TIFF 23: SLY - From Underdog to Hollywood Legend

 

In 1985 Sylvester Stallone had two of the top three highest worldwide grossing movies. Both sequels. Rocky IV and Rambo First Blood Part II. That is absolutely remarkable. As an actor Stallone has been ubiquitous for decades. What do we really know about Stallone the person behind the action movie icons. This is what Thom Zimny sets out to do in his documentary aptly titled, Sly. 

In the opening title sequence we see glimpses of Stallone's house. As ubiquitous as he is in movies and the popular culture, so to is his own image in his house. From action figures, to posters to statutes. We see the Academy Awards, snippets of the art collection, the scripts, the view from the Hollywood Hills. 

"It is really easy to become complacent." Starts of Sylvester says in the opening sequence of the documentary. He is in the midst of packing up his mansion to move back East to break up the feelings of dissatisfaction with the state of his current life. 

One of my favorite early sequences is of Stallone going back to Hell's Kitchen to reminisce about his New York City upbringing. Also when he is home watching movies and talking about the role models he found in film, James Cagney, especially Steve Reeves of Hercules fame.

Sly's childhood was transient and nomadic. He went throw thirteen schools in twelve years. It was the stage where he found home. He landed a role in Arthur Miller's Death of Salesman. A teacher told him he should pursue acting as career. Sly cites this as a moment that changed his life. Back in New York he was homeless and struggling to get any kind of role. The only thing he could get was off off Broadway. He started getting roles as thugs. 

Stallone started writing his own screenplays with John Herzfeld. Another life changing decision. Write out his frustrations and perhaps get somewhere. Every weekend he and Herzfeld started writing, writing, writing. He would break into to movie theaters all over the city to see films. 

I have never heard of the film Horses prior to this documentary. The premise of the movie now has me seeking this out immediately. A Cowboy and an Indian return from their graves a hundred years after they were hung. The cowboy's father was also reincarnated as a the sheriff he was to track them down. 

As far as documentaries go there is nothing about the technique or the choices on how to film the subject and the use of photographs and other visual media that is groundbreaking or innovative. As a viewer you are either a fan of Sylvester Stallone or you are not. That determines how much or how little you will gain from Sly and how much you will be entertained.

As I watched this documentary one of the most compelling aspects was sitting in a car, or walking down a sidewalk or sitting down and listening to Sylvester Stallone talk, reminisce and ponder his life. That is one of the paramount things we learn about Stallone in this documentary is how compelling, fascinating and - still to this day - we as an audience are drawn to him.

TIFF 23: FAIR PLAY - The corporate ladder is a treacherous, serpentine climb.

 

We meet Emily (Phobe Dynevor) and Luke (Alden Ehrenreich) at a party. They head to a public restroom to satisfy some immediate desires. Things start to get hot and heavy. Then Emily has a Carrie moment. Luke is covered in her menstrual blood. A moment later Emily asks Luke, "What is that?" He looks unsure, Emily is apprehensive. Director Chloe Domont holds the suspense. We then see a ring on the titled bathroom floor. Not just any ring, an engagement ring. This begins the movie Fair Play. 

"You're serious?" Emily asks. "Yes." "You're drunk" Emily says. "yeah but I was sober when I bought it. He then puts the ring on the wrong finger. "Looks like we are fleeing the scene of a murder." Luke jokes carrying Emily across the street. 

They both work in the same office building for the same company, Crest Capital and they feign that they know each other outside of work. A bunch of people are meeting to watch a video about workplace practices about sexual harassment, inclusion, diversity, conflict resolution. As the video starts a coworker int heir office has a melt down and takes out a golf club and starts wailing on the computer his desk over and over again. Someone poses the question, "Should we pause?" The person holding the remote cranks up the volume. This is clearly not a good workplace and no amount of work place training videos will right that. 

One man's downfall is another man's promotion. "How did I get so lucky?" Luke asks. "Are you talking about me, or your job" Emily queries. "Both" Luke smirks.  He goes on to elaborate that if he had to choose between Emily and the promotion he would choose...the promotion...just kidding. 

A late night call. A late night meeting. Emily gets in a car and heads to a bar. Someone is getting promoted. It just isn't Luke.

Phobe Dynevor and Alden Ehrenreich do a phenomenal job navigating the corporate finance world in which their characters navigate it's rewards and pitfalls. Together and alone.

