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Some films play at festivals and never come back. This week two small ones I saw at the Vancouver International Film Festival do re-surface. The Grizzlie Truth, a fan's celebration of a long-gone basketball team and voted the audience favorite, is now included in the Vancouver Asian Film Festival. It's available for streaming too. Check out VAAF.ORG to find out more.
Another film I mentioned several times, Back Home, about a woman trying to understand why her brother killed himself, will screen at the Montreal International Documentary Festival. That's later this month and quite an honor for this small Vancouver production. It'll be showing twice.
And here's another suggestion: The Perfect Story, an award winner at the Calgary International Film Festival, is now on the National Fil Board site (nfb.ca) and free to watch. It's about the ethics of journalism in a story about a reporter and a Somali refugee.
And elsewhere there are these:
Armageddon Time: 3 ½ stars
My Policeman: 2 ½
The Wonder: 4
Enola Holmes 2: 3 ½
The Return of Tanya Tucker, featuring Brandi Carlile: 3
ARMAGEDDON TIME: While we're waiting for Steven Spielberg’s childhood memories in The Fabelmans here's another veteran director's nostalgia trip. It's is also a deeply personal story about family, a boy's ambitions, personal feelings of guilt and much more. James Gray grew up in the New York borough of Queens and dreamt of becoming an artist. That's exactly where we find his film character, 11-year-old Paul Graff. His drawings are dismissed at home and get him in trouble at school. He becomes friends with a black student who gets into trouble repeatedly, and is blamed for even more than he should be. Paul learns about race issues from him but, to his regret, does little to help his pal.
It's a bittersweet look at growing up and features a warm bond with a grandfather, played by Anthony Hopkins. He advises the boy and reminds him of his heritage, of people who escaped anti-Semitism in Europe and shortened their names to better thrive in the U.S. The last time Hopkins played a character like that he won a Best Actor Academy Award. He's superb again , though in pretty well a supporting role to a fine child actor named Banks Repeta, who is totally convincing as the young boy. It's his story that's up front as he deals with a scolding mom (Anne Hathaway), an ineffectual dad (Jeremy Strong—Remember him from Succession?) and relatives at noisy dinners, teachers and officials at school and even a cop. It's episodic but richly evocative. (In theaters) 3 ½ out of 5
MY POLICEMAN: Harry Styles may be huge in popular music but in this film he's not very convincing as a gay man. He doesn't convey much of the anxiety that a character like he must have felt in England in the 1950s. Homesexuality is illegal and he's a gay policeman. Furthermore, he doesn't look at all like a younger version of Linus Roache, though the story asks us to believe that. It's set in two time periods and constantly toggles back and forth with the 1990s. The story is engrossing though and is taken from a novel which is said to be based on a triangle love affair the writer E. M. Forster was involved in.
In the film, Styles, as Tom, meets a young teacher (Emma Corrin, she played Diana in The Crown) and impresses her by bringing along a friend, a museum curator played by David Dawson. He marries her partly to cover up the relationship he's got with that male friend. In the 1990s, she (now played by Gina McKee) brings that same fellow into their house, apparently an act of charity because he's imobile after a stroke. Tom (now played by Linus Roache) objects strongly and the film works to unravel the motivations all around. Much of that is done through peeks into an old diary and the many flashbacks they bring on. The film does expose the toxic effects that repression can bring on—the older versions of these characters are angry and resentful. But this film by Michael Grandage, a stage director, and written by Ron Nyswaner, who also scripted Philadelphia, needs to be more intense. It's somewhat bland. (Prime Video) 2 ½ out of 5
THE WONDER: Religious faith is at the heart of this film. Or is it chicanery? That's for us to ponder as we watch a nurse (Florence Pugh) watch over a young girl who hasn't eaten anything for four months and is seemingly healthy. The nurse has been called in to investigate, even though she's English, this is Ireland in 1862 and few will trust her. She's taking turns with an Irish nun, who has also been called in, and is more prone to declaring this a miracle. The nurse is not but is not ready to declare it a sham as a visiting reporter asserts. A panel of men from the local church, including a priest played by Ciarán Hinds want the truth and thereby avoid a tourist influx by devout believers. But what is the truth?
Emma Donoghue, who wrote the novel it's based on, recalled a real case just like it in Wales. Sebastián Lelio, who directed the film, has won many awards at festivals and an Academy Award for The Fantastic Woman. four years ago. Their efforts have produced a thought-provoking film that explores the roots of devout piety and whether it can be deceived. The girl herself doesn't doubt but what to make of some other facts that turn up. You'll be much involved in that search, delighted by Pugh's acting and have lots to talk about after. (In select theaters now before Netflix soon) 4 out of 5
ENOLA HOLMES 2: Two years ago a film that looked like a contrived gimmick turned out to be nothing of the sort. It claimed that Sherlock Holmes had a sister who was also a sharp detective. How could that be? It could, in books by Nancy Springer and in the film that turned out to be an entertaining treat. I like this sequel just as much and give it the same rating. Millie Bobby Brown is back as the creatively intelligent Enola, with Helena Bonham Carter as her advice-ready mother and former- and probably future-Superman Henry Cavill as Sherlock.
In the very first scene she's being chased by two London policemen, stops looks at us and says: “Perhaps I should explain.” She'll do that several times; it's part of the flippant tone that shows up now and then and helps make these films so enjoyable. The other main element is the capability of women that they expound. Enola is just as observant and almost as deductive as Sherlock. She's approached by a young woman who wants help finding her sister who has disappeared. That takes us into a shadowy world of early industrialization; specifically a match factory staffed almost exclusively by women. Many are getting sick and Enola uncovers why. She's a Nancy Drew for our time. (Netflix) 3 ½ out of 5
THE RETURN OF TANYA TUCKER: Remember her? She was a country music superstar at age 16, a friend of Loretta Lynn and more than a friend of Glen Campbell. She had a string of top ten hits and her private life was covered by the tabloids. Then, for 17 years she only did cameos on other people's shows and records. No original work of her own. Brandi Carlile, a smaller name in country music but a huge fan, changed that by co-writing and producing a new album. This film takes us into the studio to watch that happen. And out, with archival film clips, to flashback Tanya's story.
She is ever cheerful and amiable recalling her career. She states, and clips show, that she based her performing style on Elvis Presley. We see early film of her at a frog jumping contest and many later shows. We also hear that her dad believed in her and understand how much that support meant to her. He later became her manager which he executed with “balls of steel.” Tanya learned to stand up for herself too and the film directed by Kathlyn Horan champions a woman-power vibe. It's there all the way through the recording process, the tension around the Grammy Awards show where she was nominated and beyond. It's a feel-good-story. (Toronto and Vancouver theaters now, more soon) 3 out of 5
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