Living Proof (2017) Toronto 2017

Twenty years ago filmmaker Matt Embry was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. With the help of his physician father he determined a diet and workout regimen that seems to have kept him healthy and nowhere near declining. However Matt has realized over the last two decades that despite millions of dollars being spent on research nothing is getting done. The various research organizations refuse to share information, the doctors are woefully uniformed and everyone is out for the money and a such refuse to deal with the notion that the right diet and exercise can save lives To that end Embry has set out to make a film show people there is a hope and that there is a great deal of bullshit out there.

As a source of information for those suffering with MS we have to give Embry a ten out of ten for putting all out there. I'm pretty certain that his film will prolong lives when the information contained in it reaches the people who need it. Embry’s film reveals that there is a chance that that MS patients can lead longer healthie lives if they look outside the mainstream. Embry’s own results with diet and exercise speak volumes. As does the look at stem cell treatments that use the patient’s own cells to slow and even reverse the effects of the disease.

The film is also a vitally needed warning about the state of modern medicine where doctors, even specialists don’t know everything, how companies are working to stop anything they can’t make a buck on and how societies set up to help patients are simply self-serving money pits who really don’t want help anyone (they won’t share information that might help) and just want money. It’s a warning to any sort of patient that they have to fight for their rights and their own well-being.

As a one stop source of possibilities the film is to be commended if not celebrated. I really do think that the information in the film will make lives better

Unfortunately if you look at the film as anything more than an information container it is very messy. It’s severe enough that I think it needs a complete re-edit.

First while the film is structure as Embry’s journey. It is much too focused on Embry. He is on screen all the time which would be fine except the film seems bent toward him. He never disappears even when other people are talking. We watch his reaction to everything. He seemed to be the center. There was a point where I was wondering if the film was about MS in general or if it was simply Embry’s take on things. It doesn’t help that he is largely stoic or seems to have and seems more like a TV presenter instead of a man on a quest.

Worse the film is a jumble. The film has structural flaws and other issues that had me never fully engaging with the film.

The film makes a major mistake in that it jumps back and forth through time and repeats pieces with the result that the narrative thrust is lost. The film opens with Embry leaving a home in Hollywood and seems to be crying (it’s not quite clear). Why and what happened to cause it isn't explained for about a half an hour. Why he chose to start here is meaningless since we have no context. We later find out that the moment is when he is leaving the home an MS patient and he is overcome (?) by her recovery with stem cell treatment and her living conditions.

Embry makes jumble time repeatedly. Comments from his friends and family about his diagnosis are played once and then repeated in context later. There are frequent titles of time that bounce us forward and backward through time. The film barely starts and we barely have a footing when we are bounced nine months back in time. It doesn’t feel natural and it, like several other turns (large black and white titles announcing who everyone is, watching the camera crews stagger into locations) make it seem like Embry was trying to amp up the drama. Why he felt it was necessary eludes me since he has such a killer story at the center of the film.

To be honest I tuned out early. I stopped paying attention to anything having to do with Embry and just focused on the parts that didn’t have his nonsense and just listened to everything else. Even seeing he film a second time I drifted off.

The jumbled nature of the telling is going to kill the film because outside of those touched by MS I can’t really recommend the film.

TIFF ’17: Motorrad

The politics of Easy Rider and Electric Glide in Blue are radically different, but the endings are oddly similar. Two wheels are generally a hard mode of transportation in the movies, but what Hugo faces with his brother’s dirt bike running mates is something else entirely. The machete-wielding rival bikers are real enough, but there is something ominously uncanny going on just outside our range of perception in Vincente Amorim’s incredibly strange Motorrad, which screens during the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival.

It’s not exactly Mad Max out there yet, but in Hugo’s provincial corner of Brazil, a carburetor is worth risking your life for. Rather awkwardly, the nebbish mechanic is busted red-handed trying to lift one from the body shop run by Paula’s grandfather (or whoever). Much to his surprise, she lets him go, with the part, after tending to a burn on his palm. As a result, Hugo is able to invite himself along when his brother Ricardo lights off on a road trip with some friends and dodgy acquaintances. Things get even better when they stumble across the very same Paula broken-down on a remote mountain trail. She will take them even further off the beaten path, which makes them sitting ducks when a black-clad gang of psychotic bikers starts picking them off, one by one.

Motorrad sounds like a simplistically conventional exploitation movie, but there is a lot more going on than initially meets the eye. Plus, the vibe is indescribably out-there. Clearly, Amorim is processing disparate influences, such as Picnic at Hanging Rock, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, perhaps Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin, and most of Jodorowsky’s filmography. The tone is weirdly unsettling, even though his sprawling visuals are frequently quite beautiful. Frankly, this film is light-years removed from Amorim’s moral dramas, such as Good and Dirty Hearts.

Therefore, it looks primed for cult-status, provided enough people see it at Toronto to build word-of-mouth momentum. Of course, it is guaranteed to be divisive, because of the curve-balls that come out of left field, but cineastes should still give all the credit in the world to the craftsmanship of Amorim, cinematographer Gustavo Hadba, and editor Lucas Gonzaga. This is an extraordinary looking field, but it is also pretty intense on a grungy genre level.

As Hugo, Guilherme Prates is a credibly gawky everyman and Brazilian TV regular Carla Salle is ambiguously seductive as the mysterious Paula, but this is not the sort of film that will launch actors to superstardom. This is Amorim’s show—and he constantly lets the bikes and harsh landscape upstage his competent ensemble.

