Hitchcockian Flick By Canada's Golden Boy

Whether you like Xavier Dolan's 2013 movie, Tom At The Farm (Tom a la ferme), or not, you'll be impressed by the tension and discomfort it created on screen. This is the fourth movie by the 25-year-old wunderkind from Quebec, Canada, who has just won the Jury Prize at last month's Cannes Festival for his latest film, Mommy (not yet available for public screening in Canada).

This was my first movie experience with Dolan as a director although at this young age, he's already had four others with critical acclaim - I Killed My Mother, Heartbeats, Lawrence Anyways and Mommy mentioned above. On top of his directing talent, he is also an experienced writer, editor, producer and costume designer. It's a very dark movie about a gay guy Tom (played by Dolan himself) from Montreal visiting his dead lover's family for the first time in rural Quebec. His visit became a discovery of surprise, horror and manipulation. Dolan also wrote the screenplay by adapting a play by Michel Marc Bouchard.

There's definitely a Hitchcockian supspense throughout the film created by Dolan's masterful delay of our visual image of the characters. So we saw the backs of the characters or their hands when they first appeared on screen. Dolan did not reveal the faces of his principal characters until their dialogue with Tom enabled us to imagine for a few seconds what they could have looked like physically.

The musical score by renowned composer Gabriel Yared, who made his film debut in 1980 with the score  for Jean-Luc Godard's Every Man For Himself, played an essential role in making this movie an ultimate thriller. Ironically, Jean-Luc Godard also shared the Jury Prize Award with Dolan at Cannes. As I was viewing the movie, I couldn't help but compared it to its previous genre as a play. The differentiating factors that made it such a creepy movie were definitely the music, the country-farm scenes, the stand-alone farm house in adverse weather, and the fresh blood from the cattle.

The cast was also superb, particularly Pierre-Yves Cardinal, who played Francis, the brother of Tom's deceased lover; and Lise Roy, who played the mother Agathe. It's also interesting that both Roy and Evelyne Brochu, who played Sara, also performed the same characters in the original play.

It's also obvious that Dolan is not a fan of America. From the bomber jacket worn by Francis to the music during the violent scenes, Dolan was telling us that all violence stemmed from our southern neighbour.

My favourite scene was the sexually-charged tango scene at the farm - it made you question the sexuality of Francis and who's really the manipulator here! I didn't like the film's ending at all. Many directors left the conclusion for the audience to figure out, but the final scene was strangely abrupt in this film.

I don't think Tom At The Farm is a masterpiece, but you might want to see it if you're curious about why Dolan is the current 'it' boy in Europe!

Love Lost, Found and Impermanent

The Face Of Love is a movie for boomers. Director Arie Posin talked about the challenges of financing the movie. There were three strikes working against the film - a woman in the lead role; starring actors (Annett Bening and Ed Harris) not in their 20s and on the cover of US Weekly; and it's a drama, not a thriller, a comedy or a science fiction. But eventually it got made with a moderate budget and an ace cast, including Robin Williams in a rare, non-comedic role and Jessie Weixler, best known as one of the  investigators, Robin, in the popular TV drama The Good Wife.

Professional film critics weren't kind to the movie, but I liked it - perhaps, from a baby boomer's perspective. All three principal actors in the film portray boomers looking for love after a major change in life. They've all lost their partners or spouses either through death or divorce. So they all choose somebody whom they like to believe in - Nikki (played by Annette Bening), the real estate staging agent, wants to relive her romance with her late husband; Tom (played by Ed Harris) wants to seek love before his health crisis implodes; and Roger (played by Robin Williams) wants somebody to replace his dead wife.

It's an artsy movie with scenes shot in the L.A. County Museum of Art and within a beautiful house designed by a successful architect. So even if you don't like the plot which, at times, seems incredulous, it's a pleasing picture for the eyes. Every character in the film is living in delusion. Nikki wants to cling on to a "clone duplicate" of her late husband without telling him the truth. Tom wants to seek temporary love without telling Nikki about his health crisis. And Roger just doesn't want to accept the reality that his next door neighbour doesn't love him.

