Cairo Time

Cairo Time I think is about how one defines fidelity in a relationship, especially when one is in a situation that is out of place of what one has been used to.  Patricia Clarkson plays Juliette, who is a writer in a women's magazine (the Glamour or Vogue type) who comes to meet up with her husband who works at the U.N., but he is delayed in the Gaza area so she is on her own for a few days in Cairo. He has asked an old colleague, Tareq (Alexander Siddig) to drive her to the hotel and set her up there. Tareq runs into an old girlfriend at the airport who invites them to her daughter's upcoming wedding. He is retired already despite being youngish (younger than Juliette at least) and now runs a men's only traditional coffee hangout, so for the most part he can come and go as he pleases.

At first Juliette is at sea trying to fill up her day without being bored. Here, her identity is not as an independent woman, but "the wife" and finds she is expected to conform to those boundaries.  She attends a consulate function by herself and meets another of her husband's colleagues, Kathryn (Elena Anaya) who invites her for a daytrip to meet her family out in the desert. The two talk a bit about following the men in their relationships. Later Juliette rashly decides to take a bus to Gaza alone, and during a tense checkpoint, she is advised to return to the city (she's the only Westerner on the bus, and one of the few women). During this ride she befriends a young woman who asks her to do a dangerous favor, which Juliette consults Tareq on.

Every now and again Tareq either comes to meet Juliette to take her about the city, or she seeks him out at his coffee shop and they spend the day together, even staying out very late and coming back to the hotel at dawn, or she even becomes a bit more daring and ventures out on her own a bit. These meetings are usually unplanned. Of course they end up attending that wedding, which leads Juliette to consider what she wants, just when her husband returns to her.

The Oscar Nominated Short Films (2012)

This compilation of Oscar-winning short films was put together by Shorts International, which also has a cable tv channel. They are the group who in the past few years have theatrically screened Oscar short film programs a few weeks just prior to the Oscar telecast, a few of which I've been able to attend. I have additionally seen a few of these at the Chicago International Film Festival or in other places. At one time cable tv channels such as HBO used shorts to either fill up an hour after the end of a film, or an established program such as Exposure, a science fiction and fantasy-based short film program hosted by Lisa Marie, would appear on the Sci Fi Channel. Now we get a whole channel devoted to shorts, in addition to many online portals one can find shorts on! Overall the films on this DVD are pretty good, a selection of live action and animated shorts from about the last ten years, and I can see why they were chosen as winners.

Films include:

God of Love (2010, U.S)
The New Tenants (2009, Denmark)
Toyland (2007, Germany)
West Bank Story (2005, U.S.)
The Lost Thing (2010, Australia)
Logorama (2009, France)
The Danish Poet (2006, Norway/Canada)
Ryan (2004, Canada)
Harvie Krumpet (2004, Australia)

Synopses and reviews after the jump!

Devil's Diary

This is a made for TV Canadian movie. A teen girl plays a prank on her friend at a cemetery, leading to the discovery of an evil object. Ursula, the moody one, finds a blank diary by a gravestone which she believes is something special, although her friend Dominique pooh poohs that idea.

When kids at school pick on Ursula, she writes revenge tales in the diary, which come true. The head of the mean girls, Heather, instigates her entourage to steal the diary, but she finds it empty. It's because another of the entourage, falling under the power of the diary, has kept the real thing for herself and uses it for her own devices.

Meanwhile, Dominique, concerned about the strange change in Ursula's demeanor, consults her local priest. He and another priest realize the Devil's diary is real and tries to get the diary back. Dominique tries to form an intervention for Ursula but it is too late.

Cloudburst

This is a gay themed film about two older lesbians going to Canada to get married when one's family tries to separate them. Based on a play.

The two women, Stella (Olympia Dukakis) the butchy one, and Dot (Brenda Fricker) the gentler female, live together in Maine. Stella is brassy, drinks and swears. Dot is more of a homebody and is slowly losing her vision, making her pretty dependent on Stella although they are both in their 70s. Dot's granddaughter doesn't like that her grandmother's quality of life is not good (she apparently has no real knowledge of what a real lesbian is like and doesn't see the signs that her grandmother is one; she believes the pair are just good friends). The granddaughter tricks Dot into signing over power of attorney, then puts her into a senior home.

Stella is incensed and breaks Dot out of the home, then remembers she read somewhere that gays can get married in Canada. They go on the road and, suspecting the police are after them, pick up a young hitchhiker to change their M.O., even taking him home to see his sickly mother, and eventually he helps Stella and Dot also.

Wilby Wonderful

Canada has such quirky comedy movies.  Other than sketch comedy I don't find them as broad as some of the stuff I see coming out of America.  They're certainly more about quirky characters than grossout humor.

With an ensemble of Canadian actors, this movie is about a day in the life of island town Wilby.

