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Believe … and you shall receive

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Justin Bieber wants you to believe, to accept his side of the story and to let him take us along this journey with him.

Press photo

The musical-documentary Believe is directed by Jon M. Chu, the undeniable talent behind great works such as G.I. Joe: Retaliation, Step Up 2: The Streets, and the previous Bieber documentary, Never Say Never. It is no surprise then that he was picked for this sequel. Believe is a visual masterpiece, and Chu is intimately acquainted with Bieber, having worked on the musical tour of the same name.

It’s simple: Bieber, his manager Scooter Braun, his mentor Usher, and the rest of the crew really just want you to believe. Believe in him, and this young man can continue his dream of making music.

And sure, while Bieber may struggle at times, his family and friends are always there to keep him grounded and remind him that pants are meant to cover a certain area of the body — not expose it.

From screaming back at paparazzi to urinating in a bucket in public, Bieber left little of himself behind. The documentary is a response to the highly publicized outrageous moments that have captured the attention of many in the past year.

We get an inside look at Bieber’s creative side, from the moment he sits down to write a song to the recording process with his crew.

We also get to see the kinds of relationships he has with his fans. For instance, Avalanna Routh. Bieber cultivated a friendship with the six-year-old cancer patient, nicknamed “Mrs. Bieber,” and spent many hours with her as well as inviting her to one of his concerts. The news of her death left Bieber mournful, leading him to dedicate his song, “One Less Lonely Girl” to her memory while images of her were displayed during one of his performances.

That’s not to say that Believe is not a an attempt at correcting Bieber’s public image — because it is. The documentary is a way for his fans to shift their focus towards his music and human side, rather than his scandalous personal life. And while potential for growing facial hair is doubtful, there is potential for this young artist to grow and evolve into a fully developed artist.

And if he falls off the rails once more, I’m sure Chu is ready for a third documentary.

Although Believe was well-directed, it may nevertheless be wise to wait for the DVD to come out, unless of course you are a true Belieber.

 

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Arts

What NOT to watch this holiday season

Graphic by Jenny Kwan

Once you’ve submitted that final essay and sat your very last exam, you can finally watch some of those movies that have been on your radar the past few months. Well, here are some flicks you should avoid like the plague, unless you want your Christmas to become as depressing as Ebenezer Scrooge’s life at the beginning of A Christmas Carol.

Graphic by Jenny Kwan

 

Spring Breakers:

What seems like a typical teen-comedy is actually a mortifying trick. Your body will get stuck in a permanent cringe as you watch former Disney stars stray away from their wholesome images. It would be a disaster to watch this movie with your family, because the minute you see Selena Gomez take a hit from a bong, you’ll surely realize this isn’t anything like her movie Monte Carlo. Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens are all grown up in this film and you should refrain from seeing it, unless you are comfortable getting uncomfortable with your parents. Spring Breakers has enough sex to make make a porn star blush, and drug use and gang violence which makes Crips and Blood seem like they would break into song and dance at the drop of a hat. Discomfort and depression is what you’ll feel with this downer of a movie. So avoid it and keep your personal, awesome fantasy about spring break alive.

 

A Madea Christmas:

Oh good Lord, another one?! This is already the sixth — thats right, sixth — Madea movie Tyler Perry has decided to thrust upon the world. This one huge cliché of a film is about the title-character, Madea, paying a surprise visit to her daughter on Christmas and obviously, trouble ensues. Even though this is a Christmas movie, please avoid it at all costs because if we keep giving Tyler Perry money, he will continue to believe that he is funny. Alas, even if you hang new decorations and tinsel on last year’s Christmas tree, it will sadly remain dead.

 

Evil Dead:

Stupid is a word that comes to mind after only 30 minutes into this film about five friends who summon evil spirits that end up possessing them. The combined IQ of this group must be around that of Brick Tamland from Anchorman, because even inviting Veronica Corningstone to his “pants party” was a better idea than any of these characters had in this movie. You can’t help but get annoyed with these teenagers for being so naive. On top of the frustration, the violence is too over top for the holiday season. So do yourself a favour and avoid this terrible film and just wish this pure evil, dead.

