Detropia Review (Kirk Haviland)

Detropia (2012)

Written and Directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady

The once bustling city of Detroit is a shadow of its former self. Starting back in 2010 when the economic downturn was in full swing, Detroit went from downturn to depression in a heartbeat. With the closures of local automobile production plants, the heart of Detroit’s manufacturing industry, other key business people started leaving Detroit in droves. Once one of the fastest growing cities in the world, Detroit now ranks among the highest cities in lost population over the last couple of years. While the families have moved on, the younger generation of bloggers and performance artist have now claimed it due to cheaper housing and access.

Detropia starts before the economic buyouts that turned around the auto industry in Detroit. These were the leanest of days, focusing on the few that stayed fighting and trying to rally the city back to its former glory. The city itself is broke, having to find ways to stay afloat by cutting essential services and social programs just to avoid declaring outright bankruptcy. The film focuses mainly on three Detroit citizens/activists and the Mayoral offices of the city. Crystal Starr is a video blogger determined revitalize the abandoned buildings and streets of Detroit, she also works in a coffee shop during the day. George McGregor is the head of Local 22 of the auto workers union, desperately trying to save the jobs of his fellow unionists as the companies and jobs available continue to dwindle. Tommy Stephens is a retired school teacher who owns a local lounge keeping the Motown tradition alive with great live bands performing every night, but he can’t help but seeing the struggling neighborhood around him every day.

Directors Ewing and Grady spend the bulk of the film exploring the current state of Detroit, with minor glimpses of the past blended in. The course of the film takes a dramatic twist when the US Government bail outs occurs and the people of Detroit get their manufacturing division back, but not without cost. There is a poignant scene that depicts the amount of struggle and compromise through a worker’s call to George who just wants to know what is left of the medical coverage that wasn’t sacrificed for the new deal to go back to work. Other impactful moments include a trip to the auto show by Tommy that results in a wakeup call when he realizes the amount being charged for hybrid vehicles out of Detroit is almost double those coming from China and other places in the world. And right near the beginning of the film Crystal walks us through an abandoned building with some of the most spectacular views of the city and wonders who would ever give that up. The scene that summed it up best for me is a simple steady shot on a 12 story wall that was once a building, swaying in the wind unsupported while pieces of the wall fall downward to the ground.

In the end Detropia delivers a strong message and a real feel of what modern day Detroit citizens are coping and dealing with. While not every aspect and decision in the film works, I know why they show the performance artists and their story but in the end it becomes superfluous. However, there really is some good footage here and the three main focused characters really are engaging. Detropia is a recommend.

Detropia has an exclusive run at the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema on now until October 19th.

Till Next Time,

Movie Junkie TO

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Chained DVD Review (Kirk Haviland)

Chained DVD

Starring Vincent D’Onofrio, Julia Ormond, Eamon Farren, Gina Phillips, Evan Bird and Jake Weber

Written by Damian O’Donnell and Jennifer Lynch

Directed by Jennifer Lynch

After her trials and tribulations in India directing the film Hisss, documented in the excellent feature documentary Despite the Gods, with her next effort Jennifer Lynch wanted to get back to the friendly confines of small indie horror that spawned her, the result is Chained. Armed with a script she adapted herself and a stellar lead actor in D’Onofrio, Lynch set out to once again carve out her unique vision with the level of creative control only an indie film can provide, although it should be mentioned that the title was changed from Rabbit to Chained.

Coming home from a routine trip to the movies, eight-year-old Tim (Bird) and his mother, Sarah (Ormond), are picked up by a psychopathic cab driver named Bob (D’Onofrio). Bob murders the young boy’s mother and keeps Tim as his unwilling protegee, making him clean up the mess following each murder he commits. After a couple of aborted escape attempts, Bob chains Tim, now renamed Rabbit, to the inside of the house allowing just enough length to move freely within. As the years pass, Bob starts instructing Rabbit, teaching him anatomy and human behavior. Now a teenager, Rabbit (Farren) is slowly being pressed by Bob to start his own homicidal spree. Slowly but surely, he must eventually choose whether to follow in Bob’s serial killer footsteps or make one final, desperate attempt to break free from his long captivity.

