More light-hearted fare at this year's Windsor Jewish Film Fest

It’s a decided break from the past at this year’s Windsor Jewish Film Festival, June 16-19 at The Capitol downtown. For years the fest has featured more serious and often Holocaust related films. That’s partly owing to what inventory was available and it skewed towards the reflective, historical and sad. But while obviously important there’s more to Jewish culture than that and this year’s lineup has much more variety. About half the films are comedies or dramaties led by opening night’s award-winning A Real Pain (Jesse Eisenberg 2024), a poignant yet mis adventurous tale of two cousins who embark on an ancestral pilgrimage to Poland.  Another is Bad Shabbos (Daniel Robbins 2024). What happens when a romantic couple of mixed religions’ parents get together for the first time at a Friday Shabbos meal?  There might be some confusion.  Matchmaking 2 (Erez Tadmor 2024) is a humorous sendup of an older devout Yeshiva student being forced into marriage. Yaniv (Amnon Carmi 2024) delves into the world of a New York Orthodox gambling den – who knew of such a thing? On the more serious side and about subjects we haven’t always seen depicted are The Blond Boy from the Casbah (Alexandre Arcady 2023), a whimsical tale of a boyhood in Algeria’s Jewish community in the early 1960s during that country’s nationalist revolution.  Pink Lady (Nir Bergman 2024) is a nuanced and reflective dive into an Orthodox couple’s relationship.   Torn (Nimrod Shapira 2024) addresses a subject very much in the news, the posting of "Kidnapped" posters following the October 2017 Hamas attacks and the reaction of those who flagrantly tore them down.  All About the Levkoviches (Ádám Breier 2024) is a story of the estrangement of a father and son, set-in present-day Budapest.  One film tangentially deals with the Holocaust but in its aftermath. Soda (Erez Tadmor 2024), is a drama set in postwar Israel where an immigrant is eyed suspiciously as a former Nazi collaborator. Finally, Elie Wiesel: Soul on Fire (Oren Rudavsky 2024), closing out the fest, is a documentary about the great writer and Holocaust survivor whose writings transcend Judaism as an enduring witness to injustice. 

In Montreal, two iconic film palaces, each in their own way

Walking around downtown Montreal over the last couple of days – my first extensive trip to the city in more than two years - I happened by two major film complexes. Iconic in their own ways. One is Cinema Imperial, a more than 100-year-old cinema that would be to Montreal what the Fox Theatre is to Detroit. Once a vaudeville house in later years it became the Cinerama theatre in the 1960s (and, as a Montreal native, where I was taken to see How the West was Won (Henry Hathaway 1962 ) and The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (Henry Levin and George Pal 1962). In more recent years it became a centerpiece of the city’s late lamented Festival des Films du Monde (World Film Festival) which ended a 42-year run in 2019. It has also played host to the

city’s oldest festival, the Festival du Nouveau Cinema – still kicking – and the upstart Cinemania and Fantasia fests. But I was dismayed to see that the front doors had been papered over as if renovation was taking place...or something worse, such as closed for good. Reading online I found that in fact this “jewel” of Montreal’s entertainment and arts scene has indeed closed, at least temporarily. Various bodies – private and public - have tried to keep it afloat over the last decade, injecting millions of dollars including $3M last year from the federal government for restoration. But the doors are sealed shut.....Meanwhile at the other end of downtown the one time “shrine” of hockey, the Montreal Forum – where more Stanley Cups have been won than in any other venue – continues as a massive multiplex, now run by Cineplex. The Forum closed in the late 1990s, and US-based AMC took it over opening a 30-screen multiplex on different floors. Now Cineplex runs it. It is cavernous - where the former rink and hockey spectator seats used to be – and beautiful if also showcasing a lot of empty space! A few restaurants/bars and stores are on the ground floor.  But very few people were there on a weekday late morning.  When I stopped by to see what was playing, the most interesting film was Friendship (Andrew DeYoung 2024). But I took a pass because I wanted to keep on walking.  

