Tag: Toronto International Film Festival

Review: ‘I’m Still Here’ (2024), starring Fernanda Torres, Selton Mello and Fernanda Montenegro

January 25, 2025

by Carla Hay

Fernanda Torres in “I’m Still Here” (Photo by Alile Onawale/Sony Pictures Classics)

“I’m Still Here” (2024)

Directed by Walter Salles

Portuguese with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in Brazil, from 1970 to 2014, the dramatic film “I’m Still Here” (based on real events) features a predominantly Latin cast of characters (with a few white people) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A family is permanently altered when a former politician and his wife get taken into police custody for questioning; the husband goes missing in custody; and the wife comes up against obstacles to find out what happened to her husband.

Culture Audience: “I’m Still Here” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and movies based on true stories about families affected by government oppression.

Fernanda Torres, Cora Mora and Guilherme Silveira in “I’m Still Here” (Photo by Alile Onawale/Sony Pictures Classics)

Anchored by a memorable performance by Fernanda Torres, the sprawling drama “I’m Still Here” tells the true story of a family affected by the patriarch’s disappearance while he was in police custody. The movie’s great spirit makes up for an uneven timeline. “I’m Still Here” takes an unshakeable look at how government oppression can rip families apart or bring them closer together.

Directed by Walter Salles, “I’m Still Here” was written by Murilo Hauser and Heitor Lorega. The adapted screenplay is based on Marcelo Rubens Paiva’s 2015 memoir “Ainda Estou Aqui.” “I’m Still Here” had its world premiere at the 2024 Venice International Film Festival and its North American premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. “I’m Still Here” received three Oscar nominations: Best Picture, Best Actress in a Leading Role (for Torres) and Best International Feature Film.

“I’m Still Here” takes place in Brazil, from 1970 to 2014, but the vast majority of the story’s chronological timeline is from 1970 to 1971. In the beginning of the movie, the Paiva family seems to be living an ideal middle-class life in Rio de Janeiro. They live in a rented house near the beach. And they all get along well with each other. Their blissful family life will soon be shattered.

Rubens Paiva (played by Selton Mello) and his wife Eunice Paiva (played by Torres) are happily married and are very affectionate with each other in public. Eunice’s full name is Maria Lucrécia Eunice Facciolla Paiva. In 1970, Rubens and Eunice (who are both in their early 40s) have been married for 18 years and have five children together.

The Paiva parents have a progressive household where they let their children listen to and buy a variety of music, at a time in Brazil when rock music was considered sinful and too radical in conservative households. The Paiva children are allowed to express themselves and be who they are, without fear of being punished. Before moving to Rio de Janeiro, the family lived in São Paulo, the city where Eunice grew up.

The five children of Eunice and Rubens are:

  • Fun-loving daughter Vera Sílvia Facciolla Paiva, nicknamed Veroca (played by Valentina Herszage), born in 1953.
  • Moody daughter Maria Eliana Facciolla Paiva, nicknamed Eliana (played by Luiza Kosovski), born in 1955.
  • Inquisitive daughter Ana Lúcia Facciolla Paiva, nicknamed Nalu (played by Barbara Luz), born in 1957.
  • Sensitive son Marcelo Rubens Paiva (played by Guilherme Silveira), born in 1959.
  • Obedient daughter Maria Beatriz Facciolla Paiva, nicknamed Babiu (played by Cora Mora), born in 1960.

At this point in time, Rubens is a former Labor Party congressman for the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies. He is currently working as a civil engineer. Eunice is a homemaker who has help from a live-in nanny/housekeeper named Maria José (played by Pri Helena), who is loyal and attentive.

The first half-hour of this 135-minute movie shows the family going about their lives normally. “I’m Still Here” begins by showing Veroca playing volleyball with friends on the beach. A stray dog (a male terrier mix) interrupts the game. Veroca asks Marcelo (who’s also at the beach with friends) to take the dog away. Marcelo ends up taking the dog to the Paiva family home to keep as a pet. Marcelo names the dog Pimpão, the same name as one of Veroca’s friends.

Things seem to be going well for the Paiva family. However, there are undercurrents of danger always present because of Brazil’s political regime at the time. Brazil was under a military dictatorship from 1964 to 1985. Even when the Paiva family seemed to be happy, there are constant reminders of this oppressive government.

In an early scene in the movie, some of the family members watch a TV news report about the National Liberation Alliance terrorist kidnapping of Swiss ambassador Giovanni Bucher, who is eventually freed in exchange for 70 political prisoners. In another scene, Veroca and three of her teenage friends are in a car when they are stopped and accosted by military police at a checkpoint in an expressway tunnel.

Veroca has recently graduated from high school. She plans to temporarily move to London with some friends of the Paiva family: married couple Fernando Gasparian (played by Charles Fricks) and Dalva Gasparian (played by Maeve Jinkins), whose teenage daughters Helena Gasparian (played by Luana Nastas) and Laura Gasparian (played by Isadora Ruppert) are close in age to Veroca. Eliana and Nalu are fascinated by British culture and joke that Veroca could get a boyfriend like John Lennon.

Unfortunately, not long after Veroca moves to London, the military oppression hits close to home for the Paiva family. On January 20, 1971, four armed men (claiming to be members of the Brazilian Air Force) show up at the Paiva house and demand that Rubens go with them to answer some questions. The leader of these men identifies himself only as Schneider (played by Luiz Bertazzo), and he says he’s a parapsychologist.

After Rubens is driven away by car by one of the men, Eunice and Eliana are also taken into custody and are forced to wear hoods when they are taken to a police station and interrogated in separate rooms. What is the reason for the home invasion and interrogations? It has to do with Rubens’ left-wing, anti-dictator political activities before, during and after he left office.

The rest of “I’m Still Here” shows what happens from Eunice’s perspective. She is kept imprisoned for several days and finds out that Rubens has gone “missing.” Making matters worse, the Brazilian government also denies that Rubens was ever taken into police custody. Eunice and Eliana eventually get to go home, but the mystery of what happened to Rubens plagues the Paiva family.

A typical movie with this subject matter would show the distraught spouse who’s left behind doing a lot of crying or shouting in her quest to find her missing spouse. But Torres’ performance in “I’m Still Here” is one of stoic restraint. She portrays a mother who wants to keep her emotions in check, so as not to alarm her children, even though Eunice knows that she and her family are under surveillance and could be in danger.

Eunice isn’t a robot though. There’s a scene when something tragic happens, and Eunice can’t hold back her emotions any more. She lashes out at two government agents who have been spying on her from a car parked on a street.

Torres’ performance is believable not just in how she says Eunice’s words but also by what Eunice doesn’t say. The way that Torres communicates with her eyes and body language is superb and a master class in unspoken acting. The other cast members of “I’m Still Here” are perfectly fine in their roles. However, this movie revolves around the Eunice character, which is why Torres’ performance is so vital.

“I’m Still Here” might be considered too understated for viewers expecting a formulaic Hollywood-styled film where there’s a check list of things that usually happen when someone is looking for a missing family member. “I’m Still Here” shows the harsh reality of Eunice having limitations on what type of help she can get, considering that the military police department that would be in charge of the investigation is the same department that she suspects is responsible for Rubens’ disappearance.

If there’s any noticeable flaw in “I’m Still Here,” it’s how the timeline is set up. The movie takes a little too long before showing Rubens’ disappearance. And there are huge gaps in the timeline that are hurriedly filled in by the movie’s epilogue.

For example: About two-thirds of the movie takes place in 1970 and 1971. Then, there’s an abrupt jump to 1996. And then, another abrupt jump to 2014. Torres’ real-life mother Fernanda Montenegro portrays an elderly Eunice in the 2014 scenes. There’s a major, life-changing part of Eunice’s life that deserved to be depicted in the movie, but it’s only mentioned quickly in the captioned epilogue.

“I’m Still Here” director Salles has a personal connection to the story because he first met the Paiva family in the late 1960s and became friends with the children of Eunice and Rubens. “I’m Still Here” puts a very intimate perspective on the untold numbers of families affected by disappearances of loved ones who were in government custody. “I’m Still Here” is not a political statement. It’s a powerful statement about human resilience in the midst of uncertainty and turmoil.

Sony Pictures Classics released “I’m Still Here” in select U.S. cinemas on January 17, 2025. The movie was released in Brazil on November 7, 2024.

Review: ‘Presence’ (2025), starring Lucy Liu, Chris Sullivan, Callina Liang, Eddy Maday, West Mulholland and Julia Fox

January 20, 2025

by Carla Hay

Callina Liang, Chris Sullivan, Eddie Maday and Lucy Liu in “Presence” (Photo courtesy of Neon)

“Presence” (2025)

Directed by Steven Soderbergh

Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed U.S. city, the horror film “Presence” features an Asian and white cast of characters (with one Latin person and one African American) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A married couple and their two teenage children move into a house, where the couple’s daughter senses that the house is haunted by a ghost.

Culture Audience: “Presence” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of director Steven Soderbergh and don’t mind watching a haunted house movie that is more of a psychological mystery than a typical supernatural horror film.

Callina Liang, Chris Sullivan, Eddy Maday, Lucy Liu and Julia Fox in “Presence” (Photo courtesy of Neon)

The horror film Presence is told from the point of view of a silent ghost in a haunted house, so the foreboding tone is more subtle than most other supernatural movies. Viewers need patience for the buildup to the movie’s impactful ending. Anyone expecting more action and constant jump scares might be bored with “Presence,” which is a unique and competently made film, but it’s not particularly outstanding.

Directed by Steven Soderbergh and written by David Koepp, “Presence” had its world premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival and its Canadian premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. The movie takes place in an unnamed U.S. suburban city. (“Presence” was actually filmed in Cranford, New Jersey.) Almost every scene in the movie is at the house where the haunting takes place.

“Presence” begins by showing a real-estate agent named Cece (played by Julia Fox) doing a quick walking inspection of various rooms inside an empty Cape Cod-style, three-story house that could be bought on a middle-class income. Cece is taking one last look before some prosepective buyers come over to see this house, which has recently been put up for sale. In fact, the people coming over the see the house will be the first since the house when on the market again. (Even though Fox shares headline billing, she’s only in the movie for less than 10 minutes.)

The people looking at the house are a family of four: Rebecca Payne (played by Lucy Liu), Christopher “Chris” Payne (played by Chris Sullivan) and their two teenage children: Tyler “Ty” Payne (played by Eddy Maday) and Chloe Payne (played by Callina Liang), who both attend Crawford High School. Tyler is about 17 years old. Chloe is about 16 years old.

