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  • Sing, Freetown: Review

    Sing, Freetown: Review

    Sing, Freetown: Review – This documentary follows journalist/filmmaker Sorious Samura and renowned artist Charlie Haffner as they attempt to put on a play about their home country of Sierra Leone. The pair aim to tell a story that not only speaks to the country’s tribulations and struggles resulting from the slave trade, colonialism, poverty, and corrupt politicans, but also teaches people about the culture and traditions of Sierra Leone. The goal of the project being to inspire younger generations to have pride in their country and give them hope moving forward as a nation. The film follows these men as they struggle in finding a collaborative process, have difficulty raising funds, stress about whether the show will be presentable in time, and meditate on how best to honor and represent Sierra Leone with the project.

    While there have been many films that center on the process and stress of making pieces of art, a lot of these stories tend to focus on actors forgetting their lines or whether the project will be completed on time. With this film however, not only do Haffner and Samura grapple with the usual difficulties of staging a play such as cast preparedness and the pressures of running out of time and money. Additionally, both men feel the tremendous pressure of representing their country not only accurately, but with a sense of joy and respect. We follow Haffner and Samura as they meet with important tribal and cultural leaders about what traditions and stories to honor in their production. Throughout the film, Samura and Haffner speak on the fact that Sierra Leone, specifically Freetown, was at one time a vibrant cultural center for theatre and education. A reputation both men strive to restore.

    As stated above, both Samura and Haffner state their intentions to put on a show that not only speaks to the hardships Sierra Leone has faced, but one that also provides a sense of hope and optimism for the future. One of the most moving sections of the film centers on Samura as he reflects on being a child in Sierra Leone and disliking how western media only focused on the violence and disease outbreaks in the country. At the same time, Samura recognizes that when he became a journalist, he too did many pieces that emphasized the suffering in Sierra Leone. Participating in this exploitative news culture appears to be in part what motivated Samura to produce this play with it’s more positive outlook. For his part, Haffner struggles throughout the film finding balance between following his artistic process, while coming up against the realities and pressures of the logistical process of putting on the play such as budgeting and sponsorship. As Samura serves as one of the main producers of the play, and somewhat represents the logistical aspect of the process, one of the focal points of the film is the building tension between the friends and collaborators as a result the creative coming up against the more business-centric aspects of the project.

    Director/producer/editor/cinematographer Clive Patterson does a great job of highlighting the inner lives of the two main subjects. There are many scenes in the film where both men express their fears and frustrations regarding the play and getting it done on time, both individually and to each other. Patterson and the rest of the crew are able to put the camera and audience into these vulnerable moments without creating the feeling of an obtrusive presence. In addition, Patterson and the crew capture the beauty of Sierra Leone, with shots that emphasize the colorful artworks, vibrant coastlines, and intricate traditional garb present. If there is anything missing in the film, it is that viewers mainly stay focused on Samura’s and Haffner’s thoughts and feelings surrounding the play, whereas we only hear a couple soundbites and see a few lines of text regarding how the people of Sierra Leone received the play.

    Sing, Freetown is a documentary that covers a fair amount in its 90 minute runtime, discussing themes such as the difficult nature of collaborating on and completing an artistic endeavor, the friction between people can result, and a meditating on what art can do for people. The film speaks on the hardships that Sierra Leone has endured while at the same time celebrating the beauty of the art and culture that is there as well.   

  • Wolfgang: Review

    Wolfgang: Review

    Wolfgang Synopsis: This documentary takes a look at the life of Wolfgang Puck, a man who survived a troubled childhood filled with a series of challenging obstacles and whose perseverance led him to become a prolific and celebrated chef worldwide.

    Despite being a picky eater (it was pizza and cheeseburgers all day as a kid), I grew up with an undying love for food television. At its core, food is an art form driven by raw passion and creative ingenuity, with some of my favorite high-profile figures like Gordon Ramsay and Alton Brown transforming plates from their distinct perspectives. Long before today’s food craze, there was only Wolfgang Puck.

    Celebrated as the world’s first celebrity chef and a major influencer of American food culture, Wolfgang Puck is now getting the documentary treatment with David Gelb’s feature Wolfgang. The chef’s larger-than-life personality commands the screen throughout the documentary, but it’s Gelb’s thoughtful intimacy that renders Wolfgang’s story into a satisfying entree.

    Packaged into a refreshingly airtight 79-minute runtime, Wolfgang offers a fairly well-rounded portrait within its rigid constraints (this is a Disney-produced documentary, so audiences have to sift through oversimplification and some hero-worship). Gelb wisely realizes his strongest asset lies within Wolfgang himself. The Austrian chef possesses a bright presence and intoxicating passion, two assets that bring his story to life through the chef’s wistfully nostalgic introspections. Whether Wolfgang’s rummaging through a pile of fresh ingredients or tutoring one of his young employees, his electric energy always remains a captivating source of entertainment.

