By Anne Brodie
Brazilian actor Fernanda Torres has won multiple awards and nominations for her role as a wife and mother in Walter Salles I’m Still Here. Her sensitive yet muscular portrayal of Eunice, horrified by her former left wing congressman husband’s sudden disappearance under Brazil’s military dictatorship is remarkable. She must hide her fear to care for her five children and go about day-to-day living; stay strong and masquerade for them; her expressive face says it all. They had no connection to the political realities of the dictatorship until their father’s capture while outside, the rebel military presence ramps up; soldiers turn their home upside down and arrest Eunice and one of her daughters. They’re taken in for questioning and imprisoned but still no word of her husband; she’s warned to stop asking. One guard whispers to her that he doesn’t approve of what they’re doing to her. The horror and helplessness of individuals in Kafka-esque political nightmares have often been the stuff of film; I’m Still Here based on the true story of activist Eunice Paiva, happened. Does any of this sound familiar? As if it could happen closer to home? The film is nominated for Best International Feature Film, Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role and Best Motion Picture of the Year Oscars. Torres won the Critics Choice Awards Latino Celebration of Cinema and TV Best Actress award. She is also a renowned television actor, novelist and regular newspaper columnist. In the final scenes, Eunice is played by Torres’ mother Fernanda Montenegro, a 1999 Oscar/Golden Globe nominee for Salles’ Central Station. In theatres.
The highly anticipated Netflix doc American Manhunt: O.J. Simpson lands – with a bang – this week. I did not want to revisit that terrible time when O.J. Simpson murdered his wife Nicole Brown Simpson, the mother of his daughter, and her friend Ron Goldman and the ensuing media circus. He left their bloody bodies in the driveway of Brown’s home at 975 South Bundy Dr. for all passersby to see, a hideous mockery of his obsessive love of her, slashed neck, crumpled on the ground. The realisation that Mr. Nice Guy, the football star, sometime actor, commercial pitchman and all-round charmer savagely took their lives in a jealous rage seemed outrageous. But I watched amd it’s brilliant. The case dominated the news for years, I worked in a newsroom at that time. It took a tremendous toll on racial harmony, the Hollywood dream and the idea that love turns to hate and murder. I remember like it was last week. In, 1994, I was in LA to interview Simpson, among others but he simply never turned up. Later that same year, I was in LA on a film weekend with colleagues from Canada and the US. Everything stopped as we watched the slow speed chase on TV, O.J. in front, police following to arrest him for double murder. That night we had a screening to attend but folks brought radios and we passed them around. And now it all comes back, O.J. fever and betrayal, disbelief and horror. The nightmarish quality Los Angeles took on, similar to the Manson murders era, had a toxic taste given the ambition it takes to succeed there. The doc is especially well made, packed with archival news footage and old and new interviews that beggar the imagination. Director Floyd Russ gives us plenty we didn’t know then or in the years following, from former police officers, lawyers, “friends” and those who were on the scene – Goldman’s sister Kim, O.J. Simpson prosecutor Christopher Darden, L.A. police detective Mark Fuhrman, O.J. Simpson’s defense attorney – and superb storyteller – Carl Douglas, plus key witness, including O.J. houseguest Kato Kaelin, who seems smarter now. We learn damning evidence that was withheld that conclusively proved Simpson’s guilt and all manner of facts never made public. This series brings it back viscerally, clearly and with renewed horror.
Got a huge unexpected kick out of You’re Cordially Invited, a comedy starring Reese Witherspoon and Will Ferrell. Ferrell is Jim, father of Jenni a cancer survivor marrying her beau; he calls the Palmetto Inn, a small island venue and books August 1st. Little does he know the woman taking his phone call drops dead and the booking isn’t recorded. Witherspoon is Margot whose sister Neve wants her wedding to an exotic dancer at the Inn, where they spent time with their grandmother. Margot books August 1st. July 31st rolls around and the families are devastated to find they must share, but work out a plan. For some unexplained reason, Peyton Manning is there, just standing, wordless and staring. He’s not the only cameo – a Jonas brother is the pastor; Wyatt Hudson is disguised as a zebra and stand-up comic Fortune Feimster speeds by the dock during a ceremony and splashes the guests. Then repeats with an hilariously awful result. Purposely, Ferrell got her to do it when he overheard Reese smack talking him and his daughter and he extended his daughter’s wedding so the sun would set for Neve’s nuptials. Outstanding side characters add to the zing, like the one whose garden was featured in Garden and Gun Magazine. On the dance floor Jim answers a guest who says “I’m going to grind on you” with a thank you. Even so, there is room for serious stuff as when Jenni annuls her marriage online that same night, and Jim and Margot contemplating loneliness when their besties are off and married. The film’s endearing odd ball quality is extremely appealing. Jim finds himself in bed with a crocodile and Margot takes a do-it-yourself blood transfusion. Funny. Big ol’ thumbs up from here. Jan 30 on Prime Video.
Paradise, an intriguing, moody thriller series now on Disney+ requires close attention. The wonderful Sterling K. Brown is Agent Xavier Collins, personal aide to Cal (James Marsden), the U.S. President. It’s not made clear for a while – we simply know we’re in a well protected, place of secrets, undercurrents and fear. Cal, a booze hound and toxic person hurls insults and challenges to all (sound familiar?) and depends heavily on Xavier while saving his cruellest barbs for him. Cal fired his prior aide because he was “a bore and old”. Collins is haunted by something in his relationship with Cal. Early on, they ask each other for forgiveness. One morning, Collins discovers Cal stabbed to death in his bedroom. His body had been dragged and a Presidential black box, described as “the most important box in the world”, emptied in the heavily protected bedroom. Collins remembers video of a woman saying she wanted to see Cal full of holes; everyone is suspect including Collins against all we’ve been shown. He had said to Cal “I will forgive you when I can sleep again. I can sleep again when you are dead”. The President also survived an assassination attempt during a news conference on “trouble with Colorado” concerning a secret underground city. Collins starts asking questions as our anxiety and interest increase at a hell of a rate. All this in the first episode. And then – boom. Does the series have a political agenda? 🙂 Also stars Julianne Nicholson, Sarah Shahi, Nicole Brydon Bloom, Aliyah Mastin and Percy Daggs IV; Brown is an executive producer.
