Babes

 It could easily be a comedy with Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph but it's not. It's Ilana Glazer and Michelle Buteau as Eden and Dawn respectively. Eden and Dawn have been best friends since childhood. Dawn is pregnant with her second child and shortly after giving birth, Eden finds herself pregnant after a one night stand. "Babes" falls into the "Bridesmaids" category of film - you're in for this kind of fun. The script (Ilana Glazer and Josh Rabinowitz) is smart and lively, taking unexpected turns and it's a fresh take on motherhood, friendship, and pregnancy. Director Pamela Adlon has crafted something special here which is worth your time. Character actor John Carroll Lynch ("Zodiac" "Chanel Zero," and literally over a hundred other roles) plays a doctor with a hair issue. I love him in everything he shows up in. Just another reason to check out "Babes," now streaming on Prime. Or go rent it from Movies 'N' Stuff here in Ottawa.  

Matt and Mara

This little Canadian film written and directed by Kazik Radwanski is charming, smartly written, and has two wonderful actors giving wonderful performances. Deragh Campbell plays Mara, a young English Professor who is currently teaching a creative writing class in poetry. She is married to a musician, but she herself doesn't really connect with music - it may be a bit of a pebble in the shoe of their marriage, one which, for the most part, with their young child, seems to be going well. Perhaps a tad dry. We arrive at this point when the romance has died down to a low heat and the monotonous business of living and raising a child has kicked in. Along comes Matt (Matt Johnson), former university boyfriend, before Mara's current husband, and he is bringing excitement. Matt has had some literary success. He is a published writer - Mara keeps his book of personally inscribed collection of short stories on her office shelf. They go to a cafe and talk about writing. This leads to a series of encounters and eventually a short road trip. I haven't heard this kind of smartly written, realistic, and nuanced dialogue since Richard Linklater's Before Trilogy. I would love Radwanski to turn this into a trilogy. Anyway, it's short, with a runtime of only an hour twenty, I almost felt like it needed more. Maybe I just wanted more. Like a small piece of dessert.    

This Is the Tom Green Documentary

Tom Green was born and raised in Ottawa and rose to fame out of his Rogers Cable 22 Tom Green show. He eventually got picked up by MTV, moved to New York, then California hosting his own show. He became hugely famous. Maybe not Jim Carrey famous, but famous none the less. He married Drew Barrymore and got testicular cancer - I don't recall which order but nobody blames Drew. He was very public about it, made a show of it. He also made his own feature length movie, "Freddy Got Finger." It was panned by most critics. I thought it to be wildly funny. I never watched his show, but was aware of some of his earlier stunts: painting his dad's car, turning it into the slut-mobile; painting his parents house plaid; snorkeling in full scuba gear for change in the shopping mall fountain. All extremely funny stuff, stuff taken to the next level by "Jackass" which took over his time slot when Green walked away. I've always cheered for Tom, being an Ottawa boy myself. A sense of hometown pride seeing him in "Charlie's Angels" and making it in Hollywood. There had been silence but now Tom has reappeared with this documentary, a new reality TV series forthcoming on Prime and a comedy special taped here in Ottawa at the NAC. Tom has walked away from Hollywood and moved back home, living on a farm just outside of Ottawa. Something has changed. Green’s demeanour has changed . And he is sporting a full beard. Jim Carrey had one of these for a while. Even David Letterman, Green's personal hero. There is an aura of trauma given off in both his appearance and the way he carries himself, no longer the manic crazed Green, but slow and soft, with his dog by his side, who seems like an emotional support animal. This documentary feels like a part of a package, so there is something slightly sale-pitchy about it. At the same time, I feel it's a cathartic release for Green. He is acknowledging who he was and what he did, and in doing so, letting it go. Maybe the cancer changed him. Or maybe he realized getting the fame and money he always wanted wasn't really what he always wanted. Maybe a bit of both. Full confession by me: this dcc and Tom's new series was edited by my friend, Jay Bond. I thought his work on this was amazing. The doc concludes with the taping of his stand up performance at the NAC. If you freeze frame the credits, you will see me, in my Godzilla hoodie. Green was a pioneer in goofy, absurdist showmanship, a clown. He’s still very funny but Green is different now, softer, and has become a nuanced artist. Catch this streaming now on Prime.     

