A family survived an earthly holocaust living in a salt mine – an extremely well appointed, art treasure trove museum of the best art – salt mine. They’ve been there twenty years and made a policy never to give food or shelter to beggars who come by, as has happened, because every time they offered hospitality, the stranger tried to kill them, so the stranger had to be killed. The End in select theatres across Canada now, starring Tilda Swinton as Mother, Michael Shannon as Father, George MacKay as Son, Moses Ingram as Girl and Bronagh Gallagher as Friend is a cautionary tale commingling love, war, real estate and violence and the lengths we go to keep what we have. And that includes working cars, trucks, electricity, all the mod cons. It’s also a musical, each character given numbers to perform in a gleefully artificial manner, bringing texture to the portentous, heavy eye candy that is The End. Visuals / AI of the gargantuan underground lair, the salt mine itself and the home inside are particularly striking, beautiful, ominous, lonely, and magnificently chilly in shades of blue and white. Just like the characters. In fact, the film feels really cold, not a bad thing, it is all just cold. One day a solo Girl shows up who’s been wandering, struggling for a couple of years. They let her in and all seems well until it doesn’t. A new person in the gorgeous lair eventually springs tensions. And the family is armed. Paranoia, survival, beauty, and catchy tunes. It is 2.5 hours in length. P.S. the world’s largest underground salt mine is in Goderich, Ontario, 1800 feet below Lake Huron!
By Anne Brodie
A family survived an earthly holocaust living in a salt mine – an extremely well appointed, art treasure trove museum of the best art – salt mine. They’ve been there twenty years and make a policy of never giving food or shelter to beggars who come by, as has happened, because every time they offered hospitality, the stranger tried to kill them, so they had to be killed. The End in select theatres across Canada now, starring Tilda Swinton as Mother, Michael Shannon as Father, George MacKay as Son, Moses Ingram as Girl and Bronagh Gallagher as Friend is a cautionary tale commingling love, war, real estate and violence and the lengths we go to keep what we have. And that includes working cars, trucks, electricity, all the mod cons. It’s also a musical, each character given numbers to perform in a gleefully artificial manner, bringing texture to the portentous, heavy eye candy that is The End. Visuals / AI of the gargantuan underground lair, the salt mine itself and the home inside are particularly striking, beautiful, ominous, lonely, and magnificently chilly in shades of blue and white. Just like the characters. In fact, the film feels really cold, not a bad thing, it is all just cold. One day a solo Girl shows up who’s been wandering, struggling for a couple of years. They let her in and all seems well until it doesn’t. A new person in the gorgeous lair eventually springs tensions. And the family is armed. Paranoia, survival, beauty, and catchy tunes. It is 2.5 hours in length. P.S. the world’s largest underground salt mine is in Goderich, Ontario, 1800 feet below Lake Huron!
An effective action thriller about a real life violent, tragic, event in which nine innocent lives were lost comes into sharp focus in September 5 which brilliantly recreates events witnessed worldwide in real time via an ABC Sports crew working the 1972 Munich Olympic Games. On that day and days that followed the focus went from spectacular performances by US swimmer Mark Spitz when deadly political unrest interrupted the international camaraderie of the games. It was twenty-seven years after WWII Germany was defeated and the concentration camps were liberated and it was attempting to shine its image and reputation by hosting. On Israeli athlete said “the games are new chance for Germany to move on from the past and try to be better”, but Germany hadn’t seen fit to station police inside the Olympic Village. That’s where the first shots were heard. Armed Palestinians took nine Israeli athletes hostage, killing two. ABC Sports unit refused to hand the story over to ABC News in the US, saying “It’s happening right here, a hundred feet from us” and quickly locked into their new direction and purpose. Some competitions kept going unaware of the carnage and terror outside. The focus rests on staffers Geoff (John Magaro), an untried producer, early TV executive Roone Arledge (Peter Sarsgaard), their German interpreter Marianne (Leonie Benesch) and Arledge’s mentor Marvin Bader (Ben Chaplin) as the nightmarish scenario unfolded. Decisions were made with little information and lots of instinct as further horrors lay ahead. ABC’s coverage was the first ever live terrorist attack broadcast around the world. Kudos to director Tim Fehlbaum for his astute interpretation of the events. Absolutely riveting, respectful and important viewing. In theatres.
Tyler Perry’s celebration of the only World War II Women’s Army Corps unit of color, The Six Triple Eight brings to light the largely unknown story of dedicated young American Black women who volunteered to join the Army to “fight Hitler”. Finally, acknowledgement and respect for their work nearly 78 years later and thankfully, with some still alive to contribute and feel seen. Eight hundred and fifty-five women trained in Georgia under racist conditions but due to their successes were assigned to serve in Europe. We follow Lena Derriecott King (Ebony Obsidian) whose white boyfriend -a problem at the time- was fighting in Europe but hadnt responded to her letters. Meanwhile Eleanor Roosevelt (Susan Sarandon) learns that families were not receiving mail and neither were soldiers, leading to low morale at home and on the battlefield. The 855 women created and administered the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion from scratch sorting through millions of pieces of mail and getting them to the intended. It was a phenomenal undertaking that took 3 years of round the clock work. Still, they suffered humiliating prejudice by their white male commanders. The forthright strength and discipline of Battalion leader Major Charity Adams (Kerry Washington) kept the women motivated and proud of their tremendous achievements. An inspiring and important film that sets the record straight; we are delighted to meet the real Lena, now 100. A history lesson, a love letter and salute to the nearly forgotten women finally told. Also stars Nicole Avant, Angi Bones, Tony L. Strickland, Keri Selig, and Carlota Espinosa with cameos from Sam Waterston and Oprah Winfrey. On Netflix now.