D’Onofrio’s Bob is a menacing, grimy and remorseless beast of a man with no redeeming characteristics at all. Through flashback sequences we see the violence and degradation he went through that led him to become the man he is today. Lynch’s script pulls no punches in showing us exactly what Bob is capable of as we are taken right into his “killing room” and shown exactly what becomes of the girls he brings home. D’Onofrio’s performance is unflinching and fascinating to watch, he truly is one of the finest actors we have working today. Sadly the film is basically a two man piece, and our other lead Farren is way out of his league here. Left to sullen blank stares and random fits of screaming and moaning, one in particular is pretty laughable, Farren isn’t awful here, he’s just vastly overshadowed and the film suffers because of it. The story is passable here, though there are plot holes and an ending that is completely unearned and quite frankly terrible. The twist we are presented with is not only implausible but it’s also so bad that even M.Night Shyamalan at his absolute worst could do better in his sleep. That said, Lynch shows strength behind the camera as her lens is unforgiving, exploring every inch of the excellent set and setting, and the film has a great feel and pacing to it. Clearly Lynch is evolving into a solid, style based director, but it’s just too bad the script was her downfall on this one.

The disc itself is practically bereft of special features as we get an alternate cut of one of the death scenes and a trailer for the film. The saving grace here is the audio commentary with Lynch and D’Onofrio. Lynch is her usual self-deprecating, open book that she is known for and a charming D’Onofrio provides a great play-by-play as the two show they have a natural chemistry moving the commentary along.

Despite the great performance from D’Onofrio, Chained doesn’t quite satisfy due to a weaker second lead and an ending that ruins any goodwill the film had before. Sadly I cannot recommend a purchase of Chained, but if you can get a cheap rental or attach it to your Netflix cue, you could do far worse. Chained is a mild non-recommend.

Till Next Time,

Movie Junkie TO

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Brawler DVD Review (Kirk Haviland)

Brawler DVD 

Starring Nathan Grubbs, Marc Senter, Pell James and Michael Bowen

Written by Chris Sivertson and Nathan Grubbs

Directed by Chris Sivertson

New on DVD from Anchor Bay Entertainment Canada, is an MMA inspired fight film that explores the seedy side of underground fight clubs, Brawler. Based on a true story, the familiar tale of brother versus brother, realized most recently onscreen in last year’s Warrior, is familiar ground. The real test of the film will be if it can deliver a realistic product inside the cage.

Brawler is the tale of two brothers, Charlie (Grubbs) and Bobby (Senter) Fontaine, who find themselves in a vicious, bone-breaking, jaw-smashing underground “fight club” circuit under Mafia control set on the riverboats of New Orleans. Sidelined by an injury incurred while protecting his young brother, Charlie is blindsided after a devastating betrayal by Bobby and his new wife Kat (James). The two brothers return to the underground fight club scene in New Orleans and prepare to battle each other to the death.

The scenario is hardly new and the script really does not do anything fresh here to spruce it up. The dialogue is pretty pedestrian as well, but that’s hardly why we are here. The fight sequences actually work fairly well. You can tell Grubbs and Senter have done their homework as real MMA techniques and holds are used and mixed in with traditional movie fight punches and kicks pretty seamlessly. The fight scenes are by far the highlight in the film. The rest of the film unfortunately falls flatter than a ruined soufflé. Grubbs seems to have all of his charisma in the ring and none outside. But even he comes off better than Senter, who apparently feels acting like a drunken frat boy with a mischievous grin constitutes depth of character and range. While I see, with coaching, a possible future for Grubbs, Senter seems doomed to a straight to DVD string of follow ups. James and Bowen both really have nothing much to do here. James’ cocaine and substance addicted Kat could have been an interesting character to delve into but the film barely scratches the surface. Setting the film in New Orleans brings a certain level of griminess to the film, but also leads to many awkward cuts with inappropriate music cues forcing in Zydeco music to constantly hit us on the head that we are in New Orleans.

The DVD comes equipped with a trailer only. The disc itself suffers from a volume fluctuation that could very easily have been the fault of the filmmakers and not the authoring. The volume of dialogue is a mere whisper between the jacked up music and fight sound effects. The sound fluctuation had me adjusting the volume throughout the runtime of the film.

While I will give Brawler kudos for coming up with effective fight sequences the rest of the aspects of the film simply do not work. Sadly Brawler is a non-recommend.

