Vultures (2026) Tribeca 2026

Answering a a call for a car accident, a tow truck driver had to deal with looter, drunk accident victims, a complicated incident site and a boss who is threatening.

This is a bleak and uncomfortable tale showing humanity at its worst. Everyone is working an angle and everyone is trying to dave their own skin. This is a look at humanity at it's most base. No one, not even the nominal hero, is seen to be be a nice guy.

This film will break you faith in humanity.

The truth is as bleak as the film is, it's also a small gem of a film. I'd love to see it either expanded or the filmmakers do something similarly dark... on the other hand that might be too black to sit through. Still I want to see what that would be.

Recommended.

Bird Boy (2025) NYICFF 2026

Joel Soisson's BIRD BOY is a delight. 

The film is the story of a boy named August who is sent to live with his great uncle and aunt after the death of his mother. August has been bounced around from 6 other family members and his dumping on a distant farm is his last stop.

The vast majority of this film  is not what you expect.  Yes the set up is something we've seen before but once the ostrich shows up the film goes into unexpected places. What an absolute delight.

What makes the film work is that writer director Soisson gives us real people. Almost everyone in this film isn't a cliche and we lean into the film as a result. Soisson also makes sure we love the people on screen by giving us great actors, including Tia Leoni. 

I absolutely loved this. It surprised me at almost every turn.

You need to see this film. Its wonderful.

Brief thoughts on Laundry (2025) Toronto 2025

In 1968, a young man whose family is allowed to run a laundry in a white part of South Africa is torn between going into the family business and becoming a musician. 

This is a good domestic drama with heavy social issue over tones. It's a film that shows us what it was like under apartheid just as the world was really beginning to notice the injustice taking place.

The trouble with the film is that outside of being set in South Africa, this is a story we've seen any number of times before. All of the threads from the coming-of-age tale, fighting with the parents over direction and the social justice angle have all been done before in some form or combination. Once all the pieces are set up in the first few minutes, we can largely tell how this is going to play out. I was never fully engaged because I knew how this would play out.

While the film is very good on it's own terms, the fact that it hits too many of the expected points make this seem less than it really is.

Worth a look.

Ernest Cole: Lost and Found (2024) plays DOC NYC 2024 tonight and opens Friday in theaters

This is a portrait of South African photographer Ernest Cole, who left his homeland and apartheid and moved to America where he chronicled the similarities between America and South Africa.

Largely made up of photographs left behind and undiscovered until after his passing this film is an eye opened. Seeing the images larger than life is a true awe inspiring experience. You may think you've seen life in the bad old days before but Cole's images will open your eyes to so many new things.

Coupled with Cole's words this film is not just a portrait of a time but of a man a drift in it. Through Cole's words we get to know what it felt like to live through the events that he was chronicling. 

It's a staggering achievement that you really should see, especially with on a big screen where the images can over power you.

Highly recommended.

DEATH OF A WHISTLEBLOWER (2023) Toronto 2023

The girlfriend of a whistleblower survives his assassination and then sets about making sure the people responsible will pay.

Rooted in what is happening in South African society where the government and corporations will occasionally kill people who expose their nasty little secrets (the film ends with dedications to a half dozen people recently killed) the film tackles the problem of illegal chemical weapon manufacture and sales. While the film clearly has a lot to say about the state of the country, the film always remains a solid political thriller. It’s a dark tale that we aren’t always sure that our heroine will survive. What I like is that the tension doesn’t ease until the end credits roll.  It’s a rare thinking man’s thriller.

I had a great time .

Get some popcorn and track this down.

The Umbrella Men: Escape from Robben Island, (2023) Toronto 2023

The sequel to one of the joys of 2022  is one of the joys of 2023.

Following up the events of THE UMBRELLA MEN this film follows the events of the first film. However things go side ways and Jerome and Morty end up in prison. The rest of the gang have to take matters into hands and rescue their friends and clear their name.

Beginning with what maybe my favorite opening of the year, it’s a musical number that is just a delight, the film drops us back into the lives of the characters we fell in love with last year. Not needing to set everyone one up, the film just pretty much goes, pulling us along and making us smile along the way. Sure this is a caper film, and we are interested in seeing how it comes out, but for the most part I didn’t really care. I was just having too good a time watching the interaction of all the characters I now call friends. It’s just a lot of fun as everyone cracks wise and plots a prison break.

In some ways I may like this film more than the first film. Part of it is that the film just goes and partly because the film is better. It’s as if the filmmakers took everything they learned from the first film and improved on it. Everything is just better.

