By Anne Brodie
The Last of the Sea Women on AppleTV+ is a deeply inspiring doc about a group of elderly South Korean ocean warriors, real-life mermaids, known as “haenyeo” divers. These grandmother warriors share a deep love and respect for the ocean whose chosen job is to harvest food from the ocean. It starts at age 17 when they begin training – reading ocean temperament, learning their limits and how to find their catch – anything and everything from squid to sea anemones, sea urchins, sea cucumber, conches and other exotic creatures we rarely see or eat in Canada. It’s a tradition dating back hundreds of years, women diving to the sea floor without breathing apparatus, holding their breath for around two minutes (!) as they spot and collect edibles to take up, usually one or two at a time. The seafood is hard to spot so a trained eye is required. The money is good and is now attracting young working mothers who prefer being in the sea to an office a good sign as the haenyeo numbers are diminishing. The ladies we meet are in their 60s, 70s and 80s, fit and flexible, enthusiastic, and still in love with the sea after all these years. They pray to the Dragon King to keep the oceans safe and throw festivals to celebrate them, while drawing attention to the hazards the ocean faces and clean the garbage to prolong the ocean’s viability. But they face tough enemies, extreme pollution floating in from China and Japan and recently, Japan’s proposal to release its radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear disaster. It will affect the ocean for hundreds perhaps thousands of years. So feisty grandmothers they are, they make billboards, and protest in the streets, in the media. Jin Sook Park travels halfway around the world to make the case to stop Japan in an impassioned statement to the UN in Geneva. There is so much to learn from these women warriors, and to admire, they are spirited, energetic, love life and they’re independent, quashing elderly stereotypes while doing what they love best. Just an exceptional documentary by Sue Kim. They help us imagine what we can do to build a better world. Another woman warrior, Pakistani education activist Malala Yousafzai produced.
In strong contrast to those wonderful women, comes the story of Donald Trump’s rise. The biopic The Apprentice in theatres today won’t set the world on fire cinematically, it offers a terrifying, fact-based glimpse into what made the man who he is today. The remarkably versatile Sebastian Stan plays Trump. His physical transformation – the pursed mouth-hole, the dumpy look and walk, those hand gestures and his transformation after meeting Cohn are spot on. Jeremy Strong is mad lawyer Roy Cohn, the amoral fixer who gave him the rules to succeed, at any cost. He was responsible alongside Sen. Joseph McCarthy for the executions of alleged Communist spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Trump was a non-entity growing up, whose father Fred had little regard or love for him. Cohn gave him attention, telling him he was gorgeous, a “thoroughbred” and showed him a new world in which dreams of wealth and power come true, the kind Cohn gained, by any means possible. Trump learned Cohn’s three rules for winning – attack, attack, attack, admit nothing and deny everything, and no matter what happens, claim victory and admit no defeat. We pity Trump, who finds attention finally in this base human being. Cohn taught him no one wants to live next door to blacks – the Department of Justice sued Trump on behalf of the NAACP for racist rental practices – that civil rights stink like fish stinks, that democracy is evil, bribery works etc. ad nauseum. Cohn had a basement control setup that recorded conversations in all his rooms; he boasted he had the goods on everyone and this is how Trump was built. Oh, and how he learned to manipulate the media, lie, cheat and defame and he’s an alleged multiple rapist. And of course, this is the guy running for President now. Filmmaker Ali Abbasi’s eye-opener is now out here for voters to see and reflect upon in advance of November’s consequential election.
Once upon a time in an era far, far away, the 70s, there lived an ultra tacky American TV game show called The Dating Game in which a woman had to blind choose between three “bachelors” based on their responses to her scripted questions, always suggestive, and then go out with the “winner”. Anna Kendrick reawakens that show in her debut directorial true crime feature The Woman of the Hour in which she also stars. She plays Cheryl Bradshaw one of the show’s hired stooges, an actor desperate for a paid gig – yes, they paid contestants – forced to submit to a change of look, and wardrobe and to read from a script. She would be the night’s Woman of the Hour. Kendrick reveals Cheryl’s embarrassment at stooping to these depths for a bit of cash, but you know. The mind-bending story is based on real events about the aspiring actress who chose Bachelor Number Three, Rodney Alcala, played with ice in his veins by Daniel Zovatto. Alcala was a serial killer whose estimated total of potential murders in the US was later reckoned to be as many as 130. He charmed women, photographed them, beat them, killed them and grew his photo collection. Kendrick’s interesting take as a director shows us some of his known murders in a grim, realistic, barebones style, putting us directly beside the action, fascinating and revolting, lying next to the couples. Kendrick has a gift and an eye for style suitable to her material in this debut. She plays Bradshaw with minute attention to detail, a woman who stepped below what she saw as her social rank just to be seen on TV who unwittingly opens herself to fate. Watching her in the process of understanding the horrific mess she’d strayed into, and what was to unfold before her is shockingly real and not to be missed. Yikes. In theatres.