Within a few minutes of the family’s arrival, it becomes obvious that Rebecca is the most dominant person in the family. The job occupations of Rebecca and Chris are not stated in the movie, but Rebecca works as some type of high-powered position at an unnamed company, and she has a higher income than Chris. After a tour of the house, Rebecca announces that she wants to buy the house, and she’s sure that whoever sees the house next will want to buy it too.

Whatever Rebecca wants, Rebecca gets. The Paynes buy the house and don’t take long to move into their new home. After they settle in, the family dynamics start to be seen. Tyler is Rebecca’s favorite child, while Chloe is Chris’ favorite child. Rebecca has an overly close and somewhat creepy relationship with Tyler. By contrast, Chris and Chloe have a healthy father-daughter relationship with the appropriate boundaries.

In a private conversation between Rebecca and Tyler in the kitchen, she tells Tyler how she feels about him: “I’ve never felt so close to anyone,” she says in a tone that’s more like how someone would talk to a lover than to a child. Tyler asks Rebecca: “What abut Chloe?” Rebecca answers dismissively, “That’s just different.”

Although Tyler and Chloe are never seen at school in this movie, it’s easy to see that Tyler is the more popular and more outgoing sibling among their peers. Chloe is more introverted and more sensitive than Tyler. Chloe is image-conscious but not as much a Tyler, who places a lot of importance on being perceived as one of the “cool kids” at school.

Tyler and Chloe don’t really get along with each other and have a tendency to argue and insult each other. It could be just normal friction between two teenage siblings. But conversations in the movie later reveal that Chloe is in a fragile mental state.

Part of it has to do with her grieving over the death of her best friend Nadia, who died in her sleep. It’s implied that her death was drug-related because Tyler insensitively calls Nadia a “drug addict” in one of his arguments with Chloe. Nadia’s death was recent and happened not long after another death of a teenage girl in the community, who died in a similar way.

At first, the ghost seems to observe the family and doesn’t want its presence to be known. But then, the ghost makes its presence known to Chloe. In one incident, while Chloe is taking a shower in the bathroom next to her bedroom, the ghost moves some books from Chloe’s bed to a dresser in the same room. When Chloe gets out of the shower, she immediately notices that the books were moved.

Chloe sees other signs that the house might be haunted. She confides in her parents about this fear. Predictably, Chris is more understanding than Rebecca. When the parents discuss Chloe’s troubled mental state, Chris says that Chloe should see a therapist. Rebecca disagrees and says, “Time is what we need.”

There’s another problem in the family that is hinted at throughout the movie. Chris is seen making secretive phone calls, asking advice from someone named Howard (who is presumably an attorney) about how much a spouse can get in trouble for knowing about the other spouse being involved in something illegal. Chris seems very conflicted about whatever is bothering him.

Meanwhile, Tyler has gotten closer to a new friend at school named Ryan (played by West Mulholland), who comes from an affluent and prominent family. Ryan comes over to the Payne family home with Tyler one day after school. Tyler introduces Ryan to Chloe. Ryan and Chloe have an immediate and growing attraction to each other.

The rest of “Presence” shows how certain relationships change and how the ghost reacts to those changes. Although some of the movie’s scenes are nothing but the ghost observing mundane activities in the house, “Presence” always has an underlying tension that doesn’t really let up, because this is a horror movie, and you know something bad is bound to happen.

As for the ghost, certain actions show that the ghost is not there to scare but to protect. But who needs protecting and why? Some viewers might figure out the answer long before it’s revealed in the movie. The ghostly activities become a big-enough concern to the Payne family that a psychic medium named Lisa (played by Natalie Woolams-Torres), who is Cece’s sister-in-law, eventually does a reading of the house. Lisa arrives at the house with her husband Carl (played by Lucas Papaelias), who does not have psychic abilities.

“Presence” is very dependent on its cinematography to make the movie be effective. And on that level, Soderbergh’s cinematography (he’s also the film’s editor) mostly succeeds, as the camera bobs and weaves like a silent observer who can float through space. At the same time, the camera from the ghost’s point of view can also make viewers feel slightly claustrophobic when the ghost is spying in a small room with a closed door.

Liu is convincing as steely Rebecca, who seems to care more about her job than her marriage. Chris is in love with Rebecca and tells her that he knows that she’s too good for him, which is a sad commentary on his self-esteem, because he doesn’t see his worth as the kind and loving spouse that Rebecca fails to be. Some of the acting performances from the younger cast members are little stiff and awkward, but Liang does an overall very good job of conveying Chloe’s vulnerability and insecurities.

“Presence” has touches of social commentary about how people can project a certain image that could be very different from their real selves behind closed doors in private situations. This is not a ghost story where viewers can expect to see demonic characters with ghoulish appearances. Rather, “Presence” is a chilling observation of monstrous danger that’s much more insidious because it looks harmless on the surface.

Neon will release “Presence” in U.S. cinemas on January 24, 2025.

Review: ‘Babygirl’ (2024), starring Nicole Kidman, Harris Dickinson, Sophie Wilde and Antonio Banderas

December 24, 2024

by Carla Hay

Harris Dickinson and Nicole Kidman in “Babygirl” (Photo by Niko Tavernise/A24)

“Babygirl” (2024)

Directed by Halina Reijn

Culture Representation: Taking place mostly in New York City, the dramatic film “Babygirl” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few black people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A high-powered CEO, who’s married with kids, puts her marriage and career at risk when she enters into a secretive dominant/submissive sexual relationship with a younger man, who’s an intern at her company

Culture Audience: “Babygirl” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and are interested in dramas about people with sexual dilemmas.

Antonio Banderas and Nicole Kidman in “Babygirl” (Photo courtesy of A24)

The lifestyle of bondage, discipline, sadism and masochism (BDSM) has always been controversial when it comes to being a choice for sexual fulfillment because the definition of “consent” is often confused or misunderstood in these contexts. The ending of “Babygirl” will largely determine how much a viewer will like this erotic drama. Nicole Kidman gives a memorable and raw performance as a married mother coming to terms with her BDSM desires that are ignited by her affair with a younger man.

Written and directed by Halina Reijn, “Babygirl” had its world premiere at the 2024 Venice International Film Festival, where Kidman won the award for Best Actress. “Babygirl” had its North American premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. Reijn is also one of the producers of the movie.

In “Babygirl” (which takes place mostly in New York City, where the movie was filmed on location), Kidman portrays Romy Mathis, the CEO of an unnamed company that is making a product called Harvest, which is the company “emotional intelligence” answer to artificial intelligence. It’s somewhat of an irony, since much of “Babygirl” is about Romy masking her real emotions with artificial emotions, in order to play the part of a high-powered business executive who has her whole life in order.

Romy is married to a kind of loving husband named Jacob (played by Antonio Banderas), who is a successful director of stage plays. Jacob, just like Romy, has a tendency to be absorbed by his work. But it doesn’t get in the way of the passion he still has for Romy.

The movie’s opening scene shows Romy and Jacob having sex, but viewers soon see that Romy isn’t really sexually fulfilled by Jacob. She wants to BDSM role play during sex, where she plays the submissive role. However, she’s afraid to tell Jacob about this desire. Later, it’s revealed that Romy has never had an orgasm when she’s had sex with Jacob.

At work, Romy is a well-respected and productive leader. The company’s business is doing well financially. At home, things aren’t running so smoothly for Romy. And it’s not because she’s unfulfilled by her sex life with Jacob.

Romy and Jacob have two teenage daughters. Older daughter Isabel (played by Esther McGregor), who’s about 15 or 16, is rebellious and disrespectful to Romy, while younger daughter Nora (played by Vaughan Reilly), who’s about 13 or 14, is obedient and respectful. Isabel rudely insults Romy for a variety of things, including Romy’s physical appearance, by taunting Romy for looking “old.”

Romy is hurt by these types of insults because Romy is self-conscious about looking as young as possible. A scene in the movie shows her getting Botox treatments on her face. The movie implies that Romy is also hurt by Isabel’s disrespectful treatment because Romy and Isabel used to be close, but their relationship has changed. It’s left up to interpretation if it’s just teenage rebellion or something else.

One day, Romy is walking on a street when she sees a German Shepherd running loose after getting away from its owner. She also sees that a young man in his mid-to-late 20s is able to calm down the female dog before handing the dog back to the owner. After this stranger gives the cookie to the dog, he says, “Good girl.” It’s a sentence that Romy will hear again from this same man in a dominant/submissive flirtation.

Later that day, a group of about 10 to 15 new interns are given a tour of the company’s headquarters. Romy’s intelligent assistant Esme Smith (played by Sophie Wilde) is giving the tour and has the interns briefly stop by Romy’s office. After a brief introduction, one of the interns asks a business question that makes Romy slightly uncomfortable because she doesn’t want to answer the question in that moment. Seeing Romy’s discomfort, Esme quickly ushers the interns out of the office.

Romy notices that this inquisitive intern is the same man whom she saw placate the German Shepherd earlier that day. It isn’t long before she finds out his name: Samuel (played by Harris Dickinson), who immediately tests Romy’s boundaries on sexual flirtation. Samuel is skilled at sizing people up psychologically, so he is quickly able to detect Romy’s vulnerabilities.

Shortly after meeting Romy, Samuel notices a Botox bruise on her forehead that Romy has tried to hide underneath her hair. Samuel comments to Romy about the bruise: “It looks good on you.” Romy looks startled but pleased by this unexpected compliment. However, she then covers up the bruise with makeup. Later, Romy asks Samuel how he was able to calm down the German Shepherd that was running loose on the street. Samuel tells Romy that he gave a cookie to the dog, and he flirtatiously asks Romy if she wants a cookie too.

Samuel also tells Romy that she was signed up to his personal mentor during this internship. It’s an excuse for Romy and Samuel to have private meetings inside and outside the office. At first, Romy doesn’t believe that she was signed up to be Samuel’s mentor without her knowledge. But when she asks Esme about it, Esme says the internship program will make Romy look more accessible.

And so, Romy agrees to have a 10-minute meeting with Samuel, who continues to test her boundaries. There is an unspoken attraction between Romy and Samuel that heats up the more that they see each other. Samuel’s seduction of Romy starts off gradually but then it ramps up fairly quickly when he figures out that she wants to be a submissive to a dominant sexual partner.

A pivotal scene to this revelation is when Samuel sees Romy with some colleagues at a restaurant/bar during a work get-together. Samuel orders a glass of milk for Romy, and she drinks it all. As seen in the movie’s trailer, after Romy drinks the milk, he whispers to her, “Good girl.”