If you saw and loved the first film, watch this one. If you haven’t seen the first one see this one anyway. It’s just so much fun. Besides, you’ll pick up everything you need to know along the way.

Black Mambas (2023) Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2023

Black Mambas is the name of the all-female anti-poaching unit in the Kruger National Park in South Africa. We follow the women over the course of year as they train and go out into the field.

I liked this film. Its a very good change of pace from the typical conservation/anti poaching docs we see. Focusing more on the women then on long sequences of them out in the bush, the film gives us a clear look at who the women are and what they are trying to achieve. It also makes clear the economic reasoning behind the poaching. There is a very telling  moment where one of the women talks about hoping that more local women get the chance  to do what they are doing so that they won't feel the need to poach.

The film also goes the extra mile in a number of places. Instead just dealing women, we get to see that that their success brought in more women, this time white women which leaves one wondering bringing in outsiders will change the success rate. Additionally the film ends near perfectly. In a powerful moment that made me misty, one of the women takes her child into the reserve and shows them a zebra for the first time and in that moment you realize, above all else what the women are fighting for.

Recommended.

Glasshouse (2021) Fantasia 2021

 

During an outbreak of a pandemic of a disease that wipes your memory and isolated family takes in a stranger.

Yes the idea of a memory wiping diseases have been used a great deal over the last few years. While there has been one or two good films there has been only one classic film Clare Carre‘s EMBERS up till now.  however we can add GLASSHOUSE to the classic list.

Kelsey Egan‘s GLASSHOUSE is a great film. It is a film that has a real tactile feel. This feels like a real place. This is a stunningly beautiful film to look at . It’s a film that we would want to live in (assuming there wasn’t a terrible disease raging). As I said to some of my friends, this is one of the most beautiful films playing this years Fantasia fest.

More importantly Glasshouse creates a world that makes sense. Watching the film I believed in what I was seeing. In a day and age when most filmmakers throw things together and call it a “world” Glasshouse creates a place where it all works together.  Nothing is out of place. When we come into the film we are uncertain of when this is taking place but as the film goes on and we discover the details if the story we realize that everything fits together. There is no odd burps. It all seems to be in a Victorian Edwardian world of over a century ago and it never goes anachronistic.

The writing is also stellar. It’s a film of beautifully constructed characters and situations that pull us in and drag us along.

I love this film and look forward to revisiting it when I can see it on a big screen.

Recommended

Indemnity (2021) Fantasia 2021

 

A fireman with memory problems and guilt over deaths in a fire gets drawn into a cat and mouse game involving a hacked company and stolen information.

Disappointing action thriller is done in by a slack pacing. The film is hobbled from the start when  an opening chase isn't as brisk as it should be. This film should grab you with curiosity and quick editing  to pull us a long. We shouldn't think about what we are seeing. Instead the  film uses shots that are longer than than they should be so we are working out what is going on and what the next shot or three are going to be.  

I never connected to any of this. 

...which is actually kind of sad since in better hands this could have been a brisk action thriller.

Blind Ambition (2021) Tribeca 2021

This is the story of Joseph, Tinashe, Marlvin and Pardon four Zimbabweans who left their  homeland for a better chance at supporting their families in South America. Not knowing each other  they end up meeting over their developing love of wine.  Despite it sounding totally insane they form the first Zimbabwe team to compete in The World Wine Blind Tasting Championships.

While the film is a heat warming tale of four guys who want to do something they love, the film also wrestles with a lot of serious questions, racism, immigration, politics and the notion of where our home is. While the film  refuses to be heavy, it wonderfully takes the challenge to engage our heads as well as out emotions. 

I didn't go into Tribeca with BLIND AMBITION on my dance card, but lord knows by the end of the film I was emailing friends they needed to take a look at it. Its a film that is the cinematic equivalent of  hanging out with a bunch of new friends. I was absolutely enraptured.

I don't know what else to say beyond that except see it.

Fried Barry (2020) Fantasia 2020

A son of a bitch is abducted by aliens, one of whom takes him over and then wanders the city indulging in sex, drugs and rock and roll.

One of a kind film is full of graphic sex, violence and, strangely, humanity. As dark and uncomfortable as this film can be. it is also strangely is moving. There is an emotional journey that kind of transcends just the darkness as "Barry" goes from pure expressions of pleasure to something more. What he does affects people and they affect him.

