I’ve raved about the German series Babylon Berlin on Netflix. Thanks to Hugh Finsten for pointing me to
other terrific German series on Crave: Deutschland
83 and Deutschland 86.
The New Yorker’s Richard Brody alerted
me to free screenings available on the Tubi platform (https://tubitv.com/home). There are 18 films by German master Werner
Herzog. (I caught up on the anarchic Even
Dwarfs Started Small from 1971 and the absurdist 1977 feature Stroszek.). Included is Aguirre: The Wrath of God, among my 2018 book’s 20 greatest films
of all time.
Influence (Canada/South
Africa 2020, available on CBC Gem and documentary channel) B+
Directed by Richard Poplak and Diana
Neille, this probing exposé of the dangers of public relations manipulation was
one of the HotDocs selections picked up for broadcast by CBC in May. The
villain of the piece is Timothy Bell, head honcho of the firm Bell
Pottinger. Clients on the right included
Margaret Thatcher and Chile’s Pinochet.
But the firm also worked for post-Soviet Russian oligarchs and the
corrupt Zuma government in South Africa fomenting racial discord while
targeting white “monopoly capitalists”. (Sanctioned
for unethical tactics the firm went bankrupt in 2017. More at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Pottinger Bell died in 2019.)
There have been searing documentaries on
wrongful convictions and imprisonments.
This one, by writer-director Martin Himel, examines the potentially
devastating effects of wrongful arrests, starting with the police misconduct
that occurred during the Toronto G20 protests in 2010. See also: https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2020/05/22/2037592/0/en/TVO-Original-The-Arrest-takes-a-searing-look-at-the-impact-of-wrongful-arrests.html
White Lines (Netflix
series 2020, 10 episodes) B
The premise is that a young woman Zoe
leaves her family to go to the party island of Ibiza to investigate the murder
20 years earlier of her older brother Axel Collins, a fair-haired reckless
Manchester lad who became a celebrated DJ.
His body is found in Almería in southern Spain (famously the location
for “spaghetti westerns” and other film shoots). Implicated is the wealthy Calafat family
while Zoe falls for a bouncer named “Boxer”.
The narrative seethes with sex and violence, drug deals, homicides, hedonism
and harm as twists and turns get wilder and crazier. With dialogue in Spanish
and English, it’s from the makers of “Money Heist” and “The Crown”, both of
which I find more compelling.
Sunday’s Illness (Spain
2018, Netflix) A
Thanks to Bob Miller for pointing me to
this underrated gem which is the antithesis of a garish lurid production like
“White Lines”. From writer-director Ramón
Salazar, this is slow cinema, unfolding within a bleak monochromatic landscape
suffused with darkness, relying on internalized acting power and atmospheric
lensing. From the candlelit dinner at an
opulent residence the aging elegant chatelaine Anabel (Susi Sánchez) accedes to
the request of Chiara (Bárbara Lennie), the daughter she abandoned many years
earlier—which is simply to spend 10 days with her. They go to Chiara’s solitary hermit-like
abode, deep in the woods near the border with France, where the afflictions of
this damaged lost soul become apparent. Although
male characters (a neighbour, her father) appear in several very brief scenes,
this is a story of mother-daughter catharsis. The signs of deep emotional
distress anticipate an ending that is nonetheless profoundly shocking.
Exploring Disney +
There is of course access to the vast
library of Disney productions. But the
main attraction for me is access to the National Geographic channel’s wealth of
excellent informational programming.
It’s not just nature documentaries.
In particular I highly recommend the recent series with explorer Dr.
Albert Lin—“Lost Cities” and “Buried Secrets of the Bible”.
History 101
(U.S., 2020 Netflix series, 10 episodes)
B+
Thanks to film critic and Canadian Film
Institute head Tom McSorley for noting this new series with episodes on
subjects from fast food to nuclear power to AIDS. Each breezily-narrated segment,
under 25 minutes, is like a condensed “Coles Notes” version. While easy to take
issue with on particulars, including a U.S.-centric approach, these offer neat
visual graphics and lots of fascinating facts. More commentary at: https://www.thereviewgeek.com/history101-s1review/
Space Force (U.S., 2020, Netflix, 10 episodes) B
Yet another new series this one
doesn’t rise much above the level of a silly sitcom but it does have the
talents of Steve Carell (also a co-writes) as the corny Air Force general who
heads the U.S. outfit promising to return Americans to the moon, and John
Malkovich as his cranky science advisor. With situations ranging from goofy to
loony, dumb to daffy, it makes one wonder how the U.S. ever managed to put men
on the moon over a half century ago. Cue
the guffaws and groans. (More comment
at: https://www.rogerebert.com/streaming/netflixs-easy-satire-space-force-is-simply-silly-and-sweet)
The Great (U.S.