As motorcycle movies go, Motorrad might just give Easy Rider a ride for its money (but Glide still takes the honors). It is one of the strangest films of the year, yet it also fulfills its slasher horror movie duties. Highly recommended for adventurous audiences, Motorrad screens again tomorrow (9/13) and Saturday (9/16), as part of this year’s TIFF.

Of Sheep and Men (2017) Toronto 2017

Destined for a long art hose run director Karim Sayad's OF SHEEP AND MEN will is a rambling slice of life that will thrill those ir clicks with and bore those it doesn't.

The film follows two men. The first is 16 year old Habib who is secretly training the ram his father bought to take part in contests with other rams. He knows that his father is planning on slaughtering the animal for the up coming holiday, however he wants to try and make him a champion before that.
The second is Samir who is looking to buy rams cheap to make a killing with the approaching Eid holiday.

Shot in such away that I wasn't sre if this was a documentary or fiction film OF SHEEP AND MEN sucks you in and carries you along. How connected you are to the film is going to depend on how you relate to the films shot from the hip style. Sayad  is clearly following events as it transpire which at times makes for some off looking shots and some long rambling passages as the single camera simply records what is happening without cutting away. Some of it works and some of it doesn't. The result is some it thrills and some of it doesn't.

I know that how the film was shot and put together is going to not work for some audiences who will find it too slow even at 75 minutes.

For those who like their looks at life raw and uncensored  this is a must. For all others proceed with caution.

Porcupine Lake (2017) Toronto 2017

I am trying to deduce what my reaction to Porcupine Lake is.

It is most certainly a well-acted and well-made tale of a teenage girl coming of age and finding first love in a small town in Canada. The story of Bea and her friend Kate is beautifully done and it’s heartfelt tale that echoes of real world experience. It’s a good film with a well told story and on the most basic level it’s solid entertainment.

The problem for me is that the film isn’t all that exciting. It is, as I said, well told but it isn’t particularly compelling. It’s a film that is so low key it doesn’t generate much heat. It’s all at one level. The result was when the film ended I had no reaction- I felt the film was good but I had almost nothing to say about it.

I know that part of the problem is that the film plays like any number of other inde films. On a certain level we’ve been here before, never mind that the focus of the story is two girls, this is a story similar to any number of other stories.

As it stands now, this is a solid film that is very well done, but which will fade from your memory right after it’s finished screening.

KISSING CANDICE (2017) Toronto 2017

Aoife McArdle‘s KISSING CANDICE is the bold announcement of a brilliant new cinematic voice. The film is so beautifully made hat the film literally takes your breath away at times.

The plot of the film follows Candice a teen age girl living near the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland. Her father is cop in an area over run by gangs. Things are out of control to the extent that her father said it was safer during “the troubles”. The film is Candice‘s story as she deals with the perils of growing up under these conditions.

More mood piece than straight forward narrative things drift across the screen as they drift through CAndice‘s mind. This is a film you feel on an subconscious and emotional level than one that we follow on straight forward narrative. How you react will depend on whether you need hand holding or not.

Ultimately the narrative doesn’t really matter. What matters is that the film puts director McArdle firmly centerstage and makes her a filmmaker to watch. This is one of those films where sequences are so visceral and tactile that you want to leap up and scream- "play that again- right frigging now!". It’s a film where the filmmaking alone takes you places you never been before.

The film begins with a stunning sequence that bends your mind as you wonder what the hell you are watching as a make-out session in a car becomes an ethereal walk on the wild side. It is one of the most arresting sequences in any film in 2017 and would be the crowning achievement- except that McArdle follows it up beautifully crafted sequence after sequence that move us in gloriously unexpected way.

No I will not tell you more- I want you to go out and see KISSING CANDICE and have your ass kicked.

An absolute masterpiece and one of the gems of Toronto. Go see this film.

Cocaine Prison (2017) Toronto 2017

COCAINE PRISON vexes me - in a good way.

It is on the face of it nothing new or special. Odds are you've seen many other similar films...

...and yest some how the film wins you over and moves you more than any number of the similar films.

The film is simply the story of three people caught in the web of drug trafficking- Daisy a teenager who is trying to better her life and finish high school, her brother Hernan who is arrested with two kilos of cocaine on a trip to make some fast cash and his best friend Mario, a cocaine worker fighting for freedom. It largely transpires in San Sebastian where hundreds of people , some with their families, wait months and years for a court date in the over crowded Bolivian legal system.

Full credit has to go to director Violeta Ayala who has found three compelling people to anchor her film and who managed to get cameras into the prison so that we can see the day to day existence of prison life. Ayala gives us a truly you are there feel to the film. More importantly she draws us so deeply into the proceedings that by the end of the film we are ready to take everyone home and have dinner with them.

I was quietly amazed.

Actually I was quite moved.  Violeta Ayala and her fellow filmmakers set out to pt a human face on part of the drug trade and they have done just that. They have made a film that despite it's familiarity is much more powerful and moving than most similar films because the film never loses sight of wat is important- the people at the center.

Recommended.

COCAINE PRISON plays at Toronto International FIlm Festival September 10, 12 and 15.

Latched (2017) Toronto 2017

Justin Harding and Rob Brunner's is a nice little thriller.

The film has a Alana and her young son going to remote island to work on the choreography for her new show. The only other person on the island is an old gentleman neighbor. While working on her choreography in the woods Alana's son fins the weird body of an animal. Her neighbor says it's just a bat.

It is not a bat.

Good little thriller is not particularly scary but is completely entertaining as the scares are turned into knowing smiles. I really liked the film and enjoyed its compact little story.

You will forgive the lack of details and discussion but this is one of those films that will fall apart if you know too much.

Definitely recommended when the film play at Toronto September 10 and September 16