Lover of Men: The Untold History of Abraham Lincoln. The title of Shaun Peterson’s remarkable Prime Video documentary reflects conservative 20th-century ideas about homosexuality in contrast to the relative gender fluidity in western history until then. One of the United States’ most revered Presidents, the man who ended the Civil War, began the conversation about abolishing slavery, and “created a Leviathan of a nation” was a product of his time. Raised in a remote cabin in Kentucky, moving to small towns to escape his abusive father, and ultimately landed in Springfield Ohio and sought the life he wanted. People remarked on his discomfort around women, and outright disdain, avoiding them. He didn’t like girls “too much, they were too frivolous”. He and his cousin and best friend Billy Green shared a cot from his teen years, they slept together and became close. Later Lincoln fell in love for the first time with shop owner Joshua Speed his closest friend and lover for decades. When Green married, he assured Lincoln that he was no longer “scared” of sex with women. Lincoln was expected to marry Ann Todd, so he was reassured. But Lincoln never gave up his chosen lifestyle, even after he married. It just wasn’t unusual back then. Twenty scholars and historians contributing to the doc describe the normal gender fluidity of the period, male and female, who shared close affectionate and physical relationships. It was not frowned upon but thought of as normal and “nice”. Cross-dressing was common. Plenty of photos and letters confirm that reality. In fact, in homosocial cities, men and women stayed separate; it was inappropriate to have opposite-sex friends. And then came Eugenics as researchers carried out and created definitions for “types” of people, in terms, of race, sexual behaviour, physical appearance, sexuality and more. It took off and suddenly became gospel. The norms of the entire sexual history of humans were reduced to stereotypes. And then claims that homosexuality was against the Bible and the backlash began. The 20th century embraced eugenics and cleansing and making sexuality a controllable political idea, in which variations were and are punished. There is a vast amount of information in this doc, a wake-up call. Using Lincoln as a focus may help people accept the idea and practice of gender fluidity. Riveting. On TVOD platforms.
Swept away by the Russo Brothers’ anthology series Citadel now on Prime Video. Introduced last year, in all its frenzied globetrotting, two new installments are imminent – first Citadel Diana available now and Citadel Honeybunny Nov 7. The solid introduction to the international spy thriller starred Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Richard Madden, Stanley Tucci, and Lesley Manville in the Russo Brothers’ all-new take on the spy genre, a game-changer with an innovative plotline and concept, time jumps, tech marvels and incredible action.” The same can be said for Citadel Diana (the Italian episode) and Citadel Honeybunny (The Indian episode – is Canada getting one?) Diana opens in Milan in 2030 as Citadel rises from the ashes to take down those that took it down, the evil Manticore syndicate. Diana (Matilda De Angelis) sports an unsettling haircut as she digs for info on Manticore, a Citadel mole; she is not safe. The Italians haven’t been invited to an upcoming Manticore summit; that’s because there is a plan in place to destroy them. Diana’s looking for “the apple” a dangerous device wanted across all networks and finds half – and now for the other half. A vicious game of cat and mouse ensues – she’s beaten, shot, terrorized and on the run and she can say the same for the other side. She shoots herself in the arm to cover her tracks and after the mayhem decides to get out of it forever. The son of Manticore’s leader may help. As a young child, her her parents were killed when their plane was shot down and the black box went missing for 16 hours. She became a journalist and segued into international espionage, seeking answers. She’s driven, cunning, always on high alert but determined to wash her hands of it and move with her sister to Iceland. But then … Love this tough, smart woman in a position of power, trained and armed to the teeth with old and new weaponry who believes in herself.
