The Edge of Democracy

Powerful somewhat partisan documentary which explores the conditions that have led to the rise of Bolsonaro in Brazil, namely the twisting of the political and legal system to suit the interests of the far-right and the rich.  Lots to reflect on and relate to other nations.  

Petra Costa is the daughter of left-wing activists from the 70’s and her mother, who appears here, was jailed in the same prison as Dilma Rousseff in those times.  

Costa’s thesis is that Brazil has moved back down the past to a dictatorship and dark times in recent years and that its democracy is very sick.  

She takes us through the very complex issues of the last ten years – the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff as President on political rather than legal grounds despite her innocence, the imprisonment of Lula da Silva on the basis of a gifted apartment, which the Supreme Court has subsequently ruled belong to Lula,

the manipulations of justice conducted by Lavajato investigator Sergio Moro, later rewarded with the post of Minister of Justice in the Bolsonaro government and the reluctance to investigate interim President Michel Temer who in fact did much of the dirty work to oust the Worker’s Party from power illegally.  

Bolsonaro is shown at the end to be taking advantage of all of this and with the help of the media and social media ending up winning an election based on falsehoods and promises he may not be able to fulfil.  Costa focuses mostly on the political side here but as you watch you feel an investigation of the judiciary and of big business is also necessary. 

The trouble is who is impartial enough to do it?  A British lawyer discusses the corrupt Brazilian system whereby a prosecutor (Moro) can also be the judge of a case he has investigated.  Two of the most moving scenes are those in the Parliament when Dilma is impeached with the most ridiculous arguments and lies being used to oust her, from a Congress in which a hefty majority are themselves under legal investigation for misfeasance.  

The second in the same Parliamentary buildings in Brasilia are when some cleaners are interviewed as Dilma moves out.  They are not surprised by what has happened, probably because they have seen the backstory.  Tellingly, they feel that none of the politicians are clean.

Costa asks “How did we get here?” and her documentary with excellent personal behind-the-scenes footage of Dilma and Lula sets out to answer that question.  A bigger concern arises: How do we get out of here?”  Sadly, this may be infinitely harder to respond to.  

This type of film throws up more questions than answers and doesn’t always cover all we need to know.  Nevertheless, with her calm poignant voiceovers and judicious use of real footage and her own material, Costa makes the current situation clear.  

Her use of scenes of the Brazilian senate and congress plus many street scenes illustrate the story well.  I found it convincing and thought-provoking and obviously clear that it is one full but incomplete side of a very complex story.

4 stars plus

Wildhood

Canadian indie about a teenage boy and his brother who live with an abusive father and upon discovering that his supposedly dead mother is in fact alive decides to take off with said brother to find her.  

This means a road trip, more often on foot than by car which takes them to tribal homelands of the Mi´kmaq in Nova Scotia.  In the course if the trip the boys learn to trust strangers and to handle all the challenges of being alone in the big world.

This is a gentle movie with several plus factors.  It brings an indigenous culture onto the screen as an important part of a story about human relationships and how sometimes the Western culture has a lot to learn from older civilisations.

It features a gay relationship, or two spirit which is the indigenous term for those who are not strictly straight. It is also about finding roots and about different cultures trying to live together, which as we know, has not been particularly well achieved in Canada.

Bretten Hannam wrote and directed this movie and it has an authentic feel to it.  There are some less than tidy plot issues and a little bit of padding with music and artful photography but the end result is satisfying enough.

Good acting by Phillip Lewitski in the lead,

Joshua Odjick as Pasmay, the Mi´kmaq pow wow dancer and fellow traveler and Becky Julian as the grandmother figure.  Excellent photography by Guy Godfree, not just in clarity and beauty but also in the angles he shoots from.

Well worth a look for a quiet heartful story.

3 stars plus

Dune

As you would expect with these mega-productions, Dune is quite a spectacle.  

The second major attempt to film the books of Frank Herbert, after David Lynch in the 80s, this new version comes from Canadian director Denis Villeneuve, who has impressed with Sicario among other films. 

Taking the first half of the story which means a sequel is coming, we look at how the House of Atreides is ´obliged´ to take over the planet of Arrakis which is inhospitable but also the main source of a spice called melange which is the most valuable product in the galaxy.  

The Atreides have a rival power, the Harkonnen and there is also a tribe of desert dwellers on Arrakis, the Frenem who are none too friendly either.  

