Reviews

Hot Docs: Gravity Was Everywhere Back Then, Fightville, Magic Trip

Posted on May 1, 2011 by Paul in Hot Docs | Leave a comment

Toronto – Hot Docs is upon us once again.  And in the interest of cleaning my plate before I see too many films and get backlogged, I’ll be killing three birds with the proverbial one stone by offering up reviews of three films at once.  On the surface of things, these docs have nothing in common.  One is the story of a man’s quest to somehow heal his sick wife, one is about ultimate fighting, and one is about LSD.  But in a sense, they have one thing in common: they’re all about people expressing individuality and finding new ways to look at the world.

Gravity Was Everywhere Back Then [Brent Green, 2010]

I’m not really sure if this even counts as a documentary.  Director Brent Green presents a quirky, stylized portrait of a man named Leonard who builds a special house in the hopes of somehow saving his wife Mary from cancer.  Green rebuilt Leonard’s house based on blueprints he found and with the help of some actor friends, recreated events the way he thought they happened.  While much of the film was rather sweet and endearing, I found Green’s voiceovers to be a bit  overbearing at times, especially when he went off on tangents about liking The Mountain Goats and Leonard Cohen and getting into some angry sounding rants against religion.  Actually, his narration sounded kind of frantic and nervous (and often annoying) throughout.  It got old quick.  Despite these stylistic digressions, I found the film to be somewhat effective and interesting, even though at the end of it all I was left wondering how much (if any) of this doc was actually true.  Maybe that was the point.  “You have to build your own world,” Green says at one point.  In telling the tale of Leonard Wood, he has certainly shown us such a world.  Still, I wish he wouldn’t try so hard.        

Screenings:
Wed, May 4  7:30 PM @ Cumberland 3
Fri May 6  6:15 PM @ TIFF Bell Lightbox 4

Fightville [Michael Tucker, Petra Epperlein, 2011]

Fightville, on the other hand, was a totally satisying film.  A portrait of the World of mixed martial arts and the men who populate it (colourful characters, all of them), it’s a fascinating look at a handful of fighters, trainers and promoters and what it is that drives them exactly.  A common thread amongst them all is the notion that fighting is something real, true, and primal.  They not only see the world through the eyes of a fighter, but they kind of look at fighting as the most important thing in the world.  If you’re an ultimate fighting fan or a novice who’s curious what the appeal of it all is, this is definitely worth watching.

Screenings:
Tuesday, May 3 3:45 PM @ Cumberland 2

Magic Trip [Allison Ellwood, Alex Gibney, 2010]

The 1960s was a time of great social change and great musical milestones.  And drugs.  Lots and lots of drugs.  Magic Trip examines the exploits of writer Ken Kesey and his band of “merry pranksters” as they embark on a journey across America and within their own minds.  After volunteering himself for some early government sponsored experiments with LSD, Kesey becomes a proponent of the drug and it’s effects.  In fact, one of the most compelling scenes in the film revolves around an audio recording made of Kesey during one of these experiences as he describes what he sees.  Most of the information in this film is pretty much common knowledge to anyone who’s looked into the ’60s counterculture movement, but to see the footage and hear it in the words of those involved is still pretty interesting. 

Screenings:
Sat, Apr 30 9:45 PM @ Isabel Bader Theatre
Mon, May 2 3:30 PM @ Isabel Bader Theatre

Hot Docs: Dolphin Boy [2011, Dani Menkin, Yonatan Nir]

Posted on May 1, 2011 by Ricky in Hot Docs | Leave a comment

Toronto – Dolphin Boy is a heartwarming story about a young man’s road to recovery following a traumatic assault. When we first meet Morad, he is a heavily traumatized despondent soul who has withdrawn himself from the entire world. With possible institutionalization looming, the Morad’s father explores all avenues and decides on a one last option – dolphin assisted therapy. He abandons everything and takes his son to Dolphin Reef Eilat. The majority of the documentary takes place at there. Occasionally narrated by one of Morad’s doctors, Dolphin Boy is a documentary that makes you fully realize the consequences of violence that we as people inflict on each other on a daily basis. The suffering that both Morad and his family encountered is intense and the filmmakers did a tasteful job in documenting just how much one violent act can affect others.

Dolphin Boy doesn’t focus on the science or details of dolphin assisted therapy. Instead, the film relies on footage of the therapy in action to tell the story. Within the 72 minute time frame of the movie, we see a lot of footage of the dolphins and Morad swimming with the dolphins. The therapy looks rather fun and the unconditional love shown by the dolphins towards the patients are believe to heavily assist in the recovery process.

