Sept. 14, 2009 — Food, Inc. (Robert Kenner)
Oct. 12, 2009 — Away We Go (Sam Mendes)
Nov. 9, 2009 — The Damned United (Tom Hooper)
Dec. 14, 2009 — Goodbye Solo (Ramin Bahrani)
Sept. 14, 2009 — FOOD, INC.
Director: Robert Kenner
With: Eric Schlosser, Michael Pollan
Running Time: 94 minutes
Country: USA
Year: 2009
Language: English
Distributor: Alliance Films
You are what you eat – a simple expression that bears scary implications as you watch Food, Inc. Director Robert Kenner draws upon the searing reportage of authors Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation) and Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma) to explore how modern developments in food production pose grave risks to our health and environment.
These writers aren’t radicals or even vegetarians (Schlosser admits that his favourite meal is a hamburger and fries), but they are crusaders when it comes to exposing problems and naming offenders. The documentary never resorts to stunts to make its point – just solid journalism, including hidden cameras that reveal unseemly practices.
Food, Inc. explains how unfettered corporations exploited laws and subsidies to create shocking monopolies. In one example, we learn how the food conglomerate Monsanto expanded its control over soybeans from two per cent of the American market to ninety per cent in the last dozen years.
Monsanto has the legal muscle of a Supreme Court decision, enabling it to litigate aggressively against small farmers; the decision was written by Justice Clarence Thomas, who happens to be a former Monsanto lawyer.
In opposition to these powerful interests are other interviewed sources, from a Republican mother who lost her two-year-old son to E. coli poisoning, to the founder of Stonyfield Farm Organic Yogurt, who flout s conventional left-wing dogma by seeing a positive side to Walmart.
The faces and landscapes featured in this film are beautifully photographed by cinematographer Richard Pearce. Two decades ago, he directed the drama Country, starring Sam Shepard and Jessica Lange, a film that heralded the decline of the family farm. Now his camera captures the industry that replaced that era. Along the way, we hear stories of heartbreak and outrage, but the film carefully channels these emotions toward opportunities for activism. Watching Food, Inc. gives you a strong appetite for better meals.
“With a constituency limited to anyone who eats, Food, Inc. is a civilized horror movie for the socially conscious, the nutritionally curious and the hungry.” – John Anderson, Variety
Oct. 12, 2009 — AWAY WE GO
Director: Sam Mendes
Cast: Maya Rudolph, John Krasinski, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jeff Daniels, Catherine O’Hara, Allison Janney
Running Time: 93 minutes
Country: USA
Year: 2009
Language: English
Distributor: Alliance Films
It was only a matter of time before acclaimed theatre and film director Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Revolutionary Road) made a road movie, and now the Oscar®-winning director takes us on an intimate ride across the continent with a charming pair of parents-to-be.
Saturday Night Live’s Maya Rudolph (A Prairie Home Companion) plays Veronica, a pregnant woman who is entering her final trimester when her nerdy but affable partner, Burt (John Krasinski, The Office, Shrek the Third), takes her for dinner with his parents (hilariously played by screen icons Jeff Daniels and Catherine O’Hara). Burt’s parents quickly inform the young couple of their sudden decision to move to Belgium, thereby giving Burt and Veronica no practical reason to remain in the neighbourhood.
With friends and relatives beckoning from across the country, they leave their tiny house and hit the road to find an ideal place to raise their child. So begins the search for a new home, and so begins our continental tour of North America.
As the pair connects with old friends and workmates in cities from Phoenix to Montreal, Mendes works in some great performances from the talented cast he has accrued. Maggie Gyllenhaal’s turn as a narcissistic, uber-feminist new-age professor named simply LN is hilarious, while Josh Hamilton and Allison Janney also have great fun with Vendela Vida and Dave Eggers’s laugh-a-minute script. But it is the way Rudolph and Krasinski subtly play off each other that is the movie’s real draw. Veronica and Burt have a serious dilemma, and the way they deal with the good and bad examples of parenting they witness during their travels invests us more fully in their relationship.
Like any parents, they want what is best for their baby, and through the amazing performances of Rudolph and Krasinski, so do we. They elevate an already extremely competent indie comedy to something with more depth.
There is powerful chemistry here, and the warmth these two generate onscreen is palpable.
