Big Boys Gone Bananas!* (Fredrik Gertten) tracks food giant Dole’s campaign to prevent Gertten from screening his 2009 documentary, Bananas!, about Dole’s treatment of its banana farmers. The company attempted to stop screenings and then took legal action against Gertten that would not let up. Eventually, he counter-sued. This doc follows the craven behaviour of L.A. Film Fest organizers and the support Gertten received from all parties in the Swedish parliament. A small but sweet subplot displays the power of a Swedish blogger following the controversy. Dole is plainly the villain, but the most scandalous revelation here is the way the media got sucked in by Dole’s press releases claiming Bananas* contained false information. Snippets show media outlets mocking Gertten without ever picking up the phone to ask him a question. This is a movie about the huge impact a documentary can make. Some subtitles. 88 min.
Rating: NNNN (SGC)
Opens May 11 at Bloor Hot Docs Cinema. See here for times.
Edwin Boyd (Nathan Morlando) gives the notorious Canuck criminal a film worthy of his legacy. Scott Speedman delivers an appropriately charismatic performance as the impoverished family man who skilfully robbed banks, becoming a beloved national celebrity and public enemy number one. Nice guy too bad these sorts of stories don’t have happy endings. Morlando’s stylish directorial debut is a giddy rush of entertainment with melancholic undertones, shot through an evocative newsreel aesthetic. (The black-and-white rear projection used in driving scenes is a nice touch). The innocent spirit behind Boyd’s crime spree is captured without shying away from the damage his exploits inflicted on his family. Canadian movies are rarely this slick and entertaining. Come to think of it, period crime movies rarely play so well. 105 min.
Rating: NNNN (Phil Brown)
Opens May 11 at TIFF Bell Lightbox. See here for times.
A Place Called Los Pereyra (Andrés Livov-Macklin) straddles the stylistic divide between conventional documentary and ethnographic portrait, so that rather than being shown things we’re led to understand them. The eponymous Argentine village is dying the old ways don’t work as well as they used to. The deep cultural gap between the children of Los Pereyra and a squad of young medical students makes it feel like they’ve arrived from another dimension. And as the final frames of Livov-Macklin’s simple, resonant documentary suggest, they might as well have. Subtitled. 82 min.
Rating: NNNN (NW)
Opens May 11 at Projection Booth. See here for times.
Sound of My Voice (Zal Batmanglij) is a slippery meditation on faith disguised as science fiction, with two hipsters (Christopher Denham, Nicole Vicius) trying to expose a mysterious woman (Brit Marling, who co-wrote the script with director Batmanglij) who claims to have returned from the year 2054 to ready a select few for the coming apocalypse. As with last year’s Another Earth – which also featured Marling as star and co-writer – Sound Of My Voice is not a movie for people who like things spelled out. It’s an elusive shell game every time we think we’ve glimpsed the truth, it pivots away from us. And once you adjust to that ambiguity, things become a lot more interesting. 84 min.
Rating: NNNN (NW)
Opens May 11 at TIFF Bell Lightbox. See here for times.
A Bottle In The Gaza Sea (Thierry Binisti) is a well-meaning but rather insistently earnest plea for mutual understanding between Israelis and Palestinians. After a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv, a teenage Israeli (Agathe Bonitzer) wonders what would drive anyone to strap on an explosives belt she writes this question as a message in a bottle which her soldier brother throws into the sea. A young Palestinian (Mahmud Shalaby) finds the bottle and replies, starting a conversation that moves beyond initial hostility towards something like empathy – though their respective elders remain rooted in old hatreds. It’s well acted and pleasant enough, though one gets the sense there should be more to the drama beyond just getting along. Subtitled. 99 min.
Rating: NNN (NW)
Opens May 11 at Yonge & Dundas 24. See here for times.
China Heavyweight (Yung Chang) is another look at modern China’s changing culture by Up The Yangtze director Chang. A boxing trainer in central China recruits a few young men who hope to become champions. It’s your basic underdog structure, and the training sequences are appropriately gritty and gruelling, but the material isn’t well suited to Chang’s moody, sensual aesthetic, which uses long takes and atmospheric music to build a contemplative space around everything he shoots. When the time comes to go all Rocky in a climactic bout, the film feels like it’s lurching to life for the first time. Subtitled. 89 min.
Rating: NNN (NW)
Opens May 11 at Varsity. See here for times.
Dark Shadows (Tim Burton) is impeccably designed and textured and features a fun character turn by Johnny Depp as the miserable vampire Barnabas Collins – unearthed from two centuries’ burial to awkwardly rejoin his family in 1972 – but somehow it never comes to life. Fans will see the episodic, overstuffed narrative as being faithful to the original series, which constantly juggled everyone’s allegiances and affections to keep the story moving. But movies aren’t TV shows, and Burton can’t keep this many balls in the air without dropping a few. As with Burton and Depp’s take on Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, there’s no question everyone had a ball on the set, but the final product doesn’t really merit all the effort. 113 min.
Rating: NN (NW)
Opens May 11 at 401 & Morningside, Beach Cinemas, Coliseum Mississauga, Colossus, Courtney Park 16, Eglinton Town Centre, Empire Theatres at Empress Walk, Grande – Steeles, Humber Cinema, Kennedy Commons 20, Queensway, Rainbow Market Square, Rainbow Promenade, Rainbow Woodbine, Scotiabank Theatre, SilverCity Fairview, SilverCity Yonge, SilverCity Yorkdale, Varsity. See here for times.
The Dictator (Larry Charles) is a comedy about a political tyrant who comes to America, by the director and star of Borat and Bruno. Reviewed in next week’s issue. 84 min.
Opens May 16 at 401 & Morningside, Beach Cinemas, Coliseum Mississauga, Coliseum Scarborough, Colossus, Courtney Park 16, Eglinton Town Centre, Empire Theatres at Empress Walk, Grande – Steeles, Queensway, Rainbow Market Square, Rainbow Promenade, Rainbow Woodbine, Scotiabank Theatre, SilverCity Fairview, SilverCity Yonge, SilverCity Yorkdale, Varsity. See here for times.
The Metropolitan Opera: Die Walküre Encore is an encore presentation of the high-def broadcast from the Met of the second installment of Robert Lepage’s new production of Wagner’s Ring Cycle, starring Bryn Terfel as Wotan and Deborah Voigt as Brünnhilde. 330 min.
Opens May 12 at Coliseum Mississauga, Coliseum Scarborough, Grande – Yonge, Queensway, Scotiabank Theatre, SilverCity Yonge. See here for times.
The Metropolitan Opera: Manon Encore is a repeat broadcast in high def of the Met’s production of the Massenet opera, starring soprano Anna Netrebko in the tragic title role. 248 min.
Opens May 14 at Eglinton Town Centre, Grande – Yonge, Queensway, Scotiabank Theatre, SilverCity Mississauga. See here for times.
This American Life Live! is a live broadcast of the famous NPR radio show, featuring stories by Davis Sedaris, David Rakoff and host Ira Glass, comedy by Tig Notaro, a short film by Mike Birbiglia and more. 120 min.
Opens May 10 at Coliseum Mississauga, Eglinton Town Centre, Grande – Yonge, Queensway, Scotiabank Theatre. See here for times.