This film sets up the story and has a fair few fights, leaving the next film to largely feature young Paul, the heir to the throne. 

 In terms of images and vision, it is an impressive work without being outstanding.  The spaceships, the desert worms and the dragonfly helicopters are all amazing to see.  And then we have the cast.  

Timothée Chalamet as Paul is a suitable blend of geek, mystic and athlete

and very close to his mother (Rebecca Ferguson) who seems a bit young.  

Oscar Isaac plays his father – a solid central figure and Josh Brolin, Jason Momoa and others lead the goodies side. 

 Stellan Skarsgard has fun with the evil leader of the Harkonnen, Charlotte Rampling is Mother Superior of a women’s sect and finally Javier Bardem and Zendaya are key figures among the Frenem. 

 All of them are sound though sometimes the script they have to speak is rather wooden.

Quite the strongest feature in my opinion is Hans Zimmer’s score which moves between industrial, spacy, ethnic whining and religious devotion.  He is a wizard with these types of films and at times I forgot about the story and just enjoyed the music.

Good but not great photography.

All in all, the parts build into an impressive whole and the strong features compensate the faults.  Dune pretty much lives up to what you would want or expect from it.

4 stars plus

A Hero

This film by Iranian Ashgar Farhadi won the Grand Prix in Cannes last year and is the latest in a line of morality tales by said director.  Shot in Shiraz, though we don’t get to see much of the city and only an archaeological site of Xerxes early on.

Rahim is in debtor’s prison and while on leave he finds a bag of gold coins which he plans to sell to help repay his creditor.  That plan doesn’t work out so then he decides to find the owner and return them, which leads to him being labelled a hero for his selfless act.  This goes viral on social media and leads to a local charity which helps those in need to champion his cause, which is basically to achieve early release and to put pressure on the creditor to accept this.  

We soon get to see how all this is a cloth of stories and expectations and that to sustain it, the truth is often glossed over or distorted be it to please supporters or to better position oneself on social media.  While the basics are universal, the Iranian setting with its cultural importance on not shaming the family and on honour soon leads to the truth being twisted and then when it all unravels, so much is at risk of ruin.

On one level, there is a clear criticism of the Iranian system although Farhadi is very discreet about this.  We see the double standards, the double discourse which makes it all so hard to get ahead in as everyone is trying to be seen to be doing the right thing, and a society in which many people are needy and not all are as honest as they claim to be. Reflecting the religious administration itself.

The story itself is an awkward one.  Rahim, played very well by Amir Jadidi, is an ambiguous character who someone says is either “smart or simple”.  In a way he is a bit of both but leaning towards the simple as he himself admits.  All the double guessing of other people’s reactions must tire and confuse and we see this.  The plot constructing all the twists and turns is well made and gives us this sensation of our hero getting in deeper and deeper.   

We also get a good sense of how social media influences and frames and influences everything.  Late in the film there is a scene in which the hero’s stuttering son is being filmed on a cellphone defending his father, a video they hope will go viral and sway the public.  No one is safe from being used and even the holier or more idealistic have their price.

While it is all compelling stuff, I had the feeling of being manipulated and felt that parts of the film are a little too pat.  Some plot twists seemed forced or ignore obvious truths and yet a couple of late scenes show what the director intended and are memorable indeed.

While I have my reservations, A Hero is still a very solid and watchable movie

4 stars plus

The Aquatic Effect

The last film by Solveig Anspach, a Franco-Icelandic director who died in 2015, this came out under two titles in 2016.  The second name is “The Together Project” which is perhaps more accurate as the hero, Samir is trying to get together with Agathe, a swimming instructor that he has a coup de foudre for when watching her slough off a man in a bar.  

He pretends not to swim to take lessons with her but is later caught out so as she ignores him, he follows her to Iceland where a world conference for swimming coaches is taking place.  This seems like an excuse to show us more of the desolately beautiful Icelandic scenery and to emphasise how the locals are a bit mad.

  The tight tension of the French part gets lost in a rather unconvincing farce-like period in Reykjavik.

I understand that the mission here was to make a quirky comedy but it really fails to come off as either very funny or very credible.  Samir Guesmi as Samir seems lost to know what to do in his role – he is dreary rather than clown-like.  

At least Florence Loiret Caille is more credible but her character could have had more nuance. Didda Jonsdottir the crazy Icelandic host is overwritten and overacted.  And so on.  References to Icelandic washing habits seem forced, not to mention plot twists that seem unreal.