Yesterday I didn't finish watching more than a dozen films

I must have gone through at least a dozen films yesterday trying to find something to watch. I’d started out renting on YouTube Francois Ozon’s 2012 In the House (top photo) a WIFF Weekend Recommendation. I love Ozon’s films and thought I hadn’t seen this one before. But it’s a rare movie I’ve missed and after some time it occurred to me – as these things do – that indeed I’d watched it in 'Ron’s Personal Movie Bank.' It’s a comedy drama but rather bizarre. And while starring some of my fave French actors (the versatile Fabrice Luchini, Kristin Scott Thomas and Emmanuelle Seigner). It started out well as a presumptuous pedant of a  teacher (Luchini) takes it upon himself

to mentor a promising writing student (Ernst Umhauer) it devolved into a tale of voyeurism and ended disastrously, leaving a sour taste in my mouth….And since I had a long afternoon and evening to pass in the middle of a holiday weekend, I forced myself (it’s come to that with film, unfortunately) to check out several films on Criterion and Netflix, none of which I watched in their entirety and many I nixed within 10 minutes. These included, surprisingly, since I otherwise admired her The Hurt Locker (2008), Kathryn Bigelow’s The Loveless (1981), Strange Days (1995) and the acclaimed Blue Steel (1990). None of them had the characters or driving plot; one (Strange Days) even seemed farcical. Then I tried a Terry Southern (“Hollywood’s Most Subversive Screenwriter”) series with Aram Avakian's End of the Road. It started out well – albeit a movie of its times – a kaleidoscope of American protest in the late 1960s but the literally frozen character of a supposedly numbed Jacob Horner (Stacy Keach) and mad characters at a psychiatric hospital may have played well when the film was released in 1970 but seemed ridiculously funny now. Okay, let’s see what was on Netflix, which is always a challenge. Actually, many of these I’d tried and given up on previously. They included The Love Scam, She Said, My Future You, Bad Influence, Life or Something Like It and The Life List. I even, shockingly, gave up on Ben Stiller’s The Heartbreak Kid (2007) which I think I’d seen before anyway. With still hours in the day to go I returned to Criterion and took a stab at Insomnia (Christopher Nolan 2002) and finally The Ghost Writer (Roman Polanski 2010) (bottom photo). Finally, I thought, this is sure to be good – it’s Polanski after all! But I think it’s the worst Polanski I’ve seen – long drawn out even with Ewan McGregor, Pierce Brosnan and Sex and The City’s Kim Cattrall. Derivative and so much a product of its time, a film where Brosnan stands in for one time Brit PM Tony Blair and his supposed war crimes and charges before the International Criminal Court ….. In my 71st year and having been a rabid filmgoer for the past 50 of them, have I simply become too impatient, bored or jaded with movies? They’re either too similar (broken relationships or families), derivative (drawn out police procedurals), or woke (politically correct). But, bottom line, they don’t do what movies should do – and that’s entertain, keep me on the edge of my seat, engross me in a thrilling and novel experience. I closed my computer and went off to read

$37 for a movie? Even for London that's pricey

I know London is expensive, but I never expected to pay this much for a movie ticket! At the end of one fine day walking around central London this month I stopped at my favorite UK movie palace, Picturehouse Central, a block east of Piccadilly Circus in the heart of London’s entertainment district, the so-called West End. It’s a magnificent complex, carved out of a one-time famed cavernous restaurant. It has multiple floors, two cafes, a member’s bar and several floors of cinemas. I attended last year during the London Film Festival. But then I had a pass and discounted tickets. This time I was a said member of the public (though not a Picturehouse, a Brit chain, member). I decided to

see Italian director Paolo Sorrentino’s (The Great Beauty, 2013, The Hand of God, 2021) latest, Parthenope. I rolled up to the ticket counter, told the clerk what I wanted and touched my card for pavement. There it was - 19.60 pounds. What?! I did a double take. But typically, when you’re stunned, it doesn’t quite register. I walked to the cinema, took my seat and enjoyed the film, with the nagging thought of how damned expensive this thing was. I vowed to check it out affer the movie. Sure enough, that was the actual price. In Canuck dollars that was $37.36. Needless to say I hesitated before seeing another movie at any Picturehouse – or any other – London cinema.

