Opening Weekend: Tripping with Carrey, Clooney and Hana
By Brian D. Johnson - Friday, November 6, 2009 - 4 Comments
Now that the November winds are blowing and the nights are getting longer, it’s time to fly away. To go anywhere, as long as it’s elsewhere and there’s a glow of magic to warm the heart. Magic—in Hollywood, they like to think they can manufacture the stuff. But it’s not that simple. This week I’m looking at three very different films that deal in magic. But only one of them really makes me believe it. It’s also the smallest of the three and, believe it or not, it’s a documentary—Inside Hana’s Suitcase, which is beautifully directed by Canadian filmmaker Larry Weinstein, is a real-life fable about lost child of the Holocaust, a miraculous film that draws hope and inspiration from horrific tragedy. The other two movies are the A Christmas Carol, a 3D opus starring Jim Carrey as virtually every character in the cast, and The Men Who Stare at Goats, an off-kilter comedy starring George Clooney as a U.S. solider trained in para-normal powers. A Christmas Carol, directed by Robert Zemeckis is the weekend’s designated blockbuster, and although it has some of my colleagues dancing an early Xmas jig, it left me cold. But then I wasn’t especially fond of Forrest Gump either. My humbug response to A Christmas Carol appears in this week’s magazine, and you can read it by clicking on: Everybody wants a piece of Scrooge.
George Clooney meets his match in 'The Men Who Stare at Goats'
The Men Who Stare at Goats
This may be a George Clooney movie. But it’s not the George Clooney movie. Because this fall there are two, both having premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. The other is Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air, which is not out until December. And there are also two George Clooneys, at least. There’s Serious George, the shrewd professional who doesn’t suffer fools gladly. You find him movies like The Good German and Michael Clayton. Then there’s Uncurious George, the know-it-all goofball who pops up in Coen brothers pictures like O Brother Where Art Thou and Burn After Reading—an idiot who thinks he’s a rocket surgeon. Both of Clooney’s new movies are comedies, up to a point, and both are based on books. The Goats picture is an outlandish zany farce about guy trying to walk through walls, although it’s inspired by a true story; Up in the Air is a serious comedy about the world we live in, although it’s fiction.
And here’s the thing. If you’re going to see just one George Clooney movie this fall, you should wait for Up in the Air. It’s by far the better film; and it’s the one for which he’s guaranteed to get an Oscar nomination. Which doesn’t mean Men Who Stare at Goats isn’t worth a look, if you’ve some free time, and free money, and you don’t want to wait for the video. Hmmm. Talk about damning with faint praise. Continue…
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The hottest docs in Hot Docs
By Brian D. Johnson - Thursday, April 30, 2009 at 12:05 AM - 0 Comments
Scene from 'Act of God'
At the risk of sounding Toronto-centric, there’s no question this city now serves as a movie mecca like no other. Not only is TIFF the world’s most significant film festival next to Cannes, Hot Docs has become North America’s number-one documentary destination. Tonight the 16th annual edition of Hot Docs kicks off with two strong features by Toronto filmmakers: Act of God and Inside Hana’s Suitcase. I’ve seen them, and both are unique works that tell astonishing stories without resorting to formula.
Act of God, the official opening-night gala, is about lives that have been irrevocably changed by lightning strikes. It bears the distinctive signature of award-winning director Jennifer Baichwal (Manufactured Landscapes), a documentary alchemist who likes to mix landscape, art and metaphysics, and whose previous films have ranged from the Moroccan musings of Paul Bowles to the arcane rites of Appalachian serpent-handlers. For more on lightning, the movie, and an interview with Jennifer Baichwal, look up my piece in last week’s Maclean’s: Why me?
A dramatic re-enactment from 'Inside Hana's Suitcase'
Inside Hana’s Suitcase is technically Larry Weinstein’s first documentary feature, but as a founding member of Rhombus Media this veteran director has been making music films for years. And this feels like the work of an artist in his prime. Based on the best-selling book, it tells the story of a Holocaust survivor, now living in in Ontario, who lost his sister in a death camp, and whose memories came flooding back with a battered suitcase painted with her name that showed up at Tokyo’s Holocaust Centre. This sounds depressing, and the story is indeed heartbreaking. But, buoyed along by the words of school children reading Hana’s story, it unfolds as an uplifting tale with a stranger-than-fiction narrative that takes some breathtaking twists. Weinstein has not just done justice to a story that rivals Anne Frank’s; with this film he has taken Hana’s story to another level, braving the treacherous waters of dramatization (especially dicey, given the subject). The result is a masterful weave of art and artifact. I discovered Inside Hana’s Suitcase while at its unofficial premiere as “a work in progress” at the Victoria Film Festival earlier this year. To read my blogged first impressions , go to: A holocaust detective story makes a splash in Victoria.
I haven’t seen all the 171 films playing in Hot Docs, not even close. But I’ve had a few sneak previews. Some outstanding highlights. . . Continue…
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A Holocaust detective story makes a splash in Victoria
By Brian D. Johnson - Tuesday, February 3, 2009 at 5:47 PM - 0 Comments
I love small film festivals. The big festivals—Cannes, Toronto and Sundance—are more newsworthy, but you have to work hard, chasing films and interviews from morning to night. For press and industry guests invited to small festivals, they work more like a salon, or a dinner party. The essential ingredients: a good mix of guests, a seductive destination and a sense of hospitality. The beauty of a small festival is that everyone ends up at the same party at the end of the day. And there’s time to talk. If an undiscovered gem emerges from the program, so much the better. That’s what I found on opening night of the Victoria Film Festival—with a preview of Canadian filmmaker Larry Weinstein’s brilliant and beautiful documentary feature Inside Hana’s Suitcase.
Hana, as portrayed in Larry Weinstein's documentary, 'Inside Hana's Suitcase'
Reminiscent of the Anne Frank story, and based on the best-selling book by CBC broadcaster Karen Levine, Inside Hana’s Suitcase is a kind of Holocaust detective tale in which a Fumiko Ishioka—who teaches children as director of the Tokyo Holocaust Centre—receives a suitcase painted with the name Hana Brady, a Czech girl who perished in Auschwitz. Through a miraculous train of events, the intrepid Fumiko discovers that Hana has a brother, George Brady, a Holocaust survivor who is now 81 and living in Toronto. This story has been told before—both in Levine’s book, which found thousands of fans among school children around the world, and in a hit play that premiered at Toronto’s Young People’s Theatre. But Weinstein’s documentary takes it to another level. He brings the story to life with an extraordinary weave of archival images and eloquent re-enactments. With the lovely Fumiko Ishioka and the endearing George Brady, he brings two remarkable characters to the screen—not to mention the school children who are used to tell Hana’s story on camera. At the Victoria festival, Brady made a surprise appearance at the end of the screening, drawing a collective gasp from the audience and tearful standing ovation. Continue…