I wanted to like this more but its appeal faded on me.

1 star plus

The Good Karma Hospital (series 3)

A nice “tonic” from darker shows, this ITV series is a throwback to the typical feelgood British television series like Midsomer Murders that seem to exist in a time warp and give us recognizable stories and characters. I jumped right into the 3^rd series.  It is set in Kerala, India (but filmed in Galle, Sri Lanka – hey what’s the difference, they are all foreigners, right?).

The hospital is a rambling villa like complex which seems like a public market set in a family home with a gentle like atmosphere all round.

Reigning over the medical side is Dr Lydia Fonseca (Amanda Redman), your typical sleeves rolled-up wise Brit under the midday sun.  There seems to be nothing she can’t do medically and she is everyone’s shoulder to cry on.  

Supposedly, the other main character is a young idealistic doctor Ruby (Amrita Acharia) who I basically found a bit wet and boring.  In this series, she is edging closer to being the girlfriend of Dr Gabriel Varma (James Krishna Floyd) who is very good looking but a major brooder.

  A former boss and love interest of Dr Varma, Dr Aisha Ray (Priyanka Bose) turns up for a special case, and to woo back Gabriel so that plotline floats through the series.

  Two other main stories dominate – the harm done to nurse Jyoti (Sayani Gupta) in an acid attack

and the quest of an old Brit Teddy (Kenneth Cranham) to find an old flame.  Lydia’s main squeeze Greg (Neil Morrissey) who runs a beach bar also has his estranged daughter from a first marriage Tommy, turn up unexpectedly. 

 The interweaving of these and other stories is very well done and we get a nice blend of medical matters and social/romantic issues.  

Where I think the series could be more honest is in the timing.  Supposedly set in the present with people using cellphones and Facetime, the actual mood of the series and the attitudes of the characters seem to come from the 30s-50s of last century.  Very much a Raj mood and the Indian characters all have this pukka English RP accent.  Lydia drives around in a Hillman Sunbeam to underline the anachronisms in time.  And it gets confusing.  

Teddy had life experiences that would place him in his 90s, played by an actor in his 70s who looks older with a childhood flame who could pass for her late 50s!  Go figure!

Enjoyable but something of a colonial view on life still prevails.

3 stars plus.

Persona

In a rare return to old films I watch Ingmar Bergman’s classic from 1966.  The story is a simple one.  Actress Elisabet Vogler (Liv Ullmann) has had some sort of breakdown and gone silent.

  No physical explanation can be found.  

A doctor recommends she spend some time with a nurse – Alma (Bibi Andersson).  Apart from 2 words uttered fairly well on in the film, Elisabet is silent and the film is basically monologues by Alma, communicating with the actress.  

At first, the nurse seems the strong one but as time goes by she begins more and more unhinged, there seems to be a blending of the two personalities and Elisabet shows she can be who she wants to be.

On top of that is the very obvious layering of the movie with filmic images, spliced film, projector lights and pieces of other film that Bergman uses to remind us that we are watching a story.  The audience has to figure out what it is supposed to take from the film.  

Warning, it is not easy but the process of exploring possible ideas is interesting though perhaps a little tiring in the end.  Excellent work from the director, both main actresses and the cameraman, Sven Nykvist.

Persona still holds up today, frustrating and captivating at the same time.

Navalny

This timely documentary features Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny and the suspicious circumstances surrounding his poisoning in Tomsk in 2020.  

The main chunk of this film takes place in the months he spent in Germany recovering from the poisoning and taking the time with his team to produce a documentary on Putin’s Palace.  

Navalny is tall, blond and telegenic with a clear sense of how to use social media to attract followers and plant issues relating to the corruption and illegitimate government in Russia.  Hence he is the Russian Presidents number one enemy.  

In collaboration with Bellingcat the organization that verifies facts and traces people and money, he set out to discover who actually poisoned him with Novichuk and very quickly they identified the Russian agents involved through tracking phone calls, airplane passenger registers, etc.  Even more amazingly, he makes contact with these men and manages to extract a confession full of details out of one of them.  

Then, he decides to return to Russia to certain imprisonment.

The documentary plays much like a spy thriller, moving quickly from development to development but also getting a chance to see Alexei and his family, with wife Iulia being a very strong character too.  