I found this documentary to be quite heart-warming. You build a connection with Morad the first time you see him, and as you see his father do everything humanly possible to try to bring his son back, you really start pulling for this family to recover. It’s also slightly refreshing to see a documentary bring some light to the plight of the victims. I suspect most filmmakers find the chance to delve into the psyche of attackers/killers too tempting, which results in a large amount of films/documentaries dedicated to exploring so called “method behind the madness” for any particular violent criminal. Dolphin Boy takes you to the other side, shows you how a family is literally torn apart by actions of someone else and if anything, will make you think twice the next time you think about punching someone in the face (even if it’s just a thought).

Dolphin Boy screening times:

Thu, May 5 9:00 PM @ Bloor Cinema
Sat, May 7 9:45 PM @ TIFF Bell Lightbox 3

Hot Docs: The Hollywood Complex [2011, Dan Sturman Dylan Nelson]

Posted on April 30, 2011 by Ricky in Everything, Hot Docs | 1 Comment

Toronto – The Hollywood Complex is a documentary that should be shown to any parents who think their child is the greatest and want them to go to Hollywood to become a child star. Despite the film’s light nature, it’s a documentary that shows you that for every star that’s born, there are thousands of casualties. Each year, countless aspiring child actors with parents in tow makes that journey to Hollywood, hoping to live out the magic fairy tale. They often stay at the Oakwood complex, a well-known establishment for child actors and families. It is here that a bulk of the documentary takes place.

We meet several burgeoning wannabe child actors, each complete with semi crazy parents who are pretty much trying to use their child’s innocence as a meal ticket. As the months go on, we meet agents, talent scouts, acting coaches, photographers and other experts in the industry all trying to provide help to these families while simultaneously trying to take them for all they are worth. It’s a vicious cycle, as everyone speaks in that fake Hollywood voice and sells dreams to these susceptible families. Some of the characters have given up everything to be there, resulting in broken families, poor schooling and a mountain of debt.

This documentary is fascinating, the subject is at times very frustrating to watch, as you see parents trying to live out their dreams vicariously through their children and the film definitely does not help break any previous sleazy Hollywood type stereotypes you may have had. I highly recommend going to see The Hollywood Complex.

Sun, May 1 9:45 PM @ Isabel Bader Theatre
Tue, May 3 3:45 PM @ TIFF Bell Lightbox 2
Sun, May 8 1:00 PM @ Cumberland 2

Hot Docs: El Builli – Cooking in Progress [Gereon Wetzel, 2011]

Posted on April 29, 2011 by Ricky in Hot Docs | Leave a comment

Toronto – Even with my limited knowledge of world class chefs and restaurants, I’ve heard of the legendary Spanish restaurant El Bulli. A restaurant that overlooks the Cala Montjoi Bay near the town of Roses, El Bulli specializes in molecular gastronomy. It is headed by a mad scientist of a chef – Ferran Adrià, whose unique and bizarre creations have earned the restaurant the moniker of “best restaurant in the world” for four of the past five years. The documentary El Bulli – Cooking in Progress takes a behind the scenes at this restaurant, giving us a glimpse at some of the processes behind the food creations and the operational methods of a top restaurant.

As a person who kind of likes to cook, I found this documentary fascinating. We are first taken to El Bulli in their offseason (El Bulli is only open half the year), as Ferran and his band of head chefs design the menu for the upcoming season. Coming off as scientists rather than chefs, the crew spend countless hours trying to reinvent the wheel, looking for ways to create a new taste or smell, using all sorts of ingredients. Every detail is written down in a meticulous manner, spawning binders upon binders of ideas, mixtures and recipes. It appears to be quite the process. Wannabe cooks, make no mistake, this documentary is not a cooking tutorial. A cocktail with various cooking oils is attempted, food is made to look like other food, things are vaccuumized – it all looks completely out of the world. Ferran, for his part, is unlike most of the chefs you have probably seen on the food network. He’s calm, supportive and completely trusting of his sous chef and the like. Compared to the angry, catch phrase obsessed ego maniacs you see on regular television, it’s really refreshing to see. The rest of the documentary takes you through the rest of the process, from acquainting new hires to the eventual opening, a slideshow of the menu items ends off the film. It all looks like a rather friendly and efficient operation, which is unlike what you hear about most places.

This documentary would be highly interesting to any self-proclaimed foodies. Lacking an emotional or argumentative narrive, it is primarily a straight forward “this is how we do things” documentary, more intent on giving you a behind a scenes look then providing any opinions about the restaurant or the chef. I would have liked some insight into why Ferran chose to go down this course, or why some of the chefs have been at El Bulli for so long (three of his chefs have been there for over a decade), but I guess this film is purely about the food and process – both of which look pretty damn good.

Screenings:
Fri, Apr 29 8:45 PM @ TIFF Bell Lightbox 2
Sat, Apr 30 1:00 PM @ Cumberland 2
Sun, May 8 3:00 PM @ Cumberland 3

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