“Babygirl” has the expected erotic scenes showing domination and submission, with obvious parallels in how Samuel was able to control the German Shepherd to how he is able to control Romy in this BDSM relationship. And if these parallels aren’t obvious enough, there’s a non-sexual scene with Samuel and the dog in a hotel room that mirrors a scenario that Samuel had with Romy. For example, Samuel makes Romy eat food from his hand, just like someone might do to a dog.

However, there are other layers to Romy’s life that show who she is outside of her sexual desires. Esme sees Romy as a mentor and wants a promotion, but things get complicated when Romy notices that Samueland Esme have a flirtatious attraction to each other. Although Samuel and Romy by no means have an agreement to be “exclusive” with each other, Romy can’t help but feel jealous and insecure that she could have competition with a younger woman who is also her subordinate.

Isabel is openly lesbian or queer, and her sexuality is not a problem or issue with her parents. Isabel has a girlfriend named Mary (played by Gabrielle Policano), who is known and accepted by Isabel’s immediate family. However, when Romy, Jacob and their kids are spending time at their second home in suburban New York City, Romy notices Isabel kissing a 17-year-old neighborhood girl named Ophelia (played by Tess McMillan) in the home’s backyard swimming pool.

When Romy asks Isabel about it later, Isabel responds by saying: “I’m in love with Mary. I’m just having fun with Ophelia.” It’s the first sign that Isabel and Romy are more alike than they think they are. Later, Isabel is the first person in Romy’s family to notice that something is “off” with Romy when Romy’s affair with Samuel gets more intense. Fans of 1980s pop music will appreciate hearing INXS’s “Never Tear Us Apart” and George Michael’s “Father Figure” in two of the movie’s memorable seduction scenes.

As the secret affair between Romy and Samuel heats up, they both start to take more risks. Romy meets Samuel for a steamy tryst at a nightclub, even though there’s a chance that anyone they know could see Romy and Samuel together in this public place. In another scene in the movie, Samuel shows up at Romy’s house unannounced and uninvited to return her laptop computer, but it’s really a way for him to test Romy’s reaction. The main suspense in “Babygirl” is in seeing if anyone will find out about Romy’s secret affair. And if so, what will happen?

One of the flaws of “Babygirl” is that the movie doesn’t give too many details about Romy’s background to explain why she is the person she is. In a conversation with Esme, Romy mentions that she was named Romy by a guru because Romy grew up in a commune. Esme jokes that she thought Romy was raised by robots. Romy mentions in a separate conversation with Samuel that she graduated summa cum laude from Yale University. Samuel replies that he thinks she likes being told what to do.

Before Romy began her affair with Samuel, a scene shows her trying to persuade Jacob to be “dominant” with her during sex, by asking him to have sex with her while he covers her face with a pillow. He awkwardly grants her request but he stops because he says he can’t do it because it makes him feel like a villain. Romy is disappointed but she doesn’t fully explain to a confused Jacob why she made this request.

Sex workers who are paid to dominate people sexually often say that their clients are usually powerful leaders who are secret submissives because the clients feel like it’s freeing to be in sexual situations that are the opposite of the responsibilities and burdens that they have in their work life. It would be easy to assume that Romy might have developed her BDSM desires after she became a CEO, but there’s a scene in the movie where Romy confesses that she’s had these dominant/submissive thoughts going back to her childhood.

Even less background information is revealed about Samuel, although his pursuit of Esme at the same time he pursues Romy is certainly an indication that he’s a serial seducer. As such, Dickinson’s performance as Samuel is effective but intentionally mysterious about who Samuel really is. All of the cast members give believable performances, but none of the performances can come close to the myriad of emotions that Kidman portrays in Romy’s complicated feelings of shame, liberation, arousal and denial.

“Babygirl” doesn’t pass judgment on people who make BDSM choices in their sex lives. Instead, the movie tells one woman’s personal journey in exploring her previously repressed BDSM fantasies. The sex is a manifestation of other issues that are left open to interpretation but can be ascertained as Romy’s desperation to express a part of herself that she can’t share with most people. The movie keeps viewers guessing until the very end if Romy’s choices will ruin her marriage, but the true intention of “Babygirl” is showing how Romy can save herself from self-deception.

A24 will release “Babygirl” in U.S. cinemas on December 25, 2024. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on January 28, 2025.

Review: ‘The Fire Inside’ (2024), starring Ryan Destiny and Brian Tyree Henry

December 24, 2024

by Carla Hay

Ryan Destiny and Brian Tyree Henry in “The Fire Inside” (Photo by Sabrina Lantos/Amazon MGM Studios)

“The Fire Inside” (2024)

Directed by Rachel Morrison

Culture Representation: Taking place from 2006 to 2013, in the United States and in Europe, the dramatic biopic film “The Fire Inside” (based on the life of boxer Claressa Shields) features a predominantly African American cast of characters (with some white people) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: Claressa Shields rises from a financially disadvantaged background in Michigan to become a champion Olympic boxer, but she experiences obstacles, sexism and naysayers along the way.

Culture Audience: “The Fire Inside” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in sports biopics and movies about people who triumph against the odds.

Nicole Drury, Jennifer Huggins and Ryan Destiny in “The Fire Inside” (Photo by Sabrina Lantos/Amazon MGM Studios)

“The Fire Inside” is good but not outstanding as a biopic of champion boxer Claressa Shields. Ryan Destiny shines in her portrayal of Shields. However, this drama has the usual biopic formulas of underestimated athletes who triumph. The acting performances in the movie are better than the movie’s screenplay and direction.

“The Fire Inside” is the feature-film directorial debut of Rachel Morrison, whose filmmaking background is mostly in cinematography. Morrison made Oscar history as the first woman to get an Academy Award nomination for Best Cinematography, for her work on the 2017 Netflix drama “Mudbound.” “The Fire Inside” was written by Barry Jenkins, who won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, for the 2016 drama “Moonlight.” Jenkins is also one of the producers of “The Fire Inside.”

Mike DeLuca, another producer of “The Fire Inside,” has been nominated for three Oscars for Best Picture: for 2010’s “The Social Network,” for 2011’s “Moneyball” and for 2013’s “Captain Phillips.” “The Fire Inside” also has Brian Tyree Henry (who was Oscar-nominated for Best Supporting Actor for 2022’s “Causeway”) as one of the principal cast members. With all of this Oscar-caliber talent in key roles for making “The Fire Inside,” some viewers might have certain expectations. “The Fire Inside” certainly isn’t a terrible movie, but it’s not Oscar-worthy either.

“The Fire Inside” had its world premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival and its U.S. premiere at the 2024 edition of AFI Fest. “The Fire Inside” is told in chronological order, from 2006 to 2013, the earliest years of Shields’ boxing career. However, the movie skips over certain of years her life during this time period. For the purposes of this review, the real people will be referred to be their last names. The characters in the movie will be referred to by their first names.

The movie begins in 2006 in Flint, Michigan, where 11-year-old Claressa Shields (played by Jazmin Headley) is shown as a spectator at Berston House, a boxing gym. (“The Fire Inside” was actually filmed in the Canadian province of Ontario.) Claressa wants to train as a boxer, but Berston House trainer Jason Crutchfield (played by Henry) tells her, “We don’t tran no girls at Berston House.” Some of the boys in the gym also taunt Claressa for wanting to become a boxer at this gym.

Claressa won’t leave the gym until she gets a chance to prove herself. And so, Jason allows Claressa to do a boxing match against one of the boys. The boy she’s pitted against is one of the boys who insulted her by saying Claressa was on the “shortbus,” which is slang for saying that Claressa is stupid. Predictably, Claressa wins against this bully.

Jason, who is a happily married father of two kids, goes home and tells his wife Mickey (played by De’Adre Aziza) about Claressa and asks Mickey what she thinks about Claressa being a boxer. Mickey says there shouldn’t be a problem if Claressa really wants to box. And just like that, Jason decides to be Claressa’s trainer and allows her to train with him at Berston House. It’s very “only in a movie” moment.

Claressa’s home life in Flint is chaotic and dysfunctional. She and her two younger siblings—sister Briana and brother Peanut—are being raised by their single mother Jackie Shields (played by Olunike Adeliyi), who likes to party and often neglects her children. Shechinah Mpumlwana has the role of teenage Briana. Nendia Lewars has the role of pre-teen Briana. Sekhai Smith has the role of teenage Peanut. Chidubem Rafael Echendu has the role of pre-teen Peanut.

Jackie frequently doesn’t have enough money to give proper meals to her kids. Claressa’s father Clarence (played by Adam Clark) is an ex-con deadbeat dad who is in and out of her life. Predictably, Clarence re-appears in Claressa’s life after she becomes a champion boxer, and he thinks he can benefit from whatever fortune that he thinks Claressa will get as a boxer.

After showing Claressa in 2006, “The Fire Inside” then fast-forwards to 2011. Claressa (played by Destiny), who has the boxing nickname T-Rex, is now a 16-year-old boxer on a winning streak. Claressa is also living with Jason and his family after getting into an argument with her mother Jackie, who threw her out of the home and let Claressa live with Jason and his family. What happened in the five-year period where she trained to get to this point? Don’t expect the movie to answer to that question because the “The Fire Inside” doesn’t give any details.

Instead, “The Fire Inside” becomes a checklist of accomplishments for teenage/young adult Claressa, leading toward her ultimate goal to become the first American female boxer to win a gold medal at the Olympics. Claressa’s first shot at this Olympic dream is at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. British boxer Savannah Marshall (played by Nicole Drury) is Claressa’s biggest rival. Jason is still her chief mentor/trainer, but because he’s not an official Olympic coach/trainer, he can’t go with her to the Olympics as a coach/trainer. This restriction causes some stress and drama for Claressa.

The movie also has a subplot about Claressa’s romance with a fellow teenage student named Corey (played by Chrystian Buddington), whom she has known since they were pre-teens. (Maurice Wayne Anglin has the role of pre-teen Corey.) Expect to see Jason lecturing Claressa about not letting her love life affect her boxing ambitions. Jason tells Claressa after seeing her hanging out with Corey at Berston House: “No dating at the gym!”

Most of the supporting characters in “The Fire Inside” aren’t given much depth. Corey is supportive of Claressa’s boxing goals, but the movie depicts him as an utterly generic boyfriend. Claressa’s family members get less screen time than her trainer Jason. Nicole Thompson (played by Sarah Allen), the head of media and marketing for the U.S. Olympic boxing team, is a bland executive. Nicole is initially skeptical that Claressa can win a gold medal in boxing. But if Claressa weren’t a champion boxer, then this movie wouldn’t have been made.

