Two interesting bits of movie news caught my eye this week. Canada is paying to restore more of our movies from the past. Some from not so long ago, like Incendies from 2010 and Monsieur Lazhar from 2011. Winter Kept Us Warm, from 1965, is the earliest in this batch of 23. Nine films were digitized like this previously.
The other news involves Lego, the ubiquitous toy. The company is not only a huge toy manufacturer and has led to several popular movies, it's starting a TV show. That'll be called Lego Dreamzz and two of the lead characters will be voiced by Canadians, Sarah Jeffery and Vincent Tong , both of whom hail from Vancouver, BC.
Note that the Michael J. Fox bio, Still, is now streaming on Apple TV+ starting today. I reviewed it last week and these are new today.
Blackberry: 4 stars
Book Club the Next Chapter: 3
The Maiden: 3
Insanity: The Mental Health Crisis 4
Crater: 2 1/2
Knights of the Zodiac: 2
BLACKBERRY: There are at least three elements here. A tale about a Canadian achievement that can make you proud. A factual business story. A nerd comedy. And they're all entertaining. This is the rise and fall of Research in Motion, the company in Waterloo, Ontario that achieved a goal that Arthur C. Clarke and others identified. They put the power of a computer into a hand-held device. Most everybody carries a smartphone these days. These guys, a bunch of computer nerds developed it and for a while, their phone, the Blackberry, with its tiny keyboard was used everywhere.
The film shows how it happened, and that's fascinating itself. The nerds were a casual bunch of geeks. They held a weekly movie night, and took inspiration from science fiction films.
Their leader was the rather timid Mike Lazaridis, played by Jay Baruchel. Then, though a bit of good luck, he was joined by the brash Jim Balsillie, played by Glenn Howerton. He pushed the group to invent, do it fast, courted the money types and sent the company soaring. Much of the film is centered on the contrasting styles of the two men. We get technical data but aren't overwhelmed by it. We could use some more business info. Why did the SEC come after them? It's American; does it even have jurisdiction in Canada? And was there fault in the downfall? Steve Jobs at Apple came up with a better product. Should that have been forseen? There's information, drama and comedy in this delightful Canadian story. (In Theaters) 4 out of 5
BOOK CLUB: THE NEXT CHAPTER: It's trivial, but amiable enough to keep your interest. That's largely thanks to the four stars, movie icons we're happy to see again. Jane Fonda, Diane Keaton, Candice Bergen and the standout Mary Steenburgen. Five years ago we were introduced to their literary get togethers. There still at it, but because of COVID they meet over zoom. Then Steenburgen suggests they finally take a trip they had been talking about for years. Before you know it they're in Rome, and when told they should see Venice, go there too.
What happens? Not much. Just incidents, like on a vacation, which this film resembles. The women gawk at statues, walk the Spanish steps, ride in a gondola, go shopping; all the usual. Well, they do end up briefly in jail but a friendly cop (played by another icon, 80-year-old Giancarlo Giannini, helps them out.
One discovers an old lover now runs a cooking school. Of course they go there and are serenaded in his restaurant. Men in their lives, played by Andy Garcia and Don Johnson show up too but it's the friendship of women that's the point of this film. There's freedom, one says, when a woman is away from her husband. It's a good time for these four. (In theaters) 3 out of 4
THE MAIDEN: You might be perplexed along the way. Incidents don't seem to be connected. For a long time. Maybe always. But stick with it. They'll make some kind of sense eventually, in a dreamy, poetic way. This is a meditation on teenage friendship and on grief. The mood is strong; the story scattered and impressionistic. Very engrossing though.
