RKS 2024 Film: “The Shade”: Mental Illness as the Horror?

“The Shade” has very little traditional horror in it. Yes, there is a terrifying ghoul and some menacing Druid like figures but the focus is on mental illness and post traumatic stress disorder so please don’t expect ghouls jumping out of the bushes.

Ryan Beckman as a boy watches his father commit suicide by firearm. A decade or so later Ryan Beckman (Chris Galust) is on heavy anti-anxiety drugs suffering from flashbacks, nightmares and panic attacks and eventually repeatedly seeing a naked woman ghoul and Druid like figures. He is a mess held together by his girlfriend Alex (Mariel Molino) and caring for his younger brother Jamie.

Ryan’s older brother Jason Beckman (Dylan McTee) returns to the family home from out of state university “mid semester”. He is angry, moody and argumentative suffering from some type of mental illness which he applies the final solution to placing yet more stress on Ryan.

I query if you agree with my mental illness tack I am taking and it is not the first horror movie I have watched this year where the mind takes precedence over the ghoul.

You may find two hours a bit too long but with the tremendous performance of Galust you just might be enthralled and certainly not bored or restless. This is one of the most stellar performances I have seen this year. Where do I send my Oscar nomination to? Molino as Ryan’s girlfriend has a supporting role and crushes it. There is Batman and there is a Robin!

You can watch the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIFwX4ryBKc

After its theatrical release it moves to a 22November2024 digital release.

It is directed by Tyler Chipman.

RKS 2024 Film Rating 95/100.

RKS 2024 Film: “Breakfast of Champions”: Back After 25 Years

“Breakfast of Champions” based on a Kurt Vonnegut novel of the same name has returned to the big screen 25 years later with a 4K restoration.

Just about all “champions” in the film are a far cry from being champions of a normalcy. Characters here are champions of an eccentric otherworld.

Dwayne Hoover (Bruce Willis) is at first blush a successful car dealer in Midland City in a suburban midwestern United States that Vonnegut paid “homage” to in so many of his novels. Dwyane is lost looking for some meaning in his life that is punctuated by suicide attempts and a dizzying array of cheesy commercials for his dealership Dwayne Hoover’s Motor Village. Fair to say Dwayne is in the midst of a nervous breakdown.

Dwyane’s wife Celia (Barbara Hershey) is lost in space by too many Mother’s Little Helpers. Bunny, their son, lives in a bomb shelter dug out in the front yard. He is a miserably pathetic lounge singer that puts Diane Keaton’s jazz vocals in “Annie Hall” in the stratosphere.

Harry Le Sabre (Nick Nolte) is a paranoid sales manger for Dwayne Hoover’s Motor Village. His Hawaiian Day television on air commercial and some of his outfits are priceless. Yes he is a transvestite.

Dwayne’s mistress and secretary Francine (Glenne Headley) spacy but sweet voice offers comfort to Dwayne.

And who could forget a recurring Vonnegut character, the prolific but obscure science fiction writer Kilgore Trout (Albert Finney). And a very strange Eliot Rosewater (Ken Hudson Campbell) head of the Rosewater Foundation who may be Trout’s sole appreciator.

The film is all about a strange cast of characters perhaps as spacey as the cinematography, cheeseball television commercials both actual and created for Dwayne’s car dealership (selected and directed by Vonnegut as the Commercials Director).

The film directed by Alan Rudolph may wander a bit plot wise but the fascinating congregate of characters may be more important than the plot.

Limited Canadian theatrical release 5November2024.

You can watch the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUQzm3PxPGE

RKS 2024 Film Rating 88/100.

RKS 2024 Film: “SALLYWOOD”: Has Hollywood Abandoned Sally?

Sally Kirkland (playing herself) starred in the 1987 film “Anna” winning the Golden Globe for Best Actress and an Academy Award nomination for the same. But ageing women in Hollywood fade from the public spotlight being eaten alive by a younger tier of female stars.

Zack (Tyler Steelman) has been a childhood admirer of Sally in his small hometown in Maine. He embarks on a trip to meet her in Hollywood and eventually becomes her assistant not that there is any real interest by studio executives and directors in her. Even her agent mockingly looks forward to her starring in catheter commercials.

It so happens Tom (Tom Connoly) Zack’s raunchy Brit screenplay wannabee roommate has some dubious backers delivering film financing cash in a suitcase which he hides under his bed. So, Sally now has a part in a D zombie film “Outer Space Zombie Chicks in Prison” with Tom’s porn actress friends Bibi and Poundcake.

Sally is a bit “out of the ordinary” with an affection for the New Age, astrology and proudly recounting her past sexual experiences.