The corporate ladder is a treacherous, serpentine climb. Perhaps made less perilous with a partner. Maybe. Or made just that more precarious. Ambition is it's own all consuming partner.

TIFF 23: DREAM SCENERIO - Has Nicolas Cage Been In Your Dreams Lately Too?

 

Nicolas Cage in an A24 film, that is definitely a film festival dream scenario. This week at the Toronto International Dream Scenario premiered. Cage is an actor that I will watch in anything. He makes the act of raking leaves fascinating. It also helps that a glass patio table inexplicably smashes to pieces by a pool.

Nicolas Cage plays college professor Paul Matthews. He is also the patriarch of a family of four.  He has also infused Paul with a nasally, whiny voice. Matthews has designs on being published, he just hasn't written anything yet. 

Paul meets a colleague to complain to her that she has taken his idea and is about to publish an article. He secretly records this conversation on his phone. Later is wife Janet (Julianne Nicholson) asks him how the meeting goes. He passes it off as a case of misunderstanding. Janet specifically asks Paul if he recorded the conversation. He answers that he did not, because it seemed unethical, even though he did indeed record the meeting. 

Paul and Janet run into one of Paul's old girlfriends who informs them that Paul has been showing up in her dreams lately. Paul doesn't do anything in the dreams. He is just there. Paul and his old flame meet up for lunch. She asks Paul if it okay to write about him in her dreams for an article that she is writing. 

Paul, average, plain, boring, not very memorable Paul keeps showing up in people's dreams. Paul checks his social media and receives over a hundred messages from people who claim he has has been in their dreams. What are the reasons? The Mandela effect in dreams, astral projection. Overnight Paul becomes a celebrity. He starts getting interviewed. His classes are packed with people.

Paul keeps showing up in dreams. People being stalked by a blood-covered killer. An earthquake. There is Paul walking aloofly amongst the surreal happenings. He just kind of bumbles into people's dreams and says nothing and does nothing.

The dreams keep happening. Paul's celebrity grows. The answers stay elusive.

I love surreal movies that play with the audience perception of what is real and what is imagined. Writer and Director Kristoffer Borgli delivers. The film has vibes of Being John Malkovich. Dream Scenario shines when the dreams of people are shown.

TIFF 23: PAIN HUSTLERS

 Pain Hustlers. What You Are About To See Is Inspired By A True Story. 

"Throw the first stone. Sure. But this is my story, and I did it for the right reasons." says Liza Drake (Emily Blunt) as the film begins. 

We meet Liza aka Destiny as a performer in a gentleman's club. She randomly meets Pete Brenner (Chris Evans)  She sizes him up. He informs the audience that Liza had a real gift at reading people and forty-five minutes later you were out two grand. Pete pleads with Liza to come work for him.

Destiny gets a phone call she has to go to school where her kids are acting up and setting a fire. Liza has even more problems on the home front. Her sister kicks her out of the house. She takes her kids and checks into a motel. Liza's life is falling apart. Her new neighbors gift her kids a juice a quilt and Liza a pair of earplugs. "Does it get noisy around here?" "Yeah" Motel transient noise, not very conducive for sleeping 

Late in the night Liza says out loud to herself"I will not give up on myself. I will not give up on my dreams. I will make my life count." The next morning she calls Pete about the employment offer he mentioned the other day.

Pete is a salesman. He is selling Lonafen a fentanyl medication.  Liza shows up to Pete's office. He grills her on her resume. He then asks for a Word file of it and then changes the entire resume.  Pete then introduces her to Zanna Therapeutics C.E.O. Dr. Neel (Andy Garcia). Liza gets the job.  

Liza is now tasked with "Invent a Doctor" which means she has to get one Doctor to prescribe the drug, write one script. She is now off to the races. Time to hustle. 

Pain Hustlers is a commentary on the for profit health care industry as well as the lengths companies and individuals in those companies will go to make money. A lot of money. Their gains are societies loss.

TIFF 23: WHEN EVIL LURKS - Even Evil Is Born

 

The Midnight Madness program at the Toronto International Film Festival has long been a showcase for the boldest, innovative, scariest, terrifying, look through your hands, blood-curdling horror of any given year. When Evil Lurks from writer and director Demián Rugna continues this tradition. 

Strange happenings begin to happen in a rural village. Two brothers come across a very disfigured, bloated, infected man in one of the houses. They decide to load him up in a pickup and drive him away from town. Somewhere along the way the body falls out of the truck. "Should we go back and load him up again?" "No, we gone far enough" Or have they?  

