MOVIES: Hit Man, long awaited, much anticipated, is finally here

As is a Jewish comedy, a sparkling wildlife documentary and some wondrous magic 

A quick note to alert you to watch out for a powerful documentary about the residential schools that did so much to harm the Indigenous population in Canada. Sugarcane confronts the history head on. 

After ground-penetrating radar revealed unmarked graves at a former school site in Kamloops, activists looked elsewhere. The film is about the history of St. Joseph Mission in Williams Lake, and the nearby Sugarcane reserve. It names names, cites crimes and describes shocking events. One participant, the father of one of the filmmakers, is haunted by this: he's the illegitimate son of a priest there. The film talks about trauma down through the generations, but also of revival. I reviewed it with high praise a few weeks ago. It's back at the VIFF Centre in Vancouver, just finished in a couple of cities in Ontario and will likely re-appear.

And elsewhere: there are, not the two horror movies that weren't provided for preview, but these: 

Hit Man: 4 stars

Secret Lives of Orangutans: 4

Between the Temples: 3 ½ 

Lost in the Shuffle: 3 

HIT MAN: It played briefly in a few theaters a while ago, on Netflix world-wide for months already and built a great want-to-see reputation through that time. Finally it's arrived on Netflix in Canada and it's a treat, thoughtful, clever, funny, sexy and more. Don't miss it. And it's another star outing for Glen Powell who has been coming on strong as a hearthrob and another terrific movie from Richard Linklater to add to Boyhood, School of Rock and many others. Incidentally Powell has been in three for him having started as a teenager. They wrote the script together for this one. 
 

Powell plays a philosophy professor who lectures on Nietzsche's world view at the start and goes on to recommend choosing an identity for yourself and later ponders if people can ever really change. It's all part of what he calls “the eternal mystery of human consciousness and behavior.” The script plays on that with a tale that seems fictional but actually happened. It was written about in a Texas magazine and is shifted here to New Orleans where the prof advises the police. He's thrust higher by “the oddest of turns” as he says in voice over. He has to take over the job of a suspended colleague who remains around to gripe and interfere repeatedly. 

The job is to pretend to be a hit man and get incriminating evidence on people who try to hire him. The prof grows to enjoy it because he can pretend he's much more than the very ordinary guy he is. His hobby is birdwatching. And he falls in love with one potential client, sexy Madison Figueroa Masters, played by Adria Arjona. She wants her husband killed but as you can predict neither what she wants or what the fake hit man is doing work out as they wish. It a very likeable film, briskly told and highly involving. (Netflix) 4 out of 5

SECRET LIVES OF ORANGUTANS: Secret up to now that is, because these animals live most of their lives up in trees and have been difficult to see and study. That was before drones and other new technology came along and now we get views of them amazingly up close and intimate. The film calls them “the biggest and heaviest of all tree-living animals” and “one of our closest relatives”. We see them from all sorts of angles up on branches, climbing trunks, eating termites and using tools (yes, sticks) to pry into holes that insects use as homes. David Attenborough narrates and tells us a lot, for instance that they are “gentle, thoughtful and problem solving.”
 

The film follows them in an ever-decreasing habitat in Indonesia. We watch three generations of mothers and their young and the life lessons they need to pass along. We watch the competition between males to be the king in the neighborhood. And the stages of their own development culminating in the height of their power when they grow what are called flanges on their face. We see how they travel. Going down to run on the ground wastes energy. Climb a tree, sway the branch over and jump on to the next tree. That works. We get beautiful views of that and good information. They hate water; so crossing a river is a trial. Each night they build a new nest for themselves. 

The film is perfect for children. They'll see the animals' lives presented like the family structure they know. They'll hear them given names: Titan, Lily, Eden, Ellie and more. Gimmicky but wildlife documentaries keep doing it because it works. (Netflix) 4 out of 5 

BETWEEN THE TEMPLES: There's a wonderfully droll sense of humor in this film in aid of an unlikely story of reaching for second chances. Imagine this: Ben (Jason Schwartzman) who is grieving the loss of his wife a year earlier has lost his singing voice. That's a big deal because he's the cantor at the synagogue in his small upstate New York town. He's depressed, gets punched in a bar fight and who should come over to help him but the woman who was the music teacher when he was in school (Carol Kane). He always had a crush on her and now reconnects with her. That causes a lot of chatter. 
 

She sees an opportunity too, to finally, with his help, get the bat mitzvah she was denied when she was a teenager. It's a rite of entry into adulthood for Jewish girls but her parents were anti-religious Communists. She was a red diaper baby. It's a term you don't hear in the movies very often but with real concepts like that the film looks at religion, loss of faith, family life (he has two mothers, both bossy) and reviving yourself by going after what you want. Nathan Silver, who wrote and directed, approaches all this with sly humor. Ben gets the rabbi to break his own rules and when he wanders into a church chats up a priest. “We don't have heaven and hell. We just have upstate New York,” he tells him.). The film is sardonic, but sweet and hopeful. (Theaters in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, so far) 3 ½ out of 5 

LOST IN THE SHUFFLE: This may be hard to find but watch out for it. It just played at the Rio in Vancouver, maybe they'll bring it back. It premiered at Hot Docs in Toronto, where it apparently was a hit, and will be at the Revue Theater there Monday and Tuesday. There are bound to be other bookings because the film is both intriguing and entertaining. And it's driven by the enthusiasm of Shawn Farquhar, the two-time world champion magician. He takes us to visit and talk magic with other top names, like the veteran magician Juan Tamariz in Spain who is credited with inventing several tricks. 
 

Courtesy of Level FILM
 

Shawn describes the attraction of magic like this: “it makes adults become children.” It's the wonder. How did you do that? He is most interested in card tricks and shows several. He calls a deck of cards “my 52 closest friends.” And he gets deep into a mystery he says is depicted (if you can interpret it) in two cards: the King of Hearts and the Queen of Spades. They're always drawn the same and represent a French King from the 15th century and a regional queen he married. He died, of syphilis it is thought. She killed him, Shawn says. The cards suggest it. A historian says there's no proof of that but Shawn's insistence is infectious as is his love of magic of all kinds. A Vancouver company produced the film and he lives and does magic shows in nearby New Westminster. (Revue Theater, Toronto, for now) 3 out of 5