Watching the film I found I was kind of caught off guard. At first I thought it was going to be a down and dirty film but then things began to change. Alien Barry started to not just be a heathen and the humanity began to creep in. The film's seeming bleak outlook seemed to lighten up. I was shocked and I was moved in a good way. I was so impressed that when the film was done I seriously considered starting it all over again and seeing it through the eyes of someone who was aware of what the film was doing. Unfortunately It was too late at night for that but I intend to do just that as soon as the film gets a regular release.(And it will get a regular release because this film is simply too good not to_

While decidedly not for all audiences, for those who like a humorous adult film that will challenge them on many different levels I recommend FRIED BARRY.

Influence (2020) Hot Docs 2020

Skyline of Thatcher's ENgland which Timothy Bell helped to create

Portrait of Lord Timothy Bell, a morally questionable "reputation" manager, ie PR specialist, who worked for Margaret Thatcher, Chilean despot Pincochet, Russia, France, various African and Middle Eastern nations as well as others with questionable motives and large wallets. He eventually went on to for Bell Pottinger which which became the go to people for the unsavory.

This portrait of a largely uncaring son of a bitch is an eye opening look at the history of the last four or five decades. It's peak behind the curtain at how we ended up here and how the work of one man ended up altering history. Through interviews with Bell and those who moved around him we come to understand how his use of PR to keep the morally bankrupt in power. While in real life the good guys don't always win, with Bell's help the good guys often never stood a chance as the bad guys had the game fixed even more in their favor.

INFLUENCE is a hell of a film. It's one of those films where as you watch it everything you thought you knew about history changes. The curtain is pulled back and important little details are revealed that give you a deeper understanding of what happened and why. Watching the film I gained a new perspective on world events. I don't think that I had anything revealed to me entirely new, but some events, like some of what happened under Thatcher, were given a new perspective and a brighter color. INFLUENCE gave me a number of "ah ha" moments where things clicked.

My reaction to getting through the film the first time was to stare at the screen and want to watch it again. I wanted to see how all the little pieces tied together and how things in the later part of the film echoed earlier revelations.

A word of warning, when you watch INFLUENCE,  and I highly recommend you do, be prepared to have a great deal thrown at you. Lord Bell was mucking about for many decades with his fingers in a lot of pots. As a result a large number of things are mentioned. It can be overwhelming as a result. Still what the film reveals about how governments and political big wigs operate now is vital, especially in these days of a media star as the head of a major world power.

Highly recommended.

INFLUENCE will play on CBC on May 21st. It will also screen as part of  Hot Docs 2020 on line festival. For details go here.

An Ordinary People (2020) Slamdance 2020

Spinning is a sport that grew out of South African gangster culture. Years ago when a gangster died his friends would steal a car, “spin it” (do circle burn outs and some crazy stunts) then set the car on fire as a means of respect. The spinning of cars grew out of that into a dangerous but truly awesome dance between man (or men) and machines. There are now competitions held across South Africa where teams compete to find out who is the best spinner.

An Ordinary People is both one of the coolest films I’ve seen this year and one of the most frustrating.

This is just a really cool looking film. The images of the spinning cars are absolutely mind blowing. More to the point what the drivers and their crews are doing is absolutely amazing on so many levels. Director Ernest Nkosi and his crew have assembled a visual masterpiece- a grand cinematic dance fil of the highest order. This film is going to stay with me for a very long time. How do I know- because I was half way through the film and I was emailing friends and relatives that they had to see the film.

The problem with the film is that it takes a while before you really have a sense of what you are looking at or what this film is about. As someone who knew nothing about the sport except from a couple of brief clips I came into the film blind and was slightly taken aback. As the film opens we are watching clips of several crews spinning cars from either inside the car or from cameras attached to one of the spinners. It is very POV and it is almost 10 minutes before we actually see what is going on outside the cars or have anyone explain to us what we are seeing. The film then slowly winds it’s way into explaining the sport, the drivers and the fans. It’s a set up that requires the audience to be patient and willing to work with the film. Even though it is clear the filmmakers know their subject backwards and forwards they should have had someone outside the sport take a look so that we outsiders have an easier path into the sport.

Reservations aside, An Ordinary People is a must see for anyone who loves motorsports and who is willing to work with the film. It is a film that will make you talking out loud to the screen as people do the most amazing things.

The State Against Mandela and the Others (2019) NYJFF 2020

There are times when covering a film festival I go into a movie out of a perceived obligation rather than a real desire to see it. Now and again you run into a film that you see scheduled and you know you should see it but you don't really want to. Such is the case with THE STATE AGAINST MANDELA..., I didn't really want to see another film on Mandela but the description said that it was built around newly found audio...so I jumped in, and I am so glad I did.