As for Parthenope, it has its usual Sorrentino mix of fabulous images and obscure storytelling. Parthenope is the early Greek forerunner city to Naples, and a mythical character. Parthenope was said to have been washed ashore, having thrown herself into the sea after she failed to entice Ulysses with her song. Our modern Parthenope in Sorrentino’s film is played by newcomer Celeste Dalla Porta, a beautiful and stunning actress. It’s about her life’s journey from birth in the 1950s until the present day. Despite her physical allure and brainy persona, she eschews men who fall over themselves while charting her own intellectual course as a polymath. Along the way she encounters various iconic symbols (usually men) who try to influence her and present life alternatives, often representing good and evil. Sorrentino’s films are filled with stunning visuals in opulent settings. But the stories tend to the convoluted and stultifying. Nevertheless, he is one of the more creative directors working today - and working on a grand scale - something rare in 2025 cinema. 

Last night I decided to watch a Netflix film, The Good House (Maya Forbes 2021) starring Sigourney Weaver and Kevin Kline. Set in bucolic north shore Massachusetts, Weaver is Hildy Good, an attractive but lonely alcoholic middle-aged woman. I didn’t know if this watchable film was more about real estate or alcoholism. I say “watchable” except I didn’t finish it. Two-thirds of the way in I’d seen enough commercials to turn me off. I’ve been a basic Netflix subscriber since rejoining Netflix and never complained about the relatively few commercials that dot films. Until last night. The ads were hot and heavy often in clusters totaling more than one minute at a time.  Like watching bloody television!

Cinemas vs online, one degree of Kevin Bacon & woke turnoffs

Cinemas continue to close. In Detroit two art house palaces shut their doors in recent years – the Main Art in Royal Oak and the Maple Theater in West Bloomfield. Windsor has expanded cinema offerings with the new Landmark in the former Silver City. Great but its offerings are a carbon copy of the other area multiplexes. And thankfully the Windsor International Film Festival (WIFF) has created a kind of monthly repertory series which helps fill the art house void. For me, the experience of watching a movie online and in a theatre is intrinsically different. And I’m trying to figure out why. I would/will drive miles and take great swaths of time out of my day, to go to a real live bricks and mortar movie house to see a film that looks even somewhat interesting. I also subscribe to Netflix and the Criterion Channel. For all intents and purposes Criterion is an art house cinema in your computer. Its array of independent and foreign films, and classic greats, is absolutely terrific. Besides a mammoth inventory there are monthly curated series like current films starring Penelope Cruz, Donald Sirk’s post-war noir, gritty 70s-era NY cinema, horror maestro David Cronenberg (photo) and a Vietnam War series. Yet I have to slog my way to the computer to watch. If even a small fraction of these films were featured at the local Bijou my interest would no doubt be excitedly piqued, I’d circle the date and clear my calendar to attend, forking over $10-$20 per. When my CC yearly sub is just over $130 with hundreds of movies at my fingertips - an incredible deal by comparison. It just doesn’t make sense. What’s the difference? Is it the actual getting-up-and-going experience to a physical entertainment venue that breaks up the monotony of being housebound? It it the “shared experience” with other moviegoers? It is that attending a cinema seems more of an “event”? It’s a conundrum that I feel won’t be broken.  

I just finished watching Leave the World Behind (Sam Esmail 2023) on Netflix, starring Ethan Hawke, Julia Roberts, Mahershala Ali and Kevin Bacon. It’s a mildly interesting horror thriller, enough to keep me watching to the end. But, my goodness, the similarities between Hawke and Bacon are uncanny. It’s not just Six Degrees of Separation (the famed Bacon cliché) but in this case, one.

More on movie wokeism, something which continues to turn me off cinema. My thoughts mirror those of UK columnist Sarah Vine, satirizing products she’d put tariffs on: “WOKE movie remakes: the all-women Ghostbusters; last year’s Mean Girls; Sex And The City without the sex, and now, disastrously, Snow White starring Rachel Zegler plus CGI dwarfs. Has Hollywood never heard of the phrase ‘Go woke, go broke’”?