A riotous panoply of directors, television producers, two faced agents and a cutting but humorous view of the flimsy and rotten lack of transparency of Hollywood. One does not need to scorch Hollywood with vitriol as this film illustrates. Satire and humour are of the same result in a more soothing fashion.

And my favorite scene in the film is when Sally visits Zack and his parents in Maine for Christmas. Zack’s mother Joanne (Jennifer Tilly) serves up Christmas Eve lasagna to all at the table and Sally warns her that she is a vegetarian but Joanne retorts, “Not today” and slaps down the lasagna on Sally’s plate. Tilly’s performance throughout is esoterically brilliant!

A breezy but highly effective Dean Martin Roast of Hollywood. Her zombie movie is a smash so Zack gets to work with writing her next film “Sallywood” but or course you and I have already seen it.

Here is the trailer https://app.frame.io/presentations/5d597703-c605-49d5-95bd-575b76d52a92

The director is Xaque Gruber.

The film shows at L.A. Femme Film Fest on 25October2024 with a limited Los Angeles theatrical engagement 7/8November2024.

RKS 2024 Film Rating 92/100.

RKS 2024 Film: “Stolen Time”: Repressive, Oppressive, Saddening, Infuriating but a Necessary Watch

Many years ago attending university in Montreal I worked at a Extendicare nursing home now more commonly referred to as a long-term care facility. I worked in the dining room and as an occasional orderly. The first days were shocking for me with many residents lined up in wheelchairs talking to themselves or with heads drooping many looking catatonic. A faint smell of urine permeated the air. These images and smells remain with me strangely gaining in intensity with age. Absolutely sinister. You never contemplate a long-term care (LTC) facility is in your future but as noted in the documentary there may be no choice!

In “Stolen Time” Toronto based elder rights lawyer Melissa Miller is retained by families of many LTC “victims” who have lost family members in LTC facilities both corporately controlled and some independently owned. Families are looking for accountability and justice over monetary compensation. As most LTC’s are privatized, they are a business that finances themselves by profits and decent care is a threat to net revenue. Staffing shortages, severe dehydration, malnutrition, misdiagnosis, scanty periodontal care, falls, skin wounds, infections and a list of atrocities are common issues reported by families. Often staff and managers are silenced by nondisclosure agreements they have signed so Miller has resorted to the hire of a private detective to film and document conditions her clients have complained about.

Miller’s fight for justice, particularly for judicially recognized standards of care are vigorously defended by deep pocket defendants financially bolstered by record profits. Sickeningly they play the card that pops only had a few years to live and with dementia what quality of life did he have anyways!

And it is not only Miller and affected families we watch and listen to but social workers, former personal support workers, union representatives, accountability and transparency analysts. Miller notes it is easy to blame personal support workers and other LTC staff but they are often left hanging by the profit motive where pleasing analysts and shareholders on quarterly corporate performance updates takes precedence over the delivery of quality care.

The series of illustrations detailing the faults of LTC care facilities by former personal care worker Lisa Alleyne reinforces the messaging of systematic failure in LTC’s. The system is broken and must be reformed.

For many LTC residents poor care shortens life span hence steal time from life.

Theatrical releases in New York and Los Angeles commencing 17October2024.

Director is Helene Klodawsky.

RKS 2024 Film Rating 92/100.

RKS 2024 Film: “Curl Power”: Or Should it Be Girl Power?

I heard a friend remark about the game of curling about as exciting as watching paint dry. Unfair to those who curl and are passionate about the sport.

In “Curl Power” five British Columbian female teens are passionate about curling and compete as the “The 4K Girls”.  Gently coached by Canadian Olympian curling moms their goal is to win the provincial under 18 junior women’s curling championship.

If you are bonspiel inclined you might derive some pleasure from the rink action as the rocks glide down the ice. But the action of the film may not be on the ice but a focus on these teens as they navigate the transition from child to adult. Sort of caught in the middle so as to speak.

These curlers are not super machines but adolescents with a strong and enduring friendship and curling is but an arena for their development as adults. There is depression, anxiety, hints of an eating disorder, cancer, tears, passion, doubt, make up tips, boy problems and the loss of team members to university. You might surmise they are tough and confident but my conclusion is that they are vulnerable as so many teens are. In effect what might have been a cheesy sports documentary becomes a study in the human condition.

You may ask yourself if inclusion and curling are miles apart. The young ladies are all middle-class Caucasians.

Interesting yes. Groundbreaking no.

Warning no Tim Hortons’ coffee can be seen in the film.

Josephine Anderson is the director.

RKS 2024 Film Rating 74/100.

