Darwin (Nick Brandestini) plops us down in a former mining town in the middle of Death Valley that’s now home to 35 very distinctive souls who’ve retreated from society in one way or another, only to end up forming an odd new social network in the middle of nowhere. Director and editor Brandestini encourages the residents to tell their own fascinating stories (in their own rhythms), breaking up the talking-head segments with footage of the community at work – including a prickly meeting of the municipal water board – to illustrate that even at the ends of the earth, it’s impossible to get away from everything. 88 min.
Rating: NNNN (NW)
Opens Aug 24 at Bloor Hot Docs Cinema. See here for times.
Farewell, My Queen (Benoît Jacquot) is a fleet, alluring and engrossing take on Marie Antoinette (Diane Kruger) and the pivotal days of the French Revolution, told from the perspective of Sidonie Laborde (Léa Seydoux), a dutiful lady-in-waiting who recites verses from novels and fashion magazines at the queen’s whim. Citizens may be storming the Bastille, but Sidonie’s primary fuction is to make sure the queen’s up to date on what’s chic. Sidonie races between’s the queen’s chambers, where ignorance is bliss, and the servants’ quarters, where blind panic reigns. Director Jacquot rarely shows disdain for his historical players, who are humanized by Sidonie’s compassion. His film’s as layered as the elegant attire on display. Subtitled. 100 min.
Rating: NNNN (RS)
Opens Aug 24 at Varsity. See here for times.
Hell and Back Again (Danfung Dennis) is a harrowing study of the human cost of the Afghanistan war that plays out in two discrete timelines. In one, a platoon of U.S. Marines clashes with Taliban guerrillas in the other, a few months later, Sgt. Nathan Harris struggles through the gruelling rehabilitation process after he’s shot in an ambush. Director Dennis, best known as a war photographer, has a terrific eye this is one of the best-looking docs I’ve seen in years. But it’s also emotionally immediate and formally accomplished, with confident transitions between the two time frames that bring us closer and closer to the struggling Harris. Seems there was somewhere to take the boots-on-the-ground doc after Restrepo and Armadillo after all. 88 min.
Rating: NNNN (NW)
Opens Aug 24 at Bloor Hot Docs Cinema. See here for times.
Bill W. (Kevin Hanlon, Dan Carracino) is an earnest, straightforward and oddly uninvolving portrait of William G. Wilson, who helped change millions of lives via Alcoholics Anonymous, which he founded in the 30s. Combining talking heads (AA members of all ages deep in shadow) and competent period recreations, the directors bring out some of the key moments in the organization’s history and shed light on horrific early medical theories, debates about the idea of a higher power and even a pre-civil rights integration issue. It’s not a great documentary, but the man – flawed and always uneasy about becoming the figurehead for the organization – and his message are very important indeed. 104 min.
Rating: NNN (GS)
Opens Aug 24 at Carlton Cinema. See here for times.
Robot & Frank (Jake Schreier) features another sterling lion-in-winter turn from Frank Langella as a former cat burglar struggling with Alzheimer’s, and an utterly credible near-future setting in which advanced technology is convincingly integrated into the everyday lives of its upstate New York characters. The supporting performances are also solid: James Marsden and Liv Tyler as Frank’s well-meaning yet distant kids, Susan Sarandon as a sympathetic librarian and Peter Sarsgaard as the voice of Frank’s little helper, a robot with an amoral nature that makes it the perfect accomplice for a couple of jobs Frank’s been meaning to pull. Jeremy Sisto turns in a gem of a cameo as a small-town sheriff who has no patience for fools but great respect for master criminals. In fact, Robot & Frank is so good that it’s doubly awful to watch it self-destruct in the last reel thanks to a profoundly stupid and ultimately unnecessary plot twist. 88 min.
Rating: NNN (NW)
Opens Aug 24 at Grande – Yonge, Queensway, Varsity. See here for times.
Easy Money (Daniel Espinosa) is a facile thriller charting the fates of three characters as they work their way through Sweden’s cocaine underworld – a humble Stockholm university student (Joel Kinnaman of The Killing) with dreams of upward mobility, an escaped convict (Matias Padin Varela) with an estranged family and a Serbian heavy (Dragomir Mrsic) who gains a new perspective on things when he’s forced to take custody of his young daughter. It’s an ambitious set-up, but the demands of the gangster genre take over in the laboured second hour, when shootings, beatings and betrayals squeeze out thoughtful character development and insight. Subtitled. 119 min.