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Arts

“A spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down”

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Saving Mr. Banks takes us behind the scenes of one of the most iconic films in history, Mary Poppins. The film focuses on the interplay and rivalry between author P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson, witty, imperious, fantastic) and Walt Disney (Tom Hanks, exuberant, charming, sincere) who wishes to adapt her book series into a film.

Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson star in Saving Mr. Banks. Press photo

As far as Travers is concerned, turning Mary Poppins into a “silly cartoon” is an atrocious idea, one she equates to “selling out.” It’s a vile concept she would never consider – until that is, the royalties from her book sales dry up and she faces financial uncertainty.
A dejected Travers finds herself on a flight from dreary London to sunny Burbank, CA. “Sunny” in this case, is an understatement. Just as Mary Poppins enters the cartoon world of penguins and merry-go-round horses that come to life, so does Travers leave a somber reality to plunge into the glitzy fantasy land of Disney Studios – and she couldn’t be more adverse.

Since Travers has not signed the contract yet, Disney and his employees are at her mercy.

The set design is fantastic, transporting us to Burbank in the ‘60s, and is aided by the fact that the Disney Studios and Disneyland itself have not changed too much in the last 50 years. All the characters look like they were taken off the set of Mad Men, so there is much eye candy for fans of tailored suits and elaborate hairstyles.

It’s not long before the team that “Uncle Walt” has tasked with adapting the book, screenwriter Don DaGradi (Bradley Whitford) and the musical Schwartzman brothers (B.J. Novak and Jason Schwartzman) realize that Travers is not there to cooperate or make their lives easy.

Her demands become increasingly ridiculous (no songs, no cartoons, no Dick Van Dyke, no colour red) and when the chipper Disney denizens see that Travers is entirely immune to their upbeat charms, a tug of war ensues between a writer desperately clinging to an idealization of the past, and entertainers looking to bring her characters to the audiences of the future.
This conflict is the most enjoyable part of the film due to the sly dialogue delivered by Thompson, who steals every scene she’s in, even the ones opposite Hanks.

Hanks’ performance of Walt Disney focuses on the magic and splendor of a visit to a Disney theme park with only a glimpse at the chains and cogs that make the rides function. You can’t build a multibillion-dollar company on smiles and fairy dust alone, and it would have been apt to see a bit more of the practical side of Disney – the visionary businessman and shrewd empire-builder that wouldn’t take no for an answer.
So why is Travers such a difficult nut to crack? Why does she retain her jaded cynicism even in the happiest place on Earth?
Juxtaposed with the 1961 story is the tale of eight-year-old Helen Goff (Travers as a child) in turn-of-the-century Australia. The girl with the golden locks is forced to grow up all too quickly when her quirky, fun-loving father (Colin Farrell, a strange casting choice but he makes it work) brings his family to ruins by succumbing to alcoholism.

While bedridden, little Helen tries to brighten his day by reading him the first poem she has ever written, a poem that has won first place in her school.

“It’s not exactly Yates, is it?” spits her father to her heartbroken face. These flashback scenes provide answers to some character-building questions.

Unfortunately, little Helen does not get the Disney ending she hopes for, and by the midpoint of the film we understand the experiences that shaped Travers into a lonely dispassionate old lady but also – because all great writing must come from pain – into a brilliant writer capable of capturing the imaginations of children and adults all over the world.

The movie does take many liberties with the truth. In real life, Travers was not at all happy with the film, and she refused to allow Disney any rights to the rest of her books. After the premiere, Travers demanded that the animated segments be removed and Disney denied her request telling her that “the ship has sailed.”

But a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down and Saving Mr. Banks is an emotional roller coaster that will make you cry, make you laugh and – fitting to a movie about the Disney Corporation by the Disney Corporation – make you leave the theaters with a little more joy in your life than when you went in.

Saving Mr. Banks will be opening in Montreal theatres on Dec. 20.

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Arts

A life with Lennon, Warhol and Bjork is quite ordinary

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Imagine your life was put in front of a camera for 365 days. Would it be entertaining or outright boring? Would others be captivated by watching snippets of your ordinary life?