    To Gelb’s credit, Wolfgang packs some surprisingly nuanced exploration. Gelb creates a sound juxtaposition between the star’s luxurious acclaim and his depressed days growing up in a house of abuse and hopelessness. Through these hardships, Gelb discovers how the star’s longing for love and acceptance motivated his tireless journey for success. I was also surprised to see Wolfgang take himself to the task at several points. By discussing his faults as a workaholic who kept his family at bay, Gelb humanizes Wolfgang in a way that most biopic documentaries can’t replicate.

    Wolfgang is consistently pleasant, but I do wish the film leaned more into its naturalistic strengths. Some segments rely too heavily upon expert interviews and well-cut montages to shortcut Wolfgang’s journey. In actuality, the film is at its best when it strips these devices for a more pure portrait of the titular chef. Gelb’s film could also benefit from a bit more exploration. While his film works as a slight and breezy experience, I was left wanting more vivid details from some of Wolfgang’s personal experiences. Maybe it’s just the foodie in me, but the moments where Wolfgang is caught intimately behind the scenes offer the most satisfaction.

    Whether you’re an inquisitive foodie or a general eater, Wolfgang’s impassioned gaze towards its titular chef radiates with love and affection.

    Wolfgang is now available on Disney+.

  • Les Nôtres: Review

    Les Nôtres: Review

    “Les Nôtres” is a film directed and co-written by Jeanne Leblanc, presented in 2020 in several festivals such as the Nashville Film Festival or the Raindance Film Festival. After several short films, this is the second feature film of Jeanne Leblanc, who was director of “Isla Blanca” in 2018. The film is available since June 18, 2021 in some theaters and on demand.

    In “Les Nôtres” we witness the story of Magalie (played by Emilie Bierre), a young girl of thirteen years old, whose life will be profoundly changed by a mysterious pregnancy. Magalie lives in Saint-Adeline, a small Quebec community that was devastated by a tragic factory accident in which Magalie lost her father.

    Around Magalie, there is her mother Isabelle (played by Marianne Farley), who seems to be totally overwhelmed and who can no longer communicate with her daughter. We also find a couple of friends composed by Jean-Marc (played by Paul Doucet) and his wife Chantal (played by Judith Baribeau), whose adopted son, Manuel (played by Léon Diconca-Pelletier) is quickly designed as the father of the future child.

    All these characters take place in the town of Saint-Adeline, in which there is still a feeling of communitarianism leading to racism, especially towards the adopted children of the mayor. The event of this pregnancy is therefore a major event for this community, which everyone will talk about very quickly.

    But we soon learn that the baby’s father is none other than Jean-Marc, the mayor of Saint-Adeline, a man in his fifties, loved and respected by his community. From that moment on, Jean-Marc will do everything possible to keep his act secret

    The film then becomes much darker and deals with the theme of the unhealthy domination that a malicious adult can exert on a child, how he can abuse his age or his hierarchical position to manipulate such a fragile mind. This same theme can be found in Charlène Favier’s recent film “Slalom” also in French language. The film shows us that evil can come from anywhere even from respected people, who seem to be above any suspicion. But it also focus on the importance of listening to children in this kind of situation.

    We witness a situation where the evil is already done, powerless in front of the consequences of a terrible and unforgivable act. The different actors are very gifted, especially Emilie Bierre, a very young actress who interprets to perfection the role of a teenager, betrayed, abandoned, who struggles to express herself in front of a situation that should not exist. Marianne Farley as Magalie’s mother is also excellent.

    Some passages, almost silent, reveal the heaviness of the sequences and the difficulty for Magalie to really communicate about her situation.

    We could criticize the film for not really focusing on Magalie’s character and her emotions or more globally on teenagers’ feelings. Indeed, the film seems to focus more on the adults’ vision of this situation. But despite this, the film keeps a real interest and works very well.

    “Les Nôtres” is a very interesting film which deals with a very important and serious subject, which benefits from excellent acting, good writing and superb photography.

  • Dr. Bird’s Advice For Sad Poets: Review

    Dr. Bird’s Advice For Sad Poets: Review

    Dr. Bird’s Advice For Sad Poets: Review. By Alex Crisp.

    James Whitman is a tremulous teen with a difficult home-life, a crush on the cutest girl in school, and a mysteriously vanished sister. He talks to an imaginary psychiatrist because his father doesn’t believe he’s mentally ill, therefore refusing to pay for him to see an actual one. All of these threads inform a manic, overstuffed comedy-drama that’s never sure what it wants to be.                 