“The Fire Inside” goes beyond the expected boxing matches to show how—even with Claressa’s championship status—Jason (who also became Claressa’s manager/agent) struggled to get sponsorship deals for Claressa. It’s stated repeatedly in the movie that this lack of sponsorship support isn’t because Jason was incompetent but because of prejudice against female boxers. It’s admirable that “The Fire Inside” shows the harsh reality that some Olympic champions don’t get the financial rewards or sponsorship support that many people wrongly assume that all Olympic champion athletes get.

Aside from these career struggles, “The Fire Inside” only hints at Claressa’s internal struggles. There’s a poignant scene where she confesses to Corey that she has trauma from being sexually abused years ago by one of her mother’s ex-boyfriends. The movie reveals this information and then doesn’t mention it again. It’s a very superficial way of addressing an issue that no doubt affected Claressa’s emotional well-being.

As for the training scenes and the boxing matches, they are competently filmed but aren’t particularly innovative. The pacing of the movie occasionally drags in scenes where Claressa is not boxing or training, with no further insight into her personality. Destiny does an admirable job of portraying Claressa’s determination, grit and vulnerability. The other cast members do the best that they can in very stereotypical roles.

Unfortunately, the screenplay for “The Fire Inside” diminishes many of the characters by having them speaking in conversations that sound more like contrived soundbites than natural dialogue. Most viewers already know that “The Fire Inside” is supposed to be a feel-good, inspirational story about a real-life person. And the movie at least fulfills that purpose. However, it’s not done in an exceptional way that’s on par with Shields’ exceptional talent and accomplishments.

Amazon MGM Studios will release “The Fire Inside” in U.S. cinemas on December 25, 2024.

Review: ‘Better Man’ (2024), starring Robbie Williams, Jonno Davies, Steve Pemberton, Damon Herriman, Raechelle Banno, Alison Steadman and Kate Mulvaney

December 23, 2024

by Carla Hay

Jonno Davies in “Better Man” (Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures)

“Better Man” (2024)

Directed by Michael Gracey

Culture Representation: Taking place from 1982 to 2019, in the United Kingdom, the United States, and other parts of the world, the musical film “Better Man” features an all-white cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: British pop singer Robbie Williams (portrayed as a chimpanzee in “Better Man”) finds fame as a member of Take That and even greater success as a solo artist, but he falls into traps of celebrity status, such as ego problems and addictions to alcohol and drugs.

Culture Audience: “Better Man” will appeal primarily to fans of Robbie Williams and musical movies that are unconventional.

Asmara Feik and Steve Pemberton in “Better Man” (Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures)

Some viewers might never get accustomed to seeing singer Robbie Williams as a chimpanzee in the musical biopic “Better Man.” It’s a unique choice in an otherwise conventional but entertaining film with uneven pacing. The musical numbers are elaborate highlights of the film, while the dramatic parts—although competently acted—are hit-and-miss scenes that sometimes drag in this 134-minute movie.

Directed by Michael Gracey, “Better Man” was written by Gracey, Simon Gleeson and Oliver Cole. “Better Man” had its world premiere at the 2024 Telluride Film Festival and its Canadian premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. Why is Williams (who was born in 1974) depicted as an ape in this movie? Gracey has said in interviews that he got the idea from several interviews he did where Williams compared himself to a monkey who was trained to perform.

The real Williams provides voiceover narration, while actors Jonno Davies (as the teenage and adult Robbie) and Asmara Feik (as the child Robbie) do the physical body acting as the chimpanzee, thanks to computer-generated imagery. The other characters in “Better Man” are humans who treat the Robbie Williams character as human and don’t comment that he looks like a chimpanzee. It’s the movie’s way of showing that looking like a chimpanzee is how the Robbie character perceives himself, not how other people see him.

“Better Man” is the second authorized biographical project about Williams in two years. Williams was the subject of the 2023 Netflix limited documentary series “Robbie Williams,” where he looked back on video footage of his life as a celebrity and added his personal comments. Even though “Better Man” is a scripted movie with fantasy elements, “Better Man” actually provides more insight into who Williams is than his “Robbie Williams” documentary. For the purposes of this review, the real people will be referred to by their last names, while the movie characters will be referred to by their first names.

“Better Man,” which is told in chronological order from 1982 to 2019, begins by depicting Robbie as an 8-year-old child in his hometown of Stoke-on-Trent, England. Back then, he was known as Rob or Robert. As he says in hindsight narration, from an early age, he had a burning desire to be an entertainer. He says he has an unabashed love of musicals. And he spends a lot of time at home practicing his singing and showman moves.

As an example of Robbie’s sarcastic humor, he says in a voiceover: “I didn’t have much, but at least I had the respect and admiration of my peers. They just didn’t know it yet.” And then the movie shows a scene of young Robbie being bullied by fellow students in a schoolyard.

Robbie’s father Peter (played by Steve Pemberton) is also a wannabe entertainer, but he doesn’t have the talent that Robbie has. Peter is mostly a low-level emcee at a small pub that he owns called the Red Lion, which has talent contests on a regular basis. Peter passed on to Robbie his admiration of Rat Pack entertainers Frank Sinatra (Peter’s favorite), Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr.

Peter is also very self-absorbed. When he wins £5 in a talent contest, the victory goes to his head. He decides to go on the road to try his luck as an entertainer in other citiies. Peter doesn’t come back and abandons his family.

This abandonment causes lifelong “daddy issues” for Robbie. He hides a lot of his emotional pain with a cocky bravado and cheeky jokes. Throughout the movie, there are scenes of Robbie seeing menacing versions of himself (especially while he’s performing), where these versions of himself taunt him and cruelly insult him. It’s an obvious manifestation of his self-loathing.

Robbie’s mother Janet (played by Kate Mulvany) and Robbie’s grandmother Betty (played by Alison Steadman) do the best they can to raise rebellious Robbie. Betty is more supportive than Janet when it comes to Robbie’s showbiz dreams. Janet wants Robbie to graduate from high school and get a regular job, like most of his peers.

Robbie explains in a voiceover: “Where I grew up, you were meant to act small. But the thing is, I’m cabaret. I came out of the womb with jazz hands.” At 9 years old, he got his first taste of performing in front of audiences by being in school plays.

When Robbie is in high school, a school counseler discourages Robbie’s goal to be a famous entertainer, by telling Robbie that Robbie should “keep your feet on the ground” and “this is not for you.” It’s around this time in 1990, when 16-year-old Robbie hears on the radio that there are auditions for a new boy band that eventually will be known as Take That.

Robbie shows up to the audition with a lot of confidence. But that confidence is soon deflated when he sings an old-fashioned show tune and doesn’t get the positive reaction that he expected. Take That’s manager Nigel Martin Smith (played by Damon Herriman), the only “judge” in this audition, tells Robbie it’s the wrong song choice because Take That is a pop group. Robbie feels he’s bombed in this audition, but his saucy spirit comes through when he winks at Nigel before leaving the audition room because he thinks at least this flirtatious gesture will make Nigel remember him.

And just like something in a movie, Robbie gets a call that he’s been chosen for the group. It’s just in time, because Robbie had dropped out of high school, and he hadn’t told his mother yet. Robbie joins Take That, with Nigel as their control-freak manager. (The movie shows it was Nigel’s idea to have Robbie start calling himself Robbie.)

The other members of Take That are Gary Barlow (played by Jake Simmance), Howard Donald (played by Liam Head), Jason Orange (played by Chase Vollenweider) and Mark Owen (played by Jesse Hyde), who look nothing like the real people they’re portraying in this movie. (But then again, the Robbie as a chimpanzee doesn’t look like the real person either.) Gary and Robbie are the only Take That members in “Better Man” who are given distinct personalities.

The movie depicts the real-life jealousy/rivalry that Williams had with Barlow, who was Take That’s main songwriter and therefore made more money than the other members of Take That. A scene later in the movie shows at the height of Take That’s fame in the mid-1990s, Robbie was resentful that Gary could afford to buy a mansion, while Robbie couldn’t afford his own place and was still living his mother and grandmother. As Robbie explains in the movie, Robbie felt that his own songwriting talent was unfairly stifled or dismissed in Take That because Nigel had decided that Gary would be the group’s chief songwriter and wouldn’t budge on this decision. As the youngest member of Take That, Robbie had the image of being the group’s “rebellious bad boy.”

Take That was initially marketed to gay men. But when Nigel saw that the group would be more commercially successful as teen idols marketed mostly to females, he switched to that marketing tactic, and Take That became a mainstream success. Williams has had high-profile romances with women, but he’s always been coy abut his sexuality and doesn’t confirm or deny stories that he’s had male sex partners. In “Better Man,” Robbie says he feels completely comfortable in gay nightclubs because he can be himself without judgment. He also says in the movie that the only thing that bothers him about stories that he had gay sex is if the stories say he was had bad sexual skills.

Take That and Williams didn’t have the success in the United States that they did in Europe, so American audiences might be underwhelmed or disinterested in the story told in “Better Man.” (“Back for Good” was the only Take That song that was a hit in the U.S.) If you’ve ever seen any episode of “Behind the Music,” then you know what to expect for the rest of “Better Man”: Robbie achieves international fame and fortune but also experiences low points in his personal life, such as troubled romances and his various addictions.

When Robbie was asked to leave Take That in 1995 because his addictions made him unreliable, he faced an uncertain future. But he went on to have a solo career that was even more successful than what he achieved with Take That. His first solo album—1997’s “Life Thru a Lens”—had lackluster sales until the release of the album’s ballad single “Angels,” which remains the biggest hit song of Williams’ career. His other solo hits include “Let Me Entertain You,” “Millennium,” “Rock DJ” and “She’s the One.”

“Better Man” is told in chronological order, but the movie isn’t as precious with the timeline for the musical numbers. One of the standout musical sequences—involving acrobatic stunts and superb choreography—shows Take That celebrating the group’s success, but the song playing during this sequence is Williams’ solo song “Rock DJ.” “Better Man” effectively shows a poignant musical moment when “Angels” is performed in the movie. And the recreation of his first 2003 Knebworth concert (where he was made his entrance by hanging upside down on stage) is absolutely stellar.