RKS 2024 Wine: Malivoire’s Courtney Gamay from Niagara

Many ex-Canada readers are certainly familiar with Niagara Falls as one of Canada’s primo tourist sites. But how many realize Niagara Falls is surrounded by a virtual waterfall of wineries producing world class red, white, sparkling and ice wines. 20 minutes from the Falls, if that, wine country abounds with wineries many of which have dining facilities and some offer accommodation.

Malivoire Winery is in Beamsville right on the Niagara Wine Route. Malivoire is not afraid of experimenting with Gamay with a solid Gamay lineup and in this case, we try a Courtney Gamay from the Beamsville Bench Appellation.

Aroma: Loads of cherry and raspberry sort of Pinot Noirish. Somewhat earthy. Gentle French oak notes.

Palate: Gentle. Discrete notes of bright red cherry, raspberry and just a bit of milk chocolate. Peppery moderately long finish with a tart note. It holds its fruit a little too close to its chest. If only a bit more fruit could assert itself to match its attractive nose.

Personality: Of course, I show Ontario and particularly Malivoire can produce quality Gamay. I may be a bit shy now but another year in the bottle please.

Cellarbility: Will sail into 2026 but bring down the sails by 2027-year end.

Food Match: Turkey and zucchini risotto made with turkey stock of course.

Price: $35 CDN.

RKS 2024 Wine Rating; 90/100. Wine Align 90.

(Malivoire Courtney Gamay 2021, VQA Beamsville Bench, Malivoire Wine Company Limited, Beamsville, Ontario, 750 mL,12.5%).

RKS 2024 Wine: N 10 Fonterutoli 2021 From Tuscany

The label sates predominately Merlot but I suspect this being Tuscany there is some Sangiovese in the blend.

Aroma: Given the Merlot and Sangiovese the nose is full of cherry both red and black. Minute bits of blueberry.

Palate: Moderate tannins. On the outskirts acid make this a good sipping wine. Almost singular cherry influence on the palate. Short and heavy finish perhaps a bit dull?

Personality: I am neither a star nor a dud. Reliable but not exciting.

Food Match: A steaming bowl of Ribolitta.

Cellarbility: Might soften a bit but consume by 2025-year end.

Price: $23 CDN.

RKS 2024 Wine Rating: 88/100.

(N 10 Fonterutoli 2021 IGT Toscana, Mazzei, Italy 750 mL, 13.5%).

RKS Literature: Oncologist Stricken by What She Fights Against For Her Patients (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn)

“Adjusting to the disease was at first unbearable. Her world had capsized, the entire arrangement of her existence was disrupted. She was not yet dead, and yet she had to give up her husband, her son, her daughter, her grandson, and her medical work as well, even though it was her own work, medicine, that would now be rolling over her and through her like a noisy train. In a single day she had to give up everything and suffer, a pale green shadow, not knowing for a long time whether she was to die irrevocably or return to life.”

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, “Cancer Ward”, 1968.

RKS Literature: The Importance of the Family Doctor (Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn)

“The family doctor is a figure without whom the family cannot exist in a developed society. He knows the needs of each member of the family, just as a mother knows their tastes. There’s no shame in taking to him some trivial complaint you’d never take to the outpatient’s clinic, which entails getting an appointment card and waiting your turn, and where there’s a quota of nine patients an hour and waiting your turn. And yet all neglected illnesses arise out of these trivial complaints. How many adult human beings are there, now, at this minute, rushing about in mute panic wishing they could find a doctor, the kind of person to whom they can pour out the fears they have deeply concealed or even found shameful?”

Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn, “Cancer Ward”, 1968.

RKS 2024 Film: “Chosen Family”: Romcom in a Free Fall

Ann (Heather Graham) a yoga teacher has a family causing her stress. Her father is a religious fanatic dispensing righteous commands of salvation to Ann. Her mother Dorothy (Julie Halston) laments that her marriage and children ruined her career. Sister Clio (Julia Stiles) is a drug addict in and out of rehab. They ply Ann with guilt to achieve their own goals.

Ann has terrible luck with men until she meets hunk man Steve (John Botherton) in the midst of a divorce and what a nice guy causing viewers to conclude she has met the right guy until such moment as darling Lilly, Steve’s young daughter, is introduced. At this point the romcom begins its freefall. Lilly as a child may be suffering from a marriage implosion so is deserving of compassion and empathy but she is at the core nasty and manipulative and all childlike innocence is quickly dissipated. Steve is the prime victim of this manipulation and as towards Ann he pulls another guilt trip…poor Lilly.

In a drastic finale Ann’s family humiliates her publicly and she realizes her chosen family is not her nuclear family. The freefall romcom morphs into an intelligent foray into a study of guilt infliction on others but it is also a lesson in friendship. As for a genre label how about a stand up and cheer film?

Directed and written by Heather Graham.

VOD and Digital release 11October2024.

RKS 2024 Film Rating: 72/100.