Till Next Time,

Movie Junkie TO

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TIFF 2012 – Gangs of Wasseypur Part 1 & 2 Review (Robert Harding)

Photo from http://www.tiff.net

Gangs of Wasseypur Part 1 and Part 2 (2012)

Starring Manoj Bajpayee, Richa Chadda, Reemma Sen, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Nawazuddin Siddique

Directed by Anurag Kashyap

The City to City program at the Toronto International Film Festival focuses on films from a specific city every year. 2012 was the year of Mumbai. In the listing of films playing in the City to City program was a film called the Gangs of Wasseypur… or rather two films. Much like Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Gangs of Wasseypur was released in two parts.  But unlike Deathly Hallows, the two parts of Gangs of Wasseypur were not released six months apart, but rather, a little over a month separated the two films. Of course, in Toronto we had them released on the same day thanks to TIFF.  Outside of the subject matter the fact that, in film festival time, watching these two films back to back meant blocking out at least 6.5 hours of a day to watch them, interested me. To some, that might seem daunting but to a veteran film festival goer, that seemed more like a challenge.

Photo from http://www.tiff.net

It would be an injustice to review each film separately. Though separated into two parts, the second part is a direct continuation of the first and continues the story where the first film left off.

Starting from the 1940s and making its way right into the 2000s, Gangs of Wasseypur is a gangster epic which chronicles a bloody turf war between two rival criminal families, the Singhs and the Khans, during the era of Indian independence and industrialization. Part 1 begins by explaining the two families, their connections to each other (socially and politically), the geography of the region as it changed over time, and eventually concentrates on the rise of Sardar Khan as he first struggles to make a name for himself and eventually rises, becoming a name to be feared. Part 2 focuses on Sardar Khan’s children (Definite, Faizal and Perpendicular), now grown, as they compete to be the families next Don.

Photo from http://www.tiff.net

Considering that between the two films we’re looking at a time span of roughly 60 years, you’d almost expect the films to be disjunctive and confusing with varying story lines, and a multitude of characters.  This is far from the case. Short of the beginning of part 1, the films are very well structured and relatively easy to follow.

The characters in the film are very interesting and entertaining. Each has their own idiosyncrasies and thanks to some fantastic writing and equally fantastic acting the viewer is able to get a real sense of who they are and why they became that way.  You can’t help but want to see what’s going to happen next between the members of the two families. It is this drama and character interaction that drives the story forward, and pulling the viewer in many different directions. Everyone is both a bad guy and a good guy. It’s up to you to decide who to root for.

It wouldn’t be my idea of Bollywood film if it didn’t have song and dance numbers. But these are not the songs I’ve come to expect. In fact, I’d say the music is quite unconventional (both the expected Bollywood style songs and some very sexually charged background numbers as well). It’s been a long time since a film has made me seek out the music contained within but Gangs of Wasseypur did just that. I absolutely loved the music!

Photo from http://www.tiff.net

If great writing, acting, and music weren’t enough, Gangs of Wasseypur also manages to deliver on the one aspect I was hoping for: action. From the start of the films, there is treachery, back stabbing, fist fights, gun fights and it’s forever escalating as the two films go on until it finally climaxes in a bloody scene I’ve never seen the likes of before. It’s the eye for an eye, revenge for the sake of revenge and the never ending cycle that gets repeated generation after generation that makes this film the enjoyable ultra violent ride that it is.

Gangs of Wasseypur ended up being my favourite film of the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival and with good reason. Despite a total run time of over 5 hours and a long day devoted to watching both parts, this film educated, enthralled and most importantly, entertained. At no point through either film did I find myself bored, checking my watch or not entertained. As both parts should be watched back to back I can honestly say Gangs of Wasseypur, as a whole, is a fantastic film that comes highly recommended. Fans of action and crime dramas should not miss out.

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Magic City Season 1 Blu-Ray Review (Kirk Haviland)

Magic City Season 1 Blu-Ray Review

Starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Olga Kurylenko, Steven Strait, Jessica Marais, Christian Cooke, Yul Vazquez, Taylor Blackwell, Dominik Garcia-Lorido, Elena Satine, Michael Rispoli, Kelly Lynch and Danny Huston.

Series created by Mitch Glazer

New this week from Starz Network and Anchor Bay Entertainment comes the first season of the acclaimed series Magic City. The lavishly conceived and staged production set in 1959 Miami Beach is a crime ridden gangster drama with a gloss and charm set to draw you in and make you stay a while. Producer Mitch Glazer used recollections, both fantasy and fact, to craft this series based on the Miami Beach he knew growing up. But does Magic City hold up with the quality of other contemporary cable shows?