Both Bening and Harris are in their best form although the former has not aged well. The film is about love lost, love found, but eventually gone again. The only thing that lasts is a painting capturing the essence of love. The movie manages to tell a romantic story between two aging boomers without being overly sappy!

Revenge and Reconciliation

The Railway Man was shown in Australia when I was visiting there last X'mas, but I never had a chance to see the film until it finally appeared in Canadian cinemas this past weekend. The film was shot in Thailand, Scotland, England and Australia and with a partial Australian production team, maybe that explained why it was shown in Australian cinemas so much in advance than North America.

I've always loved trains as a mode of transportation, and this film features some of the best shots of the railway in the countryside as old and new trains moved through the scenic villages and countryside throughout the years. The railway scenes were mostly shot in West Lothian, Scotland, and in the Ipswich Railway Workshops in Queensland, Australia. The English, Scottish and Australian countryside scenes were also breathtakingly beautiful.

The film is a psychodrama based on the true story and memoirs written by the former British Prisoner of War Eric Lomax. Like many others, Lomax was tortured during the Second World War by his Japanese foes and suffered from post-traumatic disorder after the war. He went back to seek revenge, but, instead, reconciled with his Japanese torturer and moved on with his life.

The torturing scenes were difficult to watch, but if you managed to stomach 12 Years A Slave, you should be able to sit through this film. My first impression after seeing this movie was that the current Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, should watch this movie and learn that in order for reconciliation to happen, one needs to first acknowledge the war crimes that have been committed. Other film critics have commented that perhaps former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney should be seeing this movie to see the terrible impact of the "waterboarding torture" on the lives of prisoners of war. But, in reality, neither Abe nor Cheney has any remorse about what they've done and that remains a problem.

The plot is quite incredulous, but it's based on a true story which makes the film touching in many ways. Lomax was a railway enthusiast even though he's a soldier. Trains and railways became a major part of his adult life - it's ironical that his personal demons tormenting his middle years were caused by his capture during the war to build The Burma Railway. Yet, he found love on the train where he met his wife and he reconciled with his captor and torturer on the Burmese railway track when he went back to confront his former Japaense rival.

Colin Firth, in his usual elegant, understated way, plays a very convincing and tormented Lomax. He's a lonely soul for most of the time standing alone on deserted beaches and bridges. The heavy fog in most of the scenes enhanced his sadness and inner struggles. His big, heavy glasses became part of his link between the past and present. The young British actor from Cambridge, Jeremy Irvine, also did an outstanding job in portraying the young, geeky Lomax. Nicole Kidman, for the first time, is less irritating in in this movie playing a dowdy, middle-aged woman.

I've never heard of the director Jonathan Teplitzky before this movie, but he's done a great job with The Railway Man which took 15 years to develop. Many women audiences in the cinema were bawling towards the end of the movie, but I found this film encouraging rather than sad and depressing!

Grand Budapest Hotel: An Iconic Comedy

Comedies are always more challenging than tragedies to write and produce - whether they are plays, movies or books. Appealing to the vulnerable emotions of human beings is always easier than making people laugh. Even the Bard's tragedies are better plays than his comedies, in my opinion.

So imagine my pleasant surprise when I saw Wes Anderson's latest comedy, The Grand Budapest Hotel, on its premier night in Toronto. Having never seen any of his films before, I didn't know what to expect except for the fact that I found the promotional trailer for this film absolutely hilarious. Anderson's previous works always seemed too quirky for me but like the Coen brothers, Anderson has a huge following, particularly among younger fans.

According to Anderson, his screenplay was inspired by the Austrian writer Stefan Zweig who also wrote Letter From An Unknown Woman and Marie Antoinette. So Anderson wrote the story about the adventures of a legendary concierge, Gustave H, at a famous hotel between the wars, and the lobby boy Zero Moustafa who becomes his protege. A lot of people thought the movie is about a hotel in Budapest, but the whole fictional hotel is actually located in an imaginary place in Europe that looks more like Switzerland, but the film was actually shot in Saxony, Germany.