Rating: NN (NW)
Opens Aug 24 at Carlton Cinema. See here for times.
Hit & Run (Dax Shepard, David Palmer) is a weird mashup of romantic comedy and car-chase thriller. Charlie (Shepard, who wrote, produced and co-directed), a decent guy in witness protection, decides to risk his neck driving his girlfriend Annie (Kristen Bell) to Los Angeles for a potentially life-changing job interview. They’re pursued by Charlie’s easily flustered minder (Tom Arnold), Annie’s stalkerish ex-boyfriend (Michael Rosenbaum), a pair of cops (Jess Rowland and Carly Hatter) and eventually by Charlie’s old gang, led by a dreadlocked Bradley Cooper. The stunt work’s impressive, but it’s ultimately just a distraction. This movie’s really about the conversations Charlie and Annie have when they’re not running for their lives. Real-life couple Shepard and Bell are pretty great as people who’ve been together for a year but are only just getting to know each other, but I wish Shepard had had the confidence as a writer to give them more time off the road. 100 min.
Rating: NN (NW)
Opens Aug 24 at 401 & Morningside, Beach Cinemas, Carlton Cinema, Coliseum Mississauga, Courtney Park 16, Docks Lakeview Drive-In, Eglinton Town Centre, Empire Theatres at Empress Walk, Grande – Steeles, Interchange 30, Kennedy Commons 20, Queensway, Rainbow Woodbine, SilverCity Fairview, SilverCity Yonge, SilverCity Yorkdale, Yonge & Dundas 24. See here for times.
Lawless (John Hillcoat) doesn’t offer Hillcoat or screenwriter Nick Cave the same scale or resonance as The Proposition. This simple 1930s crime picture is ill suited to the duo’s grandiose artistic aspirations. Might have made a great track on one of Cave’s murder-ballad albums, though. Based on Matt Bondurant’s family history The Wettest County In The World, it’s the true-ish story of a family of Prohibition-era moonshiners (Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy, Jason Clarke) whose comfortable Virginia life is threatened by the arrival of a crusading big-city lawman, played by Guy Pearce with slicked-back hair, pigeon strut and shaved eyebrows as a cartoon maniac bristling with the potential for sadistic cruelty. The script is similarly miscalculated, framing the brothers’ love interests (Mia Wasikowska, Jessica Chastain) in a clumsy Madonna-whore dichotomy and laying on the gangster clichés extra-thick whenever Gary Oldman’s mobster pays a visit to Franklin County. 115 min.
Rating: NN (NW)
Opens Aug 29 at 401 & Morningside, Coliseum Scarborough, Colossus, Courtney Park 16, Eglinton Town Centre, Grande – Yonge, Queensway, Rainbow Market Square, Rainbow Promenade, Rainbow Woodbine, Scotiabank Theatre. See here for times.
The Apparition (Todd Lincoln) is a horror flick about college students who unleash something scary. Screened after press time – see review August 24 at nowtoronto.com/movies. 82 min.
Opens Aug 24 at Canada Square, Coliseum Mississauga, Coliseum Scarborough, Courtney Park 16, Eglinton Town Centre, Empire Theatres at Empress Walk, Interchange 30, Queensway, Scotiabank Theatre, SilverCity Mississauga, SilverCity Yorkdale. See here for times.
Premium Rush (David Koepp) stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a New York City bike courier who’s being chased by a dirty cop (Michael Shannon). Screened after press time – see review August 24 at nowtoronto.com/movies. 91 min.
Opens Aug 24 at 401 & Morningside, Coliseum Scarborough, Colossus, Courtney Park 16, Eglinton Town Centre, Grande – Steeles, Grande – Yonge, Queensway, Rainbow Market Square, Rainbow Promenade, Rainbow Woodbine, Scotiabank Theatre, SilverCity Fairview, SilverCity Mississauga, SilverCity Yonge, SilverCity Yorkdale. See here for times.