“Better Man” depicts how Robbie’s solo career allowed him to showcase his talent as a songwriter whose specialty is writing lyrics and melodies. His partnership with musician/producer Guy Chambers (played by Tom Budge), who co-wrote and produced Robbie’s biggest solo hits in the 1990s and early 2000s, is depicted as a “bromance.” However, “Better Man” (which ends in 2019) doesn’t mention that in real life, Chambers and Williams ended their musical partnership in 2002.

Robbie’s love life is also given selective treatment in “Better Man.” Williams’ real-life relationship with American actress/TV host Ayda Field (whom he married in 2010) is noticeably absent from the movie. Robbie’s main romance depicted in “Better Man” is his volatile 1997 to 1999 relationship with his former fiancée Nicole Appleton (played by Raechelle Banno) from the British female singing group All Saints. Robbie and Nicole’s romance is depicted as a match made in pop music heaven, until the relationship was derailed by Robbie’s infidelities and the couple’s busy work schedules.

“Better Man” also shows that Robbie was competitive with Nicole when it came to having hits on the charts. At a time when Robbie’s solo career was stagnant, All Saints had their first No. 1 song (1997’s “Never Ever”) in the United Kingdom. And this type of success bothered Robbie. The movie implies that Nicole had an abortion due to pressure from All Saints’ management. Nicole’s abortion and Robbie’s despair over this terminated pregnancy are candidly shown as the final blow to their relationship. This abortion is never mentioned in the “Robbie Williams” documentary.

Liam Gallagher (played by Leo Harvey-Elledge) and Noel Gallagher (played by Chris Gun)— the feuding brothers of British rock band Oasis—are depicted in “Better Man” as people whom Robbie both admired and envied at a time when Oasis was riding high on the charts in the mid-to-late 1990s. Robbie and Liam became party buddies after Robbie left Take That. In real life (and not depicted in “Better Man”), Liam Gallagher and Appleton began dating in 2000, had a son together in 2001, and were married from 2008 to 2014. Maybe that’s why Robbie says of Nicole in a voiceover: “She has terrible taste in men.”

The “Robbie Williams” documentary doesn’t delve into the complicated feelings that Robbie has for his father Peter. By contrast, “Better Man” puts Robbie’s love/hate relationship with his father at the forefront and as one of the reasons why Robbie has longtime self-esteem problems. Robbie’s battles with depression are also depicted in the movie. It gives “Better Man” a deeper resonance than the usual “sex, drugs and rock’n’roll” storytelling which is expected in a movie about Williams’ life. However, “Better Man” breezes through Robbie’s recovery from addiction in a way that’s a little too superficial.

“Better Man” is solidly enjoyable as a musical. And director Gracey has made a career out of doing musical biopics: His previous feature film as a director is 2017’s “The Greatest Showman” (about circus mogul P.T. Barnum), and he was an executive producer of 2019’s “Rocketman” (about singer/songwriter Elton John), which were both hits. “Better Man” should be commended for doing something never seen before in a musical biopic (depicting the human star of the story as a chimpanzee), but the movie still can’t shake the reality that this monkey persona is a gimmick. “Better Man” is able to transcend this gimmick by offering a story with heart underneath the flashy musical numbers and proficient visual effects.

Paramount Pictures will release “Better Man” in select U.S. cinemas on December 25, 2024, with an expansion to more U.S. cinemas on January 10, 2025.

Review: ‘Oh, Canada’ (2024), starring Richard Gere, Uma Thurman, Michael Imperioli and Jacob Elordi

December 19, 2024

by Carla Hay

Richard Gere and Uma Thurman in “Oh, Canada” (Photo courtesy of Kino Lorber)

“Oh, Canada” (2024)

Directed by Paul Schrader

Culture Representation: Taking place in 2023 in Montreal, with flashbacks in the U.S. and Canada from the 1960s to the 1990s, the dramatic film “Oh, Canada” features an all-white cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A famous documentary filmmaker, who is terminally ill with cancer, confesses his past misdeeds during a documentary interview conducted by two of his former students.

Culture Audience: “Oh, Canada” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners, filmmaker Paul Schrader and meditative dramas about people looking back on their lives.

Jacob Elordi in “Oh, Canada” (Photo courtesy of Kino Lorber)

“Oh, Canada” doesn’t reach its intended impact as an important movie from filmmaker Paul Schrader. However, this drama about a flawed documentarian looking back on his life has interesting performances from the cast members. This is the type of movie that isn’t horrible, but viewers should not expect “Oh, Canada” to be among the best films from Schrader or the main stars of the movie.

Written and directed by Schrader, “Oh, Canada” is based on Russell Banks’ 2021 novel “Foregone.” “Oh, Canada” had its world premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival and also screened at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival and the 2024 New York Film Festival. The movie takes place in Montreal, on December 23, 2023, but the story’s protagonist tells memories (seen in flashbacks) that go back to the 1960s.

“Oh, Canada” begins by showing three documentarians setting up a library/study room for an interview in the Montreal home of acclaimed documentarian Leonard “Leo” Fife (played by Richad Gere), who is terminally ill with cancer. (The movie never says what type of cancer he has.) The interview is for a CBC documentary about Leo’s life. Leo says he wants to give final confessions about his life for this interview.

The people conducting the interview are two of Leo’s former students, who are also successful documentarians on their own: Malcolm (played by Michael Imperioli) and his wife Diana (played by Victoria Hill), whom Leo jokingly says are the “Mr. and Mrs. Ken Burns of Canada.” Malcolm and Diana are accompanied by their 24-year-old assistant Sloan Ambrose (played by Penelope Mitchell), who is star-struck by Leo.

Also present during this interview are Leo’s wife/producing partner Emma (Uma Thurman) and Leo’s nursing assistant Rene (played by Caroline Dhavernas), who are there to observe and to make sure that Leo doesn’t overexert himself during this interview. Emma was a student of Leo’s at the same time as when Malcolm and Diana were Leo’s students. Although Leo’s voice can be heard for the movie’s narration of his internal and external thoughts, another narrator can be heard in the movie: Leo’s adult son Cornel (played by Zach Shaffer), whom Leo abandoned in 1968, when Cornel was abut 4 or 5 years old.

The year 1968 was a pivotal year in Leo’s life. It was the year that he became a draft dodger during the Vietnam War by moving permanently from his native United States to Canada. Jacob Elordi portrays the young Leo in flashback scenes. Because Leo’s story is told from his perspective, viewers can speculate that he is an unreliable narrator. Leo makes unflattering confessions about himself that he knows will upset Emma, but he seems to want to ease his conscience before he dies.

“Oh, Canada” jumps around a lot in the timeline, but viewers essentially find out that Leo abandoned his first two wives and children. His first wife Amy (also played by Hill) was 18 years old when she had an unplanned pregnancy. She and Leo apparently had a quickie marriage, she gave birth to a daughter named Heidi, and the marriage ended in divorce after Leo abandoned them.

In the interview, Leo would rather talk about his time with his second wife Alicia Fife (played by Kristine Froseth), the mother of Cornel. Alicia was pregnant with another child in 1968. Alica and Leo were visiting Alicia’s wealthy parents in Richmond, Virginia, and were planning to buy a home in Vermont, where Leo had been offered a teaching position at a university. Flashback memories show that Leo and Alicia were excited about her pregnancy and about their planned move to Vermont.

However, during this visit, Alicia’s businessman father Benjamin “Ben” Chapman (played by Peter Hans Benson) and Ben’s brother Jackson Chapman (played by Scott Jaeck) offered Leo a job as CEO of the family business, which would require Leo to remain in Virginia. Ben and Jackson tell Leo that they want to keep their business in the family. They think Leo is the only suitable candidate because Ben’s and Jackson’s other children (all daughters) are married to men who “aren’t fit to run a lemonade stand.” Leo asks for a few weeks to think about this job offer.

Meanwhile, flashbacks of Leo’s memories reveal that he is a serial seducer of women and committed infidelity for some of these seductions. In 1968, he became a documentarian as a “fluke,” when he was working at a trucking farm in the Canadian province of New Brunswick, and he filmed crop duster planes dispensing chemicals on the farm crops. This chemical turned out to be Agent Orange. Leo’s footage was used for his breakthrough 1970 documentary “In the Mist,” which established Leo as a documentarian with a specialty in exposing corruption.

“Oh, Canada” shows snippets from Leo’s other documentaries, but “Oh, Canada” is more concerned with Leo exposing his own personal corruption. The movie shows the events leading up to Leo deciding to permanently move to Canada as a draft dodger. Although Sloan tells Leo that she thinks he’s a “hero” for being a draft dodger to protest the Vietnam War, Leo’s confessions reveal that his reasons for dodging the draft were actually selfish motivations to abandon his family and to start over with a new life.

Emma knew that Leo was previously married with children, but it upsets her to hear the candid details about just how much Leo hurt other people with his self-centered and reckless actions. At various points during the interview, Emma wants the interview to stop because she claims Leo is “confused” because of his medication and his illness. However, Leo wants to continue and finish the interview.

“Oh, Canada” has a narrative that is purposely disjointed, as if to depict the hazy memories of a terminally ill cancer patient. During some of the re-enactments, Leo sees himself in his youthful memories either as his youthful self or as his current elderly self. Leo also remembers Sloan as looking like Alicia. And memories of time that he spent in 1968 with an artist painter acquaintance named Stanley Reinhart (played by Jake Weary) and Stanley’s wife Gloria (also played by Thurman) are also fuzzy. Leo remembers Gloria (one his sexual conquests) as looking like Emma.

“Oh, Canada” uses these twists of memory and perception in a way that might be considered artistic or might be considered off-putting to viewers. A flashback scene with Leo, Emma and an adult Cornel suggests that Emma already knew that Leo was a deadbeat dad, but Emma just doesn’t want Leo to make confessions about it on camera for a documentary about his life. There are also interpersonal dynamics at play between Malcolm, Diana and Sloan that affect what happens in the story.

“Oh, Canada” doesn’t have any major surprises, but the cast members give performances that are compelling enough if viewers to want to know how the movie ends. Gere is quite skillful at portraying a world-weary, jaded person who is coming to terms with his shortcomings as a form of self-reflection and perhaps to seek a little bit of redemption. Elordi, Thurman and the other cast members capably handle their roles in “Oh, Canada,” but don’t do anything outstanding that takes the movie to a higher level of quality.

“Oh, Canada” makes astute observations about how fame affects what famous people choose to convey about themselves for public perception and how the private reality might be very different. There is also some irony toward the end of the movie about documentary ethics and Leo as a “role model” for the type of exposé filmmaking that made him famous. “Oh, Canada” effectively shows how this documentary filmmaker tells his life story when he knows his life will soon end, but he still can’t resist the urge to make selective edits.