What sets When Evil Lurks is the brutality and banality of the violence. The violence is unexplainable. People are going mad. They then cause extreme violence to one another as well as the livestock of the village. Under Rugna's direction is shot selection is assured. He does not need to resort to shaky cameras or intense filters. The scenarios of horror and dread speak for themselves. 

There are many cliches when it comes to writing about horror films. What is seen cannot be unseen. The images will stay with you a long time after the end credits. Cliche as it is, with this film these sentiments are true. I hope no one gets possessed in your town.

TIFF 23: AMERICAN FICTION

 

American Fiction directed by Cord Jefferson and based on the novel Erasure by Percival Everett premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. Jeffery Wright plays Thelonious "Monk" Ellison. He is a writer of literature and currently a professor teaching a course on literature of the American South.. At the time we meet Monk he hasn't had a novel published in three years. He has also just offended a white student because he wrote a racial slur on the board. She informs him that this is wrong. Monk retorts that he pretty sure it is right and that it contains to "G"s. Suffice to say in a hearing he is placed on leave. 

Thomas Wolfe wrote that, "You can't go home again" In Monk's case he does just that. He travels to Boston to attend a book festival as well as reconnect with family because he has some time on his hands. At the book festival he encounters a sparse crowd for a panel that he is on. Someone tells him of another Black writer by the name of Sintara Golden (Issa Rae) who currently has a novel that is the talk of the festival and literary world. It is a "Black" novel entitled, "We's Live In Da Ghetto" A book she claims she was compelled to write because voices like hers where non-existent in the world of publishing which is dominated by white men from New York City going through a divorce. Is Sintara placating to a white audience or does her novel have artistic merit?

After the festival he reconnects with his sister. At a lunch she has a heart attack and passes away in the hospital. His coke-snorting, divorced brother Clifford (Sterling K. Brown) is in town for the funeral. His life is also in shambles. The Ellison brother's mom Agnes (Leslie Uggams) is also not doing well. She sits catatonic in the bathroom as the bathtub overflows to the floor below. Monk learns that Agnes is suffering from early onset Alzheimer's disease.

Sitting back at the family beach house they will be selling soon Monk ponders what is the "black" novel and begins writing a book he entitles My Pafaology. In one of my favorite scenes of the movie, as Monk is typing out the story two of the characters Willy the Wonker (Keith David) and Van Go (Okieriete Onaodowan) appear in front of Monk and act out the dialogue he is typing. As he does this Willy and Van Go interject their thoughts on the matter. They and ask what they are going to say next or disagree with what he is writing. This is one of the greatest depictions of the writing process in cinema. Monk decides to go with a pen name for this novel. He types the name Stagg R. Leigh.

As the film progresses we see Monk deal with his family issues, begin dating as well as transverse the publishing world as the on the run fugitive Stagg R. Leigh tuned best-selling black author. The film handles the tones of the family drama as well as the biting satire of black writers extremely well. Sintara and Monk were bound to cross paths and they indeed do as the two black judges on a literary award jury with three white writers.

American Fiction is a film that will be watched and discussed from beyond it's premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. How do you end one of these reviews? I don't know...Fuck!

TIFF 23: REPTILE - Real Estate Is A Deadly Racket

 

Beautiful people in beautiful spaces captured with beautiful photography. This is the surface level entry point into Grant Singer's feature film debut Reptile. Singer who has been a music video director for such artists as Sam Smith, Lorde, The Weeknd brings his lush visual aesthetics to this movie. 

Will Grady (Justin Timberlake) is a real estate agent who is engaged to a fellow real estate agent Summer. Summer is played by Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz who was phenomenal in the 2017 Midnight Madness movie Revenge. They are getting ready to prepare an open house.

In their own house, Summer picks up a snakeskin as someone who lives in rural South Texas on a ranch and has had several snakes in their ranch house there is something very primal terrifying mindset that takes over after learning you have a snake in the house.

Realtors are turning up dead. Summer is dead. Two detectives catch the case, Tom Nichols (Bencio Del Toro) and Robert Allen (Eric Bogosian). Summer had no life insurance. The initial investigation leads to Summer's ex husband Sam Gifford (Karl Glusman) who has a hobby of collecting human hair from unsuspecting women. As seen in a video on a transit bus he sits behind a victim and cuts her hair. 40% of women are killed by their exes. Is this case that cut and dry?

