Smart reviews for the visually obsessed. On Screen features film reviews and festival coverage, spotlighting cinematic craft, storytelling and standout performances.
The Oscar-nominated animated short films range from light-hearted comedy to heartrending allegory. Some filmmakers tell tender tales that benefit from the shortened style, while others use it to deliver vital commentary on societal issues. Even the animation types vary from hand-drawn to computer-generated. But each is independently exceptional and deserving of the Academy’s recognition.
Las Vegas is a city full of people who have interesting stories of sorrow and success. Winners turn to losers and vice versa at the roll of the dice. And then there’s the seedier underbelly that preys on visitors who don’t know what to look for or know exactly what they want. In Wild Card the main character treads between worlds, running a legitimate protection business and getting his hands dirty when the situation calls for it.
Preliminary judgement based on physical traits is virtually engrained in our psyche. When you look at someone, the first thing you notice is their physique, desirability and/or skin colour. No level of education can reverse this process, but as a character in this film suggests, “What matters is your second, third and fourth thought.” Race relations are at the centre of Black or White, but it earnestly explores covert prejudices that many are hesitant to admit and are difficult to eradicate.
In 1981, violent crimes in New York reached an all-time high. Urban decay led to an increase in robberies and, consequently, violent crimes. It became dangerous to earn an honest living, but that didn’t stop people from trying. In A Most Violent Year, a business owner refuses to sink to the lows of his competitors even though his honour is slowly becoming his downfall.
It would seem each generation grows up with a different type of vampire. For an older cohort, Bela Lugosi’s Dracula is the definitive model. A few decades later, the romantic and tormented immortals of Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles is the ultimate representation. Skip ahead to more recent depictions and the dominant bloodsuckers go to high school and sparkle in the sunlight, or manage fetish clubs while lusting after local waitresses. Inevitably these interpretations will inform the future versions of vampires. For now we can be thankful that the influences of recent years are not yet visible. In Ana Lily Amirpour’s A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, her inspiration can found in the more amorous variety of vampire.
When horrible things happen to some people, their chief coping mechanism is to shut down and shut everyone out. When that terrible thing is prolonged with no end in sight, that bitterness settles in and appears equally endless. In Cake, a venomous woman suffering from chronic pain finally sees the light at the end of the tunnel when someone she knows dies by suicide.
There are people that measure the quality of a neighbourhood based on the friendliness of its community. Morning hellos, block parties, barbecues and play dates paint a picture perfect scene. But considering most violent crimes are committed by someone you know, perhaps sociability isn’t always a good thing. In The Boy Next Door, a woman’s dinner offer invites much more than she intended.
It seems the lives of delusional, washed up actors is a popular subject in cinema these days. It’s unfortunate for Al Pacino that Michael Keaton’s Birdman was released first because the comparisons are inevitable and they’re not going to be in favour of his picture. Nevertheless, they are very different types of films. The Humbling is subtler in its character’s hallucinations, confusing reality and fantasy to the point that even the central character and audience don’t know what’s real at all times.
Not every filmmaker has attended film school. After all, instinct cannot be taught. While less frequent, there are those whose education consists of no formal instruction but watching movies and experimenting. Their passion for filmmaking is often unmatched even if the quality of their work is subpar. Why Don’t You Play in Hell? centres on a group of guerilla filmmakers who are finally given the opportunity to fulfill their high school vow to make “the greatest movie ever made.”
North America has reached a stage in which most of its population is or will be seniors in a few short years. Thus the concerns of aging are becoming more mainstream, including retirement, nursing homes, health care and diseases that target the elderly. For many, Alzheimer’s is an affliction reserved for the aged and something dreaded but almost expected to occur after a certain age. But in a few less common cases it doesn’t wait. Still Alice is about a woman in her 40s who begins to forget.
While new faces in cinema are a dime a dozen, a combination of freshness and competence is more difficult to find. But Desiree Akhavan’s feature debut is yet another hands-down success from a first-time female writer/director/actor. She follows in the footsteps of Lake Bell in 2013 (In a World…) and Gillian Robespierre in 2014 (Obvious Child) as a woman to watch behind the camera rather than just rising stars in front of it. Appropriate Behavior is an original narrative exploring the pitfalls of being an insecure, partly closeted, bisexual, Iranian woman in New York.
The Vietnam War presented a unique situation for the United States in that they had technically lost the battle. The Paris Peace Accords proclaimed a ceasefire between North and South Vietnam, ending direct U.S. military involvement and resulting in the majority of American troops going home save for a small military faction and contractors. However when the communists resumed their invasion of southern territories with brutal efficiency after President Richard Nixon’s resignation, the American government was faced with a number of decisions as were the men still assigned to the region. Last Days in Vietnam is a documentary about the days that followed the initial attack.