Press photo

Maybe they would, if your ordinary life was that of legendary filmmaker Jonas Mekas, riddled with chance encounters with famed artists and prominent thinkers such as John Lennon, David Bowie, Bjork and Andy Warhol.

Widely regarded as the godfather of avant-garde cinema, Jonas Mekas believes that our ordinary lives should be celebrated. This is the theme to his new Montreal exhibit, In Praise of the Ordinary, which showcases three of his film projects.
Cheryl Sim, the curator of the Foundation for Contemporary Art sees Mekas as a “multi-faceted artist who sees himself as part of a continuum to a medium that is constantly evolving.”

The first work, “The 365 Day Project” is akin to a video diary. Starting from Jan. 1, 2007, Mekas filmed a short film every day of the year. The films, between two and 20 minutes long, are presented on 12 monitors, each monitor representing a month of that year.
“You can walk through an entire year of his life in images, [a] testament to his practice of creating a visual diary or journal-like films,” said Sim.

The second work, “First 40,” is a collection of Mekas’ first 40 films compiled on the Internet. At 91 years of age, Mekas is still discovering new tools.

“He [Mekas] discovered the Internet 10 years ago and it became one of the dissemination tools he’s always been looking for,” explains Sim.

Rather than these films being shown in a cinema, Mekas created an interface on his website where “the individual viewer can view one film at a time, rather than in a group setting.”

A lot of the films revolve around Mekas’ relationships with fellow artists and celebrities: “the first 40 films he made feature celebrities like Salvador Dali, Yoko Ono and John Lennon. Sometimes it’s glimpses of concert footage or a birthday party […] it runs the gambit of showing them in their artistic worlds but also in their personal worlds,” Sim explained.

The last work exhibited is Mekas’ full-length film, Sleepless Nights Stories, which follows the same theme as the rest of his works: an amalgamation of the encounters he’s had with friends and coworkers like Bjork and David Bowie, yet still managing to follow a narrative flow.

“It’s also riffing on 1001 Arabian Nights. There is a kind of thread that keeps you engaged from beginning to end in the same way that Scheherazade kept the king engaged. It’s all different stories that are connected somehow,” said Sim.

According to Sim, the Phi Centre is always trying to work with people that have done remarkable things and have a unique voice that the Montreal audience would really like to be privy to.

“You don’t have to go to New York to see these things; you can stay in your own city. He’s the caliber of artist we want to bring all the time.”

In Praise of the Ordinary exhibits, in association with Festival du Nouveau Cinéma, until Oct. 26 at the Phi Centre, 407 St. Pierre street. Many of Jonas Mekas’ works (including the full “First 40” film project) can be found online at http://jonasmekasfilms.com

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Arts

In a grind, all you need is a little help from some friends

Thanks For Sharing follows the recovery process of 3 sex-addicts as they struggle with temptation

Addiction to sex seems to be a recurring theme on the minds of many film directors lately. Just consider the latest releases about sex addiction: Choke (2008), Shame (2011) and Don Jon (2013). Now, viewers can learn more about the affliction with Thanks for Sharing, which will open in theatres on Oct. 18.

The film asks poignant questions and raises some fiery issues. Centering on three men recovering from sex addictions, Thanks for Sharing is both funny and heartbreaking.

Meet Adam, Neil and Mike. Adam (Mark Ruffalo) is handsome, intelligent and five years sober. He attends meetings regularly, falls in love and seems settled. Neil (Josh Gad), an adorable doctor with frizzy black hair and a worrying love for doughnuts is a wreck; he masturbates, rubs against women on the subway, and even films up his boss’ skirt. Finally, there’s Mike (Tim Robbins), a toughened guy who acts as a sage and saviour, having successfully overcome his addictions to sex and alcohol for 15 years.

The film opens with Adam praying on his bed in the nude, and the voice-over informs the viewers: “Five years. I remember I couldn’t manage five days.”

While walking down the streets of New York on his way to work, Adam desperately tries to ignore women’s legs, tight skirts, push-up bras and the like.

