By Anne Brodie
Let’s look at two Canadian music artists that make us proud, even as I remind you about Canada Film Day on April 16th. Neil Young: Coastal in the intimate documentary on the singer songwriter touring post COVID-19, shot and directed by Young’s longtime partner Daryl Hannah, makes its debut in theatres worldwide for one night only April 17. The black and white portrait, warts and all, follows Young on his first tour in years aboard his old friend, the Silver Eagle tour bus, chatting upfront with his long-time driver, cracking jokes and reminiscing. Young admits that the prospect of performing so many years later is “f***ing terrifying” and uses humour and stream of consciousness chatter to distract himself. He’ll perform in unique theatres, all outdoors, at dusk and after dark, noting that his pal Willie Nelson doesn’t play inside anymore. The Neil Young vibe is sixties and seventies, a trip into the past and for us, perhaps at points, stuck in the past. Young’s personality is droll, as he espouses values that came to the fore back then, the environment, the peace, anti-war movements “Throw your weapon’s down, throw your hatred down’”. Audiences chant Earth Love at his behest and it all feels so “groovy”. Young’s piano playing is gorgeous, delicate, tender, sweet, his music deeply familiar and comforting. It would have been good to see Hannah, we see her back as she scurries out of shots, but there you go. Coastal is from Shakey Films, Young’s production company of fifty years which has produced an impressive forty films. Remember, one night only but in multiple theatres in Canada. Tickets on sale now at www.coastalthemovie.com
Kevin MacDonald’s documentary one to one: John & Yoko screens exclusively on Imax April 11, then begins a theatrical release April 18. It would be a fun IMAX view, as its a heavily visual guide through one of the most turbulent cultural eras in the US – the 70’s. In 1971, post Beatle John Lennon and his wife Yoko One battled backlash for allegedly breaking up the band; they sold their estate in Ascot, outside London and opted for a small flat in New York’s Greenwich Village. They spent days in bed watching TV 24 hours a day, says John, it was their “fireplace” with news about the war in Vietnam, prison failures at Attica, the riots, women’s rights and a host of liberal causes. After learning conditions in Willowbrook Children’s Home for disabled children where 50 residents were cared for by one person, they staged a concert in Central Park and raised more than $1M, then threw a party for the delighted young residents. John and Yoko’s frequent late night TV appearances are legendary – insisting hosts book radicals like Jerry Rubin and Allen Ginsburg, considered to be Commies! and Yoko called the other Beatles chauvinists! They attended the Nixon Watergate hearings and were able to carry out good deeds while rattling conservative cages. The film moves at a pace, crammed with news footage, an almanac of 70s American history as much as the story of John and Yoko. And yes Yoko sings. You have been cautioned.
You can’t go far on social media without happening on photos of pets, their people and love letters to their fur babies. Ron Howard co-produces with daughter, director Bryce Dallas Howard, a documentary called simply Pets. It’s all that’s needed to grab attention, and watching is a lovely experience. Children tell us what is special about their pets, how they make them feel and what they can do for them. One little girl breaks into sobs speaking of her enormous love for her bundle of joy, as happens again and again, straight through to adults. Pets ranging from dogs, cats, horses, pigs, birds of prey, goats, rodents, reptiles and even wild marine animals show the range of beings that can emotionally interact with humans. And it highlights our soft side, as seen in social pet and human stars. For years now online pet influencer Original Trap King Sterling Davis has bene helping vulnerable cats, abandoned litters and strays, takes them to the vet, fixes them up and spays them to reduce the stray population. A couple meet their adopted Puerto Rican rescue dog at the airport in a touching scene, a man kayaks around Europe’s coasts with his dog buddy, a couple provides their disabled pig with custom leg fitments at their zoo like backyard. A lost human soul from a violent home befriended a falcon that “came from the divine” and is continually asked to send prayers by fans as he releases the bird each day. The stories range from little boys who don’t like cleaning up after their beloved dog to complex stories of adults’ life affirming / saving connection with animals. An elderly woman in Japan owns two dogs – people over 65 are forbidden from owning pets – that help her with the grief of her husband’s death. So many inspiring stories. So much love. Disney+ on April 11
