RKS Film: “Blue Queen”: No Such Thing as an Honest Gangster!

The Hellenic Film Society USA continues its “Greek Films on Demand” which runs from the first to the tenth day of each month. Two Greek films are available for viewing at a nominal charge.

One of April’s films is “Blue Queen”. In crime films you have probably encountered the double cross. Well in “Blue Queen” be prepared for multiple quadruple crosses.

A gang in Athens commits a violent heist of the Blue Queen diamond. Harris the son of mob boss is ready to hand off the diamond but is gunned down. The question of course who did the dastardly deed. We are presented with 4 different stories from those involved in the heist. It is only after the fourth story that the entire story makes sense. A real jigsaw puzzle and a very taut thriller directed by Alex Sipsidis. A brilliant concept and very polished results.

I can’t tell you the different stories or the film would be ruined and that’s the last thing you want in a jigsaw puzzle. In this nonlinear movie pay close attention and don’t get too frustrated as the 4 stories gel into one coherent story.

What is apparent is you can’t trust any of these characters farther than you can throw them. They are backstabbing, deceitful and very dangerous. The body count begins to soar. You can’t even trust the police in this film. You will experience a jaw dropping conclusion which has a slight comedic twist to it. You will never guess who walks away with the blood-soaked Blue Queen.

These characters are all snakes and they play the part so well. They are certainly not what they appear to be.

I’d love to tell you the story but I can’t  give you too many hints. I will stop here and say if you are looking for a victim here just about all the characters are victims. Enough said!

To order a ticket for your virtual screening go to www.hellenicfilmsusa.org

To see the trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TT5lZU_xb_Q&t=4s

RKS Film Rating 93/100.

“Travels to a Different Time” : 21May1975: Vienna, Austria: Camping in Suburbia: Austria The Land of Hot Showers and Good Milk!

The flight was smooth and we stopped in Shannon Ireland to refuel. There were some beautiful wool sweaters but I simply can’t lug any more clothes around! We landed around noon and tourist information said all youth hostels were full. So I ended up camping in a beautiful suburb about 5 kms from the city centre. Being afflicted by jet lag I went to a nearby store for bread and cheese. It doesn’t take long to acustomize yourself to this low budget meal. I had a hot shower. Yes this is Austria the land of hot showers and good milk! I sat in the afternoon sun and ate my early supper and crashed out in my tent and slept for 12 hours.

22May1975: Vienna, Austria: The Hungarians Have My Passport!

Up to a sunny day and yes more bread and cheese! Took the 49 tram into the city and I went to the Hungarian embassy and completed my application for my visa. But I had to leave my passport behind for a day which makes me uneasy. Like East Berlin you must exchange money in advance based on so many dollars a day. You get a voucher for the amount which you must go to a bank in Hungary to get Hungarian currency. What bureaucracy! My German is basic and their English was worse.

What an incredibly beautiful city and as it was the capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire that’s to be expected. It started to rain and I was pinned down but it stopped and I headed back to my suburban palace. Had dinner and baby it just poured, it poured. Thank goodness for my new tent!

RKS Film: “See You Again”: Possibly the Best and Most Honest LGBTQ Ever Made?

I have been reviewing LGBTQ films for a few years now. Lynch me if you wish but my take of this “film genre” is there is a divide between depicting the LGBTQ community as LGBTQ human beings as opposed to LGBTQ human beings being LGBTQ. If we are looking for true diversity and inclusion do we include members of the LGBTQ community as fellow human beings or some exotic subspecies?

“See You Again” treats the LGBTQ community as human beings and it may be the best LGTBQ film made to date…a “Gone with The Wind” LGBTQ film?

The promotional material sent my way was greeted by a yawn. A romantic relationship between Kris (Pooya Mohseni) and Naomi (Lynn Chen) in college spinning off where Chris decided for reasons of survival to go trans. Chris becomes a trans Kris.

14 years later Kris and Naomi decide to reconnect. Kris apologizes for leaving Naomi in the lurch when he decided to go trans. It is all polite and awkward and we hear the torment Kris has endured in his quest to become her. Naomi with her husband and children may seem to have the ideal life but not so.

So it seems that Naomi is wounded by the sudden departure of her college lover Kris and it is a polite apology and mutual understanding of divergent paths.

But with too much bourbon and honesty the complex relationship between Kris and Naomi unravels into a vicious fight so nasty and personal it is a cinematic moment of brilliance. It is cutting and savage. Naomi is devastated by Chris abruptly leaving her unable to understand why Chris left without a word.