Kino Lorber released “Oh, Canada” in select U.S. cinemas on December 6, 2024.

Review: ‘The Return’ (2024), starring Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche

December 16, 2024

by Carla Hay

Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche in “The Return” (Photo courtesy of Bleecker Street)

“The Return” (2024)

Directed by Uberto Pasolini

Culture Representation: Taking place in ancient Europe and Africa, the dramatic film “The Return” (based on Homer’s epic poem “The Odyssey”) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few black people and Asians) representing the working-class, middle-class and royalty.

Culture Clash: After the Trojan War, Greek king Odysseus finds his way back home to the Greek island of Ithaca, only to find out that he has been presumed dead, his son dislikes him, and several aggressive suitors are pressuring his wife to marry again.

Culture Audience: “The Return” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and Homer’s “The Odyssey” and don’t mind watching a slow-paced Greek mythology story.

Ralph Fiennes in “The Return” (Photo courtesy of Bleecker Street)

“The Return” is a flawed but watchable interpretation of Homer’s epic poem “The Odyssey.” This drama’s sluggish pacing and mediocre supporting performances are held together and uplifted by admirable lead performances from Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche. Even though “The Odyssey” is fiction and part of Greek mythology, some of the movie’s action scenes still look too unrealistic to take seriously.

Directed by Uberto Pasolini, “The Return” was written by Pasolini, Edward Bond and John Collee. “The Return” had its world premiere at the 2024 Toronto International and screened at other film festivals in 2024, including the Rome Film Festival. The movie was filmed in Italy and in Greece.

“The Return” begins by with this caption: “After 10 years of carnage, the city of Troy has fallen and the victorious Greeks set sail for home, Years pass on the island of Ithaca. Queen Penelope still longs for the return of her husband Odysseus. Her son Telemachus waits of the father he never knew. While restless suitors lay waste the land and press the queen to choose a new king.”

Of course, this is only half of the story. People who know about “The Odyssey” and who can figure out from this movie’s title, Odysseus (played by Fiennes) does indeed make his return to Ithaca. He is first seen in “The Return” when he’s naked, unconscious and marooned on the rocks of a beach. The return of Odysseus is also shown in the trailer of “The Return,” which reveals about 80% of the movie’s plot.

The first third of “The Return” is a repetitive loop of Odysseus trying to find his way back home to Ithaca from Troy, alternating with scenes of Penelope (played by Binoche) grieving but still hopeful that Odysseus (who is presumed dead by most people) will return to Ithaca. Telemachus (played by Charlie Plummer), a pouty heir in his 20s, despises Odysseus because he thinks Odysseus has abandoned the family. Penelope lives with Telemachus and Odysseus’ mother Eurycleia (played by Ángela Molina), who is also holding out hope that Odysseus is still alive and will return home.

Telemachus is perceived as too wimpy to be the next king, so he is mercilessly bullied by the suitors are loitering around the royal home and hoping that Penelope will choose one of them to be her next husband. Many of these suitors would like to see Telemachus dead, but their top priority is to gain power by marrying Penelope. One of the missed opportunities in “The Return” is in how underdeveloped most of the characters are. Almost all of these suitors have generic personalities.

The exception is Antinous (played by Marwan Kenzari), a wealthy merchant who is the movie’s obvious chief villain from the moment that Antinous is seen on screen. Antinous is not the biggest or the strongest suitor, but he is the most manipulative and is most cunning of the suitors. At first, he tries to use Telemachus to get to Penelope.

Antinous asks Telemachus, after seeing how the other suitors are harassing Telemachus: “Why don’t you tell her to choose me? I’ll get rid of them [the other suitors] all. I’ll get the island working again. I’ll treat you fairly.” Telemachus’ contemptuous response is to say to Antinous: “You think you’re better than them.” Antinous immediately ends his “nice guy” act with Telemachus and sneers, “Poor boy. If it weren’t for me, you’d be dead a long time ago.”

Even though Telemachus and Antinous are at odds with each other, Telemachus still wants Penelope to make up her mind on which suitor she’ll choose because he wants the suitors’ bullying to stop. Penelope tells Telemachus: “I will choose when I finish your father’s shroud,” she says of a shroud that she has been weaving and seems to have no intention of completing. Later, when Telemachus grows impatient with Penelope and calls her a “whore,” Telemachus’ mother Eurycleia slaps him.

About halfway through the movie, Odysseus finds his way back to Ithaca with the help of a slave/swine herder named Eumeo (played by Claudio Santamaria), who becomes Odysseus’ trusted friend. Odysseus is dirty and disheveled and assumed to be a homeless beggar when he arrives in Ithaca. He has been away for so long, almost no one recognizes Odysseus as the returning king. The only one who immediately knows who he is his mother Eurycleia, but Odysseus wants to reveal his identity on his own terms.

The last third of the film (which has almost no suspense) shows how Odysseus eventually reveals himself to certain people. Odysseus’ plan doesn’t make a lot of sense and doesn’t look very believable in the context of this movie. It’s understandable that Telemachus wouldn’t recognize Odysseus, because Telemachus was too young to remember Odysseus when Odysseus went off to war. It’s much harder to believe that Penelope wouldn’t recognize Odysseus once she sees him up close and hears him talk.

“The Odyssey” is not easy to adapt into a feature-length film, but “The Return” oversimplifies “The Odyssey” to the point where much of the poem’s intrigue is stripped from the movie. For example, in “The Odyssey,” Eurycleia is Odysseus’ housekeeper, not his mother. And in “The Odyssey,” the goddess of Athena (the Greek goddess of war and wisdom) interferes and prevents Penelope from hearing Eurycleia, who wants to tell Penelope that Odysseus has returned.

There are no Greek gods and goddesses in “The Return,” perhaps because”The Return” filmmakers wanted it to be more of a “realistic” drama. However, the absence of Greek gods and goddesses in a classic Greek mythology story is a detriment to “The Return,” which doesn’t do enough with the human characters to make up for the lack of distinctive personalities from Greek gods and goddesses. It just makes it even more unbelievable that Penelope wouldn’t recognize Odysseus, compared to “The Odyssey’s” original explanation that Penelope had a spell put on her by Athena.

What saves “The Return” from being a completely boring dud is the commanding performance of Fiennes as Odysseus. Binoche also succeeds in portraying someone who is both strong-willed and vulnerable, although the movie undermines Penelope’s intelligence by her inability to recognize Odysseus when Penelope has up-close conversations with him. The rest of the performances in “The Return” are unremarkable or border on portraying caricatures—no thanks to the movie’s often-clunky dialogue.

“The Return” has some predictable action scenes toward the end of the film, when Odysseus fights his way to respectability while pretending to be a pauper. The movie also has striking moments because of above-average cinematography from Marius Panduru and an effective music score from Rachel Portman. “The Return” is an acceptable way to pass the time for anyone interested in cinematic versions of Greek mythology, but “The Return” is not essential viewing for anyone with a casual interest in these types of movies.

Bleecker Street released “The Return” in U.S. cinemas on December 6, 2024.

Review: ‘The Order’ (2024), starring Jude Law, Nicholas Hoult, Tye Sheridan, Jurnee Smollett, Alison Oliver and Marc Maron

December 15, 2024

by Carla Hay

Jude Law, Jurnee Smollett and Tye Sheridan in “The Order” (Photo courtesy of Vertical)

“The Order” (2024)

Directed by Justin Kurzel

Culture Representation: Taking place from 1983 to 1984, in Washington state, Colorado, Idaho, and California, the dramatic film “The Order” (based on real events) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans and Latin people) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: Law enforcement officials investigate and battle against a radical and violent group of white supremacists.

Culture Audience: “The Order” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and suspenseful and well-acted movies about cops versus criminals.

Nicholas Hoult in “The Order” (Photo courtesy of Vertical)

“The Order” capably tells a tension-filled story based on real events of American law enforcement battling against white supremacists in the 1980s. The acting performances are the main reason to watch this somewhat formulaic dramatic re-enactment. The fact that this true story was made into a movie is already an indication of which side won this battle.

Directed by Justin Kurzel and written by Zach Baylin, “The Order” is adapted from the 1989 non-fiction book “The Silent Brotherhood,” written by Kevin Flynn and Gary Gerhardt. “The Order” had its world premiere at the 2024 Venice International Film Festival, and then made the rounds at other film festivals in 2024, including the Toronto International Film Festival and AFI Fest. The movie takes place from 1983 to 1984, in the U.S. states of Washington, Colorado, Idaho, and California.

“The Order” begins with a brief scene taking place at KOA Radio studios in Denver. KOA talk show host Alan Berg (played by Marc Maron), who is politically liberal and Jewish, is having a heated discussion with a phone caller. The caller doesn’t say his real name, but he is Gary Yarbrough (played by George Tchortov), a ruthless member of the Order, a radical group of white supremacists who have splintered off from the Aryan Nation. Alan is an outspoken critic of these types of hate groups, who believe that people who are white, cisgender, heterosexual and Christian are superior to everyone else. And as soon as this argument is shown in the movie, you just know that Alan will be shown later in the movie in horrible circumstances.

“The Order” than has a scene of taking place in Spokane, Washington, on December 18, 1983. A man is taken into a wooded area at night and is shot dead. The murder victim is later revealed to be Walter “Walt” West (played by Daniel Doheny), who had been printing counterfeit bills for the Order. The Order members who murdered Walt are Gary (who looks like a scruffy militia man) and Bruce Pierce (played by Sebastian Pigott), Gary’s best friend, who is not as vicious as Gary, but he’s still full of hate and doesn’t hesitate to get violent.

The leader of the Order is Bob Mathews (played by Nicholas Hoult), who deceptively looks like a clean-cut and upstanding family man. In reality, Bob is the mastermind of the violent crimes committed by the Order. Later scenes show that Bob created the Order because he thinks the Aryan Nation isn’t acting fast enough and is too “soft” on its goals for white supremacist domination. The Order uses the 1978 white nationalist novel “The Turner Diaries” (written by Andrew Macdonald, an alias for Luther Pierce) as a handbook for many of the Order’s goals and criminal activities.

After the murder of Walt (who was killed because he was perceived as a potential snitch), Bob, Gary, Bruce and a recent Order recruit named David Lane (played by Phillip Forest Lewitski) commit an armed robbery of a bank in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. The four robbers (who wore masks during the bank robbery) are elated to get away with this crime, where luckily none of the robbery victims got killed or injured. It’s later revealed that the Order funds its activities and pays its members through robberies of banks and armored vehicles. The Order also bombs buildings that are owned by targets of their hate.