But things start to look up for Adam when he falls in love with Phoebe, expertly played by Gwyneth Paltrow. The two meet at a “bug party,” where Adam skewers bugs for a barbecue (odd idea, but whatever). As Adam and Phoebe get to know each other over several dates, Adam becomes increasingly worried about telling Phoebe about his past.

Phoebe is seemingly perfect: she has overcome breast cancer, she’s training for a triathlon and eats like a bird. But, things are not as they seem. When Phoebe learns of Adam’s former addiction, she reconsiders. Issues of judgment are brought out in a fiery battle between the couple when Adam says, “Cancer gets you sympathy, addiction gets you judgement. Anyways, you think you’re normal with all that food shit and your obsession with exercise?”

As for Neil, his penchant for sex and food is hilarious to watch. When Adam asks him why he partakes in the meetings, Neil shrugs and innocently suggests, “Free bagels?” But some scenes are more serious, pointing to the fear that addiction brings about. At a meeting, a freaked-out Neil says, “The truth is I am out of control, I am scared, I need help.” Slowly but surely, Neil is helped by Adam, his “sponsor”, with a regiment of no masturbation, no internet, and no pornography.

Mike on the other hand is hard to like. When his son appears on his doorstep after years of estrangement, Mike is hardly pleased. He begrudgingly permits Danny to stay. Working on a pond or meditating in the garden, the duo seem to be reconciling until the son confronts his father about being physically abused. Mike’s character, as a role model, suddenly takes on darker colours.

The point of the movie is clear: humans get addicted to things (sex, alcohol, gaming), but they need to be trusted and helped instead of judged, inorder for them to get back on track. The best part of the film is the questions it raises: How often do we judge people based on their imperfections and why? Is Phoebe really exemplary? Do we ourselves have addictions we would like to sweep under the rug?

Thanks for Sharing will appear in theatres Oct. 18.

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Arts

The story of a single photograph

Man’s first step on the moon, Tiananmen Square, Auschwitz. These are some of the images that flicker across the screen.

Remodeling the touching and heartbreaking Pulitzer prize-winning photo, Firing Squad in Iran, A Dress Rehearsal for an Execution aims to recreate the historical moment of the execution of 11 people during Iran’s revolution of 1979. Press photo

 Meanwhile, as a man and woman discuss these pictures, an image of 11 people being executed appears.

Remodeling the touching and heartbreaking Pulitzer prize-winning photo, Firing Squad in Iran, A Dress Rehearsal for an Execution aims to recreate the historical moment of the execution of 11 people during Iran’s revolution of 1979. The film, made in Montreal and directed by Concordia student Bahman Tavoosi, is “the story of a photographer whose photo becomes seen and celebrated around the world but he himself remains anonymous for a long time to save his life.”

In this meta-docudrama, Tavoosi traces the two-year period in which he tries to recreate the famous picture with actors, by constructing the set to resemble, as closely as possible, the same environment of the picture. We follow the auditions, rehearsals in the studio and the hours of research.

Creating the ambiance of the revolution tension with the presentation of original clips, the film perfectly involves its audience in the emotions of the victims. It was not enough for Tavoosi that the set be a copy of that of the photo’s, he was determined to have the perfect casting. It was imperative that the actors understand the power of the photo, consequently, the team he assembled had had their own experiences with oppression.

Press photo.

“For my generation, growing up in post-revolution Iran, films played very significant roles,” replied Tavoosi when asked about his motivation to make this film. “From a very early age, we grew up watching the works of the world independent masters of cinema, since any Hollywood products were banned. It therefore shaped a certain aesthetic and understanding of cinema among my generation which later on impacted our artistic path.”

A Dress Rehearsal for an Execution is as emotionally engaging for its director as it is for the audience as we see the reactions of the actors being rounded up in a bus, taken to the location where the execution is to take place and standing in front of the firing squad. Although the original photo was in black and white, the final scene is perfectly lit, shot in full colour adding to the realism of this re-enactment. They say a photo is worth a thousand words but it is this film that fully speaks to the injustices that took place in this turbulent time in Iranian history.

