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Movies & TV

Film Friday: In A World…, Call Me Kuchu, Jobs and more

Call Me Kuchu (Katherine Wright, Malika Zouhali-Worrall) is an exceptional documentary about Uganda’s push to make being gay a capital offence. Filmmakers Fairfax and Zouhali-Worrall present the political context – Christian zealots, inspired by their American counterparts who are losing the anti-queer battle in their own country, ratchet up the anti-gay panic. But the soul of the movie is charming and charismatic gay rights activist David Kato, who leads a legal challenge against Ugandan newspaper Rolling Stone (obviously no connection to out gay Jann Wenner’s American mag), which names gays under the headline “Hang them.” Interviews with the homophobic editor are positively chilling. A shattering act of violence two-thirds into the doc ups the stakes dramatically – if you can imagine them getting any higher. But even the shock of that event cannot eclipse the inspirational power of this portrait of a courageous LGBT community partying, organizing, laughing and weeping as it fights for its life. Some subtitles. 87 min.

Rating: NNNN (SGC)

Opens Aug 16 at Bloor Hot Docs Cinema. See here for times.


A Hijacking (Tobias Lindholm) is shot with the agitated intensity of a documentary, and takes its subject from the real world, but it’s a work of fiction – and a hell of a good one at that. Writer/director Lindholm locks us into the perspective of two Danes involved with the taking of the MV Rozen by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean somewhere off the coast of Mumbai. Cutting between the comfortable world of a Copenhagen negotiator (Søren Malling) and the increasingly unpleasant captivity of the ship’s cook (Pilou Asbæk), Lindholm builds a twisting, unyielding tension. The pirates are volatile, and both men are ultimately at their mercy. And as the days wear into weeks, we realize how easy it would be for them to snap and get someone killed. If recent docs about Somali piracy have made you tired of the subject, A Hijacking will wake you up again. Subtitled. 103 min.

Rating: NNNN (NW)

Opens Aug 16 at TIFF Bell Lightbox. See here for times.


In a World… (Lake Bell) is a comedy set in the world of Los Angeles voice-over artists, where the daughter (Bell) of an industry legend (A Serious Man’s Fred Melamed) finds herself horning in on his territory when the producers of a youth-oriented trilogy decide they’d rather have a female voice narrate their trailer. But there’s a lot more going on than that, and In A World … is one of the rare comedies that gets more complex as it goes along. Bell’s script embraces eccentricity and complication – and finds room for real social commentary – while allowing all the characters to have recognizable human qualities, rather than just be stick figures animated by talented actors. And giving stand-up comic Demetri Martin his first leading role as a lovelorn sound engineer was a stroke of genius his low-key presence is perfectly suited to Bell’s more frantic energy. This is a movie of odd, unexpected delights. 93 min.

Rating: NNNN (NW)

Opens Aug 16 at Varsity. See here for times.


The Spectacular Now (James Ponsoldt) traces the tender romance between Georgia teens Sutter (Miles Teller) and Aimee (Shailene Woodley), who meet cute when she finds him on a lawn after a drunken night and helps him locate his missing car. They start dating – and he starts her drinking – and together they edge tentatively toward what lies beyond the end of high school, which is inevitably complicated by matters of family, grades and self-image. And the booze doesn’t help any of that. Teller and Woodley are terrific at portraying unexpected moments of growth, and Teller particularly shines at revealing flashes of Sutter’s emotional mechanisms and then snatching them back. The Spectacular Now would be a very different movie without him. 95 min.

Rating: NNNN (NW)

Opens Aug 16 at Varsity. See here for times.


A Band Called Death (Mark Covino, Jeff Howlett) delves in great detail into a forgotten, allegedly pioneering band: Detroit protopunks Death. A trio of black brothers – Bobby, David and Dannis Hackney – playing driving garage rock influenced by the Who and Alice Cooper, Death didn’t fit easily into the Motor City music scene of the time, where black musicians were expected to churn out soul and R&B singles. Even their name was a tough sell. They were doomed to obscurity. Those not predisposed to like this kind of music may find claims of Death’s significance hard to swallow, but the film’s exploration of the difficulty of accomplishing something original inside the inflexible apparatus of popular music proves absorbing all the same. 96 min.

Rating: NNN (JS)

Opens Aug 16 at TIFF Bell Lightbox. See here for times.


Iceberg Slim: Portrait of a Pimp (Jorge Hinojosa) is a fine talking-heads documentary that brings the legend of author Robert Beck, aka Iceberg Slim, to vivid life through testimonials from his publisher and family, as well as archival footage of the man himself. Hinojosa and executive producer Ice-T – who took his name from Beck’s stone-cold street persona – tell Slim’s story in chronological order, from his youth as a petty criminal through his emergence as a counterculture author and ending with his ignominious death in 1992. Given hip-hop culture’s tendency to lionize criminals, I was impressed by Hinojosa’s refusal to turn Portrait Of A Pimp into a straight-up hagiography. Beck was a gifted writer but a pretty awful person, and the movie doesn’t back away from that. Neither is it as flashy nor as dynamic as its subject. But really, what could be? 89 min.

Rating: NNN (NW)

Opens Aug 16 at Bloor Hot Docs Cinema. See here for times.


