RKS 2024 Film: “Inedia”: A Deadly Convergence of Flummox and Eating Disorders

Cora’s aversion to eating spirals out of control to the point that she considers herself allergic to all foods even parsley. While at dinner at her sister’s she has a few bites of a bizarre vegetarian dish and runs to the toilet to induce vomiting.

Her condition worsens. Her GP does not share her thoughts on a mass food allergy diagnosing her nasty rash as eczema caused by stress and prescribes hydrocortisone. Then consulting with Dr. Google, Cora watches “Joanna” espousing light therapy as a cure for eating disorders. Who needs food if you have the sun which offers all the nourishment you require? Incredibly ridiculous and dangerous but desperation often nullifies logic so off thirtyish Cora (Amy Forsyth) leaves Vancouver taking the ferry to Saturna Island to join a community of like minded desperados hanging on to the ridiculous flummox spewed by Joanna (Susanne Wuest).

Arriving at the community Joanna offers Cora her “last meal” but she self induces vomiting and her last meal never reaches her stomach. Even when Cora pikes some food leftovers from a child (Joanna believes growing children require nourishment) of a community member she expels it out and that terrible rash spreads rather strange as no food is consumed so how could there be an allergic reaction to it?

A veritable commune like that one portrayed in “Easy Rider” but at least in that commune they ate! I found it a bit strange that for those who don’t eat they all look rather well fed. Could that loaf of bread hidden in the tool shed found by Cora be evidence of widespread cheating?

Early on Cora is warned by a banished community member the entire “community” is founded by lies. Then a fatal tragedy strikes despite the faith by the community that Joanna knows everything and a doctor is not required.

Is Joanna an evil swindler? Hmm she looks very fit for a person who does not eat food. Criminal negligence?

Is Cora doomed or has she found refuge only to return to her death. Is that what transpires to both start and conclude the film?

Aside from the personal struggle of Cora the film is an interesting glimpse at the onset of bulimia nervosa and its psychological profile.

Wuest proffers a steely performance making some good “marketing sense” at times but mostly it is flakey palaver. She delivers a solid chilling performance bordering on a psychopath and a genuinely misguided prophet. Forsyth fits in well with the starry-eyed youngster community members. An excellent portrayal of a reluctant not fully convinced character.

Directed by Elizabeth Cairns.

Shows next on 29September2024 at the Vancouver International Film Festival.

RKS 2024 Film Rating 83/100.

RKS 2024 Wine: Vineland Estates 2021 Game Changer Red

A bold statement indeed to maintain any wine these days can change the game. More marketing fluff but as I have said many times a label really makes little difference as what matters is in the bottle. For example, this year the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team has changed professional baseball in Toronto to a pitiable state. The most important statistic at the ballpark this year was the 70,000 loonie hotdogs sold at the last loonie hotdog night for the season. So the game can be changed for the worse. Careful what you say Vineland Estates!

As a minimum knowing Vineland Estates one can expect a decent bottle of Cabernet Franc. This wine is 100% Cabernet Franc aged 12 months in oak. What type of oak is not stated on the label or on the Vineland Estates website and in fact even the varietal is not stated on the label.

Aroma: Fits the Ontario Cabernet Franc profile with gobs of black cherry complimented by some milk chocolate. Secondary notes of raspberry.

Palate: Moderate tannic profile. Acids perfectly restrained. Wobbly and somewhat weak-kneed fruit.

Food Match: Would have suited the beautiful Cornish Hen I had on the Vineland Estates restaurant patio last Saturday but then again it was such a glorious afternoon just about any wine would have been spot on. I did try some of a fellow diner’s fries and was extremely disappointed from my last visit. Now mundane. Once superb.

Personality: I suppose I am neither a positive or negative game changer.

Cellarbility: Drink prior to 2025-year end. Will not improve with age.

RKS 2024 Wine Rating: 84/100.

(Vineland Estates Winery 2021 Game Changer Red, VQA Niagara Escarpment, Vineland Estate Winery, Vineland, Ontario, 750 ml, 12.5%).

RKS Literature: Comrade Rusanov as a Proud Soviet Stoolie for Stalin (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn)

“Rusanov was not afraid of any of them. He had helped establish the guilt of them all, more boldly and openly as time went on. On two occasions he had even gone to the confrontation, raised his voice and denounced them. At that time it was not considered the least shameful to do such a thing. In that excellent and honorable time, the years 1937 and 1938, the social atmosphere was noticeably cleansed and it became easier to breathe. The liars and slanderers, those who had been too bold in their criticism, the clever dick intellectuals, all of them disappeared, shut up or lay low, while the men of principle, the loyal and stable men, Rusanov’s friends and Rusanov himself, were able to walk with dignity, their heads held high.”

