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| Amsterdam |
(Canada, 108 min.)
Dir. Stefan Miljevic, Writ. Louis Champagne, Stefan Miljevic, Gabriel
Sabourin
Starring:
Gabriel Sabourin, Louis Champagne, Robin Aubert, Suzanne Clément, Fanny
Mallette, Marie-Chantal Perron.
A strong cast saves Amsterdam
from being a totally unconvincing misfire. It’s a Raymond Carver-esque scenario
about three friends—Jeff (Gabriel Sabourin), Marc (Louis Champagne), and Sam
(Robin Aubert)—who say à bientôt to
their wives and go on a fishing trip. Once the men get to the cottage, however,
they pull some frozen fish out of a cooler, snap some photos, and then hop a
plane to Amsterdam for a riotous week of drugs and Red Light District naughtiness.
A big lie spins into a bigger lie, however, and Amsterdam spirals out from being a taut
character drama to an all-out fracas of soapy convolution. There’s a bit too
much moralising to Amsterdam as it
struggles to balance an air of mystery with the domestic drama. The ensemble
holds it all together, though, and grounds the film in a world of emotional
realism as they make for a sextet of flawed and relatable characters. Amsterdam, however, also suffers from
the problematic sketching of paper-thin female characters who are unwitting
dupes to the web of lies their husbands spin, although Laurence Anyways star Suzanne Clément redeems the film with the
depth of her performances as Amsterdam
shifts the blame from her boys’ behaviour to Marianne.
Amsterdam might be
ambiguous in the overall message it tries to convey, but it’s a competently
made film from a technical perspective. (The editing is particularly compelling,
as the pace and convolutedness work together to keep the viewer on edge.) It’s
a flawed film, albeit an engaging one, as debut director Stefan Miljevic doesn’t
shy away from leaving room for the audience to question the motives of the
protagonists.
Rating: ★★★ (out of ★★★★★)
Amsterdam is now available on Google Play.
Vanishing Point
(Canada/Greenland, 83 min.)
Dir. Stephen A. Smith, Julia Szucs
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| Photo: Julia Szucs |
Vantage Point,
somewhat of a surprise nominee in the Best Documentary Feature category, looks
at Inuit life with a fond and reflective eye. The film follows a Polar Eskimo
elder named Navarana as she traces her roots from her home in Greenland to that
of her ancestors in Baffin Island. Her trip is the return of an epic journey
made by her shaman ancestor Qitdlarssuaq, who led an Inuit migration to
Greenland. Nearly two centuries have passed since Navarana’s ancestor made his
voyage and Vanishing Point sees her
reflect upon the journey that the Inuit have taken since Qitdlarssuaq took his
fateful trek.
Directors Stephen A. Smith and Julia Szucs thankfully let
the subjects of the film do the talking. The Inuit have come a long way in
documentary representation since Nanook
of the North, and this objective expository doc simply shows life as it is
on Baffin Island today without much commentary aside from the odd thought from
Navarana herself as she interrogates why her people uphold their traditions in
an increasingly globalized world.
There isn’t much to the film aside from its affectionate
slice-of-life observations, but the film smartly steers clear of nostalgia as
it looks at cultural preservation in the face of a landscape that often forces
change. Images of the declining ice speak to shifts in hunting patterns and
candid remarks on the food industry situate the Inuit within the larger
cultural shift. Vanishing Point
doesn’t depict the Inuit as an isolated community thanks to ample references to
“Southern Canada” and other influences, but it subtly notes how said influences
force a person like Navarana to reflect upon her culture. One episode of the
narwhal hunting, for example, sees a hunter remark that the mattak of the
narwhal has become so costly that many families are unable to afford the
delectable meat. (The observation seems especially ironic as the hunters dine
on Chef Boyardee during the trip.) The narwhal hunt, however, underscores the
aspect of community that exists among Navarana’s kin, as the riches of the hunt
are shared, as opposed to gains in other Western communities that might
restrict profits to the individual.
Some traditions are worth passing on to generations, Navarana
says, as she accompanies the family on the narwhal hunt, which is one of
several impressive hunting sequences offered in the film. Practices differ from
place to place, but Navarana notes a common link between the sense of community
with the family on Baffin Island and her own family back in Greenland. A
philosophy for passing on old customs to preserve a culture made the trip with
Qitdlarssuaq many years ago, and his way of life will continue to prosper
through the community engagement and elements of shared experience depicted in
the film.
Rating: ★★★ (out of ★★★★★)
Rating: ★★★ (out of ★★★★★)
Vanishing Point is now available on home video. (iTunes, Netflix,
and from the NFB)
The Mortal
Instruments: City of Bones
(USA/Canada/Germany, 130 min.)
Dir. Harald Zwart, Writ. Jessica Postigo
Starring: Lily Collins, Jamie Campbell Bower, Kevin Zegers,
Jemima West, Jonathan Rhys-Myers, Robert Sheehan, Jared Harris, Lena Headley.
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| Jamie Campbell Bower and Lily Collins star in The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones. Courtesy of eOne Films |
The Mortal
Instruments: City of Bones might have seemed like an ideal venture for the
Canadian film scene to gain a boost by hopping on board the Twilight train. The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare could have been the
next big thing, but this laugh-a-minute misfire is such a mess that not even
its target audience could admire it. It’s a cheap-looking fantasy thrill-ride
full of ridiculous dialogue and mailed-in performances.
The first (and hopefully last) adaptation of the series is
abhorrently bad, even by the incredibly low standard with which one approaches
YA flicks. (Case in point: Vampire Academy.)
Some of the teenybopper Twilight
aspirants have afforded surprisingly good escapism by embracing the lunacy of
the teen-lit world (see: Beautiful Creatures), but The Mortal
Instruments: City of Bones seems particularly oblivious to the fact that it
is brainless escapism, although the wayward performance by lead Lily Collins (Mirror Mirror, Stuck in Love) might have sold the film as a comedy with the
correct marketing
The Mortal Instruments
clearly aspires to something more, as buckets of money are visibly wasted in an
attempt to transform Toronto into the next teen-lit cash cow. Not an ounce of
the film works, though. It’s sloppy, silly, and consistently ludicrous from
beginning to end.
The Mortal
Instruments: City of Bones is the Jackass
Presents: Bad Grandpa among this year’s Canadian Screen Awards nominees.
Both films are god-awful turkeys through and through, and it’s mind-boggling
that better craftwork in superior films went unacknowledged by the voting
bodies. Jackass, however, has more
merit to its lone Oscar nom for make-up than The Mortal Instruments does to its sextet of Screenie nominations
and its booby prize of the Golden Reel, which grants the film—a commercial (and
critical) bomb that grossed roughly half of its 60-million-dollar budget—an
award for being Canada’s box office star. What an embarrassment.
Rating: ★ (out of ★★★★★)
The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones is now available on home
video.
Oh, I should also mention that I
tried watching Upside Down on The Movie Network recently, but I learned a
thing or two after Jackass and The Mortal Instruments and decided to
shut off the film and catch something better. It’s utter nonsense!