Built around 256 hours of the 1964 Rivonia Trial where Nelson Mandela and his nine other co-defendants were sentenced to life, the film is like watching lightning in a bottle. For decades we have been  told and retold what happened at the trial, we've heard the accounts, seen recreations, but here at last are the actual voices of all the players. We are in the courtroom and we hear for ourselves what actually went down. With this film we are now witnesses to history and we are better for it.

 To fill in around the audio clips, which are illustrated by stark black and white animation, we get commentary from the surviving participants who fill in the details that the audio can not provide.

This is a towering achievement. Not only is it an important historical document but it is one hell of a great film, so much so that I am considering going to see it on a big screen when it plays Tuesday.

Highly recommended. This is one of the best films at the New York Jewish Film Festival and maybe the year as well.

THE STATE AGAINST MANDELA AND THE OTHERS plays January 28th. For more information and tickets go here.

From Core to Sun (2019) is out on VOD

Portrait of Millan Ludeña who decided to runa marathon- half at the place closest to the center of the earth, in this case Mponeng Mine in South Africa, and the other half at Mt. Chimborazo in Ecuador. Which because of the weird shape of the earth is actually the closest place on earth to the sun. The plan is to do the runs within 65 hours ending on top of the mountain at sunrise.

Good portrait of a weird challenge that Ludeña sets himself. To be honest I still don’t full grasp the reason why, but then again with many similar physical challenges I just go with it. Its just something that someone wants to do.

While we have been here before on some level, the film is typical sports tale, the film is of interest in that the film shows wha it took for ---to put the feat together. We not only see him train but also other aspects of putting something like this together. As a result Core to Sun becomes something other than the typical athlete meets a challenge.

While I sort of backed my way into covering the film, I popped it on to fill an empty slot, I ended up having a good time watching it. While I really wish it hadn’t been a little too feel good, the triumphant music can be a bit much, the story it tells compels.

Currently out on VOD Core To Sun is worth a look

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/movie/from-core-to-sun/id1462503015
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Core-Sun-Mill%C3%A1n-Lude%C3%B1a/dp/B07QY9XYVC/

To Tokyo (2018) Winter Film Awards 2019

Wrongly being billed as a horror film, this is more a philosophical journey as a woman who needs to go home for her mothers funeral has to get to Tokyo to make a flight in four days time, however she finds her self kidnapped and dumped in the desert and has to find her way home.

More a quest of a soul about needing to put the monsters in our lives to rest, TO TOKYO isn't really scary so much as meditative. With little in the way of dialog we have to piece things together on our own and deduce what is real and what is metaphor.

This is a film we have to be willing to work with if we are going to get anything out of it. If you aren't willing to work with it and work out some answers on your own you are going to find this hopelessly dull and boring. If you are willing to go with it odds are you will find something inside it.

While I liked the film, I wish it hadn't been labeled a horror film. There really are no scares nor chills, though it is incredibly moody and I absolutely love the opening bathtub sequence to death and think it maybe one of the best openings of any film in the last year.

Assuming you can go into the film and let it do what it is going to do without you're fighting it I recommend it.

Mama Africa begins a theatrical run at the IFC Center tomorrow

I saw MAMA AFRICA back in 2011 when I first covered Tribeca on a press pass. It was the first film I saw at the festival that year. It was a film tat as hung wit me ever since and is highly recommended. Here is my review from 2011

MAMA AFRICA is the a celebration of the life and times of South African singer and activist Miriam Mekeba. It's told via archival footage and interviews with friends and family. The film is like getting to know the feel of it's subject rather than a straight forward biography of her life. I think the best term would be tone poem, which considering the wall to wall and non-stop music is, I think apt. We watch how Miriam sings, gets involved in politics (though as she said "I never sing about politics, I only sing the truth"),raises a family and sings some more. Its a wonderful celebration of a life and of music.

I grew up on the music thanks to my moms (both of them) who loved the songs, so I was in heaven as long as the songs played. The trouble for me came about half way in when I realized that as good as an over view of the life the film is, it really isn't all that detailed. I mean once we get passed about 1964 any sense of time goes out the window (We learn of the death of her daughter and how it affected her only to jump back in time to talk about her and other things.) It's a quibble of a sort since the film is very entertaining and the sort of thing I'll get on DVD just so I can use the film as a sort of musical mix.