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, “Cancer Ward”, 1968.

RKS Literature: Soviet Party Bureaucrat Thinks He Deserves the Best (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn)

“There was nothing wrong in a man in strengthening his material position with the help of a good salary from the state and a good pension (Pavel Nikolayevich’s dream was to be awarded a special, personal pension). Such a man has earned his car, his cottage in the country, and a small house in town to himself.  But a car of the same make from the same factory, or a country cottage of the same standard type, acquired a completely different criminal character if they had been bought through speculation. Pavel Nikolayevich deemed, literally dreamed of introducing public executions for speculators. Public executions would speedily bring complete health to our society.”

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, “Cancer Ward”, 1968.

RKS 2024 Wine: Canadian Pinot Noir Eh? Bachelder Les Villages Bench 2021 Pinot Noir

Any country with a couple of pesos to rub, and that includes Canada and France, can bottle up Pinot Noir but there is so much inferior product. Thomas Bachelder has been crafting excellent Niagara Pinot Noirs for years now garnering a top reputation initially with Le Clos Jordanne. Is he the king of Canadian Pinot Noir or is it Closson Chase or Norman Hardie in Prince Edward County. Or is it Meyer Family Vineyards in the British Columbia, Okanagan?

Aroma: Unmistakably a Pinot Noir. Niagara cherry, raspberry and just a bit of chocolate. Call it simple but I prefer elegant simplicity.

Palate: Tight and very guarded holding its fruit very close to the chest. But one senses in this restraint a wine that is about to bust out from shy to a beautiful sophisticate. But will it emerge from its cocoon into a beautiful butterfly? Ah the eternal risk to a wine buyer! Nastily delicious black cherry hanging around the edges…please knock the door and come in! A moderately long finish.

Food Match: Tonight, having enjoyed a homemade pizza with a sauce made with Niagara tomatoes, sweet Ontario garlic, Ontario red onions and a big splash of LBV Port and my backyard basil, rosemary and oregano this Pinot Noir would suit this pizza! A polite deep six to inferior red wines is to say pair it with a Friday night pizza. No disrespect meant with my suggestion!

Movie Pairing: Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things” although a pre dinner Martini may enhance your viewing pleasure.

Price: $35.

Cellarbility: Sorry not being Nostradamus here it is difficult to be meaningful here. But let the shit hit the fan here and my thoughts are no improvement with age.

Personality: An interesting “entry level” Pinot Noir from a master winemaker.

RKS 2024 Wine Rating: 89/100. Wine Align 89.

(Bachelder Les Villages Bench 2021 Pinot Noir, VQA Niagara Escarpment, Bachelder, Beamsville, Ontario, 750 mL, 12.5%).

RKS Literature: Cancer Ward Patients Like Chickens Waiting to Have Their Heads Cut Off (Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn)

“But here in the clinic, sucking an oxygen balloon, eyes hardly able to roll, the tongue keeps on arguing, “I’m not going to die! I haven’t got cancer!”

Just like chickens. A knife was ready and waiting for them, but they all carried on cackling and scratching for food. One was taken away to have its head chopped off, but the rest just carried on scratching.”

Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn, “The Cancer Ward”, 1968

RKS 2024 Film: “Lyvia’s House”: Be Prepared for Breadcrumbs or You May Become Lost

Some movies require your complete attention and if losing your train of thought you may spin out of control on the film freeway. Do we call these “thinking person’s movies”?

In this American horror- mystery-thriller please pay attention very closely to the film as it has a trail of breadcrumbs that most likely will lead to a big aha moment for the viewer. There is nothing wasted in the script for “Lyvia’s House”.  Writer Patricia V. Davis has done a splendid writing job. Very tight!

Tara (Tara Nichol Caldwell) a young whippersnapper journalist and Johnny Beers (Joshua Malekos) are in a quick steaming relationship. A bit too quick you may think. Tara moves from mommy’s very upper-class house to a beautiful house in Californian rural and farming territory. The house is “formerly owned” by the famous Italian artist Lyvia who has rushed off to Italy leaving Johnny in charge.

A beautiful house with a portrait of Lyvia in the living room surveying all. There are all manner of creepy people slinking about in the woods in the neighborhood. As the film opened with a huge brooding and white bearded man man Ed digging a grave in 1998 think Susan Monica. The townsfolk seem very tight lipped on the history of the town but Tara discovers its orchards are the “killing fields” for some 25 migrant workers done in by Ed who was convicted of his serial killer murders and imprisoned dying in prison two years prior to the arrival of Tara and Johnny.

