DTF St. Louis

If you like your Desperate Househusbands of suburbia spicy, then this limited series on HBO Max is fantastic, albeit melancholic; maybe even downright sad. Starring Jason Bateman (Ozark) as Clark Forrest, the local TV weatherman who is having a midlife crisis and ends up having an extramarital affair with Carol (Linda Cardellini). She is married to  Floyd Smernitch (David Harbour) who does interpretive signing (for the hearing impaired) for Clark's weather reporting. You may know David Harbour as the gruff and lovable cop from Stranger Things. He gives a performance that Daniel Day-Lewis would be proud of - from hip-hop dancing, to trying to give his troubled stepson life lessons, to allowing a gay man to kiss him for not wanting to hurt his feelings - Harbour should be nominated for all the TV awards. The show is also a murder mystery and the two detectives who work the case, played by Richard Jenkins and Joy Sunday, are an oddly delightful pair. If David Harbour is nominated for his lead role, then Best Supporting should go to Peter Sarsgaard (in eyeliner) as the roller-skating man who wants nothing more at times than to hold hands - fabulous. Writer and creator, Steve Conrad has made a very unique show about troubled and sad people. It has qualities of Ang Lee's The Ice Storm or Curtis Hanson's Wonder Boys. It's dark and at times, extremely funny, and really weird. To borrow and paraphrase one of the show's catchphrases, "Nobody is normal; it just looks that way from across the street." The show is sad, like a used and discarded dirty magazine found in the change room of a community swimming pool that's closed for the season. Have yourself a wild affair with this show. Catch it streaming on HBO/Crave or rent it from Movies 'N Stuff when available.      

Prime Minster

Women in politics have it rough. The world is getting better but let's face it, much of it ass-backwards and women are treated as second-class citizens in a good chunk of it, especially in politics. This documentary is about the five-year term served by Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand's Prime Minister. New Zealand and the world were lucky to have her. She got into politics to essentially make the world a better place. When she took over the Labour Party back in 2017, her party was way down in the polls. She turned it around. She became New Zealand's 40th Prime Minister. Not only did she find herself leading her country, she also discovered she was pregnant. She gave birth to her daughter, Neve, on June 21, 2018. Ardern is the second woman ever to do so (Benazir Bhutto, Prime Minister of Pakistan (1990), was the first). The film follows Ardern through three major crises, the two biggest being the Christchurch mosque shootings and the Covid-19 pandemic. Her response to the shootings was one of empathy and compassion for the Muslim community and she was lauded for it. But it wasn't just thoughts and prayers, she took action.  The Arms (Prohibited Firearms, Magazines, and Parts) Amendment Act 2019 of New Zealand came into law and the result was that over 19,000 firearms and 70,000 gun accessories were surrendered by mid-September 2019. Amazing. I see this documentary as inspirational to all women who want to venture into politics. And sadly as a warning too. Ardern looks like she aged more than the five years she was leading. Running a country, guiding it through an uncharted global crisis while being a first-time mother - Ardern was a force but that takes a lot out of anyone. It should be noted that she has an amazing and supportive husband, Clarke Gayford who is also featured in the film. Catch this remarkable film about a remarkable woman, streaming on CBC Gem or rent it from Movies 'N Stuff.  

The Drama

When Hollywood pigeonholed actor Matthew McConaughey into playing romantic lead roles in often goofy rom-coms, he stepped back and waited 18 months before scripts started coming in for things like Mud, Dallas Buyers Club, and True Detective. A risky but smart call. There is nothing wrong with rom-coms, but McConaughey didn't want to make them and I don't want to watch them. Which brings me to Robert Pattinson, best known for his teen Twilight saga vampire role of Edward Cullen. Like McConaughey, Pattinson has been making smart film choices post pale neck-sucker phase (as has Kristen Stewart), such as Goodtime, The Lighthouse, The King, The Batman, Die, My Love, and now, The Drama. The Drama might be considered a rom-com, albeit a completely twisted and messed up one. And I loved it. I was trepidatious going in, like Indy in The Last Crusade when he takes a leap of faith, Pattinson caught me off guard - maybe even off-guard twice. What's it all about? Emma (Zendaya) and Charlie (Robert Pattinson) are about to get married when at wedding menu tasting, the activity becomes: "confess the worst thing you've ever done." Emma is the last to disclose. She drops a bomb and the real drama begins. Without giving away anything, the confession leads to some serious marital jitters. The Drama goes places I didn't expect and it's darkly funny at times. You will want to get hitched to this one - catch it like a bouquet of razor wire in theatres now or rent it from Movies 'N Stuff.  

Alpha

What's up with the water in France? Two of the most exciting and interesting female directors working today are Julia Ducournau (Titane, Raw) and Coralie Fargeat (The Substance, Revenge). Both hail from France, both working in the tradition of Cronenberg-ian body horror. Ducournau has a new film, Alpha. It has a much more linear storyline than her last outing, Titane (about a woman who is impregnated by a car). Alpha focuses on a thirteen-year-old girl, Alpha (Mélissa Boros) who received a homemade tattoo at a party during a near-future time when a blood-transmissible illness is becoming a global crisis. This illness slowly turns people into marble (like the stone). Yes I know it sounds bizarre, and it is. Alpha lives with her single mother (Golshifteh Farahani) who is a doctor and has great concerns about her daughter's possible infection. Along comes Alpha's uncle Amin (Tahar Rahim) who is sporting a junkie habit and Alpha likes to turn her uncle's hole ridden arm into a connect-the-dots puzzle. The disease seems like an obvious metaphor for the AIDS crisis. The film looks at the alienating behaviors, how we treat the sick, the addicted. It will make you uncomfortable at times - think Kids, Requiem for Dream. For something which seems to be slow-paced, it moves along at a riveting clip - I was never bored. The marble transformation of victims is a unique visual from an equally unique and gifted filmmaker. Grab a bottle of Evian at the theatre or go rent this one from Movies 'N Stuff when available. 