At the end of the day Reptile is a police procedural bolstered by the excellent performances by it's cast of actors.

TIFF 23 DICKS: THE MUSICAL - Another Fantastic Midnight Madness Opening Film!

 

The Midnight Madness program has a long history of going big opening night films. Borat! Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan readily comes to mind. The night the projector broke. Then there was Fubar 2:  Balls to the Wall where the cast Terry and Dean were rocking on a moving stage driving to the red carpet premiere. The 2023 edition of Midnight Madness also opened with a "bang" with another film by Larry Charles, Dicks: The Musical.

The movie opens informing us, the audience, "The following film was bravely written by two homosexuals, the first time gay men have ever written anything. These same two LGBTQ+ gay guys are also starring in the film, bravely playing heterosexual men. Which is again, brave." Dicks is written by Aaron Jackson and Josh Sharp based on their book, Fucking Identical Twins: The Musical. 

Bowen Yang (Saturday Night Live) plays God. The best storyteller of all time. Don't believe him, just check the sales of his book! 

Craig (Josh Sharp) and Trevor (Aaron Jackson) are business top salesmen who have found out they are...identical twins?!?!?! What?!?!?! They then scheme a plan to swap places in order to get their divorced parents back together. What follows is why the acronym N.S.F.W. was created Parent Trap.

If you like singing and dancing and dancing and singing then boy oh boy are you in for a cinematic treat! I'll meet you in the street and lament my plight in song with you! If you are not into musicals....

THE BOBBY DIAMONDS STORY: North American Premiere 2023 Toronto Smartphone Film Festival (TSFF)

 

 

I am excited to announce that my movie THE BOBBY DIAMONDS STORY will be having it's North American Premiere at the 2023 Toronto Smartphone Film Festival on Friday June 16th at 7pm at Innis Town Hall Theatre at 2 Sussex Drive in downtown Toronto, Ontario. Team Bobby Diamonds will be in attendance. Peter Kuplowsky has said, "The film has an enigmatic, meta quality." 

THE BOBBY DIAMONDS STORY has won Best Documentary at the 2022 Tokyo International Short Film Festival. Here is an interview Robert Aaron Mitchell did with TISFF (link here) The film has also won Best Documentary at the 2022 Venice Fullshot Film Festival as well was an Official Selection for the Munich New Wave Short Film Festival. Here is a trailer cut exclusively for the Toronto Smartphone Film Festival North American Premiere. 

Quentin Dupieux’s SMOKING CAUSES COUGHING Poster & Trailer Reveal

 "A Superhero movie for idiots! One of the best films of the year." John Waters. The maestro of the weird is back Quentin Dupiuex (Rubber, Wrong) returns with a super hero tale. SMOKING CAUSES COUGHING, a wildly inventive new French comedy from Quentin Dupieux. The film, which had its world-premiere in Cannes’ Midnight section, follows the misadventures of a team of five superheroes known as the Tobacco Force - Benzene (Gilles Lellouche), Nicotine (Anaïs Demoustier), Methanol (Vincent Lacoste), Mercury (Jean-Pascal Zadi), and Ammonia (Oulaya Amamra).

After a devastating battle against a diabolical giant turtle, the Tobacco Force is sent on a mandatory week long retreat to strengthen their decaying group cohesion. Their sojourn goes wonderfully well until Lézardin, Emperor of Evil, decides to annihilate planet Earth.

Magnet Releasing will release SMOKING CAUSES COUGHING in theaters and on demand March 31, 2023

THE OUTWATERS: The Desert is Lovely, Dark & Deep. A Reflection by Robert Aaron Mitchell

 

The Outwaters. Photo Courtesy of Cinedigm

Writer and director Robbie Banfitch has said with The Outwaters, "... if I’ve done my job well, it should raise hairs and evoke chills, even from die-hard horror fans. I aimed for a naturalistic, slow-burn experience that will take its audience to a place they've never been, and then beyond. I aimed for something lovely, dark and deep."