If you like the peculiar, offbeat, unpredictable and even far out, Apple TV+ Government Cheese is for you. Described as surreal, it reminds me of the excellent series Fargo. British actor David Oyelowo plays family man Hampton Chambers, who is beset by a family of thugs. Its set in suburban California, and the bad guys are the dreaded Prevosts, a family of violent creeps from Montréal. The usual mockery of the Canadian/Quebecois accent is pretty thorough. Chambers has just been released from prison, on a forgery beef. While in the tank, he accidentally kills an inmate friend (Adam Beach) with a spoon, but violent bully Kenny Sharp offers him a chance to change his life by walking with God with blind faith as he does (?). Chambers shows up at home surprising his Astoria (Simone Missick) and sons, Einstein (Evan Ellison) and Harrison (Jahi Di’Allo Winston) who are in various states of disdain and respect for him; he has no money and they are broke. However, he developed an idea in the prison shop room; a self sharpening drill – no one likes to replace worn out bits all the time – he just needs to solve one tech question which his brilliant son, who turned down admission to Harvard and MIT to be a pole vaulter, gives him. Things are looking up until his bestie (Bokeem Woodbine) tells him the Provosts are after him for $2K he owes them, or else. A wonderful archival looking bit of footage, which looks just like the old-fashioned Canadian classroom history shorts, tells why the Provosts are the way they are. Seems Chambers also caused two friends to be fired from their jobs and they hold grudges. Will the pain of freedom never end? Really funny, wild and definitely surreal. Also, it’s 1969 and the clothes, home décor and speech are joyously ripped from the times. Apple TV+ April 16
A streaming version of the Agatha Christie murder mystery Towards Zero is without Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot! Same story. Solving a series of unnatural drop deads at a matriarch’s grand seaside Devon estate is up to Inspector Leach, played by Matthew Rhys and he is a different animal – troubled with depression, defeated by personal problems and handling homicides for a living. He provides some of the most dramatic moments in the three parter unless you count divorced and newly married tennis superstar Nevile Strange (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) and situation he gleefully orchestrates. He and his current wife Kay (Mimi Keene), accept their invitation to the estate owned by formidable Lady Tressilian (Anjelica Huston) his guardian. He insists they go, even though his ex-wife Audrey (Ella Lily Hyland) will be there. The deeply narcissistic tennis champ appears to get a charge knowing he’ll be the weekend focal point, proving his desirability. Disgraced cousin Thomas (Jack Farthing) shows up, uninvited; there’s plenty of bad feeling towards him, but why? Her Ladyship’s lawyer Mr. Treves (Clarke Peters) will be in attendance; she plans to host the younger generation and rework her will, based on how they treat her; she is bedbound and gets pleasure from shouting, ordering people around and feeling abandoned, wanted only for her money and estate. She’s livid when her guests abandon her for days at the beach and nights dancing. So many undercurrents, a downstairs romance, various alliances, lots of smack talk and rising tensions; the key dinner scene is horrifically uncomfortable. And Kay finds Nevile and Audrey in a sex act in the hallway. Murder is in the cards. First Lady Tressilian with a headwound from Strange’s golf club. Tne three parter positively vibrates with movement and tension. This is the darkest, riskiest Christie production to date. Drop everything and tune in and discover the meaning of the phrase Towards Zero. The BritBox Original three-day streaming release event begins April 16 with Ep. 2 April 17 and Ep. 3 April 18.
A remarkable documentary gives us access to a world we rarely if ever are privy to. Final Vows from Victoria Westover follows the sisters of Santa Rita Abbey, an isolated religious home in the Arizona desert. Its breathtaking beauty offers the women daily inspiration as they pray for the community, or indeed, anyone who asks for prayers. They’re St. Benedictines, a 6th century Cistercian order. Westover spent four years shooting the mostly elderly sisters in their work and happy isolation and contemplates joining. But being cloistered means they may not leave. A sign at the entrance reads “Monastic Enclosure. No Admittance”. Money comes from Communion wafers they bake, sending to 360 companies across the US. Each sister has a special assignment, one of the younger ones dons jeans to climb and repair the tower bell. Days are busy. The sisters are remarkably content and know they are in the right place, able to pray and advocate and contemplate. They describe their individual relationships with God, and the joy of knowing they chose the right life. A new sister arrives from Kenya who doesn’t care for the desert, while another photographs its strange beauty. There is a potential of a polluting, toxic open pit mine opening five miles from there; they are downwind. And fewer potential sisters are showing up these days. But they have something we should note, hope and faith. April 15 Streaming & DVD.