Dust Bunny

As a Gen-Xer, growing up in the world of '70s and '80s films was not so sanitized as it is now. Raiders of the Lost Ark gave my childhood melting faces, impaled skeletal corpses, and a room full of snakes. Is it a kid movie though? I would argue it is, as is Star Wars. I think a lot of great kids' movies have elements of darkness and fear -  Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, The Goonies, Coraline, heck, even The Sound of Music is about escaping the Nazis. So if you missed Dust Bunny from last year, as I did, it's time to catch what might become a new kids' classic, albeit a dark one. What's it all about? Sophie Sloan plays Aurora, a young girl who believes that there is a dust bunny under her bed that is eating people. In fact, she won't walk on the floor. She traverses her apartment on a metal hippopotamus on wheels like she's navigating a swamp in a flat-bottomed boat. She discovers secrets about the man (played by Mads Mikkelsen - the other Hannibal Lecter from TV)  living down the hall of her apartment building; namely that he is a hit man. Aurora hires him to kill the monster, money she acquires in a dubious way, one that made me laugh out loud. Writer and director Bryan Fuller marks this as his first feature film coming out of a TV career (he made Hannibal the TV series). He comes out with monster, litterally. This film is simply gorgeous. Aurora and her hit man live in a New York Art Nouveau building and the colours of it are bright - Mads wears something of a track suit that looks like he borrowed from The Royal Tenenbaums. In fact, the whole film has a Wes Anderson look to it. A kind of cartoonish Amelie sensibility. With small roles by Sigourney Weaver and David Dastmalchian (Late Night with the Devil), this movie is a delight. It's got teeth. Jaws of the parquet tile floor. Is it for kids? Well if you think Ghostbusters is a good kids' movie, then so is this! You will want to sweep this up on streaming when it's available or rent it from Movies 'N Stuff.  

Resurrection

David Lynch often spoke about films as dreams. Resurrection is all about dreams. The main character is, the Dreamer, who time travels through different periods of what could be described as film history. The opening, set in the silent film era, (think Guy Madden) quickly morphs into a Frankenstein-meets-The Wizard of Oz poppy dreamscape. There are five such episodes, each which their own story and artistic sensibility. Monsters and midgets bring us to the magical, where a bloody tooth in a snowball can turn into an imp. Terry Gilliam would be delighted, I'm sure. There is a section which feels akin to Peter Bogdanovich's Paper Moon, where we have a card hustler perpetrating scams with a young boy. And there is a one-shot (think  Alejandro González Iñárritu's Birdman) Romeo + Juliet (Baz Luhrmann-style) love story. The visuals in the film are simply fascinating and fantastic. This is a visual buffet of all things celluloid. Director Bi Gan has made an extraordinary work. If there is a criticism, it's that these pieces are supposed to link together, but they don't - but they do in dream logic. Dream logic goes from one thing to a completely different thing, and in that magical world, it's perfectly sensible. This only appeared for a single screening at the Mayfair last year. Hopefully in will come back to theatres. One of the most interesting art films of last year. You can find it now streaming on the Criterion channel and you can rent it from Movies 'N Stuff.    

The Alabama Solution

Slavery is alive and well in the United States of America. If you have seen the 2016 Netflix documentary 13th, which explores the history of incarceration in the U.S., then you will know what I’m talking about. Roughly 60% of those in prison are non-white (Black, Indigenous, Hispanic, Asian), while these groups make up only about 40% of the U.S. population. There are private companies running clothing manufacturing operations using what is essentially slave labour. Since that documentary came out, I don’t think anything has changed—based on the evidence presented in The Alabama Solution. In fact, if you are unfortunate enough to find yourself incarcerated in the state of Alabama, things are far worse than they were in 2016. But now, the prisoners have cellphones. The Alabama Solution tells the story of a 2022 statewide prison strike led by three individuals: Robert Earl Council, Melvin Ray, and Raoul Poole. The conditions these prisoners endure are horrendous—flooded areas, filth, rats. They are unfit for human beings. The documentary also focuses on Sandy Ray, who is seeking justice for her son, Steven Davis, who was beaten to death by a prison guard. Conditions in these prisons were (and are) so bad that the DOJ (Department of Justice) threatened to take control from the state. However, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey insisted it was an Alabama problem that required an “Alabama solution.” That “solution” was to build three giant mega-prisons, funded in part by diverting money from the education budget. This is a tough watch, but it’s an important one. It was nominated for Best Documentary at this year’s Oscars—rightfully so. Films like this shouldn't just inform, they should provoke. Because what's shown here isn't broken - it's functioning exactly as intended. And that should terrify you. Catch it streaming on Crave/HBO or rent it from Movies ’N Stuff when available.