Lee Daniels’ The Butler (Lee Daniels) makes the life of White House butler Eugene Allen – Cecil Gaines in the film – into a lesson in black history. While Gaines (Forest Whitaker) is having theoretically world-changing conversations with presidents, we’re distracted by the A-list cast – Robin Williams as Eisenhower, John Cusack as Nixon and Jane Fonda as Nancy Reagan. The storyline in which Gaines clashes with his son (David Oyelowo) over political values is one of the script’s many total fictions. But without them, we couldn’t watch Gaines pouring drinks for powerful white people while cops beat up his Freedom Rider son. The politics are confusing. Is it the butler who’s changing history or those kids trying to integrate the Woolworth’s counters in Tennessee? That said, this is a rousing drama with terrific performances, especially from Oprah Winfrey as Gaines’s neglected wife, Oyelowo and the sensational Whitaker. But the director of Precious and The Paperboy is decidedly domesticated here, aiming to teach and please. 132 min.

Rating: NNN (SGC)

Opens Aug 16 at 401 & Morningside, Beach Cinemas, Cineplex Cinemas Empress Walk, Coliseum Scarborough, Colossus, Courtney Park 16, Eglinton Town Centre, Queensway, Rainbow Market Square, Rainbow Promenade, SilverCity Yonge, SilverCity Yorkdale, Varsity, Yonge & Dundas 24. See here for times.


Jobs (Joshua Michael Stern) is like The Social Network without social commentary, character development or much fun. Before building the first Apples in his dad’s garage, the titular titan of industry (Ashton Kutcher) is just a smug hippy prick. Initial thrilling success is followed by the humbling: our hero is effectively pushed out of his own company but eventually restored to his rightful capitalist glory. In this a charmless bullet-point biopic, the dialogue ismostly leaden exposition, the cutting and camera movement feel superfluous, and Kutcher’s emoting as he punches out lines like “We. Don’t. Stop. Innovating!” fails to amuse. 127 min.

Rating: NN (Jose Teodoro)

Opens Aug 16 at Cineplex Cinemas Empress Walk, Colossus, Courtney Park 16, Eglinton Town Centre, Queensway, SilverCity Fairview, SilverCity Yonge, Varsity, Yonge & Dundas 24. See here for times.


Kick-Ass 2 (Jeff Wadlow) Kick Ass 2 ditches most of the real world superhero ingenuity of the original to cram in more comic book parody and shock comedy. Writer/director Jeff Wadlow follows the “darker is better” sequel model while still sneaking in moments of teenage poignancy within the cynicism. Once again it’s supporting characters like Chloe Moretz’s pint-sized assassin and Christopher Mintz-Plasse’s pubescent supervillain that register more than the title character, stealing scenes and then running off with the whole movie. It’s obscene without being subversive and self-conscious with little commentary. In other words the film is kind of a mess, but at least it’s an entertaining one. 103 min.

Rating: NN (Phil Brown)

Opens Aug 16 at 401 & Morningside, Beach Cinemas, Carlton Cinema, Cineplex Cinemas Empress Walk, Coliseum Mississauga, Coliseum Scarborough, Colossus, Courtney Park 16, Docks Lakeview Drive-In, Eglinton Town Centre, Grande – Steeles, Humber Cinemas, Queensway, Rainbow Market Square, Rainbow Woodbine, Scotiabank Theatre, SilverCity Fairview, SilverCity Mississauga, SilverCity Yonge, SilverCity Yorkdale. See here for times.


La Pirogue (Moussa Touré) follows Senegalese emigrants who set out in a wooden boat – the titular Pirogue – for a new life in Spain. The film charts familiar territory. All that distinguishes director Touré’s immigration drama from its ilk are the specific cultural flavours given to the characters and journey. The 31 passengers on the colourful vessel are representative of West Africa’s diverse languages, religions and mindsets, from old tribal leaders to young would-be musicians rocking urban gear. Standard setbacks like storms, quarrels and casualties don’t make any emotional waves since they are clinically checked off, as if the filmmakers recognized the predictability of it all and would rather just hurry to the gloomy finale we all see coming. Subtitled. 87 min.

Rating: NN (RS)

Opens Aug 16 at TIFF Bell Lightbox. See here for times.


The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (Harald Zwart) is the adaptation of the first book in Cassandra Clare’s young-adult novel series about a teen who discovers she’s a demon-slayer. Screened after press screening. See review in next week’s issue. 130 min.

Opens Aug 21 at 401 & Morningside, Beach Cinemas, Carlton Cinema, Cineplex Cinemas Empress Walk, Coliseum Mississauga, Coliseum Scarborough, Colossus, Courtney Park 16, Eglinton Town Centre, Grande – Steeles, Queensway, Rainbow Promenade, Rainbow Woodbine, SilverCity Fairview, SilverCity Yonge, SilverCity Yorkdale, Yonge & Dundas 24. See here for times.


Paranoia (Robert Luketic) stars Liam Hemsworth (The Hunger Games) as a green employee who spies to move up the corporate ladder. Screened after press time – see review Aug 16 at nowtoronto.com/movies. 106 min.

Opens Aug 16 at Canada Square, Carlton Cinema, Coliseum Mississauga, Coliseum Scarborough, Colossus, Courtney Park 16, Eglinton Town Centre, Grande – Steeles, Queensway, SilverCity Fairview, Yonge & Dundas 24. See here for times.

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