Category Archives: Movies

A Hidden Life

Movies

At almost three hours this is probably the longest movie I’ve seen in years. I knew going in that it was long because the website said there would be an intermission; that almost never happens and in this case it didn’t either.

It is a very slow moving film with beautiful landscape and atmospheric shots. There are no subtitles but you can pretty much tell from the body language what might be being said. The dialogue, in English, is more about the thoughts of the actors rather than them speaking to each other, and a lot of it comes from letters they are reading and writing.

The story is about a man who refuses to serve in the German army and who refuses to swear an oath of allegiance to Hitler. The outcome is apparent.

Something that really struck me though was the work the women, and a few men in the village, had to do to keep their farm intact and providing for the family – quite realistic I think.

Jojo Rabbit

Movies

Of the four shows I’ve seen that were nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards I think this should have been the winner.

I didn’t know ahead of time that it was a comedy-drama so I wasn’t sure I should be smiling and laughing at the beginning of the film. Although the movie deals with a sensitive subject there is more comedy than drama in the show. Once I realized it was okay to laugh I certainly did!

I’ve seen three of the Best Supporting Actress films and again I think the Academy was wrong – the award should have gone to Scarlett Johansson.

Film Festival 2020 – Final

Movies

The Men's Room


A group of Norwegian men get together weekly to sing, but they are mainly there for the friendship and the drinking. We follow the group as they prepare to open for Black Sabbath at a rock festival. The film is very funny and I had to keep reminding myself that it was a documentary and not a work of fiction.

The men have agreed they will sing at each other's funerals but they are unprepared when the first loss it their conductor who dies just a few days before their big performance.

Powell River's men's choir sang before the movie. Their conductor invited men in the audience to join them on Monday evenings "where there is no audition required and they only take your pulse once".




I expected this one to be sad, and it was. And the saddest thing is that this scenario takes place all over Canada and it is not restricted First Nations people.
Rosie is a young, pregnant woman who has fled an abusive encounter with her partner.Áila finds Rosie barefoot and crying on the street and takes her home and attempts to get her help.



Alan, played wonderfully by Bill Nighy, has lost a son; he walked out in the middle of a Scrabble game and hasn't been heard from since. Alan has another son, Peter, but the two have a less than ideal relationship. Since losing his son, Alan spends most of his time playing online Scrabble, where he hopes to find that his missing son is also playing. The Sometimes Always Never refers to what you should do with the buttons on a 3-button suit jacket.

Film Festival 2020 – Part 4

Movies



After seeing the racism displayed in Les Miserables, this film reveals the depth of racism in Canada. This movie brought me to tears and I didn't sleep well after the screening.

The shooting of Colten Boushie by Gerald Stanley is at the root of the film. The story is told mainly by members of the surviving family. The racism experienced by the family immediately after the shooting, through the bail hearing and the trial was devastating, and it was unforgivable in the way the evidence was collect (or not collected and preserved). I remember the many Canadians who were shocked at the Not Guilty verdict, as well as the "Justice for Colten" protests.

The family have gone on to fight for equality in the legal system - as one First Nation's leader said, "You can't call it a justice system".



The movie was shot in the same location as Victor Hugo set his novel of the same name. Corrupt and racist cops keep peace in the neighbourhood whose residents are mainly immigrants. One day one of the cops takes things too far and injures a young boy. In an attempt to maintain peace and keep their reputation and jobs, the cops associate with a couple of groups but to no avail. The youth of the area rebel and chaos erupts.

I loved this Hugo quote at the end of the movie: "Remember this, my friends: there are no such things as bad plants or bad men. There are only bad cultivators."



I'm pretty sure this one will make it into my top three or four films. Claire is a 50-something woman who is a single mother to two sons. Although she has a fulfilling career she is lonely and her lover doesn't pay as much attention to her as she would like. In order to keep tabs on him she creates an online profile (Clara) and targets her lover's roommate, the much younger Alex. As things become more serious between Alex and Clara, Claire must decide how she will handle her deceit.



I thought the film was repetitive; the movie follows a family in Mexico as they struggle to make a living driving a private ambulance. Apparently, in Mexico, there are only 45 government-sanctioned ambulances for 9 million people. The private ambulance services struggle to reach accident scenes before any other ambulances do, they have to pay bribes to the police, but they are paid well when they take their passengers to privately-run hospitals. Long story short - don't have a medical emergency in Mexico!