The politeness evaporates quickly and a nasty and vicious exchange occurs between Kris and Naomi with a bombshell revelation made by Naomi that has devastated her and will do the same to Kris. It will devastate and upend you as a viewer.

Chen is captivating and brilliant.

Deep inter-personal dialogue is convincing and relevant.

And the concluding scene reveals a bombshell shattering for both Kris and Naomi. Oh the hurt romantic relationships can afflict!

A very honest and challenging LGBTQ film if you like but for me an honest and revealing relationship between two human beings.

The film opened up in select theatres on April 1st and will be available through VOD and DVD on April 19th.

You can see the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftJBPolTd30

Directed by Mari Walker.

RKS Film Rating 87/100.

RKS Wine:  Cline Viognier North Coast California

My first choice for Viognier would be France but California produces a fair bit of it. Let’s try a Cline 2020 North Coast Viognier.

It has a light cold colour. As for aromatics it is not exactly an effusive Viognier. The first take is a wine that has some cinnamon, eucalyptus, butterscotch and pineapple. There is the honey, apricot and peach one comes to expect from a Viognier but it is lurking in the background like some nervous understudy. On the palate one senses a tightness of a cloistered wine. There is some pineapple, ginger, guava and a gentle undercurrent of early season peaches with a bit too much heat not surprising considering its 14.5% alcohol. Not much of a follow through. An OK Viognier for a summer picnic with cheese please! Easy summer drinking with lighter foods. I can’t see this handling lobster, shrimp or crab a favourite hunting ground for Viognier.

No oak thank goodness. Drink by the end of 2022. As summer is approaching and hopefully no more lockdowns if you are thinking of barbeque chicken marinated in Pirri Pirri sauce that might work. As for seafood why not roasted halibut with bacon, peas and tarragon sauce?

This is one of those whites that will improve with decanting and not served overly chilled.

A top end US supermarket wine. I can’t resist mentioning when I was last in Chicago old geezer that I am I was asked for identification at a supermarket if I was over 21!

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RKS Wine:  Cline Viognier North Coast California

My first choice for Viognier would be France but California produces a fair bit of it. Let’s try a Cline 2020 North Coast Viognier.

It has a light cold colour. As for aromatics it is not exactly an effusive Viognier. The first take is a wine that has some cinnamon, eucalyptus, butterscotch and pineapple. There is the honey, apricot and peach one comes to expect from a Viognier but it is lurking in the background like some nervous understudy. On the palate one senses a tightness of a cloistered wine. There is some pineapple, ginger, guava and a gentle undercurrent of early season peaches with a bit too much heat not surprising considering its 14.5% alcohol. Not much of a follow through. An OK Viognier for a summer picnic with cheese please! Easy summer drinking with lighter foods. I can’t see this handling lobster, shrimp or crab a favourite hunting ground for Viognier.

No oak thank goodness. Drink by the end of 2022. As summer is approaching and hopefully no more lockdowns if you are thinking of barbeque chicken marinated in Pirri Pirri sauce that might work. As for seafood why not roasted halibut with bacon, peas and tarragon sauce?

This is one of those whites that will improve with decanting and not served overly chilled.

A top end US supermarket wine. I can’t resist mentionong when I was last in Chicago old geezer that I am I was asked for identification at a supermarket if I was over 21!

(Cline 2020 North Coast Viognier, Cline Cellars, Sonoma, California, $17.95, Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 128421, 750 mL, 14.5%, RKS Wine Rating 88/100).

“Travels to a Different Time” : 20May1975: First Haircut in 3 Years Ends My Gypsy Frightening Potential

Instead of the midnight bus to New York from Montreal it will be the midnight DC-10 from New York to Vienna. To avoid being set up for narcotic smuggling and to prevent gypsies from running away from me in terror I went for my first haircut in 3 years. It was not the traumatic experience I expected it to be. Actually it looked pretty good. It was $12 and I gave the ”stylist” Adrienne a $2 tip. I met Barb’s current beau Jeff at a bar called Hannibal’s and had a couple of beers and a bowl of chili. Then to McDarby’s for another round. Headed back to the apartment for a quick shower and a final pack. Mom phoned and said Barb was waiting for me at the American Airlines Terminal at Kennedy airport but was too tired and was heading home. I grabbed a taxi to Port Authority and got the bus to Kennedy. After several tries to get through the metal detector, I made it and boarded the plane. We taxied around for an hour before rumbling down the airport tarmac to Vienna. Sehr Gut!

