Rue Morgue Cinemacabre (Toronto Underground Cinema) – The Loved Ones Review (Kirk Haviland)

Rue Morgue Cinemacabre at the Toronto Underground Cinema

The Loved Ones (2009)

Starring Xavier Samuel, Robin Mcleavy, Victoria Thane, Richard Wilson, Jessica MacNamee and John Brumpton

Written and Directed by Sean Byrne

MINOR SPOILERS

Yes, it’s that time of the month once again, as the guys from Rue Morgue take over the confines of the Toronto Underground Cinema. As usual, all the familiar faces are there to greet me as we all prepare for the cinematic treat that is The Loved Ones. Unlike last month’s Rue Morgue presentation, I had seen The Loved Ones years before at the Midnight Madness showing as part of TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival for those who aren’t familiar). I’ve been singing its praises for years and a chance to see it once again projected on 35MM was a chance I could not pass up. After catching up with the Underground guys and Rue Morgue crew it was time for the film.

The Loved Ones opens with the unfortunate accident that will drive a wedge between Brent (Samuel) and his suffering mother. We fast-forward six months and meet Brent’s best mate, Jamie (Wilson in a very funny performance). Jamie is obsessed with Mia (MacNamee) and is elated when she says yes to going to the big dance with him. Meanwhile Lola (Mcleavy) has an obsession of her own, Brent. She finds out when she asks him to the dance that Brent has been dating Holly (Thaine) and that they are already going together. But we soon find out that Lola does not take rejection lightly, and she enlists her father (Brumpton) in kidnapping Brent and staging a school dance of her own in their home. Concurrently we see Jamie and Mia’s date, and Holly and Brent’s mom looking furiously around for Brent. Through the movie we come to see many things differently as characters come clearer into view. This all leads to a grisly end as things go completely awry with Lola’s plans and the others start to close in.

The Loved Ones is without a doubt one the best genre films of the last decade. A bold statement indeed, but also a true one. Samuel manages to convey a myriad of emotion in a role that has him silent for more than 50% of the film. His Brent is a sympathetic victim/hero, and in the process becomes the heart of the entire film. McLeavy is a revelation. Her Lola starts off as a shy, awkward teen that you really feel for, but then she flips the switch and becomes a menacing and vindictive sociopath. By the end of the film you are desperate for her comeuppance, and boy does it ever come! In fact the growth of most of the characters throughout the film is what truly sets the film apart. Even a supporting character like Mia has a reason for herself self-destructiveness that is revealed in the final moments of her story. Byrne’s script is tight and the direction is on point. He’s a real talent and someone to keep an eye on in the future.

The Loved Ones is loved very much by this writer. It finally looks to be getting a release this year, albeit a very limited one, so do yourself a favor and track it down. It is very gory in parts and ratchets up the suspense very tight, but if you are a genre fan this film is a must. The Loved Ones is a strong recommend.

Till Next Time,

Movie Junkie TO

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ChickFlicking – The Vow Review (Nadia Sandhu)

The Vow (2011)

Starring Rachel McAdams, Channing Tatum, Sam Neill, and Jessica Lange

Directed by Michael Sucsy

New on DVD/Blu-ray is The Vow, which grossed $125 million at the box office earlier this year- almost double the take of The Lucky One.

The central romantic conflict of this film is grounded in real events, so no need for contrivance here.  The marriage of real-life couple Kim and Krickitt Carpenter survived her brain trauma and memory loss after a horrific car accident, and fictional couple Leo (Channing Tatum) and Paige (Rachel McAdams) are no different.

The Vow is also cleverly written. The dialogue is witty and sincere, the melodrama is minimal and the love story is genuine.  The main characters are well fleshed out, and we can’t help but root for the couple and hope for a romance driven deus ex machina to save the day and return Paige’s memory at the film’s climax.

McAdams, as Paige, is at her radiant best and while the jury is out on Tatum’s acting talent, his broad-shouldered- aw-shucks- ma’am appeal and limited range really work to his advantage here.  Tatum sells Leo’s steadfast faith in their marriage and the simple, straight forward devotion that guides his reactions to Paige, the accident and the amnesia.  You really feel for the guy, and the chemistry between the leads is so convincing  that I found myself actively rooting for them.  Scott Speedman distractions be damned.