    Performance-wise, most commendable is Tom Wilkinson, whose avuncular warmth makes Dr. Bird—the imaginary psychiatrist who also happens to be a pigeon—the most real character in the film. Jason Isaacs showcases his talent for accents as Whitman’s father, and Lucas Jade Zumann, playing the teenaged James Whitman, does what I’d describe as a pretty good Woody Allen impression during the first act. Allen’s directorial mien is also the touchstone for director Yaniv Raz’s approach here, but unlike Allen, Raz displays a complete lack of discipline and self-control—someone has let him play in the Microsoft video-editor sandbox without supervision. The rapidity of kooky cuts, visual tricks and editing folderol turns the viewing experience into a ride on a demented merry-go-round, and not in a good way.

    So the direction lets the comedy down, and the screenplay lets the drama down too. The final act leaves the fun-park behind, delving deeper into the mystery of Whitman’s missing sister. That mystery has a prosaic resolution, but the simplicity isn’t reflected in the writing. Dialogue can only handle so much plot before the plot starts to drown the words, and that’s what happens in Whitman’s closing exchanges with his family.

    It’s in these exchanges that Dr Bird’s essential theme is rammed home. The troubled teenager realises he has to change his equally troubled family’s outdated attitudes towards mental illness. The teen’s father suffers from the same panic-problems that he does, but is misunderstood because of his anger. There’s nothing wrong with those ideas, they just fall flat for lack of craft. Such misgivings might be redundant though. Yaniv Raz’s gimmickry is so distracting that it would’ve be impossible to ignore however good the screenplay was. The serendipitous outcome is that Raz didn’t spoil a better one than this.

  • The Ice Road: The BRWC Review

    The Ice Road: The BRWC Review

    The Ice Road Synopsis: After a remote diamond mine collapses in the far northern regions of Canada, an ice driver (Liam Neeson) leads an implausible rescue mission over a frozen ocean to save the lives of trapped miners despite thawing waters and a threat they never see coming.

    Liam Neeson’s decade-plus tenure as an everyman action star generated huge tallies at the box office. After a few mixed bag offerings (Honest Thief and The Marksman kept theaters afloat during the dire pandemic), Neeson now finds himself joining the ranks of streaming movie stars. It’s the ultimate sign of the evolving times, displaying just how much the theatrical marketplace continues to change amidst more restrictive, blockbuster-oriented regiments.

    With Neeson’s Netflix debut, The Ice Road, Neeson changes hats as a truck driver set with an impossible mission amidst frosty northern Canada conditions. Neeson’s resume is chock-full of thanklessly generic actioners, which often find the star sifting through menial job positions while embracing the genre’s eye for ridiculously over-the-top entertainment. The Ice Road is perhaps his most shameless romp yet, but that’s not necessarily a negative statement.

    By embracing the formula of relentless thrill rides from yesteryear, writer/director Jonathan Hensleigh finds himself as an adept fit for the material’s cheeky allures (Hensleigh co-wrote 90’s staples like Die Hard with a Vengeance and Jumanji before writing and directing the 2004 Punisher reboot). Hensleigh’s more traditional sensibilities fit this material like a glove, with his serviceable screenplay imbuing just enough realism and revolving steaks to keep audiences invested.

    The decision to employ more of an ensemble-oriented approach performs wonders for the material’s fairly dated contrivances. Between Neeson’s deadly ice road mission and the miners stuck below dangerous conditions, Hensleigh wisely keeps the pace moving at a frenetic clip while not getting hung up on painfully generic character-building devices. A strong balance between real-world textures and Hollywoodized theatrics also works to keep this familiar formula afloat. Hensleigh’s direction values practical sets and clever ingenuity over bombastic setpieces, allowing the material to retain a grounded edge alongside its campier aspirations. The action scenes are filmed with enough competence and machismo gusto to forgive their slight nature.

    Like a hull truck speeding down a steep hill, The Ice Road’s taunt momentum can’t stop for much development. However, that doesn’t prevent Liam Neeson from continuing to elevate everyman roles. As a driver trying to take care of his special needs brother, the actor’s hardened personality draws instant gravity onscreen. Few can deliver goofy one-liners and tired exposition with such poise and personality, with the 69-year old showing no signs of slowing down as a gruff action hero.

    While The Ice Road succeeds within its regimented genre parameters, the film’s restrictive formula does limit the material significantly. An over-reliance on dated stereotypes creates a laborsome aftertaste throughout much of the film’s plot-driven sections. Neeson’s special needs brother is easily the starkest example, with Marcus Thomas’ poor casting and the film’s general over-simplification morphing the role into a painfully dated plot device. I also wish the film developed even a semblance of substantive undertones. The Ice Road’s breezy narrative passes by without drawing a significant interest point, likely making this entry disappear amongst Neeson’s busy catalog (there’s an underlying look at shady industry practices, but it goes nowhere).

    Despite the lingering disposability, The Ice Road works as a high-throttle romp that achieves just enough to elevate its straightforward mechanics. Netflix could make for a great new home for Neeson’s brand of dopey machismo actioners, with this film’s low-steaks allures working nicely alongside streaming’s easy-going reach.

    The Ice Road is now available on Netflix.