Two best friends, Kyle and Colton, played by Jackson Sluiter and Marcel T. Jimenez, skateboard down by the river and the train tracks. But one doesn't come back. Colton is devastated, entirely alone at school, mumbling when a grief counsellor offers solace. Up to that point, the film by Graham Foy, set in his hometown, Calgary, is a genuine representation of adolescence and then loss. Then it gets mercurial. Colton becomes friends with a boy he fought earlier. He finds a notebook with writing and drawings by a teen girl who is missing, as per a poster and a search party that is looking for her. Then he meets her (Hayley Ness). They walk and follow a guy through the same locations the two friends were at earlier. Is some of this a dream? Has time shifted? Are there two stories here? It's intriguing anyway and captivating. (In theaters: Toronto, Winnipeg and Saskatoon now, Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver next week) 3 out of 5
INSANITY THE MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS: Our problem of homelessness is often connected to the cutback in mental health services. That was done back in the 1980s, billed as a freedom gesture to get people out of asylums but really a public-money cutback. That makes this documentary particularly relevant. It talks directly to that issue and also tells a personal story. Wendy Hill-Tout, the director from Calgary, had a brother who suffered from schizophrenia. Twenty five years ago he disappeared and nobody knows why. We see him in photos and re-enactments portrayed by actor Brandon Dewyn.
Wendy went looking for him in Vancouver, the notorious Downtown East Side. The city recently cleared people off the sidewalks there but they were crowded when Wendy was there. No sign off her brother though. But why are so many people on the street anyway? It's "unconscionable" says one activist, caused by the mental health underfunding, says another, with these words: "We've gone from the asylums of old to the asylum of streets and jails." The film gives alarming details and numbers and Wendy tells of the delusions and paranoia that came over her brother. And of the guilt that both she and her father feel for not recognizing it earlier and responding. It's a powerful plea to do better. (One-time screenings on various dates across the country with experts (the director in some cases) speaking afterwards. Victoria's Cinecenta today, Vancouver's The Rio tomorrow, up to Waterloo June 7 and Edmonton June 9. (4 out of 5)
CRATER: Here's a sci fi adventure for the young ones. It's thrilling and directed right to them with an easy-to-understand story about family and proving yourself. The setting is a colony on the moon ... you see Earth very clearly up in the sky. Helium is being mined but a 20-year-contract for the employees is (possibly) “a giant scam".
Caleb (Isaiah Russell-Bailey) lost his father and will be sent to a colony on another planet. It'll be a 75-year trip to Omega though he'll be cryogenically frozen. Before that he wants to honor his father by visiting a crater he had often said his mother loved. She's gone too. He and four friends (one, played by Mckenna Grace, just arrived from Earth) hi-jack a giant vehicle and set out. All they've got is a map and weird tales about what might be out there. But as dad said about a road trip: “You get to leave everything behind.” So, this is a tale young people showing they're capable. They learn secrets about the colony and their own life, find an opening down in the crater into a marvelous chamber, run low on oxygen, face a meteor shower and much else that will entertain kids. (Disney+) 2 ½ out of 5
KNIGHTS OF THE ZODIAC: This film is taking a beating from fans, the ones who loved the original Japanese Manga series that was on televsion and called Saint Seiya. Names have been changed and the central character is misrepresented, they say. I never saw it so I don't know that. I do know that this film is dull and too contrived to be convincing. It starts with a brutal cage match fight in which Seiya discovers powers he didn't know he had and does well against a guy called Jaki The Beast. Ultra-violence will re-occur.
A stranger played by Sean Bean takes notice and recruits him to protect the goddess Athena, currently in human form and hiding. She's both the goddess of wisdom and of war, is here called Sienna and looks like a pretty teenager as played by Madison Iseman. Why is she in danger? Well, this is complicated. Famke Janssen, the ex-wife of the man who recruited Seiya is trying to kill her. I think she's her mother and she has an army of soldiers working with her. Seiya is taught by Marin (Caitlin Hutson) how to unleash his cosmic energy. Those training scenes are fun to watch. The subsequent fighting is brutal again and Mackenyu who plays Seiya is up to it. He may look like a pop singer but he's the son of Sonny Chiba, the Japanese martial arts actor. So, diverse influences but little wisdom. (In theaters) 2 out of 5
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