“Travels to a Different Time” : 17/18 May 1975: New York City: Off to Vienna!

Again on the midnight bus from Montreal to New York City. Sitting next to a tubby guy with bad body odour who tried to strike up a conversation to no avail. Through customs was quick and at the Saratoga Springs rest stop I have never seen the restaurant so busy at 3 in the morning. The trip was smooth and I managed to get a few hours of sleep. I took a taxi to sister Barbara’s apartment. I sat up for an hour and went out to Grand Union to pick up some food and crashed until Nancy returned at 4. I talked with Barb’s room mate Nancy for awhile and went out to the corner deli to buy some beer, Cole Slaw, macaroni salad, chicken and roast beef a real feast! We sat and talked a bit and watched TV until 3 a.m. and crashed. Spin the roulette wheel and it stops at Vienna.

19May1975: New York City: A Spaghetti Bash and Shopping in The Big City! Eating For the Future

I woke up feeling like a bulldozer had been using me for a practice field. Nancy was still asleep at 10 so I went to Arbee’s Menswear a hole in the wall but cheap prices and I bought a corduroy jacket and socks. A small store crammed to the roof with clothes. Only 4-5 people at a time can move in the store. I stopped at Grand Union for breakfast and cooked up a late breakfast of ham, eggs, sweet buns, grapefruit, milk and toast. As I said to Nancy I am eating not for the present but the future. At 3 out with Nancy to the bank while I bought some shoelaces. Picked up some pasta and beer at Sloan’s and dinner was spaghetti and beer followed by watching a few Star Trek episodes. Then a great interview with student activist Abby Hoffman and an investigative report on nursing homes. Great PBS station here. After telly put sleeping bag on floor and nighty night.

RKS Film: “Holy Boom”: Intergenerational and Ethnic Explosion in Athens!

The Hellenic Film Society USA continues with its Greek Films on Demand programme where for the first ten days of the month two Greek films are available for streaming at a nominal cost.

One of the April films “Holy Boom” is a 2018 production that weaves together ethnic and intergenerational conflicts facing Greece.

On Palm Sunday three teens place a mini dynamite stick in a mailbox charring its contents and fundamentally changing and, in some cases, failing to change lives. The result going fast forward is a series of tragedies. Boyish prank that spirals in ways the little hoodlums could never expect?

What is significant is that Albanians, Filipinos and Africans are involved as characters in the film. I was in Greece in 1971, 1972 and 1973 where Greece was a more of less a mono-ethnic society. I returned in 2000 to Athens and I could scarcely believe the different ethnic groups. What a massive change in 30 years!

Let me briefly set the stage for what you are going to see without giving away the plot.

Adia (Luli Bitri) is an illegal Albanian immigrant who was waiting for a birth certificate to make her a legal immigrant but that is destroyed in the mailbox explosion. Her husband is killed in a traffic accident but going to the hospital is risky and the body can only be seen and identified by a person with identification. Adia is the personification of what being an illegal does to one’s life. It is a hard life and full of fear of being rounded up and deported.

Manu (Samuel Akinola) is an African living with Lena (Anastasia Rafaela Konidi) a young Greek musician. Manu had some LSD tabs in that mailbox that were charred a bit but all the contents of the mailbox are in the custody of the post office. The mob had advanced him money to get the drugs and now he has no merchandise so he is in a for a very rough ride.

Adia, Manu and Lena live in the same apartment complex and is watched “Rear Widow” style by an elderly spinster Thalia (Nena Menti). Initially Thalia detests Albanians, Africans and all immigrants for that matter. She represents Greece of the past. But her forced involvement with Manu and Adia transforms her ethnic hatred into acceptance of the New Greece. A very important document may not reach her and it is a massively important one.

One of the bombers Ige (Spyros Ballesteros) is a nasty piece of work and add on to his bombing he sexually assaults a classmate infuriating her boyfriend. For Ige justice is served on a huge platter.

As it is after Saturday mass and Sunday is Easter fireworks explode to celebrate Easter and tragedy explodes all around.

Very well acted with a shout out to brilliant performances by Menti and Bitri. The film was nominated for two Hellenic Film Academy Awards. Directed by Maria Lafi. You can see the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuOAvgL4sLA

To order the film in the April 1-10 window go to https://hellenicfilmusa.org/past-events/2021-on-demand

RKS Film Rating 92/100.

RKS Film: “Tabija” (The White Fortress): Hoodlum Meets Girl from a “Good” Family

Faruk (Pavle Čemerkić) lives with his grandmother in one of those socialist tenements from the old Yugoslavian communist days in the infamous city of Sarajevo. He has a day job collecting scrap metal with his uncle. He also runs girls for the big boss Cedo who amongst his other businesses is a pimp. Faruk has been asked to gain the confidence of a girl so Cedo can pimp her out. Faruk is a hoodlum but not a violent one. Sort of a James Dean in “Rebel Without a Cause”. He is close to twenty.

Mona (Sumeja Dardagan) is from a well to do family and her father is a politician. Mona is a bit younger than Faruk. Mona believes the relationship between her parents is a loveless one which disturbs her romantic nature. Mona’s parents wish to offload her to Toronto with relatives. Mona has no desire to move to Canada. Mona is unhappy living with her parents and like Natalie Wood in “Rebel Without a Cause” starts a relationship with Faruk from the other side of the tracks.

Faruk may be a hood but he has no intention of grooming Mona to be a hooker. He is warned by a fellow hood that he is a dead man for not recruiting a girl. Don’t mess with Cedo!

Faruk claims initially not to be a romantic but he falls for Mona. Yes there is teen trouble in Sarajevo which is far better than the shelling and bombing of years gone by. I have been in Sarajevo three times while Bosnia was a part of communist Yugoslavia so I am no stranger to its streets.

Faruk has a favourite television show which is a WW2 drama dealing with the Nazi occupation of Sarajevo. As Faruk points out to Mona, Sarajevo has been under all sorts of foreign rule and oppression. By analogy Faruk is a prisoner of his poverty and Mona of a miserable life with her parents. The relationship between Mona and Faruk in many facets is also perhaps an allegory for Sarajevo and that is what takes this film beyond a troubled teen film.

The question is whether true love can blossom? It certainly looks that way until something mysterious happens in the White Fortress up in the hills of Sarajevo. Having been there the view of Sarajevo below is spectacular and somewhat haunting when you hear the call to prayers from the minarets.

Čemerkić and Dardagan are well cast as regular looking teenagers and they deliver with strong performances.

You can see the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjpGIFh2tqQ&t=21s

The film will be released on April 22. It is a Canadian and Bosnian co-production. It is directed by Igor Drljač.

RKS Film Rating 73/100.

“Travels To a Different Time”: 19August1974: Frankfurt, New York and Montreal: Wrapping up 1974

Woke up at 6:30 suffering from airport grunge and not feeling that well again. I went to the supermarket at the lower level and bought a roll, orange juice and milk. At 09:30 the line up for the 12:15 flight to New York began. There were 7 non-revenue passengers and only two spots so it was on the next flight and bathed in stress and tension. I walked on board. I wonder what it would be like to travel on a regularly scheduled airline as opposed to a charter company. But for a $25 round trip I can suffer! 8 hours later in New York’s Kennedy Airport where I split a taxi with a couple to Port Authority so we could catch buses. So on the midnight bus for an 8 hour trip to Montreal. I sat with a nice Swedish girl travelling in North America. I asked her to come pay a visit when she settles in. I find Montreal very strange upon returning. Strange architecture to name a few things. I have been living so long away from it I feel almost like a tourist seeing it for the first time. Good to be home to a 14-hour sleep. 1975 I think will see me in Eastern Europe. Cold showers, greasy goulash and goodness knows what else.

(Photo Aldo Bindini)

RKS Wine: An Organic Côtes-du-Rhônes-Villages; Clean, Vibrant and Pure

Perhaps I get thrown by the word “organic” but organic wines seem to have a clean streak running through them. They seem sharper. Am I imagining this?

So we try a 2019 Château Maucoil Côtes-du-Rhônes-Villages. The scent of super ripe strawberries is courtesy of the Grenache in the blend. A big blast of blueberries also greets the nose. Yes I get the sense of a clean and vibrant wine. On the palate the purity of the wine is unmistakeable. It is as if you and the wine make a connection. Black cherry and a hint of Tellicherry peppercorns most likely attributable to the Syrah. A high-toned medium length finish.

A blend of Grenache, Syrah and Mouvèdre grown in a mix of sand and pebbles. Hand harvested.You can drink as is or with food and I am thinking duck or lamb.

Best to drink in 2022.

(Château Maucoil Côtes-du-Rhônes-Villages 2019, Château Maucoil, Vauclause, France, $19.95, Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 638502, 750 mL, 14.5%, RKS Wine Rating 93/100).