 

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Opinions

The Oscars: success made in Quebec

© Jennifer Kwan
Graphic by Jennifer Kwan

Quebec’s film industry is vibrant. For the third year in a row a film from La Belle Province made the list of Academy Award nominees for best foreign language film at the Oscars. Written and directed by Kim Nguyen, the movie War Witch — also known as Rebelle — was shot in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and tackles the story of a child soldier in an African civil war. Previous Quebec Oscar films include Philippe Falardeau’s Monsieur Lazhar (2011), Denis Villeneuve’s Incendies (2010) and, of course, Denys Arcand’s Les Invasions Barbares, which won the best foreign film Oscar in 2003.

Quebecois filmmakers have a unique eye. Their art is deeply rooted in the province’s cultural history. In 1896, Montreal became the birthplace of cinema in North America shortly after it was first invented in France by Louis and Auguste Lumière. This status was reinforced in the 1960s when the Quebecois started expressing their desire for cultural emancipation. Thus, the particularity of Quebec’s film industry takes its roots back to the province’s cultural and linguistic identity in North America.

However, as a result of the changing political and socio-cultural dynamics of Quebec in the last 20 years, phenomena such as globalization and various immigration waves have strongly influenced young Quebecois filmmakers’ outlook. This distinctive vision, open to the diverse cultures which constitute the multicultural mosaic of Quebec’s landscape today, is at the core of Quebec cinema’s international recognition. The province is “very open to films that combine great stories with awe inspiring cinematography and an auteur approach to the art from,” said Korbett Matthews, associate professor in film production at Concordia University’s Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema.

Bringing together talent, technical and storytelling excellence, Quebecois filmmakers invite their audience to travel with them thanks to the support of funding bodies such as the Société de développement des entreprises culturelles and the arts councils. Not only do the Quebecois filmmakers reach for stories that are usually under-reported, they also provide a unique and mature approach to them.

“The key to such a success is imagination and the rest comes from a different vision of the world,” said Louise Lamarre, independent filmmaker-researcher and associate professor in film production at Concordia’s Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema.

This refreshing vision of the world illustrates filmmakers’ strong ability to reflect the multicultural reality of Quebec and its consequences on the province’s artistic and social environment. Monsieur Lazhar, Incendies and Rebelle are all culturally diverse. They blur the frontiers existing between dramas and documentaries by acting as witnesses of serious and current social, economic and political realities that must be addressed.

Because their scope is culturally broad, they allow people from Quebec as well as the rest of the world to identify with the stories they cover. Serious topics covered include immigration and integration of Algerians in Quebec in Monsieur Lazhar; relationships between parents and children, grief and the atrocities committed during the Lebanese civil war in Incendies, as well as the issue of child soldiers and the war in Sub-Saharan Africa in Rebelle.

These films encourage the audience to open their eyes and react to the realities of the world which are sometimes far from dream-like.

The art of cinema is entertainment but it can also be the vector of social change, an area in which the Quebecois filmmaking industry has been an expert in the last decade.

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Arts

Back in Black

Go to the cinema up the street some time and look at what’s playing. Montreal has a huge selection of movies but right now there’s a semi-slump in the film calendar. So unless you feel like seeing The Dark Knight Rises again, you’re probably giving the cinemas a wide birth. Have no fear however, there are other options.

The 8th annual Montreal International Black Film Festival begins on September 19 and runs until September 30. During this time, people from all walks of life can treat themselves to an incredible selection of films unavailable anywhere else. There are two films in particular being highlighted by this year’s festival, and they do an excellent job showcasing the diverse styles of filmmaking on display.

First there is the opening film, Winnie, which stars Terrence Howard and Jennifer Hudson. This emotional drama chronicles the life of Winnie Mandela, an extraordinary activist as well as the wife of Nelson Mandela. Those who saw Invictus a couple years ago will remember the incredible job that Morgan Freeman did playing the South African political hero. Winnie, however focuses on the time Mandela spent in prison and deals primarily with how his wife continued the fight and threw her own spirit and tenacity into the battle for South African freedom. For those film buffs out there, you may want to note that director Darrell Roodt will be on hand for the premiere.