Daniel Roher directs sensitively and although we could have perhaps had more on Navalny’s background, the evidence of the persecution of the Russian state against one of its citizens is not only well-established but chilling.

A very relevant work in these times and one that could be seen several times over.

4 stars plus

Don´t Look Up

What can I say about this satire that has divided critics at least?  The story, in brief, is about the Earth under threat from a comet which is on a collision course with our planet and how the scientists who discover this find that the world leaders (especially the US ones) are incapable of taking appropriate action in time. 

 Why? Because they are more concerned with scoring points for mid-term elections or with hatching deals with the top entrepreneurs to make money from the situation.  The public couldn’t seem to care less either.  They are absorbed with celebrity gossip and when the impact of this discovery becomes more evident, it gets turned into a source of entertainment like the disaster movies of the 80’s and 90’s.

  Such frivolity can only lead to a bad ending and the last part of the movie becomes a sort of sobering look at the results of this distraction and political chicanery.

Adam McKay throws pretty much everything into the pot and the comet is clearly a metaphor for global warming although the ineffective responses of the politicians have also been evident during the pandemic.

  Leonardo Di Caprio is the lead in this film but also a producer wanting to share his message on the need to take action regarding climate change.

  Will this film make a difference?  Probably not but it is a good mirror to put towards our divided and value rudderless society today.

The film is laden with stars: Leo di Caprio as a nerdy scientist, Jennifer Lawrence as a druggy research student, Meryl Streep as the Trumpesque President, Cate Blanchett, wonderful as a sexed-up talk show host,

Jonah Hill as the President’s son

and Chief of Staff and Mark Rylance as a sort of childish and yet sinister cross of Elon Musk and Zuckerberg.  

Even Ariana Grande as a star like herself is roped in to the plot and to sing the theme song.

Does it work?  Up to a point.  Yes, it could have been sharper but the movie cracks along at a brisk pace and makes the points that it needs to make.  

Not perhaps a classic but there is enough merit in it to recommend it.

4 stars

West Side Story

This musical remake by Steven Spielberg is a hard case to assess.  I found my mood changing throughout the film and came away feeling sad and angry which is not a feeling I tend to associate with musicals.  The original film was made 60 years ago and depicts a part of New York, being redeveloped for housing and offices where two street gangs strut their stuff basically along racial grounds: one gang is Puerto Rican and the other white.

I haven’t seen the original movie starring Natalie Wood but have seen stage versions (basically it is a stage musical) and am familiar with Bernstein’s wonderful songs that have continued to be popular in time.  Interestingly, Rita Moreno starred in the original as one of the young women and turns up here after a long career on Broadway as a grandmother figure.  She is 90 but does not look it!!!

Spielberg recreates a decaying barrio in the movie and the first part sets the scene, gives us some great choreographed numbers and shows us the new interracial love affair between Tony (Ansel Elgort) a former Jet reformed after a spot in jail and Maria (Rachel Zegler) a young girl who works as a department store cleaner like many of her fellows.  All of this is well done but felt like going through the motions or somewhat inauthentic.  I kept asking myself why of all musicals Spielberg decided to revive this one.  

Things get better in the second half as the “rumble” between the two gangs approaches.  

There is a very well filmed duel between Tony and Riff (Mike Faist) as his successor as leader of the Jets and this leads quite quickly into the climactic fight between the two groups which ends in a fairly long, drawn-out tragedy.  There is no happy ending, just a dark screen and symphonic versions of the songs.  Perhaps then this is what the director wanted to underline: how petty tribal disputes and a failure to really understand the other leads to needless suffering. Tony Kushner who updated and fleshed out the screenplay also reflects on urban renewal and the fact that it is often the poor and the migrants who suffer, on the failure of dreams and expectations and the racial issue.  All very recently relevant under Trump’s administration.  But again, how much of this sits well with the musical format?

Ansel Elgort has moments of excellence and moments when he seems too vanilla and out of place.  

Rachel Zegler is a find as Maria, though her soprano voice seemed too polished at times and Ariana de Bose who took the Oscar for supporting actress has plenty of presence and range.  

I liked her but I wouldn’t say she was memorable.  Rita Moreno hits all the right notes and the rest of the cast do well.  Finally, Janusz Kaminski does a good job with the photography painting a dark picture of the times.

All in all, I still don’t know quite what to make of it.  It’s a good movie in terms of quality but not that enjoyable in parts. Perhaps as one reviewer said, he didn’t quite get the brief.

4 stars