Other critics criticized The Vow for being light and frothy, but the film is an endearing testament that sometimes, even in real life,  true love does conquer all. And that makes The Vow a top-notch chick flick in my books.

Emotional Investment 4     Authenticity 5     Chemistry 3.5     Contrivance 0

INSIDE OUT 2012 (Toronto) – Sagat Review (Paolo Kagaoan)

INSIDE OUT 2012 (Toronto)

Sagat

Starring Franois Sagat

Directed by Pascal Roche and Jérôme M. De Oliveira

Saturday began with two shorts which, in their different ways, fit well with the main feature. The first is a great short with an unfortunately generic title – A Day in the Country – that and its actors are almost unsearchable on IMDb and Google. Its exurb setting features a man, his boyfriend and the latter’s co-star in an amateur pornographic video. The short features coarse language and the ejection of seminal fluid. The short that came after it was tamer and more whimsical. It’s called No Clothes, starting with a man checking out another in a Laundromat in New York City, until they get interrupted by a hobo.

Before beginning this review of Sagat, about French gay pornographic model Francois Sagat, I mentioned watching it to my friends’ parents whom, without saying it, found my taste in movies a bit tawdry. I’m not necessarily offended by their tone but I’m still reminded about the stigma of pornography, the generational divide and that it may be weird that I am talking about porn.

Lest I underestimate you as my reader, I’ll still assume that you know nothing about Sagat, who is well…Francois Sagat. What I know about him, despite only seeing one of his movies, is that his tattoos include a big crescent on his back and his whole hairline. He can wear the most outrageous costumes and still look hot. He has been ‘famous’ since I was in college, unseating other muscled men like Mark Dalton and Matthew Rush. His reign as gay smut king has been longer than that and he’s expanding his CV through experimental and foreign films, although he’s still relegated to sexually explicit material within those two brackets.

Pascal Roche and Jérôme M. De Oliveira’s movie can preach outside the choir, a quality that most esoteric biographical docs don’t have. I’m not going to claim to know everything about Sagat. But my relative familiarity with him as a subject has taken away this carte blanche feeling that I’m supposed to have while watching and experiencing this movie about him. The ‘revelation’ count, as I call it, is down to four little factoids about him that I won’t write in this review for obvious reasons, despite these things being un-spoilery. The movie shows snippets of time between 2007 and 2010 when he’s getting recognition for his work.

The movie eventually touches on Sagat’s childhood and yes, I know this makes me sound like a monster, but it’s always weird to see childhood photos of a guy that many other guys have lusted for. During this section he says something about other boys taunting him about his sexuality and in his words, ‘telling the truth’. The movie brings an insightful interpretation of gay bullying, and the way that this trauma has influenced him can start a conversation on its own.

This depressing part of Sagat’s life is still portrayed with the same tone as the montages of his porn and work-out videos, accompanied by the thumping of electronic music. He says it himself, that he doesn’t think his work is interesting, that he would rather do it than talk about it. It’s strange that a man like him seems closed-up and introverted like this. At the same time the filmmakers do nothing but venerate him in their short movie. But after being naked, talking about his past, and filing other talk about how awesome he is, what else were they going to do?

This movie, just the one of the shorts that preceded it, also has violence, coarse language, and the ejection of semen.

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INSIDE OUT 2012 (Toronto) – Naked as We Came Review (Paolo Kagaoan)

INSIDE OUT 2012 (Toronto)

Starring Ryan Vigilant, Karmine Alers, and Benjamin Weaver

Directed by Richard LeMay

Naked As We Came is beautifully shot, its cinematography reminiscent of Andrea Arnold’s Wuthering Heights, both using deep colours to depict the flora surrounding tumultuous country life. Although in Naked, the country house is a slick, white, one-floor Bauhaus structure which compliments the natural setting.

The good element of the movie ends there, since it mostly mishandles its characters and plot. The younger characters include siblings Elliot (Ryan Vigilant from television’s Gossip Girl) and Laura (Karmine Alers from RENT). As New Yorkers they’re mostly in gray – with the exception of Elliot’s occasional red gym shorts. A third sombrely gray-clad twenty-something is Ted (Benjamin Weaver), a novelist whose best-selling status isn’t economically viable enough so he ends up taking care of their cancer-stricken, estranged mother Lilly (Lue McWilliams). Now Lilly is a hoot, her silk robes resembling that of a dowager mistress – the character having had a love child with a fictional US senator. She’s crotchety funny, intentionally or otherwise, her guttural alto will never get as old as she’s becoming. I like her despite being a device used to reinforce the unwarranted opinions that the movie is forcing upon us. Let me explain.