2020, 10 episodes, Amazon Prime Video) B+
Almost as silly is this Hulu series of
an “occasional true story” following the 18th century German
princess Catherine (a pert Elle Fanning) after she weds the young Russian emperor
Peter (Nicholas Hoult), a callow perfidious simpleton whose only interest is to
produce a male heir. Catherine of course
has other more progressive ideas that entail surviving court intrigues while
plotting a takeover of the imperial throne. Very unlike the 2019 HBO miniseries
“Catherine the Great” that starred Helen Mirren in the title role, this is a ribald
and often ridiculous costume drama that mostly plays history as farce—with
crude action, dialogue, and “huzzahs” to match.
Still it’s an entertaining if hardly enlightening diversion. [More comment
at:
The cinema community was saddened by the
untimely death of director Lynn Shelton on May 16 (unrelated to the
pandemic). She was associated with the improvisational
“mumblecore” movement in American indie film
Cynthia (Jillian Bell) and Mary Michaela Watkins) are a lesbian couple
in Alabama when Cynthia’s sole inheritance from a grandfather is a Confederate
army sword linked to a shadowy conspiracy network promoting the belief that the
South won the Civil War. The couple’s attempt to sell the sword to skeptical
pawnshop owner Mel (Marc Maron, Shelton’s life partner)—whose dimwit assistant is
a flat-earther—sets up further misadventure in the online world of far-right conspiracy
fantasists willing to offer big bucks for the sword. It’s played for comic effect (though we keep
being reminded that America’s racist legacy is no joke).
The Lovebirds (U.S.
2020, Netflix) B-
With theatres closed this went straight
to streaming. As a rom-com it’s not up
to the standard of director Michael Showalter’s 2017 hit The Big Sick which also starred Kumail Nanjiani. The “lovebirds” are a squabbling biracial
couple, Jibran (Nanjiani) and Leilani (Issa Rae), who hit a fleeing cyclist
with their car and get ensnared in a nonsensical criminal plot involving a secret
political conspiracy and a masked sex cult.
You just have to go with the flow.
But as talented as Nanjiani and Rae are (both have hit HBO series,
Nanjiani with “Silicon Valley: and Rae with “Insecure”), their comic chemistry
isn’t enough to redeem this madcap misadventure.
This in-depth documentary from
writer-director Ramona S. Diaz profiles how Maria Ressa and the other intrepid
journalists of the independent female-run new site “Rappler” have challenged
the authoritarian rule of Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte, a vulgarian
whose modus operandi bears similarity to the Trumpian playbook in attacking media
critics, weaponizing social media, and other techniques of political
manipulation and control. By exposing how Duterte’s deadly war on drugs has
become a war on the poor through thousands of extrajudicial killings, the
journalists honoured abroad for their courage risk vilification and death
threats at home. The title refers to how
a democracy dies through “a thousand cuts”.
The Trip to Greece (UK
2020, Elevation Pictures virtual cinema)
A
[*I was able to watch this online via
the portal of Ottawa’s repertory Mayfair theatre.]
I have greatly enjoyed director Michael
Winterbottom’s “trip” series that began in 2010 with an in-country excursion
followed by trips to Italy (2014) and Spain (2017). In each the duo of Steve Coogan and Rob
Brydon play alter-ego versions of themselves as they engage in clever chatty
repartee and dueling impersonations (the Marlon Brando is a highlight) mostly
over tables of delectable dining (showing dashes of kitchen preparation). Bits
of Greek mythology and history are dispensed as their odyssey visits destinations
driving or by sea (including Leonard Cohen’s former haunt of Hydra). Coogan
encounters a “refugee” guy from a scene in his 2019 film Greed. He has a brief
black-and-white dream sequence suggesting Bergman’s The Seventh Seal. That’s a
prelude to getting news from his son that his dad has died, abruptly cutting
short his trip while adding a poignant pang of grief to this possibly past
episode. Meanwhile Brydon stays on joined
by his wife. In this “work of fiction” the ephemeral competitive delights of
the human comedy give way to deeper familial bonds. If this is the last note, it rings the truest.
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