MOVIES: three good ones while we watch for the Golden Globes

It’s awards season time again and the first of the big handouts is Sunday. The Golden Globes are on for their 82^nd time and will be watched in 185 countries. Emilia Perez, the French film about Mexico, has the most nominations (10 in total). Wicked isn’t far behind with 6. Two possible winners haven’t even arrived in Canada yet: The Brutalist and September 5. 

And notice the snubs: Ryan Reynolds, who only starred in—and enabled-- one of the biggest films of the year, Deadpool & Wolverine isn’t nominated and Dennis Villeneuve wasn’t nominated as best director although his huge hit Dune: Part Two is up for best film.   

This is also a rare weekend (one of only two this year) with no big films among the new releases. Some smaller ones though, including a Golden Globe nominee that starts my reviews today.

Vermiglio: 3 ½ stars 

Living Together: 4

Harbin: 4

VERMIGLIO: This is a beautiful film both visually and with a warmhearted depiction of humanity. But it’s not for everybody because of the slow pace, almost meditative, that it uses to show life in a very small village. Outside there’s momentous history happening, World War II is coming to an end, but here in a very northern community in the Italian alps life proceeds slowly. A stern school teacher (Tommaso Ragno) and his wife (Roberta Rovelli) raise four children. One girl, the obedient one, might be a scholar, he thinks. Another: too ordinary, though devious enough to snoop into his private papers and photos. He’s undecided about the oldest, Lucia, played by Martina Scrinzi and it is she the film comes to center on.  

An army deserter (Giuseppe De Domenico) has come all the way from down south in Sicily, far enough that his dialect is hard to understand up here. He helped bring an injured cousin back to the village and is now secretly staying in the family barn. Lucia is attracted to him and stolen glances in church inevitably lead to bigger things. She gets pregnant and a quick wedding is organized. He disappears and Lucia sets off to find him. Don’t expect anything conclusive though. The film’s purpose is to show life in the community and in the family. That it does very well, calmly and without over-dramatizing, if anything: understating. Maura Delperro drew on her own life memories in writing and directing it and that’s enhanced by gorgeous cinematography. 

The film is Italy’s submission to the Academy Awards, is nominated for a Golden Globe this weekend and has already scored big at the Venice Film Festival winning the Grand Jury Prize and awards for both Scrinzi and Delperro.  (in theaters: Vancouver, Toronto, Edmonton, Montreal, Quebec City, Ottawa now; more next week) 3 ½ out of 5 

LIVING TOGETHER: Who knew that listening to people interviewing potential roommates could be so interesting? Halima Elkhatabi who filmed some 15 of these encounters in Montreal for the NFB had expected this documentary would be about the housing crisis and how it pressed young people to share accommodation. What she got was much more, a fascinating portrait of a generation, people in their 20s, essentially Generation Z. They’re not shallow at all (as critics of their social media use have said). They are amazingly open to talk about themselves and they do it with candor and self-awareness. 

Sometimes it’s hard to detect who is the host and the potential roommate. The conversation flows easily both ways and there are revelations from both sides, though more from the candidates, of course. A man needs room for his power tools (he works in construction). A woman has issues with roommates who don’t acknowledge how they benefit from white privilege. A gay woman says don’t be shocked by the hair on her legs and in her armpits. A man is in a “polyrelationship” and could bring home different people. Making noise or freedom from it, having room to be a “multi-entrepreneur”, expectations or not about  interacting with others. All sorts of subjects come up and will remind you exactly what life is like in shared accommodation, a co-op or a commune. 

And to recall the range of life experiences you encounter there. Among these people is a guy from Singapore, one who worked as a cook in Burkina Faso and a French woman who was a photographer and hopes to become a sexologist. Not a bore among them. (Was at TIFF and VIFF, is playing in VIFF’s Vancouver theater now. Watch for it elsewhere and coming soon on the NFB website) 4 out of 5   

HARBIN: This film will also take some searching but it’s been a huge hit in South Korea where  it hit #1 when it opened a few days ago. I guess a big shout of patriotism was needed after the political and aviation disasters that have just happened there. For the rest of us, this is a good history lesson. Japan is the villain and the target. It forced a 1905 treaty on Korea, promising partnership but actually annexing it as a colony. That inadvertently sparked outrage among the people and an independence movement. The film takes us inside it and along on its biggest action. 

The plan was to assassinate Ito Hirobumi, former premier of Japan who was sent to Korea as resident general. The place would be the northern Chinese city Harbin, where he was going to meet with a Russian delegation. Train travel, making connections on time, hiding from police and security guards gradually build tension which had already been swelling earlier. There was fear that a mole was among them and reporting back.

 And there was dissension within the movement over the man chosen to lead the action. Ahn Jung-geun is known as a hero in Korea but in the film his cohorts are suspicious of him because of an earlier incident. Out of compassion he had let a Japanese officer live rather than kill him. Will he enable a kill this time? It adds more tension and the Korean star Hyun Bin is solid playing him.

Part of the patriotic impact is in the depiction of Hirobumi, played by the Japanese actor Lily Franky. He’s against annexing Korea which he says has long been ruled by “foolish kings and corrupt scholars” and says that Korea’s common people “are the most troublesome.” You can see the film’s appeal. There are battle scenes in a snowy forest and a triumphant mood overall, well-stirred up by director Min-ho Woo.  (In theaters) 4 out of 5