When Bob gets home, he shows his wife Debbie Mathews (played by Alison Oliver) the loot of cash that he got in the robbery. Debbie is happy to see the money that Bob shows to her, and she knows that it’s stolen money, but she has a “don’t ask, don’t tell” attitude about Bob’s criminal activities. She doesn’t approve of people getting murdered, but Debbie’s ethical boundary on what she considers “unacceptable crimes” isn’t shown until much later in the movie.

These first few opening scenes are somewhat jumbled and could have done a better job of establishing the names of these characters. It isn’t until later in the movie that these characters’ names, roles and personalities are put into clearer perspective. It’s a flaw that the movie tends to repeat when introducing other characters.

The law enforcement official who leads the investigation of the Order is FBI agent Terry Husk (played by Jude Law), who has recently moved to Spokane. Terry is separated from his wife, who lives in another state with their two daughters, who are about 6 and 8 years old. Terry is hoping that his wife and daughters will eventually move to Spokane to live with him. But it eventually becomes obvious that this relocation won’t happen when Terry calls his estranged wife one day and finds out that her phone number has been disconnected.

The movie is purposely vague about other information about Terry’s life before he moved to Spokane. He has a surgery scar going down the middle of his chest. He gets nosebleeds. And when his FBI colleague Joanne Carney (played by Jurnee Smollett) shows up in Spokane, she mentions that she heard about Terry’s “scare in New York.” When Terry tells Joanne that his wife and children are expected to move to Spokane, so he “put the pieces back together,” Joanne looks very skeptical that Terry will be reunited with his family.

“The Order” doesn’t dwell too long on Terry’s personal problems because the bulk of the film is about tracking down and apprehending members of the Order. Joanne isn’t seen for most of the movie until near the end. Terry actually gets most of his help from Jamie Bowen (played by Tye Sheridan), a deputy in the local sheriff’s office, who is also eager to bring these criminals to justice.

Jamie is helpful because he grew up in the area where the Order is headquartered. In a scene where Jamie and Terry question Walt’s wife Bonnie Sue Harris (played by Geena Meszaros), Jamie is able to gain her trust because he’s known Bonnie Sue since they were students at the same high school. Bonnie Sue doesn’t trust Terry because she sees him as a “bad cop” outsider.

“The Order” spends a lot of time showing how Bob uses his influence to get his followers to do his bidding. At a church run by an Aryan Nation reverend named Richard Butler, Bob gets up during a service and upstages the reverend by giving a rousing speech that culminates with Bob leading the audience to chant “White power!” Bob thinks that the Aryan Nation plan to get the Aryan Nation members elected to political offices and other powerful positions is a strategy that is too old-fashioned and will take too long.

Bob is also shrewd about masking his radical intentions of the Order. In an early scene in the movie, he commands Gary and Bruce to stop burning crosses in front of the place where the Order’s meetings are held, because burning crosses will draw attention to their lair. Terry and Jamie later find out that Gary and Bruce were ousted from the Reverend Butler’s church because Gary and Bruce were using the church’s printing press to make counterfeit bills.

As the leader of the investigation, Terry is astute and logical, but he can sometimes rub people the wrong way, because he can be prickly and arrogant. With his personal life in shambles, Terry becomes consumed by the investigation and expects Jamie to have the same attitude. Jamie also has two underage kids. However, unlike Terry, Jamie is happily married.

Someone who is not a fan of Terry is Kimmy Bowen (played by Morgan Holmstrom), Jamie’s wife who was Jamie’s high school sweetheart. Kimmy tells Terry—in a conversation that starts out cordial and soon turns tense—that she doesn’t like it when Terry goes over to the Bowen family home and talks about the investigation while the kids are there. “You scare me,” Kimmy candidly tells Terry.

Bob’s home life is not as tranquil as it appears to be. Bob and Debbie have a son named Clinton (played by Huxley Fisher), who’s about 4 or 5 years old. Clinton is adopted because Debbie cannot biologically conceive children. Debbie is insecure about her infertility because she knows how important it is for white supremacist Bob to pass on his bloodline to biological children. Bob has a secret that he’s keeping from Debbie. This secret is eventually revealed to viewers.

During the course of the story, another recruit is welcomed into the Order: Tony Torres (played by Matias Lucas), who has recently moved from Seattle and is a friend of David, who introduces Tony to Bob. Tony blames black people for his recent job loss. Tony also hates black people because Tony’s best friend in high school was killed by a black person. Bob asks Tony what his ethnicity is because Tony’s last name is Torres. Tony is quick to say that he’s of white Spaniard heritage, so that he can be accepted into this hate group.

“The Order” is essentially becomes a “cat and mouse” type of hunt, with only two characters showing any complexity in their personalities: Terry and Bob. The movie’s other characters are not quite fully developed enough to be anything beyond generic, even though all of the principal cast members show talent in their performances. “The Order” is a crime thriller but it’s also a commentary on the insidiousness of hate groups and how they will continue to exist as long as people think that different identity groups are inferior.

Vertical released “The Order” in U.S. cinemas on December 6, 2024.

Review: ‘The Last Showgirl,’ starring Pamela Anderson, Kiernan Shipka, Brenda Song, Billie Lourd, Dave Bautista and Jamie Lee Curtis

December 14, 2024

by Carla Hay

Pamela Anderson in “The Last Showgirl” (Photo courtesy of Roadside Attractions)

“The Last Showgirl”

Directed by Gia Coppola

Culture Representation: Taking place in Las Vegas, the dramatic film “The Last Showgirl” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few Asians) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A 57-year-old showgirl dancer has to come to terms with losing her longtime job in a profession that values youth, as she tries to repair her relationship with her estranged adult daughter.

Culture Audience: “The Last Showgirl” will appeal primarily to people who are fans f the movie’s headliners and dramas about people going through a mid-life crisis.

Billie Lourd in “The Last Showgirl” (Photo courtesy of Roadside Attractions)

“The Last Showgirl” is a nearly perfect showcase for Pamela Anderson as a showgirl dancer grappling with ageism, sexism and parenting regrets, as her long-running job is about to end. This drama realistically depicts an entertainer’s mid-life crisis. “The Last Showgirl” is not without flaws, but Anderson proves to be ideal for the starring role. The movie is also a harsh reality check of how the definition of “sexy” is more likely to have an expiration date for women than for men.

Directed by Gia Coppola and written by Kate Gersten, “The Last Showgirl” had its world premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. The movie takes place and was filmed on location in Las Vegas. “The Last Showgirl” would make a great double feature with the 1995 camp classic “Showgirls” because “The Last Showgirl” portrays what happens to a showgirl who got her start in the 1990s, and has defied the odds by staying in the same production for almost 30 years.

In the “The Last Showgirl,” Anderson portrays Shelly, a 57-year-old showgirl who used to be the star attraction at Le Razzle Dazzle, a long-running Las Vegas production that features topless female dancers. Shelly, who is friendly but somewhat flaky, loves her showgirl job more than anything else in her life. Le Razzle Dazzle likes to think it’s inspired by French cabaret shows at Moulin Rouge, but it’s really a gawdy and glitzy Las Vegas show. As Shelly got older, her place on stage in Le Razzle Dazzle went from performing in the center to being in the background.

Shelly’s life has revolved around Le Razzle Dazzle, ever since she joined the show in the 1990s. More recently, the number of the show’s performances during the week have been reduced to make way for a tiger act. Le Razzle Dazzle stage manager Eddie (played by Dave Bautista), who has a gruff but caring personality, announces early in the story that Le Razzle Dazzle will soon permanently close because the venue owner wants the tiger act to take over for the entire week. Shelly is naturally devastated because she knows the chances are almost next to nothing that she can get a similar job somewhere else.

“The Last Showgirl” depicts the final days before Le Razzle Dazzle closes. Shelly has become close to two of the dancers who are young enough to be her daughter: Mary-Anne (played by Brenda Song) is outspoken and independent. Jodie (played by Kiernan Shipka) is ambitious but emotionally vulnerable. Mary-Anne and especially Jodie see Shelly and Eddie as surrogate parents.

In a conversation with Jodie, Shelly mentions that she was married for about two years to a man who didn’t like living in Las Vegas. He moved to New York and met someone else, so that was the end of the marriage. Shelly has never remarried, and the movie implies that Shelly hasn’t been unlucky in love for a very long time, probably because she hasn’t found someone who can handle her passion for her job.

The man whom Shelly is closest to at this time in her life is Eddie, who is also a workaholic. Unlike Shelly, Eddie isn’t panicking about Le Razzle Dazzle ending because he’s been asked by the venue owner to stay on as the stage manager for the tiger show. There are hints that Shelly is attracted to Eddie. When she asks him to dinner, she shows up in a sexy beige sequined dress. Eddie’s response: “You look really beautiful—even covered up.”

Shelly has a young adult daughter named Hannah (played by Billie Lourd), who often felt neglected by Shelly when Hannah was a child. Shelly eventually let underage Hannah live with one of Shelly’s married friends, who raised Hannah for the rest of Hannah’s childhood. And where is Hannah’s biological father? That question is answered in the movie.

“The Last Showgirl” has scenes of Shelly, Jodie and Mary-Anne getting ready for performances. But some of the most impactful scenes are between Shelly and Hannah, who arrives for a visit from Tucson, Arizona, where she will soon graduate from college with a major in photography. Shelly and Hannah haven’t seen each other in a year.

The raw feelings and tension between this mother and daughter are examples of the collateral damage that has accumulated because of Shelly’s past choices as a parent. But there are also tender scenes between Shelly and Hannah, such as when Shelly encourages Hannah to pursue a career doing something that Hannah loves, not what other people expect Hannah to do. Hannah admits to Shelly that she’s not a fan of Le Razzle Dazzle.

Jamie Lee Curtis has a small supporting role as Annie, a tough-talking cocktail waitress at the venue. Annie used to be a showgirl for Le Razzle Dazzle from 1987 to 1999. Although Annie doesn’t like to admit it, she misses being on stage. A memorable scene in the movie is when Annie spontaneously gets on stage while in her cocktail waitress uniform and dances to Bonnie Tyler’s 1983 hit “Total Eclipse of the Heart.”

Curtis stands out in the movie because she somewhat over-acts and looks like she wants to steal all the scenes where she appears. Lourd also stands out for different reasons, because her effective performance as Hannah (who has mixed feelings about Shelly) is more about being a scene partner rather than a scene stealer. Bautista, Song and Shipka also capably handle their roles, but their characters in the movie don’t have enough development or insight into who Eddie, Mary-Anne and Jodie are outside of their jobs.