As Ike Evans (Morgan) rings in the New Year, with the Chairman of the board himself Frank Sinatra crooning in the Grand Ballroom at his luxurious Miramar Playa Hotel, Castro’s rebels seize Havana just 200 miles offshore.  Miami is turbulent but the Kennedys, the mob and the CIA all hold court here. Evans must deal with the Mob, his complicated family and a city in the midst of dramatic change. Ike is the King of the beach and the Miramar is his crown jewel, but everything comes at a price. To finance his dream, Ike sold his soul to mob boss Ben “The Butcher” Diamond (Huston). Ike’s wife Vera (Kurylenko) and his three kids, Stevie (Strait), Danny (Cooke) and Lauren (Blackwell), all think he’s an honorable man, but he can’t break his pact with the devil. In fact, nothing at the Miramar Playa is what it seems. The days are sunny but the nights are full of intrigue, excess and bad decisions that come with a price. As Ike’s world threatens to implode, he fights for his family, and the Miramar Playa, in Magic City.

The strength of Magic City is the layered universe it has created. The main plot playing out is the struggle of Ike to stay afloat and ahead of the Mob and a Bulldog District Attorney determined to go through Ike to Ben Diamond. But all around this we get the sub plots of Stevie getting involved with the “most wrong woman possible” played by Marais, The D.A. trying to pit the ambitious Danny against his family with the promise of a prestigious Assistant D.A. position once out of school. Also, a call girl by the name of Judi Silver (Satine) who manages to be in the wrong place at the wrong time many times over, Ike’s General Manager Vic (Vazquez) tries to liberate his wife who is trapped in Castro’s embargoed Cuba and Ike’s new bride Eva tries to prove to everyone that she does have a place in the business and the family. These storylines bleed and thread themselves throughout the fabric of the main story and enrich the final product as a whole.

Morgan is fantastic as Ike, he carries an old school swagger and charm about him that just oozes onscreen, and his charisma is a perfect fit for Ike. I’ve been listening to people tout Strait as a talent to watch ever since 2005’s Undiscovered and Sky High, but this may be the first time I have started to agree with them. His Stevie makes bad decision after bad decision, but you see that even he knows he is making the wrong decisions he is smart enough to realize them for what they are, though his nature prevents him from passing on temptations. Olga Kurylenko is a bit of a revelation here. I’m not sure I have ever seen her so confident and in charge of herself onscreen. She seems to have melted into Eva effortlessly and the show is all together better not because of her sex appeal but her acting ability. You can tell Huston loves being the scenery chewing, cigar chomping mobster for whom violence is reactionary and without remorse.

The other star of the film is the Miramar Playa. Meticulously planned and executed to resemble the posh and opulent hotels of Miami Beach’s yesteryear. You can tell that creator Glazer has spent hours upon hours of research on the setting, making sure everything is just right. From the pool to the Atlantis Bar, complete with windows into the bottom of the pool outside, where naked women often casually swim by, the lobby, and Ike’s suite and office,  no detail is too small to be out of place and the show often takes minute rest stops in plot to emphasize these details. The amount of smoking going on here could give Mad Men a run for its money and ashtrays, as the late 50s would dictate, are everywhere.

Where Magic City loses its luster a bit is in the dialogue, which at times goes too far into Soap Opera territory, and a couple of side stories involving an ex of Eva and a burglar and his clumsy ransom demands. The actor portraying the cat burglar is pretty awful and the role of Cliff, Eva’s ex, forces actor Steven Brand to try and execute the duality of a charmer with impure intentions towards Ike’s wife, something he does not quite pull off.

The Blu-Ray comes equipped with a good handful of special features. Six behind the scenes featurettes that explore the cars, style and music of Magic City as well as other Starz specials about the creation of the series and the history behind it. The Starz Studio feature is a 15 minute behind the scenes piece with plenty of info about the series and its creation. The rest of the features are two to five minute segments about various aspects of the production.

Magic City may not be one the best shows on TV…yet, but it’s addictive as the nicotine, narcotics, booze and women who inhabit it. Magic City is a strong recommend.

Till Next Time,

Movie Junkie TO

Make sure to keep up with what’s going on at Entertainment Maven by liking our Facebook page and having updates delivered right to your Facebook News Feed. It’s the only way to stay on top of all of our articles with the newest blockbusters and all the upcoming films, festivals and film related events in Toronto.

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