The closing film of the festival is a much darker piece. The Central Park Five is a documentary about the lives of five black and Latino individuals who were wrongfully imprisoned for a series of rapes which took place in New York City. This film showcases the failure of police, media and society as a whole to ensure that justice was done. It paints the stark and brutal reality of prejudice that still exists in the first world.

Activist and musician Harry Belafonte, who will be receiving the 2012 Humanitarian award at this year’s festival, will be there opening night for a screening of his biopic film Sing your Song as well as an in-depth Q & A session. Also speaking at this year’s festival is best selling author Stedman Graham.

There are over a hundred films on display, one for every type of moviegoer. For more information on showtimes and tickets visit www.montrealblackfilm.com

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Arts

A world apart in Los Pereyra

A child from Los Pereyra attends class at the village’s elementary school.

A child from Los Pereyra attends class at the village’s elementary school.

Imagine living in the middle of a jungle, shielded from the outside world save for five days a year. One day, you’re told a group of people from the big city are coming to help you. Seems pretty far from the concrete-painted landscape of Montreal, right? Well, in Andrés Livov-Macklin’s documentary, A Place Called Los Pereyra, this is a reality.

The jungle, to be precise, is a region in the northern Argentinean province of Chaco, known as El Impenetrable, and the helping hands come in the form of a group of girls from the prestigious Buenos Aires private school Northlands, who are known to the Los Pereyra schoolchildren as the Godmothers. The film follows the merging of the two groups over the span of a week, as the girls arrive in the isolated community and try to help the kids in the village’s only elementary school by bringing them food and supplies, and offering them friendship.

A far cry from the type of situation that can be fixed with the wave of a fairy godmother’s wand, the girls’ visit makes the audience question the reason behind their act of charity in the first place. “We often try to help other people without asking questions to ourselves or the other people, just for the fact that it makes us feel good to help,” said Livov-Macklin.

Not only does the film expose the audience to a way of living that may be foreign to their own – it goes further by showing how the girls reflect the ways of a larger group of privileged people. “I wasn’t much surprised about [the locals], but about me and about the girls in the movie, because they are a metaphor of me,” he said. “They represent me and they represent the audience as well that goes to see the film.”

With the contrast between the wealthy city students and the kids who have never stepped foot outside their secluded village comes the realization that the latter have things which cannot possibly be provided for them out of a non-perishable can of soup. “Sometimes it feels we’re in more need than they are,” said Livov-Macklin. “They have things we don’t have, as well. They have a sense of warmth we don’t have.”

Given the way the film was shot, it was no surprise that some unexpected twists came about, namely the fact that no individual characters are pointed out. Instead, the camera looks at the kids going about their week in clusters, which Livov-Macklin said was unforeseen.

Particularly with fly-on-the-wall films, he said, “You go and you have an idea of what might happen, but you don’t control anything, so what happens, happens.” This approach allows for a sense of realism to set in, lending itself to a truthful depiction of the differences between the city and the village kids.

It is with this unflinching honesty that Livov-Macklin hopes to have an effect on audiences continents away from Los Pereyra, especially in the way they view the idea of doing charitable work. Drawing from his own experience while shooting the film, his advice for those who opt to help others by immersing themselves in different communities is to “just observe and talk to them and see what’s best and be open to other solutions and never do things because you feel good, because it’s not about you.”

This is a concept which the girls had a hard time accepting. “They think that the film’s about them, but it’s not,” Livov-Macklin explained. “I have used their story […] to tell something more universal, to move people in certain ways.”

The change he wants to instill in viewers, he said, is the ability “to ask themselves questions and not always take everything for granted, not always try to impose their views.”

Although A Place Called Los Pereyra provides revelatory insight into both the privileged and impoverished worlds, in the end the audience has to look beyond the objective gaze of the camera to get at its message.

“It’s up to each person who watches the film to decide why it’s important,” said Livov-Macklin. “One of the properties of this film is that it won’t tell you anything. It’s up to you to figure it out.”

A Place Called Los Pereyra plays March 11 to 17 at Cinéma Parallèle, 3536 St-Laurent blvd. For more information, check out cinemaparallele.ca.

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