“The Last Showgirl” begins with a scene of Shelly auditioning to be a dancer somewhere, and this scene is revisited with more information later in the movie. It’s revealed that this audition took place after Shelly found out that Le Razzle Dazzle was closing. Shelly auditions to the 1982 Pat Benatar song “Shadows of the Night.” And the feedback she gets from the rude director (played by Jason Schwartzman) becomes a turning point for Shelly.

Anderson brings a lot of emotional authenticity to this role of Shelly, perhaps because she’s lived the experience of becoming famous as a sex symbol dealing with skepticism about her talents as an entertainer. (For “The Last Showgirl,” Anderson received a 2025 Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama.) Shelly doesn’t think Le Razzle Dazzle is a tacky nudie show. “This is breasts and rhinestones and joy!” Shelly says backstage in exasperation after experiencing a small and disinterested audience.

But a more telling moment in the movie is when Shelly describes not how she wants audiences to feel when watching Le Razzle Dazzle but how she feels when she’s performing in the show: “I love the show. I feel so good about myself in the show … The costumes, the set, being bathed in that light, night after night. Feeling seen, feeling, beautiful. And I can’t imagine my life without it.”

“The Last Showgirl” has some pacing issues. And some of the film tends to be a bit rambling. But the strength of the movie is rooted in Anderson’s compelling portrayal of someone who centered her life around a job that requires sex appeal. And now that her job is ending, and she’s at an age when women are considered “not as sexy” as younger women, she wonders what kind of life she will have. The movie doesn’t pretend to have the answers about what Shelly should or should not do next. However, “The Last Showgirl” can be both a cautionary tale and an inspiration for how to be a showbiz survivor.

Roadside Attractions released “The Last Showgirl” in Los Angeles on December 13, 2024, with an expansion to more U.S. cities on January 10, 2025.

Review: ‘Ernest Cole: Lost and Found,’ starring Leslie Matlaisane and the voice of LaKeith Stanfield

December 8, 2024

by Carla Hay

Ernest Cole in “Ernest Cole: Lost and Found” (Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures)

“Ernest Cole: Lost and Found”

Directed by Raoul Peck

Culture Representation: The documentary film “Ernest Cole: Lost and Found” examines the life and work of South African photographer Ernest Cole, told mostly through archival footage and narration from American actor LaKeith Stanfield.

Culture Clash: Ernest Cole (who died of pancreatic cancer in 1990, when he was 49) became an exile in the United States because of his anti-apartheid work, and he fell on hard times while living in the U.S.

Culture Audience: “Ernest Cole: Lost and Found” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in documentaries about notable photographers and/or South African history.

A photo taken by Ernest Cole in 1960s South Africa in “Ernest Cole: Lost and Found” (Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures)

“Ernest Cole: Lost and Found” is a meaningful tribute to South African photographer Ernest Cole. However, it would’ve been a better documentary if it investigated how 60,000 negatives of Cole’s photos were secretly hidden in a Swiss bank for decades. This intriguing mystery is a big unanswered question that the documentary doesn’t bother to answer, even though many of these previously unpublished photos are the basis for much of the documentary.

Directed by Raoul Peck, “Ernest Cole: Lost and Found” had its world premiere at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, where the movie won the L’Œil d’or prize for best documentary in a tie with “The Brink of Dreams,” directed by Nada Riyadh and Ayman El Amir. “Ernest Cole: Lost and Found” also made the rounds at other film festivals in 2024, including the Toronto International Film Festival and DOC NYC. It’s a documentary that wants viewers to feel immersed in Cole’s mind, even if many of Cole’s “thoughts” are speculation created for the movie.

“Ernest Cole: Lost and Found” is really a visual compilation of Cole’s work, with narration by American actor LaKeith Stanfield portraying Cole in words written by Cole and written by Peck. The documentary doesn’t have a clear distinction of which are Cole’s own words (mostly from his journals) and which were written by Peck for this documentary. However, there are moments when it’s obvious that the narration is not from Cole’s words because it talks about Cole’s death from pancreatic cancer in February 1990 (when he was 49) and things that happened after his death, such as the end of apartheid in South Africa in May 1990.

“Ernest Cole: Lost and Found” begins with this caption: “In 1967, the South African photographer Ernest Cole published his iconic book ‘House of Bondage.’ It revealed to the world the horror of apartheid. Fifty years later, in 2017, 60,000 unknown negatives were found in a Swedish bank vault. This is the story of what happened between those dates, as told by Ernest Cole himself.”

Cole was born on March 21, 1940, in Eersterust, Pretoria, South Africa. “Ernest Cole: Lost and Found” does not discuss his childhood or his personal life when he was an adult. There’s also no information in the documentary about what sparked his interest in photography and when he started taking photos. And don’t expect “Ernest Cole: Lost and Found” to give details about what Cole (a bachelor who didn’t have children) liked to do in his free time and who were his greatest loves. Those details aren’t in the documentary either.

“Ernest Cole: Lost and Found” is mostly a compilation of Cole’s still photos with Stanfield’s emotionally stirring narration telling Cole’s real or imagined thoughts during his time period. There is some archival film footage too, including clips of an interview that Cole did for the 1969 documentary “Bilder för Miljoner,” directed by Rune Hassner. Cole’s specialty was photographing everyday people, mostly outdoors.

“House of Bondage,” a photo book that is mentioned frequently in the documentary, was groundbreaking for how it documented and showed the vile racism of apartheid. Cole was inspired to do this photo book after seeing Henri Cartier-Bresson’s photo book “The People of Moscow.” The “House of Bondage” photos included the destruction caused by the South African apartheid government destroying homes in what the government called a “black spot”: an African township where black people lived and was “marked for obliteration if it occupies an area into which whites want to expand, ” says the documentary’s narration.

“House of Bondage” resulted in critical acclaim for Cole, but he became an enemy of the apartheid-controlled South African government. “House of Bondage” was banned in South Africa, and Cole went into exile in the United States, where he lived mostly in New York City. In the U.S., Cole also chronicled racism and racial inequality in his photos. But he also didn’t want to pigeonholed as a photographer who only documented “people’s misery.”

Cole traveled outside of New York, such as Mississippi, Alabama, Illinois, and Washington, D.C., to take many of the photos seen in the documentary. The narration says: “In the [U.S.] South, I was more scared than I was in South Africa.” The narration further explains that in South Africa, he was afraid of being arrested. In the U.S. South, he was afraid of being shot. It’s unclear in the documentary if Cole really wrote those narration words, or if those words were fabricated for the documentary.

Stanfield (as Cole) says in the narration about how “House of Bondage” affected Cole: “It made me famous … But why do I feel a sense of betrayal? The world didn’t want a book about just humans, about the human condition. It was more than a political pamphlet. It was not conceived as an anti-apartheid political crusade. It was about my life in South Africa and the lives of millions of others.”

The documentary also makes a point of blaming Cole’s career decline in the U.S. on racist gatekeepers being offended that Cole made comparisons to racism in the U.S. and apartheid in South Africa. By the time Cole became a celebrated photographer in the late 1960s, racial segregation was illegal in the U.S., due to the 1964 Civil Rights Act. But from Cole’s perspective, unofficial racial segregation still remained in many parts of the U.S., while racial inequalities and racial injustices were still rampant everywhere in the U.S.

“Ernest Cole: Lost and Found” also mentions Cole’s immigration problems and includes a 1968 letter that he wrote to the alien commissioner of the Norwegian government explaining his plight of not being able to get his passport renewed at the time but he might be able to get an emergency travel certificate. Cole had a few mentors early in his career—such as German-born South African photographer Jürgen Schadeberg and Joseph Lelyveld of The New York Times—but his career opportunities dried up, and he eventually faded into obscurity.

It’s mentioned that there was a period in Cole’s life when he became so disillusioned with being a photographer, he didn’t take any photos for eight years. During much of his later years, Cole was homeless. The narration says that Cole’s relocation to New York City was a “descent into hell,” and he went from being a “world-famous photographer” to “being homeless at the 34th Street train station.” The documentary briefly mentions that Cole spent some time in Sweden before he returned to New York City, where he lived until his death.

The only person interviewed for “Ernest Cole: Lost and Found” is Leslie Matlaisane, who is Ernest Cole’s nephew and the head of the Ernest Cole Family Trust. There is 2017 footage of Matlaisane going through Cole’s photography files that were secretly hidden and locked away at SEB Bank in Switzerland. It’s mentioned in the documentary that it’s still a mystery how this secret stash got to the bank and who paid for this stash to be kept at the bank for more than 40 years.

The bank refuses to give that information or say why it chose to reveal this secret stash many decades after it was put in a bank vault and chose to return this stash to the Ernest Cole Family Trust. It’s a mystery that’s worth investigating, but the documentary doesn’t do that type of research and investigation. In the production notes for “Ernest Cole: Lost and Found,” Peck explains, “I was more curious to see those pictures than to learn how they were discovered.”

Peck also says of the 504 vintage prints of Cole photos that have a dispute over ownership: “Just recently (on May 7, 2024), the Hasselblad Foundation published a press release that says they will give back all the pictures, including the 504 vintage prints I mention at the film’s end in title cards. Those vintage prints are the other big scandal. I did not give too much detail about them in the film on purpose and I hope that the journalists will work on that. Ernest himself printed those pictures.” It’s another missed opportunity for the documentary to have more substance beyond being a retrospective tribute.

As for not interviewing anyone except Matlaisane for the documentary, Peck comments in the production notes: “I wasn’t going to tell this story through talking heads—that would have been a totally different story, like a biography. And I don’t do biography, I tell stories.”

Unfortunately, the interview with Matlaisane is fairly generic and doesn’t offer any fascinating information about Cole—unless you think it’s fascinating that Matlaisane says that Cole invited a young Matlaisane to visit Cole in the U.S., but Matlaisane declined the invitation because Matlaisane’s mother disapproved of Matlaisane taking this type of trip. “Ernest Cole: Lost and Found” is very watchable, despite some uneven film editing and pacing that occasionally drags. As it stands, “Ernest Cole: Lost and Found” serves as a interesting but incomplete overview of Cole’s life and his talented work, with his real and imagined thoughts as the narration.

Magnolia Pictures released “Ernest Cole: Lost and Found” in New York City on November 22, 2024, and in Los Angeles on November 29, 2024, with an expansion to more U.S. cities in subsequent weeks.

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