Ted inserts, among other things, his opinions into the drama of a family he works for. Elliot is similarly thinly conceived, looking at Ted with some trepidation but mostly lust. This makes it easy for both to drink brown liquor together in the pool while they’re wearing swimming trunks and for the latter to show up at the former’s bedroom, demanding the sex that he gets without abandon. Days later, Ted asks Elliot if the latter think it’s in bad taste that they have slept together. The answer is yes, which gets his feelings hurt. It’s sad that I have to condescendingly repeat myself for my readers but this is only because the characters themselves have forgotten how their non-relationship is. Elliot is Ted’s boss’s son, Ted is Elliot’s mom’s employee. They’re not on equal footing. I don’t care if the other person looks like an Avenger, neither do I care if that sounds classist or that it’s 2012. There is no time ever when it’s okay to cross boundaries between employee and employer. This material is great for internet soft core stories, but not for a movie. I’m not one to talk but this is a movie version of ‘You’re gay and so is he, you guys should date!’

What’s worse is that Lilly approves of this, no matter how disastrous the consequences might be for her to throw her son into the sculpted biceps of some hustler. And that Laura disapproving of this fling and wanting him to live with a stable career makes her so shrill, am I right?

This movie also feels like watching shorthand and that doesn’t just go with the characters feelings being aired out so suddenly. The dialogue is filled with arguing characters describing each other. I would like to have a longer version of this story, where the characters can behave organically and their comfort zones dropping later rather than sooner, letting us, the audience, judge these characters more appropriately.

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Marley Review

Marley (2012)

Starring Bob Marley, Ziggy Marley and Jimmy Cliff

Directed by Kevin Macdonald

For many of the younger generations with the advent of the internet and the iPhone/iPod that are permanently installed in everyone’s ears, music has become a bit of a shapeless and valueless commodity.  Despite the disposability of a lot of today’s music there are some artists that stand the test of time and they will be listened to long after all of us are dead.  After a successful run at this year’s Hot Docs festival and out now for an exclusive run at the Hot Docs Bloor Cinema until the end of the month is a documentary about one of the musical trailblazers of the 20th century.  It’s time for Marley.

Marely examines in great detail the universal appeal, impact on music history and role as a social and political prophet that Bob Marley had on the global community. Marley is the definitive life story of the musician, revolutionary, and legend, from his early days to his rise to international superstardom. Made with the support of the Marley family, the film features rare footage, incredible performances and revelatory interviews with the people that knew him best.

Bob Marley is one of the 20th century’s most iconic and important musicians, and in this documentary we go deep into his life and experiences that form the musician that is loved the world over.  This family-approved documentary features interviews from the likes of his family, including his wife, son, and daughter, as well as collaborators such as Jimmy Cliff, Chris Blackwell, and Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry to name a few.  Macdonald treats the story with an incredible amount of care, from the early days with the Wailers to his later political activism and his complicated relationship with his wife’s kids; seemingly nothing was off limits.  It’s to Macdonald’s credit as a director that he managed to explore the man’s life without making him seem bigger then he actually was. He was simply a man and when his life was in turmoil he always had his music to fall back on.

If you’re simply a fan of his music and honestly don’t care about the back story, then there is more than enough to keep you happy as well.  Through the use of archival footage and songs, Macdonald keeps the audience engaged by tracing the roots of the music and its emergence on the global stage due in large part to Marley’s own acknowledgment of needing to adapt the sound to make it more commercially viable.  In many ways this made Marley a real forward thinker and that is essentially the crux of the entire film.  You’ll be glued to the screen for this film’s entire 144 minute run time – you won’t be able to look away.

Marley is simply a fantastic experience as it is an emotionally satisfying film that envelopes you into the story of this man’s life, and if you weren’t a fan of the music before you will be afterwards.

Marley is playing exclusively at the Hot Docs Bloor Cinema until May 31st, click here for show times.

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