A series of strange events transpire once Tara and Johnny move into their new love nest. That damn rat scurrying about terrifying Tara, the local village mentally handicapped voyeur, the disappearing bar fly, strange dreams haunting Tara and of course two more Ed style murders after Ed is long gone in the World Beyond all are clues. And that strange eye movement by Johnny.

The killer family is finally exposed at the end of the film and halfway through the film I had an inkling who it might be and indeed I was correct. The bloodline of Tara and Johnny is shocking and that was a huge surprise.

Clocking in at close to two hours the film is hampered by slowness but patient viewers will be rewarded by a satisfying conclusion. The acting is adequate but fails to impress.

Directed by Niko Volonakis.

It will be released on satellite and VOD on 1 and 15October2024.

You can see a screener here https://vimeo.com/950937438/fcd41b7a07

RKS 2024 Film Rating 84/100.

RKS Literature: Radiation Madness in Soviet Cancer Treatment (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn)

“But then, ten, fifteen or eighteen years ago, when the term “radiation sickness” did not exist, X-ray radiation had seemed such a straightforward, reliable and foolproof method, such a magnificent achievement of modern medical technique, that it was considered retrograde, almost a sabotage of public health, to refuse to use it and to look to other, parallel or roundabout methods. They were afraid only of acute immediate damage to tissue and bone, but even in those days they rapidly learned to avoid that. They irradiated with wild enthusiasm. Even benign tumors. Even small children.”

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, “The Cancer Ward”, 1968

RKS 2024 Wine: Donnafugata La Bella Sedàra 2021

This Sicilia DOC Rosso is a blend where Nero d’Avola, Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon comprise most of the blend. The wine has seen no oak.

The flamboyant label is dedicated to Claudia Cardinale who portrayed the character of Angelica Sedàra in the 1963 film Il Gattopardo (“The Leopard”).

Aroma: The wine has a very clean aroma one often encounters with organic wine. Donnafugata is not an organic winery but a sustainable one. A plentitude of black cherry and blackberry.

Palate: Moderately infused with tannins. The black cherry and blackberry have migrated here from the aromatics department. Smooth initially with a mini fruit explosion and a long finish where the fruit has a sudden flare. With residual sugar of 5.2 g/l it is somewhat less than with a single varietal Nero D’Avola and drier. Well disciplined acidity.

Personality: Very clean I am and may give you a pause to think about unoaked wines. Drink me and experience the purity of the wine.

Food Match: The wine can be consumed without food but it is built for food. Lasagna, roast chicken with a slight Merquen spicy rub.

Movie Pairing: Il Gattopardo (“The Leopard”).

Cellarbility: While the winery suggests it will age for 4-5 years I would cut down that to two so consume by the end of 2026.

Price: $22 CDN.

RKS 2024 Wine Rating: 92/100. Jamessuckling.com 92. Wine Align 87.

(La Bella Sedàra 2021, Sicilia DOC, Donnafugata, Marsala, Italy, 13.26 %, 750 Ml).

RKS 2024 Film: “Night of the Harvest”: Psycho Sisters Enjoy the Big Halloween Party

Just in time for Halloween “Night of the Harvest” is available digitally.

I never understood the penchant some movie goers have for slasher films. What fun is there with blood, guts and body parts flying all over the screen. As far as slasher films go this is true to the genre with a tad of humour thrown in thank goodness as humour and slasher films are awkward bedfellows.

There is more than one slasher here. One slashes to appease the spirits and the other is a revenge slasher.

And you’ll be surprised to find out who the first slasher is! Same with the revenge slasher.

I find little horror in slasher films perhaps more disgust and when I tell you the most horrifying movie I have seen would be a Mexican film about a coffee table!

Slasher aficionados will find a true genre film here with axes and knives doing their work. Blood and body parts abound particularly the pile of bloody intestines.

And what a sizzling hot conclusion! The carnage is complete. No good or bad guys left.

Watch to ease you into the Halloween spirit. I will be watching “Rocky Horror Picture Show” and having a chuckle. The plot in the film is hardly complicated but it does not deteriorate into namy pamby ridiculousness as for example “The Omicron Killer” did.

The trailer is here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2v-qlKNxf0

Directed by Jessica Morgan and Christopher M. Carter.

RKS 2024 Film Rating: 75/100.