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. 

"Kind of like watching paint dry"

Gene Hackman in the film Night Moves (Arthur Penn 1975) famously said watching an Éric Rohmer film is “kind of like watching paint dry.” I burst out laughing. Since I know Rohmer is not everyone’s cup of tea or even espresso, quite the opposite! But I have long loved Rohmer’s films. What do people dislike/hate about a Rohmer film? It’s static, slow-moving quality, the focus on characters’ quotidian activities, the subtleties in plot (if there is one), characters’ obsessions, and contradictions, even foolishness. But those are exactly why I love his films. In the hands of many another director these techniques wouldn’t work; I’d probably fall asleep at the first instant. But with Rohmer we’re dealing with a master who captures the way human beings really are in their daily lives. Travelling on a train, meeting a friend for lunch, a family gathering in the countryside, all are rich experiences so long as the director enables the subject matter to emit the intricate personality traits, psychological conundrums and romantic desires that may or may not be requited. Yes, these are “talky” films with scenes going on some time, say, between two characters, as they gabble on about their careers, loves, aspirations and everyday existence. But isn’t that how you spend your days? Perhaps it’s also the type of characters depicted. They’re almost universally young, college-educated and middle class, something I can identify with and which takes me back to many a college day or night sitting around and, well, just talking. Rohmer was one of the great French New Wave directors along with Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol and François Truffaut. He was definitely an eccentric, highly secretive and hated modernism, denouncing, for example, automobiles which he refused to travel in. So you can see how he would focus to the extreme on subtle details, on the seeming nothingness of daily existence which ultimately adds up to life’s fabric, which we all experience. For starters I’d suggest his Four Seasons films (a scene from A Tale of Springtime above) and then some from his Comedies and Proverbs series, which seem to have influenced a director like Woody Allen. His most famous film is Claire's Knee, about a man obsessed with, yes, a woman's knee. Check him out and you’ll either love it or throw something at your screen (don’t break it) in disgust.

Montreal's Cinéma du Parc is a very special experience

For as long as my adult filmgoing experience can remember I have attended Cinéma du Parc in Montreal. It is perhaps the city’s oldest art house cinema and home to screenings at numerous festivals in the five decades since it open in 1976. I like the whole experience. Located in the bowels of a small shopping mall within a complex of three adjoining residential towers (which I now count as my temporary home when in Montreal) the cinema also has a neat vibe. Entering from Av du Parc on Montreal’s downtown eastern fringe, in the McGill University student ghetto, you walk down a few short flights of stairs into a subterranean world of cafes, restaurants, stores, a large organic grocery store and regular grocery. (For tenants, one need never leave the building!). The cinema features three cinemas and I was surprised to learn it was the first multi-screen theatre in the city. Some of my fondest memories include regular rendezvouses there with a longtime Montreal cinephile friend, whom I first met more than 20 years ago waiting in line at Montreal’s then and now defunct world film festival (Festival des films du monde). Or watching famed British director Peter Greenaway get out of a taxi in front of the building for a screening of one of his metaphysical films at the city’s alternative Festival du nouveau cinema. Or remembering the words of a cinema usher as he flung open the doors to an eager crowd for the Montreal premier of French enfant terrible director Gaspar Noé’s 2009 film Enter the Void. “You are now about to, well, ‘enter the void!’ he shouted enthusiastically. Over the past decade the non-profit has come under the management of Mario Fortin, who also managed the city’s Cinéma Beaubien. And the two theaters plus Cinéma du Musée, located at the city’s fine arts museum further downtown – all of which feature international, Québécois and independent films – are marketed together. There are a great many independent cinemas in different cities I have attended and admired over the years. But as a native Montrealer and frequent visitor back to the city, Cinéma du Parc holds a special place in my heart.

The maestro of your filmgoing life

It’s not often that I will sit through a foreign film, sans sous-titles - for almost three hours. But that was the case with the recent screening in Montreal of Ennio: The Maestro, about the movie music composer that has probably had more impact on the filmgoing experience – scratch that, has had – than any other musician over the past half century. Outside the rarefied world of cineastes (ha), however, the vast majority of people wouldn’t recognize his name. But you certainly recognize the music. Ennio Morrione made his mark with the Sergio Leone’s so-called "Spaghetti Westerns" of the 1970s, starring of course Clint Eastwood. When you hear the song The Good The Bad and the Ugly – also the film name – that music is indelibly Morricone’s. But he composed music for a whole swath of films that created a sound backdrop that in many ways was just as dramatic or more so than the visuals on the screen. The documentary Ennio: The Maestro by Giuseppe Tornatore is a superb portrayal of this genius, who died in 2020, with numerous interviews with composers around the world as well as filmmakers like Eastwood, Quentin Tarantino, Bernardo Bertolucci and musicians like Pat Methany and Bruce Springsteen. From Once Upon a Time in the West to The Mission, Cinema Paradiso to The Battle of Algiers, even The Thing and Bugsy,  Merricone’s unique musical stamp will unmistakably catch your ears, a character in its own right. And sitting through three hours of Italian with French sub-titles? Not a problem. Just let this scintillating music wash over you.

A nice little film I also caught in Montreal is Kelly Reichardt’s Showing Up starring Michelle Williams and Judd Hirsch. There aren’t a lot of films about artists – the visual kind who paint or make sculptures – and this one delves into a fictional artist colony in uber artsy Portland (satirically "Portlandia") Oregon. But this is a soap opera of sorts, and the artists are often frenemies, praising each other’s work as they vie for exhibition space, and encountering such daily frustrations as not having hot water in their apartments. The film's at times humorous and moving and the art is great.

