By Anne Brodie
Thrilled to report that the impossible brilliance of Bong Joon-Ho’s Parasite is back on the big(gest) screen. Six years after sweeping the Oscars and the globe, it returns as an IMAX exclusive today. Bong Joon-Ho’s nearly perfect, nerve-rattling comedy thriller Parasite is a shock to the system, outrageous, comic, deadly serious and genre-bending, precise, poetic and mathematical, symmetrical in its construction, and deeply satisfying. Ki-taek Kim, his wife, son and daughter are poor, with cell phones but no Wi-fi ekeing out a living folding pizza boxes. But they’re cunning, and set in motion an undetectable scam on the wealthy Park family in order to assume their lives. One by one they insinuate themselves into the home as servants in a con that soon ensnares the housemaid and a man living in a panic room under the house, left behind by the previous tenant. The “lone, great housekeeper” who, too, is class climbing knows they see her. Part social satire, class war and bloody thriller, its wickedly heightened through humour within a perfectly symmetrical framework. Scathingly brilliant, satirical and frenzied, even the weather is funny. One caveat, awkward repeated references to North American First Nations found in headdresses and hatchets used to scare kids at a doomed birthday party. Stars Kang Ho, Sun Kyun, Yeo Jeong, Woo Shik and So Dam. As you know, Parasite won FOUR Oscars and 313 other awards!!
Staccato, time-jumping scenes illustrating the emotional journey of Almut (Florence Pugh) and Tobias (Andrew Garfield) offer new ways of realising memory and the ticking clock. John Krowley’s We Live In Time on Max today, and HBO linear tomorrow is a firehose of jolting, intense, sweet, sexy, angry, desperate, joyful “snapshots” of marriage, parenthood and identity. It is often difficult to watch; its detailed authenticity may reverberate for viewers who should prepare for upheaval and uncertainty. Almut is an award-winning chef with ambitions to win as many awards as possible in order to leave a legacy so her infant daughter will have something to remember her by. She has Stage 3 ovarian cancer so she is limited. She refuses chemical treatment, opting not for 12 months of pain and illness but six at best to be with her husband and daughter, and maybe one last cooking competition. Pugh’s outstanding performance lingers, a note perfect portrayal of a woman who knows her mind and faces insurmountable odds. Her authenticity and Garfield’s disbelief, support and love are never saccharine or exploitative. This is the real deal.
If you are feeling the weight of global uncertainty, try this on for size. On July 16, 1945, the American military and government exploded the first atomic blast in the desert of New Mexico. They had an idea about the deadly impact and devastation such a thing would have, but made zero attempts to evacuate, warn or provide information to locals. It was a secret mission that resulted in a lasting legacy of deadly cancers, irradiated water sources that will remain so forever, ground death and disaster. Cows and human hair turned white, those who mined uranium for the project – unknowingly – died. And the history of that Trinity blast – the Manhattan Project – is not taught in schools. Martina Car and Anthony Audi’s shocking doc T R I N I T Y taps into generations of residents and their stories of suffering, the horror of the blast that was far brighter than the brightest sun, the earthquake that followed, the rocks and debris thrown twenty miles up into the atmosphere, and lasting trauma – all without explanation. The US government and military then rained down the same devastation on Hiroshima and two days later Nagasaki, as part of Cold War strategies to protect the US from Russian nuclear attack. Americans, the Navajo Nation and Japanese paid the price in disfigurement, gruesome painful illness and death, and the poisoning of their natural resources. New Mexicans and “downwinders” (the blast is thought to have spread by air across east as far as New York State) who lived through it still protest the site where tourists go to gape at the marker, and demand explanation and compensation for their suffering. Nothing has been done, despite support from Nobel laureates and others. Eleven of thirteen girls at a camp died of cancer within a couple of years. Those cancers that followed the blast have been passed down generations in DNA; the list of horrors is unending and yet Trinity’s history is not taught in schools, and some 2,000 nuclear bombs have been detonated since 1945. Nuclear fission inventor Robert Oppenheimer said it best, “Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.” Streaming & DVD on Feb 18.
I’m not especially drawn to series focussed on despicable people; call me crazy but they tend to bring the tenor of one’s day down. In any case thought I’d give Apple Cider Vinegar Feb 6 on Netflix a shot. It concerns two Australian women who launched themselves as wellness gurus on the newly released Instagram app – fertile ground. Inspired by a true story, it concerns Belle Gibson (Kaitlyn Dever) a “pseudoscience” health advocate who made it all up as she went. Her entrée was that she had recovered from Stage 4 brain, blood, spleen, uterine, liver, and kidney cancers, through self created health and wellness system of holistic diet, exercise and alternative medicine. In 2013 she created The Whole Pantry mobile app and a companion cookbook and with the guidance of a publicity agent, embarked on lucrative speaking engagements, authoring books and social media profile above reproach. And she donated to charities. Meanwhile “Milla Blake” aka Jessica Ainscough (Alycia Debnam-Carey) was dealing with a rare cancer that indicated removal of her arm, and launched her own naturopathic journey on a popular blog and wrote the book The Wellness Warrior. And thus began a bitter rivalry. Gibson’s bad deeds were coming to light, and her failure to send money she’d promised to several charities,using it for globetrotting. The police and government soon had her and her publishers and agents. Blake paid the ultimate cost in her refusal to act medically on her diagnosis. And the story ain’t over yet; its hard to feel sympathy or empathy for these women unless their mental health was in question. But what a bold faced lie it all was – and what a story. Their cookbooks are still for sale online. Penguin Books admits they never asked her to substantiate her claims.