MAMA AFRICA begins a week long run at NYC's IFC Theatet tomorrow. For details go here

Invictus (2009)

One of the handful of odd man out films from Clint Eastwood concerns Nelson Mandela's effort to unite South Africa by having the national rugby team make a run at the world championship. Also as sports films go, this one is a real odd duck since the film is largely concerned with Nelson Mandela as opposed to the soccer team who come into the picture in the second half

I’ve been sitting on my thoughts about INVICTUS for a couple of weeks. I say that because the way I write reviews is to see a film and then as soon as possible to sit down and write up the film. I don’t like to have the review hanging over my head, and more often than not unless I can see a film a second time soon after seeing it the first time my opinion of a film rarely changes or changes enough to do a rewrite.

With INVICTUS my feelings have been all over the place. After seeing the film in piece a couple of times on cable over the last few years I finally sat down and watched it from start to finish and I’m left puzzled as to what to say.

I do like the film. I think it’s a good portrait of a specific place and time. It’s an often rousing tale. And it’s good enough that I’m taking the effort to write it up here at Unseen. The thing is the mixing of the politics and the sports story don’t completely mix. So much of the time is spent with Mandela that by the time the sports takes the center stage in the second half we kind of get a shorthanded story. It’s the sort of thing where you know why, outside of an audience boost, you know why Matt Damnon was cast as Francois Pienaar, simply that his presence gives a kind of short hand to the role.

This really is an odd duck film. I remember there being great interest in the film before it came out but once it was released and people saw it they kind of looked at it and then instantly moved on to other things. As I’ve said it’s not bad but it’s like that odd ball portrait I a gallery that doesn’t fit.

If you’ve never seen the film it’s worth a look both because it’s a good film and because it’s the sort of thing that wil make you go “Clint Eastwood directed this? Really?” yes really.

In Brief: Momentum (2015)

Olga Kurylenko stars as Alexis, an infiltration expert who ends in a world of trouble when a heist goes wrong. This put her in conflict with an assassin/fixer played by James Purefoy who wants an electronic device she accidentally stole. It all becomes a bloody battle in which survival is uncertain.

Stephen Campanelli's debut film is full of slam bang set pieces. Campanelli seems to learned a great deal working with directors such as Clint Eastwood as a cameraman because he knows how to stage action and set up scenes.  A scene where Purefoy tortures some one on top of a bed under which Aleis is hiding is a mini masterpiece of suspense.

The problem with the film here is the script. A knotty international thriller with political overtones the plot never seems to fully come together. To be honest I still don't think I've grasped the plot as well as I should have.Then again I'm not sure the writers did either and they fell back on cliches and confusion to keep the audience interested. Additionally some of the dialog seems stilted, more in line with the writers trying to get information across at the expense of sounding as if its real people talking.

On the other hand the film moves along at a great clip and you really don't have time to think too much as we are plunged into one set piece or another. Its the set pieces that are the reason to see this and having seen more than my fair share of recent action films I can honestly say they are worth the price of admission even though the plot lets you down.

The film opens tomorrow in theaters and on VOD and is worth your time and money, especially if you're looking for something that isn't a huge Hollywood blockbuster.

Necktie Youth (2015) tribeca 2015

Sibs Shongwe-La Mer NECKTIE YOUTH will either thrill you or piss you off. However whether you like it or hate it odds are you'll see it as the calling card of a talented director.

The film follows two young men Jabz and September through the disenchanted suburbs of Johannesburg. Bothered by the live streamed suicide of one of their friends they try to lose themselves in drugs, drink and random acts of rebellion.

Shot in stark black and white with occasional full color memories this is a great looking extremely well acted film. This is yet another film you'll want to have hanging on your wall as if it it were a moving painting.

The problem is the film is extremely arty and very pretentious in its dialog and construction. How you react to the overly arch dialog and voice over landscape shots will determine how you feel about the movie.  I had no problem with the voice over sequences however I really was bothered by the dialog that was nowhere near natural and was always about something. While I completely agree that a director can do anything he wants with his film you do have to have a way for people to connect with whats going on on screen and here things are too artificial to really work for me.

That said Sibs Shongwe-La Mer is a brilliant director. Yes I didn't like his how the script is constructed but I completely admire that he actually gave us a film about ideas. I love that here we have a director who is willing to do make a film that has a brain behind it.  Actually I like the ideas and the issues raised I just disagree with the best way to present them. If you add in the technical achievements and the fact that he pulled such good performances from the cast it's clear that we are witnessing the birth of a great director.

I just wish he had made a film I could recommend.