Stephen Hopkins’ workmanlike feature film, Race, pays homage to Jesse Owens, the African-American track and field star who, at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, left his competitors in the dust and demolished the Nazi notion of Aryan racial superiority, much to the ire of Adolf Hitler and company. But Race, which is now available […]
Category: Film
Alison Chernick’s uplifting documentary about virtuoso violinist Itzhak Perlman, Itzhak, is a marvel of sight and sound. Opening at the Ted Rogers Hot Docs Cinema in Toronto on April 6, it’s a moving portrait of a gifted musician who’s devoted to his craft and his family and whose overarching goal is to pass on his […]
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Journey’s End
The centenary of World War I, supposedly the war to end all wars, will be commemorated in November. It will be a somber occasion, given the ghastly death toll that this conflict exacted. Journey’s End, a British feature film which unfolds over a short period of time in March 1918, brings these thoughts to mind. […]
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Foxtrot — An Emotionally Wrenching Movie
Grief, anguish, boredom and callousness course through Samuel Maoz’s emotionally wrenching film, Foxtrot, which opens in Canada on March 16. Divided into three related segments, it takes place in a high-rise condo in Tel Aviv and at a remote checkpoint in the desert. As in his previous movie, Lebanon, he presents Israel as an embattled […]
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Sidney Lumet Retrospective
The Toronto International Film Festival is presenting a retrospective from March 10-16 on the late Hollywood movie director Sidney Lumet (1924-2011). Five of his films — 12 Angry Men, Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, Network and The Prince of the City — will be screened at the TIFF Bell Lightbox (350 King West). One of his […]
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Meditation Park
A 60-year-old subservient wife strikes a blow for women’s rights in Mina Shum’s low-key but forceful film, Meditation Park, which opens in Canada on March 9. The Chinese Canadian woman in question, Maria Wang (Cheng Pei Pei), lives in an immigrant district in Vancouver. An ideal submissive spouse as far as her husband, Bing (Tzi […]
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Exile Shanghai
Contemporary Shanghai is a modern, pulsating metropolis of 24 million inhabitants, a microcosm of China’s astonishing ascension to super power status. But from the late 1930s to the mid-1940s, when it was occupied by Japan, this vibrant city was a haven for some 20,000 European Jewish refugees, primarily from Germany and Austria but also from […]
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The Zookeeper’s Wife
Niki Caro’s The Zookeeper’s Wife, now available on the Netflix streaming network, is a film that will most likely please the current Polish government, which presents Poland as a model of resistance and a beacon of righteousness during the German occupation from 1939 to 1945. Based on real-life events, it’s the inspirational story of a Polish […]
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Loveless — A Strong Russian Movie
One of the most memorable images in Loveless, an evocative Russian film by Andrey Zvyagintsev opening in Canada on February 23, summarizes its relentlessly bleak mood. In the opening frame, the camera lingers pensively on a big tree whose branches have been shorn of their leaves by lashing autumn winds and rain. It’s a stark […]
Stacey Tenenbaum’s unusual documentary, Shiners, examines an archaic trade that seems destined for oblivion. Her subjects are shoe shiners who polish and buff shoes and boots for a living. As she suggests, they’re a dwindling breed. Her film, a paean to working-class men and women, will be screened at the Royal Cinema in Toronto on February […]