Two vintage Canuck actors - one who didn't do well, the other who did

This is the tragic story of a long ago Canadian film actor who tragically descended into oblivion. It didn’t start out that way. Peter Kastner (top photo), born 1943, starred in the great Canadian Don Owen 1960s acclaimed hit, Nobody Waved Good-bye (1964), an anti-establishment film of the era. But, in one of Francis Ford Coppola’s earliest films, he stars in You’re a Big Boy Now (1966), a delightful coming-of-age film. Bordering on corny and implausibility it’s still enticing as Kastner’s Bernard Chanticleer rebels again, this time moving out of his parents Long Island home and setting himself up in a Manhattan flat. To the recurring tune of, well, Robert Prince’s bubble gummy “You’re a Big Boy Now,” Bernard tries to shake his adolescence, essentially a virgin literally and figuratively though he seems relatively old for that. Nevertheless, we follow his escapades as he tries to live independently and enmesh himself in the “cool” world of adult bohemia, even though he’s a dork all along. Coppola’s bouncy cinematography may show signs of a novice but there are some sophisticated cuts and innovative shots, perky dialogue, and most important, he always holds the audience (a great cineaste he will one

day become!). Besides Kastner there is a stellar cast of Julie Harris, Karen Black (so young!), Rip Torn and Geraldine Page. And the streets of mid-Sixties New York City shine (or don’t). But what about Kastner’s tragic end? He went on to an ill-fated TV career, including the badly reviewed sitcom The Ugliest Girl in Town, really the death knell. He ended up as a high school teacher and carried out a vendetta against his family, including allegedly embezzling money. Poor guy – he seemed so innocent and fresh in Big Boy!

Another Canadian who actually did well in Hollywood was Joseph Wiseman (bottom photo) (born 1918), who stars in Sydney Lumet’s 1968 Bye Bye Braverman. Wiseman had many film roles including in the first Bond film as Dr. No (Terence Young 1962) and in the Crime Story TV series. In Braverman he captivates as the elderly wise Jew, sardonically mocking his (Jewish) pals for their faith inconsistencies. 

These films are part of Criterion Channel’s current Fun City series, focusing on films made in NYC late 60s-early 70s, giving a raw view of Gotham’s considerably grittier streetscapes than exists today. 

Photos: Wikipedia

Easy does it in this absorbing Netflix series

I'm not in the habit of binge-watching Netflix series. In fact I can only remember one I've done before, Catastrophe (see Sept. 22 2023 post), which apparently was only available in the UK, where I was travelling at the time. Last week I found an equally engrossing one, Easy.  Created and directed by Joe Swanberg, the three season series tells the stories of a myriad cast of characters, pretty much all of a certain age (Millennials) and proclivities (creative). Some were based on Swanberg's friends and circles he no doubt runs in.  Some are recurring between episodes or show up in others' stories or obliquely in entirely different plots or episodes. All are bright, articulate, introspective, liberal, open-minded and in many ways self-obsessed. Does the word narcissism come to mind? Many are couples. Seemingly every episode pivots around conflict, either within themselves or others related to love, friendship, lifestyle or career. The scenarios can be dramatic or humorous or both. Some specific storylines revolve around sexuality, passively-aggressively interacting with one another, insensitively undermining someone's psyche. Even more pedestrian storylines but ones deliciously told such as a teenager giving her church-going parents a lesson in humility, or neighbors trying to chase down a porch pirate.  Storylines can border on the wild and transgressive, such as when a techie at a closed circuit camera shop plays PI and finds himself in a BDSM party. Some of the more prominent recurring characters are Andi (Elizabeth Reaser) and Kyle (Michael Chernus), who experiment with an open marriage with varying results. Or Jacob (Marc Maron), an intense older graphic novelist who exploits personal relationships for his art. I found every one of these 25 episodes absorbing. The stories take place in Chicago, with hip restaurants, bars and coffee houses serving as backdrops. These actors, none of whom were familiar to me, are stunningly good, the scenes and writing flawless. I did look up one of the most memorable characters, Jane Adams as Annabelle Jones. Turns out she played Dr. Mel Karnofsky on Frasier; age and lifestyle have much changed her.