Its not a new idea either in life or on film, but it’s a popular entertainment premise. The idea of a destabilising government, hijacking and threatening government, like the trump inspired US Capital riots, the White House Down and the London Has Fallen series. Recently, Rumours that found World leaders trapped in the woods with agendas. There are endless variations on the theme – All the President’s Men, The Matrix, The Last King of Scotland, ad infinitum. Now we have G20 on Prime Video starring Viola Davis as the US President Danielle Sutton attending a summit of twenty world leaders closeted away in a secure location. Well, its not secure and an attack is launched, from inside. The massive security detail appears to have traitors within; she is the top target, as her best friend and Treasury Secretary (Elizabeth Marvel) encourages her. Sutton broke protocol and brought her children (Marsai Martin and Christopher Farrar) and her husband (Anthony Anderson) and soon regrets it. The President’s military background comes in handy as she must use outsized weaponry, strategic thinking on the run and fly a chopper. All while protecting her children and husband who’ve gone missing. Director Patricia Riggen makes sure the action is fast and furious but the experience is more linear than fleshed out and feels like a video game.
CBC and APTN’s wonderful Arctic sitcom North of North, has landed on co-pro partner Netflix. Absolutely loving this oh so Canadian show about a sassy young Inuk wife, mother and rebel Siaja (Anna Lambe) who isn’t content with the social status quo in Ice Cove. She’s brainy and fun loving, quick with a quip and yet the voice of reason, always looking for ways to make life better and of course, more fun. But its not easy – she flies in the face of tradition even as she treasures it. She gets a job at the local dump, hauling oversize appliances and apparently overseeing fires from a lawn chair. By herself. One day she meets a handsome older guy and they kiss. Only later does she learn who he is to her utter astonishment – and her mother’s. Its zippy, optimistic, funny, warm and loaded with Siaja’s quirky sarcasm; Lambe is going places! Also stars Maika Harper, Keira Belle Cooper, Kelly William and Braeden Clarke, from Inuit writers and producers Stacey Aglok MacDonald, and Alethea Arnaquq-Baril and with a great soundtrack courtesy indigenous artists Tanya Tagaq, Varna GL, Riit, Joshua Haulli, Elisapie, PIQSIQ, Tarrak, and Shawnee Kish. Now the world can enjoy this as much as we do!
And here is how deeply Canadian this series is:
- 45+ Canadian cast
- 300+ Canadian crew
- 500 individuals in Iqaluit filled background positions
- 55 shoot days in Iqaluit
- 4 shoot days in Toronto and 2 days in Pangnirtung to capture landscape & establishers
- 20 shooting locations (this would be across Nunavut & Toronto to account for the above precision)
- 225+ Canadian vendors, including 60+ vendors from Nunavut
- CAD $23M+ Gross Value Added impact
- The estimate of economic impact represents the contribution of the production spending to the Canadian economy, and is calculated based on an economic impact model built on input-output tables representing the connections between different sectors of the economy. The resulting estimate includes the direct impact of the production spending with suppliers and the indirect impact from downstream spending in the economy.
Coronation Street fans can catch alumnus Thelma Barlow (Mavis) in the free twenty-minute YouTube film Sleepless in Settle. She stars as 94-year-old Barbara, mother to Alan (Graham Turner) a mere stripling at 72. Thery live in the actual English village of Settle (not far from Gigglesworth – true). Barbara is full of life, enjoys yoga – she can touch her toes – powerwalks and dresses stylishly. She’s with it and treasures every moment. Still, she worries Alan will be at loose ends when she goes. While singing an old blues standard she goes through treasured old letters, as Alan plays guitar. She decluttering to Alan’s horror, but its so he won’t have to deal with stuff when her time comes. He puts a tracker on her; he’s really getting on her nerves. She apologises for being away so much when he was little, travelling as an actor (an archival photo of Barlow as a sexy young thang) and realises he doesn’t have many friends, certainly not female. He says he’s not interested. But after watching Sleepless in Seattle one afternoon, Barbara has a brainstorm – she’ll find him a woman using the film as inspo! So up go Sleepless in Settle posters all over town, with his face, much to Alan’s dismay. Here’s the entire film: