RKS 2023 Film: “Scarpedicemente”: Greek International Film Festival Tour of Canada (GIFFT): Kinky and Fluffy then Deadly Serious: In the Hunt for My Best of 2023!

2023 will be the third year for GIFFT and it is packed with full length, short films and documentaries from Greece or films produced by Greeks outside of Greece. The Greek film industry has developed to a level of excellence over the last 10 years and here is a chance for Canadians to immerse themselves in it showing feature films in 11 Canadian cites. Feature films will be in person but the non “top tier” full length films may be seen online throughout Canada. For further information including cost and scheduling go to www.gifft.ca.

“Scarpedicemente” is brought to the screen by Olga Montes and John Vamvas veterans of theatre and that stage intensity shines in this film. We start the journey with a mix of fantasy, movie nostalgia and some dark humour. Initially you may wonder in what direction is the movie headed and it is headed into deadly serious territory. Montes and Vamvas exhibit an extraordinary range of talents playing with various ranges of emotions.

It is their one year marriage anniversary which Luigi (John Vamvas) and Holly (Olga Montes) celebrate at the Lost Vegas Motel. It is the hotel room where they made passionate love a year ago. And Holly and Luigi want to repeat the intensity of their initial sexual liaison assisted with a bit of dirty talk.

Luigi is a mobster believing he will be taking out Uncle Charlie for the top boss position. Holly is a none too bright floozie. That smile on your face will disappear as matters take a very serious turn. I can’t reveal much more other than Luigi and Holly are far more complex and nuanced as you might have initially contemplated. This is a very clever and layered plot.

There is the intensity of the stage in Vamvas and Montes’ performances but there is the creativity of filming that create an element of film noir particularly at the outset of the film. There are countless references to iconic films and lines in this film.

Vamas and Victoria Sanchez co-directed and Vamvas and Montes were co-writers.

I have rated this Canadian film a 96 which ties it with four other movies as in my best of 2023. One of the other films is a Greek film “Holy Emmy”.

This is an in-theatre film so go to the GIFFT website and see if it is playing in your Canadian city. In Toronto it screens at Innis Town Hall Cinema on October 4th.

RKS 2023 Film: “Black Stone”: Greek International Film Festival Tour of Canada (GIFFT): Fake Documentary: Tragedy, Comedy, Mystery and the New Realities of Greece

2023 will be the third year for GIFFT and it is packed with full length, short films and documentaries from Greece or films produced by Greeks outside of Greece. The Greek film industry has developed to a level of excellence over the last 10 years and here is a chance for Canadians to immerse themselves in it showing feature films in 11 Canadian cites. Feature films will be in person but the non “top tier” full length films may be seen online throughout Canada. For further information including cost and scheduling go to www.gifft.ca.

“Black Stone” is a fake documentary unravelling what appears to be an unsolvable mystery taking its time for unspoken commentary on Greek society. We commence with some cutting commentary on the Greek Civil Service which is a dream for Greek parents to have their children employed in its ranks. We read on the screen, “There are approximately 602,301 civil servants in Greece of which 48,646 are “missing” after being hired by unknown public administration bodies known as “The Ghosts of the Civil Service”. Strikes one as a barb at the bloated Greek civil service. There is a long tradition of Greek films barbing and satirizing the civil service.

Sixty-eight-year-old widow Charoula (Eleni Kokkidou) struggles in her Athens neighbourhood to care for disabled, foul mouthed, lazy and smutty son Lefteris (Julio George Katsis). Panos her other son is a Greek civil servant who has disappeared for no apparent reason leaving a black rock on his desk. Charoula has lost touch with modern society having no knowledge of computers and the modern digital world. She is happier listening to Greek Orthodox services and traditional Greek songs.

So the “film crew” arrives at Charoula’s wanting to film what happened to the missing Panos as they are shooting a documentary about these missing Greek civil servants. There is a sound man and a cameraman interacting on screen with Charoula and Lefteris. The banter between them is amusing. Charoula believes them to be from the “news”.

Lefteris offers for ten Euros to show the crew Panos’ stash consisting of some pornographic magazines and a poster or the Athens Black Panthers with the name Tania and Café Sirocco written on the back. Think of where a sirocco is from and that name in the café and you have a subtle comment on the North African wind like a migrant storm buffeting Greece. Tania is with the Black Panthers of Athens looking for a black man to be featured in a BLM campaign and they think they have found him namely Michalis a black Ghanaese taxi driver that had recently befriended Charoula and Lefteris. Charoula has trouble determining if Michalis is Greek not realizing the huge influx of immigrants to Greece over the last 30 years that has radically changed the ethnic composition of Greece. Michalis speaks flawless Greek and was born in Greece. Off Michalis and the family goes Kineta where the mystery of Panos begins to make sense with a biracial twist. Indicative of the future of Greece perhaps. As for the past Charoula has to manage a fishbone stuck in her throat. And what about the closing symbolism of opening the black rock where a panda bear does its turns. In the fire sale of Greek state assets during the financial crisis the People’s Republic of China were big buyers.

You can see the trailer here https://vimeo.com/764091067

Award winning performance (Best Leading Actress) for Kokkidou in the 2023 Hellenic Academy Awards. Directed by Spiro Jacovides and he also wrote the screenplay with Ziad Semann.

Check the website to determine if this in theatre film is playing in your city. It will be playing in Toronto on October 3 at Innis Town Hall Cinema.

RKS 2023 Film Rating: 93/100.

RKS 2023 Film: “Dignity”: Greek International Film Festival Tour of Canada (GIFFT): Watch That Smile!

2023 will be the third year for GIFFT and it is packed with full length, short films and documentaries from Greece or films produced by Greeks outside of Greece. The Greek film industry has developed to a level of excellence over the last 10 years and here is a chance for Canadians to immerse themselves in it showing feature films in 11 Canadian cites. Feature films will be in person but the non “top tier” full length films may be seen online throughout Canada. For further information including cost and scheduling go to www.gifft.ca.

In “Dignity” widower Dimitris is celebrating his 80th birthday party. But he has recently had a stroke and looks about him with “that vacant look” yet he has a slight smile on his face. What could he be smiling about? He can’t speak and goodness knows what he understands. Does the smile reveal all?

Dimitris lives with his son Manolis and his wife Eleni. Manolis owns a faltering café. Eleni and Manolis are joined by Dimitris’ glammed up daughter Sofia and her successful architect husband Yiorgos. And then there is the hard drinking gambler son Alexis. All don their birthday hats and have a pleasant conversation except for Dimitris who just stares ahead. Alexis is Mr. Confident but a perpetual loser full of empty phrases, insincerity and whisky. He spends half the time looking at the threatening messages on his mobile.

All superficial and relaxed until it comes to a discussion about what to do with Dimitris who had a bad fall recently and needs more care than what Manolis and Eleni can offer. The situation escalates wildly out of control. Through dialogue the viewer is offered a closer look at all the children’s and their spouses’ personalities. Interspersed with all manner of character assassination avarice, greed, possible double dealing and jealously a choice is offered to you? Whom to believe.

If you have yet to have one of these elder care discussions be forewarned that many families are dysfunctional and who can be trusted? What does Dimitris think about the big meltdown squabble. Look for that quirky smile and you decide.  Part of the fun is figuring out why he is smiling!

This is an intense film and much like a play which is no surprise as director Dimitris Katsimiris has directed two plays.

Solid performances by all with a special nod to Giannis Kotsifas as Alexi.

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

For showtimes in your Canadian city check out www.gifft.ca. In Toronto it will be playing at Innis Town Hall Cinema on 2October23 with the short “I Love Greece”.

RKS 2023 Film Rating 90/100.

RKS 2023 Film: “On Fire”: A Fondue Cheese Melt! A Crispy Finish?

If you loved “Towering Inferno” with McQueen and Newman you might enjoy “On Fire” a rather topical wildfire disaster film. It might be that reality of all these wildfires ravaging the globe and all the eyewitness and harrowing accounts have overtaken the fiction of “On Fire” but nonetheless it just may have your little heart pit pattering with excitement and tension. And it is cheese but you like cheese fondue don’t you? Dave (Peter Facinelli, Sarah (Fiona Dourif) Clay (Asher Angel) and George (Lance Henriksen) are a family trapped by a rapidly advancing wildfire. Dave and his pregnant wife Sarah along with their son Clay and cranky George, Dave’s father, run like bats out of hell and they all make it….right?

Pure cheese and the actual wildfire footage melts it and the poor family perishes…right? Typically feel good disaster movie…right? Or are we headed to a crispy finish!

Director is Peter Facinelli. Theatrical release on September 29.

You can see the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbmM9Rugu4g

RKS 2023 Film Rating 76/100.

RKS 2023 Film: “Master of the House”: Vancouver International Film Festival: A Sommelier Nightmare

“Master of the House” is a short film offering a snapshot of a sommelier and his gal pal chef at a Vancouver restaurant specializing in “indigenous reclamation cuisine”.

Vince (Brendan Meyer) is a sommelier at a popular restaurant being part poet and perhaps equal part bullshitter selling the appropriate wine with dishes served by the restaurant. He also serves dishes with that annoying and insincere voice. It is all so pretentious and theatrical one questions the sincerity of Vince and if the short has a large satirical streak in. Many of us have had the act played on us by somms.

But there is also a portrayal of the brutal nature of the restaurant business. High pressure and stress for all. A great sense of diplomacy is required for when Vince opens a bottle of “young wine” for a diner who says no way you should pair a young wine with a “classic dish”. Vince replies with brilliant diplomacy.

Then there is the restaurant critic with yet more theatrical language oozing pomposity and arrogance and the close up of his mouth chewing food and manically swilling the wine in the glass all making for a hilarious scene. Watch Vince screw up with the critic who takes the opportunity to wield a sharp blade to do his best to decimate the career of Dylan purely for the fun of it.

A delightful mockery of the hidden and highly visible inanity of fine dining. A night of pure hell for an ambitious sommelier.

“Master of the House” was directed and co-written by Dylan Maranda and will have its world premiere at the Vancouver International Film Festival on Friday September 29 at 20:30 hours.

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

RKS 2023 Film Rating 85/100.

RKS 2023 Film: “My Dad’s Diner”: Greek International Film Festival Tour of Canada (GIFFT): A Mélange of Influences

2023 will be the third year for GIFFT and it is packed with full length, short films and documentaries from Greece or films produced by Greeks outside of Greece. The Greek film industry has developed to a level of excellence over the last 10 years and here is a chance for Canadians to immerse themselves in it showing feature films in 11 Canadian cites. Feature films will be in person but the non “top tier” full length films may be seen online throughout Canada. For further information including cost and scheduling go to www.gifft.ca.

“My Dad’s Diner”, a U.S.  short film production is based on the true-life experiences of Director Tommy Savas. It is a melange of “Goodfellas”, “Sopranos”, “Peggy Sue Got Married” and “American Graffiti”. A great soundtrack including songs by Manfred Mann, Ronny and the Daytones and Bobby Darrin.

Andy, the 17-year-old son of a Cypriot Greek diner owner is on the verge of manhood and a night at the Bendix Diner converts him from a boy to a man. There is so much packed into the short. The Greek father admonishing his son saying that when I was your age……. . A lighthearted start suddenly turns dramatic then lightens up to end the film and put a smile on your face. A delightful and so very accurate mix of Greek and English. As a designer of Greek Diner menus in the 1980’s this short film is very accurate!

This is an in theatre watch.

RKS 2023 Film Rating 90/100.

P.S. I love Andy’s dad when he says don’t fuck the waitresses or they will own the restaurant!

RKS Literature: The Particularly Nasty British Press (Balzac)

“Whenever you see the press out for the blood of some powerful figure, you will not be far wrong in concluding that behind the attacks there is the story of a refusal to pay or to render some service or other. Blackmail arising out of their private lives is the special terror of rich Englishmen and is a major source of secret revenue for the English press, which is far more depraved than our own. We are children in comparison. In England they will pay five or six thousand francs for a compromising letter to sell again.”

Honoré de Balzac, “Lost Illusions”

RKS 2023 Film: “A Song Film by Kishi Bashi”: ‘Omoiyari’: American “Concentration Camps” for Japanese Americans

Internationally acclaimed Japanese American composer and songwriter Karou Ishibashi with his stage name of Kishi Bashi takes us on a journey of history and self discovery and offers a glimpse of a less than logical and reasoned United States President Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066  to designate exclusionary zones where in Goebbelistic fashion anyone of Japanese ancestry was prohibited from residing in. Omoiyari in Japanese means empathy and compassion for others.

Shortly after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour on December 7, 1941 American paranoia about its West Coast Japanese population went to the boil and some 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent were imprisoned in 10 “concentration camps” in remote American locations. Poor accommodation, food and medical care.

Bashi takes us on a historical journey concerning the rise of Japanese immigration to the United States and their fate after Pearl Harbor with footage of “survivors” of the “concentration camps” discussing their internment and old news reel footage. Loyal Japanese Americans trapped by emotional pollical reactions and plenty of American racism. By the way Canadian readers here in Canada we had such “camps”: so no holier than thou please.