The CBC’s crime drama Sainte-Pierre is a treat for the eyes. I don’t know much about the French island off Newfoundland but the series reveals, a beautiful, windswept, traditionally tightknit community, peopled by those who are there “because they love it or they’re escaping “. There’s community spirit, however, like pretty New England trad Cabot Cove, murder runs rampant. Inspector Donny ‘Fitz’ Fitzpatrick, played by Allan Hawco who also created, writes and produces the series, has been downsized from the St Johns, Nfld. and Labrador police, and Arch (French actor Joséphine Jobert) is banished there from France. Fitz ex-wife is now with Premier O’Brien who Fitz knows is corrupt – an underlying theme of the series. Gallagher (James Purefoy) is buying up homes and lands to build a golf course, against the wishes of remainign residents, including a back to nature commune. A body is discovered in the church – it’s a woman with significant land holdings which will go to her wife, Gabby (Fiona Highet), a beekeeper, so she’s a suspect, as is the speculator. The body was staged as a suicide but was not, and heavy drugs are found in Gabby’s honey jars. A man confesses to the murder but it wasn’t him. Fitz’ boss Marcus (Benz Antoine) is kidnapped and beaten, effectively silenced. And another crime to solve on Bastille Day, and a suspicious stranger. Oh, and Fitz has issues. He is often seen sleepwalking around town at night wearing p.j. bottoms and he suffers from seasickness – boat travel is frequent and essential there. He’s also shot in the arm, on purpose, by a teenage girl. Such savagery in Saint–Pierre. Fun, easy on the eyes, and packed with offbeat island characters. CBC Gem and broadcasts.
The late Norman Lear created Clean Slate, a ground breaking sitcom now on Prime Video. Stand up comic George Wallace plays Henry, owner of the Clean Slate car wash, a popular, gregarious figure in his Alabama neighbourhood who isn’t short on opinions. He and his son Desmond have been estranged 23 years, not a word. To his amazement Desmond knocks on his door, now Desiree, a beautiful, confident trans woman, played by actress and activist Laverne Cox. Henry’s floored. Desiree will follow her therapist’s advice in supporting her dad with the news. For a kind of corny sitcom to address these issues is bold. Wallace is appealing but old school and Desiree knew it would be tough to re-educate him. She sets up a pronoun jar that he must pay when he slips and addresses her incorrectly. She tells him she left home; she never felt right and needed to become who she is. But what really gets his goat is that she is now vegetarian. She removes the plastic for his couch, feeling entitled because she is an art gallery curator and knows better. They fight, she heads to the bus station to return home; he realises he can’t let her leave. Neighbours are an important part of the series – they help one another, mostly, and encourage him to accept and love Desiree. Things come to a head when they’r’re stuck together atop a Ferris wheel. It’s cute, easy going and a departure from standard sitcoms.
The Love Club Moms, a four-part original movie franchise focussing on four close friends who stick together through romantic and domestic thick and thins is back; one character and the Greek chorus per feature length eppy. They are Tory (Ashley Newbrough), Jo (Rebecca Dalton), Nila (Nazneen Contractor) and Harper (Genelle Williams) and theyre obsessed with their relationships. This year, the focus is motherhood. Tory, the businesswoman is underwhelmed by the men she’s dated; she choose singledom and adoption. A mix-up while interviewing potential nannies for the child results in an unusual arrangement. Tory’s a publisher and Finn (Ryan Bruce), an aspiring writer pushes his manuscript on her. When they meet, she mistakes him for a nanny and hires him. Her four pals investigate him as a British import to the publishing house arrives, a big sneezer, and sets his sights on Tory. The following three films feature Jo, who learns one of her students is the son of a man she married and annulled in haste as a 19-year-old. Harper’s husband asks for a separation, she goes to work for a politician and decides to run for office. Nila, pestered by unwanted dating app fellas, and her barista pretend to be in a relationship. The films premiere on W Fridays as a part of Hallmark Channel’s Loveuary and stream on STACKTV.
Here’s a story and a half that happened in Toronto. In 2022, entrepreneur Nesh Pillay woke up from a nap without any memories. She looked at “JJ” Jakope who was in the room with her and asks if he is her Uber driver, he replies no, he is her fiancé. 50,000 First Dates: A True Story is a two-part doc on Pillay’s dilemma launching Feb 11 on Prime Video. Her strange story went viral, dubbed “The Real Life 50,000 First Dates Couple.” Drew Barrymore has nothing on her. Pillay woke up with a blank slate; it wasn’t a prank, so JJ takes her to hospital. Her CT scan was fine, no abnormalities and she was told she’d be OK in two days. She wasn’t and no one believed her story. She had to reconstruct her life with her fiancée and family, through journaling, photos and videos; she knew she had a child from another relationship but didn’t know anything about it, not even the name. JJ became her caregiver and eventually burns out, just as they learn she’s pregnant. Doctors tells her the memories will come back but that seems a remote as her brain has lost much of its volume. A mystery and a debilitating future, it seems.
Its winter so many of us are tackling household clutter, whether hiding in bins and boxes neatly stashed away or boldly out in the open. Or we’re reimagining/ reinventing our spaces for greater utility. I returned to Marie Kondo’s shows Tidying Up and Sparking Joy and Hack My Home, with Jessica Banks, Brooks Atwood, Ati Williams and Mikel Welch for quick tips. All are on Netflix. Home Hack finds space hidden in plain sight and rebuilds it as functional, unobtrusive and meaningful additions. But transformed spaces and installations are digital which means never slip
between the moveable walls during an electric storm – you might be stranded. And Marie Kondo after launching a huge global career and name for herself – the trademarked KonMarie Method of tidying and folding – has left the biz behind. As the mother of three, she accepts that there is no time to tidy. OK. Although she did a couple episodes on kid stuff before leaving.