbie after all. Compromises are made for friends. Despite all the “controversy” stirred up by the movie – everything from it’s a feminist rant, to male-bashing to even “fascist,” I hardly saw an overt political message. I enjoyed the picture and thought it was rather brilliantly made on director Greta Gerwig’s part. I thought the movie was “true to script” for what the iconic Barbie doll (trademarked 1959) always has been. That’s a symbol of independently minded womanhood (she can be anything, excel to the greatest heights, and take on any career) that a little girl would want. So, in that sense, she represented liberation and feminism, though people didn’t use the terms back then. But Barbie always was double-edged – a “feminist” icon yet having a totally unrealistic physical body, and hence the equal condemnation by, ironically, feminists. As for male-bashing, yes, Ken and company often get the cold shoulder. But we always knew that, as dolls (and, no, I didn’t play with them) Barbie kept Ken at a distance…….

Now on to Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan’s biopic of the alleged father (played by a brooding Cillian Murphy)  of the atomic bomb (I say alleged because there were other scientific collaborators). Disappointment. Not over the quality of the film though it was a tad too long at three hours. Not because of the acting, which was pretty good. But because 80 per cent of it dealt with the McCarthy Era and persecution of alleged Communists working for the US government. How many times does Hollywood have to drag out this trope? Yes, Hollywood was targeted in the 1940s and 50s and yes there was a Hollywood “blacklist.” But this is 70 years later – get over it. 

I like Imagine Lakeshore Cinemas for many things. It's a successful homegrown independent theatre chain  that also supports locally-made films and non-mainstream movies like currently-playing Sound of Freedom (Alejandro Monteverde). But I don't understand why there are the solid barriers between rolls of seats. Unfortunately they cut off about an eight of the movie screen from view. 

 

Mission Impossible: the one best scene

Well, I bought into the hype – not always a bad thing – and took myself on a bright sunny afternoon to Devonshire Cineplex to catch the latest Tom Cruise Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part I.” As per my last post I decided to buy an IMAX ticket. I’m a “senior” so with tax the charge was $19.20. It had been years since I went to an IMAX film but with all the dare devil acts reportedly in this I thought this larger-than-life technical medium would deliver the, well, full impact. First, what’s the big diff? I really didn’t notice any discernible difference in watching the movie compared to a normal screen. In fact, I wondered if I was missing something – perhaps you needed those special glasses. I walked out and asked. Nope. If there was any difference it might have been that the characters and scenes appeared closer and the overall experience more intense. But it still seemed hard to tell. Now, the film itself. The whole experience seemed like James Bond on steroids. You have the exotic locales (Venice, Rome, Abu Dhabi (the airport anyway), the Austrian Alps. There are the beautiful women (Rebecca Ferguson, Hayley Atwell, Pom Klementieff, Vanessa Kirby). And there’s the over-the-top ridiculous plot, where Tom Cruise (Ethan Hunt) and the MI crew seek to get their hands on a “cruciform” key that unlocks a powerful weapon that can doom man - whoops, human - kind. The writers must have had a lot of fun with this, coming up with the dastardly “The Entity” as the ultimate evil culprit. Hell, I could have come up with that! And the dialogue is so spy movie grim and serious the actors must have cracked up after each take. What about the daring-dos?  There are several – in the airport, Rome’s streets just outside the Coliseum (don't scratch your name), a Venice bridge, Ethan’s motorcycle sky jump (practiced hundreds of times) and onboard the Orient Express. Without giving much away the Orient Express series of scenes were the most spine-tingling and creative of all. The movie clocks in at two hours and 43 minutes. It wasn’t really boring but I did look at my watch once, about three-quarters of the way through. And after all this, there’s still a second – and more? – parts to come. Did I get my IMAX money’s worth? Not particularly. Despite the enjoyable stunts and huge escapism the experience had the feel of having eaten cotton candy.     

Film clips: From baby strollers to Tom Cruise

Two movies have been preoccupying my mind of late. One of them is Barbie and the other Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One. I have no interest in Barbie dolls (honestly) but there’s something about this movie that’s captivating. Maybe it’s the fact it’s awash in pink. Maybe – surprise – it’s because one of my favourite  and edgy contemporary actors Greta Gerwig directs. I don’t plan to see it. But I have a few questions. It seems that the whole concept of Barbie has been resurrected as a politically correct image of feminism. I almost have to choke. Wasn’t this the doll that, for decades, feminists told us – or females anyway – to hate simply because of the doll’s phony and unachievable female look and superficial symbolism? And Gerwig, liberal as she is, directing it! But of course, “Barbie” has been reborn as Power Barbie, businesswoman, adventurer, a woman – er, doll - that can do everything!

Now for Mission Impossible. As a kid I loved the TV show. But as an adult never cottoned on to the movies, largely because I’m a snobbish anti-action movie fan. And Tom Cruise never particularly set my heart, or mind, on fire. But there’s something about this edition of the series that rings special – primarily it’s over the top stunts which of course Cruise performs himself. Hey, if I go to see OO7 movies I can go and see this. For the stunt on a motorbike off a cliff in Norway alone Cruise did more than 13,000 training jumps and 500 skydives. And then there’s the frantic scene atop the Orient Express. I’m all in. In fact, I may just book a seat at the IMAX screening. 

Recently at Cineplex I saw a poster for Stars and Strollers, Bring Naptime to Showtime (photo), showing a pic of a mother and her baby. The slogan: “No sitter? No problem. Enjoy new releases in a baby-friendly theatre!” The special cinema has reduced volume, soft lighting, even changing tables & bottle warmers, just for moms and babies. I’m trying to get an interview with Cineplex for my associated website WindsorOntarioNews.com. This is fascinating and innovative – creating a theatre space for an otherwise neglected sub-market of young moms.