Nickel Boys

Nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, "Nickel Boys" is the story of Elwood Curtis, a smart young black teen who gets thrown into a brutal reform school (Nickel) in Southern USA in the 1960s. He befriends Turner, another black youth, who seems to know his way around the institution. Nickel is something out of "The Shawshank Redemption" or "Cool Hand Luke" except all the boys here are black, and they might end up buried at the back of the property. A good chunk of the film is shot from the first person point of view of either Turner or Elwood, like "Hardcore Henry" except without all the action. At first I found this visual choice a little off putting but in the end I think it gives the movie more gravitas than it might hold otherwise. Director RaMell Ross has crafted a very arty film. It jumps through time and images of the civil rights movement are presented at times with others: American life in the 1960s, dream sequences with alligators, and snapshots of contemporary pieces (toy trinkets, buttons) from forensic digs of discarded children who we are to assume have suffered horrific deaths. Some of this felt like an exhibit you might find in a modern museum of art. I think it gives the film it's power, rather than being another "Jailhouse" picture. This one carries weight. Catch it in theatres or if you are in Ottawa, rent it at Movies 'N Stuff when available. 

We Are the Night

It's January but it feels like Halloween! I don't really understand why I've watched two German lesbian vampire movies and a new werewolf film, back to back, but I have. "Vampyros Lesbos" is a 1971 offering from director Jesús Franco and it's pretty much awful. Imagine if Penthouse, of the same year, 1971,  made a lesbian vampire porn film - you get the idea - the blood bright red before they figured out the formula for making blood look real. I watched this at Ottawa's Mayfair Theatre. "Wolf Man" is out in theatres now. One line review: It got a few howls and it's much better than the mangy dog I thought it would be. Which now brings me to "We Are the Night," a German vampire film from 2010 which I'm sure you've never heard of. I hadn't until it landed in my physical DVD/Blu-ray collection by accident. It's co-written and directed by Dennis Gansel and stars a bunch of German actors you've likely also never heard of. It's excellent. I haven't enjoyed a vampire film as much since "30 Days of Night" or "Daybreakers" (two other excellent vampire films). If vampires aren't your thing, I get it. If they are, this is a good one. The imagery here is, at times, surreal, something off of a Pink Floyd album cover. These are rich party girls with teeth. They go clubbing - something out of "Blade," and they have decadent tastes for all things but men. But these ladies have immortal problems as all undead folks seem to have. There are some fresh and tasty ideas here which I have never seen in a vampire movie. You can't find it for rent at  Movies 'N Stuff and you can't find it on streaming, at least not that I know of. If you get a chance, somehow, to see this one, dig your teeth in.

Cunk on Life

 Apparently this is the fifth Philomena Cunk TV special or one-off TV movie? I'm not exactly sure how it should be referred to. On a sparse runtime of 71 minutes, it falls into an episode-length of some TV shows. Whatever it is, it's funny as hell. "Cunk on Life" is the first (and only) one of Diane Morgan's (who brilliantly plays nitwit Philomena Cunk) very funny mocumentaries I have watched. So far. I laughed my guts out - "Do you mean all your intestines came out of your mouth while you were laughing, all over the floor? Sounds horrible. How did you get them back in, or did you? Are you sitting here now with no guts?" - this is something Philomena Cunk might ask me. In her own happy idiot way, (think "Borat," "Forest Gump," "Being There") simpleton Philomena Cunk goes about interviewing some of the world's brightest academics (real professors) on the subjects of philosophy, religion, and science in hopes of discovering what life is all about. Hilarious. I could see how this could begin to get tedious after a while, but again, at a 71 minute run time, it's worth every minute of your time. Cunk is asking big questions - "I didn't realize questions have a size." is something I imagine she might respond with. The answer will surely have you giggling. Catch it streaming on Netflix. 

The Emerald Forest

If you are unfamiliar with John Boorman, he is the director of "Deliverance." If you still haven't seen that film, start there. Then check out "The Emerald Forest." This film from 1985 was a Christmas gift, a Blu Ray from my wife. A delight.  Kino Lorber (like the more famous Criterion Collection people) have reissued this with a lovely looking new cover and a new commentary track on the disc. The late great Powers Boothe stars as Bill Markham, an engineer who went down to the rain forest with his wife (Meg Foster) and young son to build a massive hydro dam. His son, Tommy, is taken by the Invisible People, a tribe on Aboriginal Amazonians. Bill spends the next ten years working on the construction of the dam and all his free time combing the jungle in search of his missing son. Apparently this is based on a true story - even if this is partly true, it's pretty wild. Boorman's son, Charley Boorman plays the older Tomme. Having recently watched "The Naked Prey," I'm sure this must have inspired Boorman to do something similar. "The Emerald Forest" - a long forgotten film you will want to make contact with (I'm cheeky, like a loincloth).