The result of Anderson's writing and direction is a highly-creative film which is not only extremely cartoonish and funny, but it's so beautifully shot that I felt like I was watching a flawless fairy tale for grown-ups! But beneath the laughter also lies a satire about the end of the European aristocracy with the brutal onslaught of the Nazis during the war. Comedies are all about timing, and Anderson's situational and caricatural work would certainly go down in history as one of the most iconic comedies of our times!

The movie, of course, is very much a success because of its cast of 'substantial' thousands, some of whom are regulars in Anderson's works - Ralph Fiennes, Jude Law, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum, Bill Murray, Ed Norton, Tilda Swinton, Harvey Keitel, Owen Wilson and Tom Wilkinson. Everybody is extremely funny, but the charmismatic Ralph Fiennes deserves the biggest kudos as he demonstrates his talents way beyond his usual melancholic and brooding leading roles from Shakespeare to Dickens.

It's not just a good laugh, but The Grand Budapest Hotel is a hilarious masterpiece worth watching again and again on the big screen!

The Art of Conning

There should be no boomer out there who would dislike the movie American Hustle. And this boomer liked the flick so much that I watched it twice within a month! The 70's-era film with big hair, excessive cleavage, disco music and outlandish costumes was just a blast. Ever since The Fighter, I've become a big fan of director/writer/producer David O. Russell. Who cares if George Clooney and Lily Tomlin hated him? Here's a director who went through a professional (a six-year hiatus with no film) and personal (his son was diagnosed with bipolar disorder) crisis and re-emerged in Hollywood at the top of his game! So it's no surprise that Russell wrote a story about resilience and survival with such wit and humour. So far, both the Golden Globe and the Screen Actors Guild Awards loved the film. Russell was, for once, not a producer of this movie and left it to Bradley Cooper who, in addition to being one of the key supporting actors, was also the co-executive producer.

This is a movie which showcased its actors. That's why for the second consecutive year (after last year's Silver Linings Playbook), Russell once again led his cast to Oscar nominations in all four acting categories with Christian Bale (Best Actor), Amy Adams (Best Actress), Jennifer Lawrence (Best Supporting Actress) and Bradley Cooper (Best Supporting Actor). Every single one of them excelled in this film and on top of that, Jeremy Renner, Louis C.K. and Robert De Niro all gave outstanding supporting performances.

Amidst this excellent cast, I have to root for Amy Adams as the winner of Best Actress at the Oscars on March 2. If I were a member of the Academy, it would have been a toss-up between Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine and Amy Adams in this film. All the nominees in this category probably deserved to win, but there's a difference between who ought to win and who I want to win. It's unfair that Jennifer Lawrence has almost overshadowed Adams in all the media coverage on her supporting role. But Adams's performance was just 'one hit out of the ballpark' strong! From her previous outstanding, but diverse roles in The Fighter, The Master and even the recent Her, one would never have thought that she could play such a glamourous, clever, scheming female con artist. But sporting extreme cleavage for the most part of the movie, Adams as Sydney Prosser was dazzlingly hot and charismatic in this film! The sharp contrast against her 'girl next door' role in Her all the more confirmed her acting sophistication. Everbody could only remember Meryl Streep as Julia Child in Julia and Julia and almost nobody recalls Amy Adams as the other Julia in the film. But in American Hustle, Adams, the ultimate femme fatale, with her irresistible animal magnetism, just made the movie!

The entire flick was based on the 'conning' theme - "people believe what they want to believe". So, if you agree with this premise, nothing is off limits in the art of conning. As a crime comedy, the film was surprisingly brain-wracking and I'd recommend that you pay full attention every single minute. Otherwise, if you snooze, you lose! There were so many metaphors throughout the movie - hairdos played a very major role! Big hair, curly hair, toupees, comb-overs, showgirl updos, bouffants, permed hair, afros... you name it! Most of the male and female leading and supporting actors at one point wore either curlers or hairpieces in the movie. Can we see through the characters behind the hairdos? That's the main question for the audience.