People go out to the desert for a myriad of reasons. To find themselves, to lose themselves, to connect, to disconnect. The four friends in The Outwaters are going out to create a music video for Michelle (Michelle August) as a way of helping elevate her music and connect with her mom who has passed away. The video will be shot by Robbie (Robbie Banfitch) who is accompanied by his brother Scott (Scott Schamell) also joining them is Angela (Angela Basolis). These four actors have pulled off something that can be difficult to do in the genre world of micro budget filmmaking. Creating a group of characters that an audience can enjoy spending time with. They are excited to head out on an adventure into the Mojave Desert. As Angela - who has never been out to the desert - remarks, "The desert seems beautiful and magical" 

Michelle May in The Outwaters. Photo Courtesy of Cinedigm

 

Along with the excitement there is a sense of loss. Michelle has lost her mother and it is remarked a couple of times how much she looks like her mom. Michelle's music is rooted in her mom singing to her. The Zagorac brothers have lost their father. Robbie gifts Scott a backpack, a journal for Scott's short stories as well as their dad's bandana.  

There are also vibrations are all around. Literally. An Earthquake rattles the apartment the friends are hanging out in as they prepare to head to the Mojave Desert. Several aftershocks rattle the place and the nerves. Innocuous events take on ominous qualities. Someone blows out a birthday cake laden with candles. The candles flicker and get extinguished. Little red embers remain. The embers resemble little red eyes. The red lights are swallowed up by the dark. A chandelier is filmed as a hand moves the dangling crystal accents. The light catches them and flickers in dazzling and hypnotic ways. Once out into the desert there are loud, inexplicable sounds. The vibe moves from fun, easy-going to strange and weird to....

Cinema for me is largely an emotional endeavor. However a film elicits it's intended response doesn't matter as long as it gets there. Comedy is of course is looking for laughs; a romantic film looks for the wonder and magic of meeting someone and perhaps the sadness of losing that someone. Filmmakers crafting a horror film are trying to make one uneasy and uncomfortable, make the viewer squirm in their seat, make the hairs standup on your arm. Perhaps cup their hand over their eyes and look at the film through the slight spaces one opens between your fingers. Make one audible exclaim, "what the fuck?!?!?!?!" and just down right scream. The Outwaters achieved it's goals. The hairs were standing up on my arms, as I cupped a hand over my eyes and screamed, "what the fuck!?!?!?!?!" I have watched some of the most hardcore, transgressive, dangerous cinema ever crafted. Kudos to the entire team of The Outwaters for setting out to make a scary movie and achieving their goal. 

Michelle May in The Outwaters. Photo Courtesy of Cinedigm

 

 

The Outwaters is a found footage film and one is either going to be on board with that or not. The impetus of the characters making the trek to the desert for a music video eliminates the shaky cam often found in this genre. Having Robbie looking for cool shots lends itself to a wonderful visual flair. There is a great shot of Michelle's sunglasses reflecting the sky. "Your eyes are the sky" The structure of the film is ingenious. The footage is on three memory cards that is now evidence of the Mojave Police. If you are going to take away or severely limit one of your audiences components to engage with your movie, in the case of The Outwaters, visually, with the use of a flashlight as the only way to see what is happening at night or complete darkness as the visual, then the other cinematic tools better be amped up. Indeed they are, the sound design of the film is incredible. I shall mention the entire credited team here. Robbie Banfitch, sound design. Monkeyland Audio, Trip Brock, Itai Levy and additional sound effects by Matt Shivers (an apt last name), Melody Elwell Romancito and Pete Barry. As in any micro-budget, independent film many hats have to be worn by a few amount of people. Robbie Banfitch also handles the special effects. This is no easy feat. Creating effects that are believable and effective is a difficult task. He pulls of the effects with great affect. Another great aspect of crafting a found footage film is really leaning into it and breaking the forth wall. As much as we the audiences are recoiling in terror we are drawn into what is happening in front of us because the characters are making eye contact with us. They are crying out for help. We, the audience sit in the dark unable to aid those in distress, creating another layer of fear and anguish upon the audience.

 

Robbie Banfitch in The Outwaters. Photo Courtesy of Cinedigm.

It is a privilege to be able to see a film prior to it being completely unleashed to the world and write about is trying to thread a needle. You are writing about a film in sweeping, vague notions, trying to convey your experience without giving away too much, if anything away. I'll say this, my experience watching The Outwaters was a hypnotic, hallucinatory, disorienting, blood soaked, terrifying, mesmerizing, chilling and shocking.

The Outwaters is a truly a triumph of micro-budget cinematic storytelling. A film like this is truly willed into existence. The desert is indeed lovely, dark and deep.