There's the local cop (Paul Gross) who's having an affair with a single mom (Rebecca Jenkins) whose daughter (Ellen Page) has a clingy boyfriend (I don't see what she sees in him, he seems immature and only interested in sex). The cop's wife (Sandra Oh) is trying to promote the town as a tourist attraction and is more concerned with her work than with her husband (hence his infidelity I guess).  She's been trying to sell a home to the mayor (Maury Chaykin) and the stress of trying to do everything is getting to her. The laid back but dyslexic handyman (Callum Keith Rennie, he ruins a banner by painting "Wilby Wonderful" instead of "Wonderful Wilby") makes a friend by saving a suicide (James Allodi) getting over a marriage breakup, and they become more than friends, if you know what I mean.

The Trojan Horse

3 hour miniseries satire from Canada. There is a previous installment called H2O, but that's not available anywhere here that I could find.

Canadian citizens have voted to become part of the United States (this is what happened in the previous installment), dismaying politicians on that side of the fence, who feel they've lost control. Tom McLaughlin (Paul Gross), a previous Prime Minister, has designs to take over the U.S., by running for the Presidency himself, now that he is a U.S. citizen. (Who knew the Canadians were so cutthroat!)

Tom Skerritt is the sitting President, with Saul Rubinek as a top aide who is willing to go beyond the law. Greta Scacchi is a savvy investigative British reporter Helen Madigan who eventually digs up what's going on.

L'Ours (The Bear)

It was disheartening to hear a young woman in the audience ask "Do the bears talk?" and then promptly walk out when she was told "no." I'm sure I will NOT be meeting her at a film festival anytime soon.

This is a film told mostly from the aspect of the bears in the film. It takes place in the late 1800s in British Columbia. A bear cub is orphaned when its mother is killed in a landslide. The cub goes along on his way. Meanwhile, hunters are on the trail of bear skins. They already have a few and are on the trail of a large male in the area. The male is spotted and is shot by one of the hunters (Tcheky Karyo, the other hunter is played by Jack Wallace) but the wound doesn't stop the bear. It runs away and tries to find comfort in a mudhole, where the cub sees it and they ally themselves to each other.

The two bears continue travelling together, while the hunters continue on their trail. The film shows the cub dreaming of bearlike things, watching as the male bear has sex, and imitates behaviors like knocking down a tree to find food. The hunters are joined by a third man with a pack of hunting dogs, who do a better job of finding the bear.

The film was kind of cutesy in how it showed the bear behavior, overly anthromorphizing them and I think even the bear cub made sounds that were done by human voices (whimpering, grunting, etc.) That aspect of I didn't really like; it probably would be fine for a junior audience, but I would have preferred more natural "acting" by the bears.

The ending where one of the hunters changes his mind was also a bit unbelieveable for an old audience member like me, although I guess it offers a moral for a young audience. This particular hunter throughout the film did things like tie up the cub and taunt it, notched his bullets so they would cause more severe injury, too eager to shoot soon--so his change of thinking was not supported by his previous behavior. Also at the end, which seems tacked on, is an encounter with a cougar.

Although there is of course violence due to the hunting aspect, this is an okay family film for slightly older children.

One Week

A young man is told he has a terminal illness and takes time to experience life before his time expires. Joshua Jackson plays the lead character of Ben Tyler. After told of his illness, Ben buys a motorcycle on a long repressed whim and leaves his bewildered family and fiancée behind, who can’t understand why he distances himself from them or take any action concerning his illness. They can’t understand what Ben is doing IS his action. He motors across Canada to see the country and to seek and share what he hopes are meaningful experiences. A narrator (Campbell Scott) tells us here and there how Ben’s actions impacts the lives of strangers he meets, in small but sometimes meaningful ways.

Countdown to festival season

For me the excitement of festival season begins with the Toronto International Film Festival. I have never attended, just lurked on the internet to find news and look at its lineup, which will be available on August 23. I've also heard the celebrities there are pretty friendly.  Is anyone planning to attend this year, or any film recommendations from past years?

Pontypool

Although sometimes I dismiss horror movies or romantic comedies as unoriginal and sticking to formula, sometimes I find one that is fresh and new. This one, Pontypool, poses a new form of horror--words.

Small Town Murder Songs

I can see why the movie industry is worried about the timing of film releases in relation to the DVD and online market. I had read of this film pretty recently in a New York Times review where it was playing locally and put this on my Netflix list as a reminder to seek it out later when I hoped it came to my town, Chicago.

To my surprise, Netflix listed the film as available on DVD shortly afterwards.

The Necessities of Life

I hesitate to mention where I saw this film as the audience gets more crowded each year.  Not that there will be many reading this tiny blog who will run, don't walk, to Cinema Chicago's International Summer Screenings.  But their film choices overall are pretty good, especially that from the Canadian Consulate, whom I think tries to find a good representative movie of not only their film culture, but the country as well.