Then there's the ice-fishing story trying to be told many times in the film by the popular U.S. comedian Louis C.K., but never got finished. And the numerous fires, explosions and accidents started by Jennifer Lawrence in her role as Rosalyn, the Long-Island homemaker, the loose-cannon wife who almost brought about the downfall of con man Irving Rosenfeld, masterfully played by Christian Bale.

Jeremy Renner didn't get any award nominations for his supporting role as New Jersey mayor Carmine Polito. But his cartoonish performance was so comical and convincing that he kind of reminded me of Chris Christie in his current Bridgegate crisis.

All in all, a two-thumbs-up movie if you want to laugh, morally reflect and be entertained at the same time!

Beautiful But Sad Futuristic Movie

Her is the kind of movie that is so good that you immediately have to pay some attention to its director and writer Spike Jonze who is the ex-husband of another talented director, Sophia Coppola. I never saw any of his three previous feature films - Being John Malkovich, Adaptation and Where The Wild Things Are - but now, I'd want to see them all.

I've never liked futuristic movies because most of them are not realistic; but Her is one that could disturbingly be real in the very near future! I went and saw it because so many film critics and talk show hosts loved it - the movie was nominated for three Golden Globes (and would probably win at least one tonight) and won 37 international awards including the Best Screenplay for the 2014 Toronto Film Critics Association Awards.

Upon seeing the movie, you'll marvel first at the brilliant and clever original screenplay; then the outstanding acting by Joaquin Phoenix; followed by the beautiful cinematography by Hoyte Van Hoytema (The Fighter and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) and the direction of Spike Jonze.

By now, everybody who is curious about movies must know that Her is a science fiction about a writer who falls in love with his 'female' operating system produced by artificial intelligence. My first reaction to the trailer was that it's a stupid concept - particularly when you saw the lead actor Joaquin Phoenix interacting with a computer! But, lo and behold, it's actually quite believable and very clever.

It took Jonze only five months to write his first draft of the story, but he never doubted that Phoenix would be his first choice as playing Theodore, the lonely writer who writes love letters for other people. After all, which male actor of our times could convincingly act for the majority of time on screen talking to himself? Well, or talking to a fake person who's also his OS? And besides being credible, Phoenix is adoringly sad and sweet at the same time.

While shooting the movie, the OS voice was played by British actress Samantha Morton who was on the set in a secluded box communicating with Phoenix without actually seeing each other. But after the movie was shot, both the director and Morton agreed that she's not the right voice. So Scarlett Johansson was brought in as the new Samantha and her voice was primarily recorded in the post-production studio with Phoenix being present with her as well. But what a great choice! Johansson gave a sexy, empathetic, witty and jealous performance of Samantha without the distraction of her physical attraction.

I always feel that Amy Adams is probably one of the most underestimated actresses of Hollywood. In American Hustle, for instance, Adams should be given all the acting compliments instead of the Hollywood 'it' girl Jennifer Lawrence. In this movie, Adams played Amy, the wonderful neighbour and platonic friend of Theodore's, with minimal make-up and full Silicon-Valley personality and appearance. Olivia Wilde also shed her usual heavy cosmetics to play the pretty, brainy but neurotic blind date of Theodore's.

The movie was made, for the most part, in Los Angeles, with two weeks of filming in Shanghai as the futuristic city. But what I love about the film is that it's extremely funny and sad at the same time. It's ridiculous that human beings have been reduced to a state that is incapable of having any healthy relationships with another person. Instead, we find comfort in falling in love with an invisible OS who becomes our personal assistant, our advisor in relationships, and our love object as well. But judging from how everybody is so addicted to technology nowadays, it's not hard to imagine that we might all become Theodore's and Amy's in the very near future.

Even though you expect Her to be witty, there are so many more clever moments that surprise you. The extremely funny video games such as the scoring of the Mommy points and the SexyKitten voice played by Kristen Whig are just two examples. It's a movie that bewilders you and yet depresses you at the same time. Maybe it's time to take some down time from our smartphones, our tablets and other electronic devices, and focus on our relationships with our loved ones instead?