American Gigolo director Paul Schrader and star Richard Gere reteam for the first time in 44 years for the melancholic end of life drama Oh, Canada. Gere is hard hitting political documentarian and American draft dodger Leonard Fife, laid low in his Montreal home, cared for by wife Emma (Uma Thurman) who is constantly by his side. Its not clear what he’s battling at first, but as he’s agreed to be the subject of documentary by his former student Malcolm (Michael Imperioli). In the course of the shoot, Emma realises what he’s telling them isn’t who she thinks he is, not the hero he’s believed to be. He goes in an opposite direction, laying waste to his public legacy of high-minded artistry and bravery. Schrader’s complex character study based on Russell Banks’s novel Foregone strips away, poetically enough, the Fife legend, the one Emma wants to hold onto. The crew realises what’s happening and goes for broke, subtly enough not to disturb Emma but enough to encourage Leonard’s conflated and confused confessions. The crew pulls off a devastating, secret and breathtaking betrayal that Fife won’t live long enough to know, even if Emma will. He’s dying of cancer and needs to tell his story beginning at his defection from the US to Canada as a political refugee (Jacob Elordi) during the Vietnam era to finding himself, a second wife and a solid reputation as an artist. Except it’s not the way Leonard sees things – he’s determined to shed the cloak of greatness for the truth. The extremely tense interview, his relationship with Emma and the ever-shifting goalposts are fascinating, and the elegant script is a joy. The overall effect is unsettling and we don’t trust our “narrator” but any way we slice it, it is intriguing. Gere’s hypnotic performance is painful in its realism and Thurman lovingly bears the weight of the world. Theaters.
BritBox unleashes S9 of its excellent crime series Shetland with as Detective Ruth Calder (Ashley Jensen) and Alison’ Tosh’ McIntosh (Alison O’Donnell) lead the investigation into the disappearance of Annie, a local and her young son Noah. The story, based on Ann Cleeves’ novels, takes on unimaginable local and global implications. Set against that stunning rugged, lonely and wind whipped island, where no trees grow, everything is askew. Little Noah suddenly shows up at a farm, in shock and unable to speak. Ruth and Tosh try to break through but its clear he is traumatised, and there is no sign of Annie. She was an unusual person, the youngest Shetlander to study math at Oxford, with extraordinary mental prowess. She had approached Ruth the day before her disappearance to tell her something serious but want able to. Suspicion falls on her husband and a French man named Bergen, who is found murdered. Meanwhile, a man and a homeless girl living in a trailer are keeping watch over some kind of underground facility nearby where trucks arrive and leave under cover of night. Annie’s car is discovered at a croft known to house wanderers and they question a Swedish businessman who moved there. Annie’s husband is deliberately run over and an investigator from Counter Terrorism shows up. Oh my!!! This season’s a true corker, they’re all great but wow. And the fact that two women are in charge of Shetland’s police force! Streaming now.
Netflix’ new series, No Good Deed may hit a nerve! Everyone wants real estate – the American/Canadian dream. And for some, they want exactly the house they want, hang the price. Well, when a pretty 1920s Spanish corner house in a leafy Los Angeles neighbourhood goes up for sale, it seems to cast a spell on folks. Suddenly couples, singles, and whathaveyou are determined to have it. A colourful cast of characters including Linda Cardellini, O-T Fagbenle, Abbi Jacobson, Denis Leary, Poppy Liu, Teyonah Parris, and Luke Wilson play characters positively salivating over the same place. Each entitled one believes the house should be theirs, that once it is, their problems will be solved and their lives put back together. Owners Lydia and Paul (Lisa Kudrow and Ray Romano) want out but seems the house has unfinished business with them. They can’t run from the grief of their son dying in his bedroom amd her resulting anxiety has wrecked havoc, ending her career as a classical pianist. It was Lydia’s family home and she says its filled with bad memories. One looky-loo tells her wife she feels a very dark vibe about the place, another feels it’s owed, another wants to get the heck out of the home he has and his marriage? Lydia and Paul are watching thejm all on CCTV. Paul’s brother (Leary) shows up demanding K80$ or he will “tell the police everything”. And what about that bag of glittering jewels? This is one crazy busy, crazy nasty, funny, alarming and wild ride. Dec 12.
Acorn TV’s original series The Chelsea Detective offers up its Christmas Special for the fans. Renowned British Adrian Scarborough is Detective Inspector Max Arnold whose beat is London’s glamourous Thames- side district of powerful people in their eye-popping mansions. He lives there too, but in a humble boat house. His partner DS Layla Walsh (Vanessa Emme) puts up with his eccentricities, and appreciates his keen eye and mind in solving difficult cases. In this holiday special, onetime pop sensation Chloe Carmichael is found murdered in her Chelsea home, apparently forcibly drowned. So many suspects! Her fashion model lover and roommate, a former manager, a journalist, a deranged stalker, and more as it turns out. What price fame? DI Arnold plods along, brain buzzing behind that solid exterior aided by a pathologist who enjoys crime solving and helping the feds. The closest it gets to Christmas is lovely London lit up to the hilt for the holiday season and his single ornament, a tinsel tree his visitors mistake for a toilet brush. Easy going, unhurried and interesting in terms of Arnold’s quirks. Dec. 16.