The Eight Mountains is another set-in-Italy production by Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch, based on a book by Paolo Cognetti. It takes place in the Italian Alps between the 1980s and present. But the film’s title is not about those mountains, but a Buddhist phrase about life’s accomplishments. The story follows Pietro and Bruno, who meet as kids on vacation in the Alps. Pietro is a city boy and Bruno, who grew up in the mountains, shows him the rugged mountain ways. But a major plot twist occurs regarding their upbringing, which has a kind of reverse outcome. Later, as adults, Pietro (Andrea Palma) and Bruno (Francesco Palombelli) rekindle their friendship but have obviously gone different paths. Bruno maintains, somewhat stubbornly, his rural roots. Pietro is now trying to make his way as a writer. This is a quiet character-driven film with exceptional scenery, some of which must have been extremely difficult to shoot as scenes take place on mountain ridges and glaciers. Perhaps a tad long but it’s an honest look at friendship and what bonds people together.  

Be very afraid in Beau is Afraid

I’m not given to over-the-top superlatives when describing films and most films, even good ones, often leave me slightly disappointed. So, it’s with pleasure to discover a film that is innovative and pushes the limits of what the medium can do. I’m speaking of Ari Aster’s Beau is Afraid, starring Joaquin Phoenix (photo). From the very first moment this film is a visual knockout and a spellbinding human and psychological tale. Coming in at one minute under three hours it’s one of those flicks that, as we used to say so long ago,  “blew my mind.” The film is very appropriately described as “surreal tragicomedy horror." Joaquin as usual is brilliant. If you have a mother complex you might want to skip the film; it’s full of Oedipal symbolism. But there’s other themes – the plight of  many American cities (though it was shot in Montreal - ha) – near dystopian cesspools where criminals’ rule and cops don’t, and where graffiti and vandalism reign and human decency doesn't. The story centres around Phoenix’s character Beau, a fragile soul just trying to get by. I won’t say more lest to spoil an incredibly unspooling plot. And visually the film’s a stunner – wide angle and close up shots and vivid clashing colours depicting a surreal universe, mixed with magic realism and animation. 

I’ve ignored Matt Johnson’s Blackberry after reading a searing critique of it last week in National Post. A former executive who worked with Blackberry founders Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie eviscerated it as essentially a complete fraud – a farce and cartoonish – of how the once iconic Canadian tech company started and grew. “It was all made up,” Dennis Kavelman writes. And “seems to go out of its way to diminish and tarnish the legacy and employees of one of Canada’s great technology stories.” I know movies take liberties, but I drew the line here.

Meanwhile, sometimes you have no choice about which movie you want to see, especially if a friend suggests it and there’s little alternative at the local Bijou. Hence, Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret (Kelly Fremon Craig) based on the tween and teen-themed novelist Judy Blume’s book. Yes, this is a female tween movie par excellence, right down to girls chanting how to bump their breasts to longing - "please God!" -  for their first menstrual cycle. Good acting, though, especially by Abby Ryder Fortson as Margaret and Rachel McAdams as mom Barbara.

And anyone expecting the much-ballyhooed Air (it’s number nine at the box office) to be a film about the athletic feats of b’ball great Michael Jordan should pause. This is nothing other than a business procedural through and through, with Nike execs trying to draw Jordan to a contract to boost their court shoes division. It features an especially well acted Matt Damon as scout Sunny Vaccaro though Matt has gotten grayer and put on a little weight. And the visuals remind us of how tacky the 1980s were. The film might be better suited for Business 101.

Finally, both Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret and Air follow a lot of movies lately with their pop music sondtracks of Baby Boomer nostalgia - the early 1970s for the first film, the mid-1980s for the second. Sometimes I think these films' producers want to show off the music of their youth as much as they want to make a movie.

20 years, and many still don't know local festival exists

I got to four films at this year’s Windsor Jewish Film Festival (last week). The opening night Farewell Mr. Haffmann (Fred Cavayé) starring perhaps France’s biggest male film star Daniel Auteuil turned out to be a treat – an acting duo between him and co-star Gilles Lellouche as Francois Mercier - which could have been set during the Holocaust or at any time or place. It’s a morality tale pure and simple, turning on honor and betrayal between two men…..Next up was the Tango Shalom (Gabriel Bologna), a zany comedy about an Orthodox rabbi (Jos Laniado) who must come up with funds to save his cash-starved shul. He’s an amateur dancer and when he hears about a tango competition with boffo winning bucks decides to enter. Problem: he can’t touch a woman other than his wife. An ingenious solution is found in this enjoyable ensemble family flick (think My Greek Fat Greek Wedding), though a tad long, with a both predictable and unpredictable ending…..The Replacement (Óscar Aibar), a Spanish crime thriller, was inspired by true events of the early 1980s. Cocaine smuggling, a policeman’s suspicious death and a certain expatriate community all come together in this fast-paced and well acted police procedural…..Time to Say Goodbye (Viviane Andereggen), is a story about a 12-year-old Hamburg boy about to face his Bar Mitzvah. He’s captivated by a certain religious surgical procedure. But the movie is really a kind of Wonder Years story about coming of age and the misty eyed crushes boys can have on beautiful adult mentors. 

It still surprises me that so many people in Windsor aren't aware of the Jewish film festival, which celeberated its 20th anniversary this year and is older than the better known Windsor International Film Festival. I ran into two people who were attending for the first time and were astonished they didn't previously know the festival existed. 

Meanwhile, I almost fell out of my chair when I opened The Detroit News’ entertainment section and saw a film review of the newly released How to Blow Up a Pipeline (Daniel Goldhaber). What? A film endorsing terrorism? But apparently this is simply pro forma now. And critics will write reviews without passing judgement on the contents (can you imagine if it was called How to Blow Up an Abortion Clinic?), as per the News. I found it sickening.