Sophie Turner tackles a complicated character whose moral compass is off, while her heart is in the right place. Joan, a new British crime series now on CBC is an incisive portrait of a 20-something woman whose beauty, charm and ability to manipulate are chosen tickets to a better life. Her six-year-old adored daughter Kelly is at risk as Joan’s ex-husband Gary, a violent con who will go to any lengths to control her, has threatened Kelly. However, escapes the city as things are a bit hot due to a melee that cost Joan her daughter to social services. Kelly’s taken into care; Joan vows to grab that life and riches she craves and get Kelly back. Now free to make it happen; she knows how to pick locks, steal cars, fool folk and present herself as whatever persona is required on a dime. Her appearance is a little tacky so she reinvents herself as an elegant, educated woman with an upper-class accent, tasteful clothes and the posture and movements of a well-bred woman. She easily lands a job in a jeweller’s store. The diamonds fascinate her and she fascinates the owner; she lets herself into the vault, finds the loose diamonds, swallows four, and leaves the store for the day. She pretends to her smitten boss that she is open to sex. She is brilliant, and brave and eases into the role of jewel thief with apparent ease. Later in her new international crime demi-monde, she escalates to stealing rare artworks. Turner appears to relish this juicy role that offers such a wide variety of personas to play while she must remain Joan at the core. Clever, fun, and thrilling, it’s an exceptional six-parter. A woman who does things her way, damn the dissenters. Oct 11 on CBC.
The makers of Chernobyl launch a new mystery series Passenger, set in the fictional Chadder Vale, somewhere near Manchester; it’s ambitious and sure to give viewers the heebee jeebies; it’s familiar yet alien, timeless yet ultra-modern. Former Met Police Detective Riya Ajunwa played by the mighty inadvertent scene stealer Wunmi Mosaku is a newcomer to the place and unprepared for what it holds – its a tinderbox, she says, on edge with local fracking and protesters, a strange missing person case and the return to town of a loathed murderer, having served just five of his ten-year sentence. Katie Wells, a local teen girl, drives to the woods where her tire’s punctured and fails to return. Ajunwa discovers her abandoned car and galvanises the community to search for her. A bread truck driver, heading through the same woods and listening to a horror podcast is spooked by violent noises, gunshots and crashes coming from the locked cargo hold. His electronics system sets off alarms; he gets out of the truck, terrified, to see what’s going on. The cargo hold is empty but somehow maliciously alive. He tells his boss he can’t do that route anymore. Meanwhile, Ajunwa finds a gutted and shredded stag’s body near Katie’s car; no animal could have done the damage inflicted on it. And if all this weren’t enough, an elderly man living in a trailer in the woods is set upon by protesters who leave an effigy hung at his gate and the murderer who threatened him, the early release prisoner Eddie Wells, is walking home with a smile on his face. And out of the blue, Katie returns – what happened in the woods and why was she there? She’s not saying. A lot goes on in Chadder Vale, perhaps too much as so many characters are introduced and given fleeting backstories, and interactions, mostly based on longtime village connections, culture and histories, except Ajunwa who is new and has a lot to learn. It is somewhat overwhelming, packed and needs breathing room, still, it’s a worthy idea and Mosaku is nothing short of phenomenal. On BritBox Oct 17.
Either I’m naive or I don’t know the comedy scene these days. Both must be true because I found Ali Wong’s comedy special Single Lady on Netflix Oct. 8 shocking. And I watch a lot of movies, TV and streaming – that’s what I do. But Holy Hannah I was not prepared for her passionate parsing of oral sex every which way for at least 40 minutes. More specifically, newly divorced Wong sings the praises of orgasm and where it comes into the bargain she’ll drive to make for a “relationship”. She says men are coming at her like no one’s business since word got out that she was single. Her bargain is straight-out tit-for-tat; if a man doesn’t automatically take a dive, she breaks up with him. If he does and often and unexpectedly, she’ll give him a condo just outside LA if he makes himself available. After all, she’s no longer trying to “catch a man”, she’s “trying to have a concussion”. Pretty funny and pretty bold. And also, a bit bitter, revenge-y and man-hate-y. Wong’s firm policy on expensive gifts like jewelry goes like this -she says thank you, she’ll cherish it all her life and in the same breath dumps him and walks away. Or if the gifts stop coming after three weeks, she’s outta there. Looking at some of her prior work, it’s not unusual. She’s one tough cookie. Her routines are meant to shock – she’s the anti-Jerry. Still, I find her bravery admirable and hard-won insights illuminating to a degree. And she’s certainly not out for male fans. But tee hee (guardedly).