The latest in a string of adoring Canadian music docs , Blue Rodeo: Lost Together directed by Dale Heslip looks at the hero band forty years on and still at it. The Canadian roots pioneers led by Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor continue touring, recording, writing, and being together, missing their families, fighting, making up, and making transcendent music. Cuddy’s range and Keelor’s husky counterpoint are Blue Rodeo trademarks, instantly recognisable. From North Toronto Collegiate to small clubs, to hipster Queen St W., they landed at WEA Music where publicist JoAnn Kaeding pushed her bosses to listen to the band’s demo a second time after turning it down. Andy Maize of Skydiggers points to the melody and dissonance of their songs, and a night at the Rivoli when the audience “levitated” to Jim’s soaring voice in Try. Various sidemen made unique contributions like drummer Cleave who then left to go back to his job at Canada Post for the retirement package! So many fun stories and strange moments. Only as an aside Cuddy mentions the wear and tear touring caused his marriage, still going strong four decades later, and we are gutted when Keelor speaks of his hearing loss. No big kerfuffles, maybe a few ego skirmishes, with adoring remarks from the usual Much Music staffers. February 2, 22, Cineplex Cinemas Hot Docs Cinema Feb.1, and Cineplex Cinemas February 2 then the 3rd across the country.
Get set for a joyous celebration of one of the greatest living performers! Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story, written, produced, and directed by Bruce David Klein celebrates 78-year-old Liza Minnelli as she takes command of the documentary camera and lighting set up right off the top. Of course she did. She is a veteran and knows what she needs to look her best – camera high, lights low, aimed in the face. Awesome. I did that too during my broadcast career interviewing celebs. Shirley MacLaine taught me that lesson. Minnelli, a showstopper from a young age, watched her mother Judy Garland and enthusiastically performed with her. Her mother’s raw talent and her father Vincente Minnelli’s precision were gifts she inherited and used to become one-of-a-kind, a fully realised talent – a star. I had the privilege of seeing Minnelli onstage – wow – and interviewing her, surprised by how plainly she was dressed. This onstage ostrich with the cropped hair and expressive face wore a simple skirt and blouse. Hear Liza’s own words on four difficult marriages – David Gest who robbed her (m. 2002–2007), Mark Gero (m. 1979–1992), Jack Haley Jr. (m. 1974–1979), and Peter Allen (m. 1967–1974) are poignant. Sadly, she was desperate to become a mother but never carried a child to term. Something not mentioned, her struggles with alcohol and drugs, but good news, she’s clean since 2015. Her natural exuberance lands on happier topics like her important friendships with Eloise author, singer and composer Kay Thompson, a mother figure, French singer Charles Aznavour, George Hamilton, and David Criss. Klein brings the ups and downs into focus hand in hand with her joyful soul and accomplishments. There won’t be another Liza. Features interviews with Alan Cumming, Mia Farrow, Michael Feinstein, Hamilton, Joel Grey, Marissa Berenson, Darren Criss and Lorna Luft with late luminaries in archival interviews. P.S. Liza adored her mother Judy Garland but also smiled when she learned she was jealous of her talent! Hot Docs Cinema Jan 31 and on Feb 1, and select theatres in Toronto, Ottawa and Vancouver.
Canada’s Oscar entry for Best International Feature Film and winner of the inaugural Directors’ Fortnight Universal Language returns to TIFF Lightbox Feb 2 for a special screening with director Matthew Rankin. If you missed it see it first time around, it’s time. It opens at Lightbox on the 7th before a national rollout. It’s a hoot! A brilliantly whimsical and original outrider taking us into a snowbound Wnnipeg world of the surreal and bizarre. Director Rankin and writers Ila Firouzabadi, Pirouz Nemati and Rankin look at Canada with a crooked eye, from the POV of Persian immigrants in their first winter. Interwoven stories bring together two schoolgirls, a tour guide and a man who’s fed up in the most unexpected, delightful ways as they trudge in different directions through knee-deep snow. The city doesn’t come off well, blocky, anonymous, prone to blizzards and seemingly inescapable. But maybe it’s better than Montreal described by a character as “the most neutral experience of my life”. An abusive teacher quits his job and sets out for work, as the girls find a 2019 “Riel” bill worth a buck, embedded in ice and begin a frustrating journey to find something to cut the ice. They’re competing with a grown man who ultimately takes it (ok spoiler, you know he will). And a family reunites. Everyday conversation and action are heightened by distinctly original dialogue, set pieces and oddities. Prepare for the passing parade, a donkey swaddled in gaudy robes, being led through the blizzard, a walking, lit Christmas tree, a thieving turkey, and tourists hoping to see Winnipeg’s interesting tourist traps. They include Louis Riel’s grave at the convergence of two busy highways, a briefcase left for decades on a city bench, a memorial to the 1953 parking incident at the Centennial Parking Pavilion and the usual Canadian fast-food restaurants. Along the way people cry their hearts out; Kleenex is big business. Throughout, the sound of howling winter winds acts as an uncomfortable score. While we shiver, laugh and ponder, awestruck, at the leaping imagination of this wonderful piece.