Bashi sings his songs often on the sites of the “concentration camps” and unlike several German concentration camps there has been no serious effort to rebuild them as remembrances. There are some rationally weak comparisons of Japanese American “concentration camps” to detention facilities trying to cope with thousands of undocumented migrants seeking to escape to the perceived land of milk and honey. Japanese Americans were legal citizens of the United States unlike thousands of Central American and Mexican economic migrants.

I take objection to the term of “concentration camp” being used in the documentary. Japanese Americans were not systematically liquidated like Jews, Romas, Russians and political dissidents in German concentration camps. No real mention made of the Japanese term of “Omoiyari” surfacing in Japanese conquered areas in World War 2…sex slaves for the Japanese army in the Philippines, starvation and beating of prisoners of war and so forth and so on. Plenty of documentaries on these atrocities so perhaps we are watching a retribution documentary? Two wrongs do not make a right.

“A Song Film by Kishi Bashi”: ‘Omoiyari’ was directed by Justin Taylor Smith and Karou Ishibashi. The film is being released by MTV Documentary Films. It opens in New York and Los Angeles on October 6 with a national release in select cities. The film will be streaming on Paramount later this fall.

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

RKS 2023 Film Rating 72/100.

RKS 2023 Film: “A Thousand Pines”: Mexploitation, Mexmisery but Mexsalvation?

So here I go again with yet another documentary about Mexicans working in the United States. There have been a range of Mexemotions from entitlement, outrage, gratitude and perhaps a combination of all these elements.

The previous Mexmigration films I have reviewed have focused on illegals from Mexico working in the United States without proper documentation but in the documentary “A Thousand Pines” the Mexicans in the United States are welcomed with a temporary work visa where they plant tree seedlings for commercial timber farmers. Follow their life in the United States for three seasons and then to their return to Mexico for a few months break.

The work is dirty and exhausting but in a week $500-$600 dollars can be earned which would take them two to three months to earn in Mexico. Up early in winter, spring and summer away from their families for up to 9 months but their complaints are few as Mexico is not kind to the villagers from Oaxaca. But they can buy land, trucks and educate their children and pay medical bills. Mexico has failed millions of its citizens and as unfashionable as it may seem to Mexicrusaders the United States has rescued them.

Thanks documentary for giving a picture of the rough life Mexicans life in the United States on temporary work visas but they are there legally perhaps not good fodder for many documentarians revelling in Meximisery!

Isn’t it time for documentaries about Mexican workers in the United States to focus on why Mexico has failed so many of its citizens that are compelled to abandon their families for months so they can survive? And what is the effect on the children and family members with these absentee Mexicans? Yankee bashing abounds but what about Mexibashing?

“A Thousand Pines” had its world premiere at the New York Latino Film Festival (15-24September) and will migrate to many other film festivals after that. It will be showing on the United States Public Broadcasting System’s Independent Lens early in 2024. Directed and produced by Noam Osband and Sebastian Díaz.

Time to move on from individual Meximisery to societal implications of the Mexi labour drain. These Meximentaries are beginning to be awfully repetitive and boring.

RKS Film Rating 86/100.

RKS 2023 Wine:  2019 Boya Syrah From Chile: Conquering the Barnyard!

The Boya 2019 Syrah is from Chile’s Leyda Valley. It was aged in neutral oak for 16 months.

Aroma: Black cherry, blackberry and a bit too much barnyard leaning toward funky. Brett? Some like that “perfumed earth” smell believing it gives some charm to a red wine. A bit of a snake charmer so one can hope it does not lose control and bite you on the palate.

Palate: Thank goodness the barnyard has not embarrassed the palate. A pleasing blueberry streak with a hint of dark chocolate. Full bodied and as smooth as you might expect from a full-bodied wine. Moderately long finish. On the nose I thought there was raging acidity somehow held back by the fruit and the barnyard but no trace of ill managed acidity here.

Personality: I thought RKS Wine was to compare my barnyardy nose with a rough childhood like I was some sort of delinquent. Ok I may be a weird on the nose but just try me and pat me on the back for the barnyard pedigree I strut! It worked out in the end.

Cellarbility: Not a long-term ager but will cruise into 2027 with ease.

Food Match: Miami ribs. Steak Florentine.

Price: $19.95 CDN.

RKS 2023 Rating: 89/100. Joaquín Hidalgo 92.

(Boya Syrah 2019, D.O. Leyda Valley, Viña Garcés Silva, San Antonio, Chile, 750 mL, 14%).