“Terrific performances make this tender… film worth the trip.” – Michael Rechtshaffer, Hollywood Reporter
Nov. 9, 2009 — THE DAMNED UNITED
Director: Tom Hooper
Cast: Michael Sheen, Timothy Spall, Colm Meaney, Jim Broadbent
Running Time: 97 minutes
Country: United Kingdom
Year: 2009
Language: English
Distributor: Mongrel Media
Based on a novel by David Peace, The Damned United is an affectionate, tongue-in-cheek homage to English football in the 1970s. Reuniting the stellar partnership of screenwriter Peter Morgan and star Michael Sheen (Frost/Nixon, The Queen), the film is a welcome alternative to the standard inspirational sports biopic and can most definitely be enjoyed without knowledge of the ins and outs of English football.
Set in 1974, The Damned United follows former England player Brian Clough (Michael Sheen) – now revered as one of the greatest English football managers – and his brief 44-day tenure as coach of the Leeds United football club. Prior to this posting, he successfully presided over Derby, lifting the club to new heights with the aid of his indispensable right-hand man, Peter Taylor (Timothy Spall, Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman), and the belief that the beautiful game “must be played beautifully.” Clough takes over Leeds from his rival Don Revie (Colm Meaney, Intermission), who was managing a squad that played more brutally than beautifully, and soon creates plenty of friction both on and off the pitch with his abrasive style.
Using a flashback structure, The Damned United’s careful attention to period detail and clever use of archival footage offers a compelling snapshot of another era. And Michael Sheen, much like his previous transformations in The Queen and Frost/Nixon, superbly channels the arrogance of a manager who took on the football establishment to shape a winning team.
Sharp, funny and thoroughly entertaining, The Damned United presents a compelling and passionate look at the near-religious fervour inspired by the beautiful game.
“Offering just enough football to satisfy the fans in the stands, The Damned United is also a pleasingly high-quality British drama with some terrific performances.” – Fionnuala Halligan, Screen International
Dec. 14 — GOODBYE SOLO
Director: Ramin Bahrani
Cast: Souléymane Sy Savané, Red West, Diana Franco Galindo
Running Time: 91 minutes
Country: USA
Year: 2009
Language: English
Distributor: E1 Entertainment
An audience favourite at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival®, Goodbye Solo is a rare cinematic gem. Even within the idiosyncratic world of American independent cinema, its director, Ramin Bahrani, stands out. Much like his earlier works, the highly lauded Man Push Cart and Chop Shop, Bahrani’s third feature, Goodbye Solo, uses perfectly cast actors and concentrates the action in a specific geographical place.
However, Goodbye Solo exhibits an artistic growth and thematic maturation, yielding an unusually rewarding experience for the viewer.
Followers of Bahrani’s work know that he immerses us into the lives of his characters with little ceremony, and Goodbye Solo is no different. In the first moment of the film , we find ourselves inside a cab driven by Solo (Souléymane Sy Savané), a Senegalese taxi driver living in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. His passenger is seventy-year-old William (Red West), who books Solo to pick him up again two weeks hence for a long drive to a faraway mountaintop. Over the course of their negotiation, Solo comes to understand that William has a tragic plan for the end of his trip, and decides to befriend the man and dissuade him from his goal.
Solo is one of the most remarkable characters in recent cinema. He is good through and through, and lacks the North American self-consciousness about relationships. He believes that everyone should be engaged and concerned with one another. This “it takes a village” approach to life is anathema to William, who harbours pain, secrets and a desire for privacy, all of which keep him at odds with Solo.
Given the freshness and candour of the dialogue, it is hard to believe that Goodbye Solo followed a script. Much credit should be given to co-writers Bahrani and Bahareh Azimi for the creation of a story so graciously nuanced and complex. As William, West (best known as part of Elvis Presley’s Memphis Mafia) asks little of us but to witness, and as Solo, Savané shows us shadow, light, love and manhood with a natural charisma that fills the screen. With the aid of these extraordinary performances, Bahrani succeeds in his ultimate goal: delving deeply into the lives of his characters, he shows us ourselves.
“Carefully directed and convincingly acted… This film’s unsettling conclusions will likely haunt you long after other, slicker films have faded from view” – Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
