Tag Archives: 2023 Reviews

Dramedy, Family Issues, Food, Romantic Comedy

SIFF 2023: Table For Six (***)

May 21, 2023 Dennis Hartley Leave a comment

By Dennis Hartley

(Originally posted on Digby’s Hullabaloo on May 20, 2023)

Hong Kong director Sunny Chan’s colorful, sometimes raucous mashup of dysfunctional family melodrama with door-slamming bedroom farce is uneven in tone, but good-natured enough to be forgiven (if quickly forgotten). Three adult brothers live together in an inherited restaurant-turned apartment. The eldest is nurturing a broken heart, the middle is excited about a new girlfriend, and the youngest is set to get married. Complications and hilarity ensue. Not a masterpiece, but fun while it lasts.

Con Game, Documentary, Religion

SIFF 2023: Satan Wants You (***)

May 21, 2023 Dennis Hartley Leave a comment

By Dennis Hartley

(Originally posted on Digby’s Hullabaloo on May 20, 2023)

Raise your hand if you remember Dana Carvey’s recurring SNL sketch character “The Church Lady” and her catchphrase: “Could it be…SAY-tan?!” Yes, me too-I always fell about the place when she would say that.

But do you remember what precipitated the creation of that character? Ol’ Scratch enjoyed a major comeback for a spell (sorry) back in the 1980s; I can recall the daytime talk shows being agog with people who told bone-chilling tales of being swept up in blood-drinking satanic cults and barely escaping with their souls intact. But was there a possibility that these were just “tales”? Why so many, and so suddenly?

According to Sean Horlor and Steve J. Adams documentary, the genesis of this “satanic panic” can be traced to the 1980 book “Michelle Remembers”. Co-written by Catholic psychiatrist Lawrence Pazder and his patient, it was based on deep hypnosis sessions he conducted with Michelle Smith, in the course of which she allegedly “remembered” being abducted and abused by a satanic cult when she was a child (the book was a bestseller).

A fascinating study of mass hysteria, and a cautionary tale (not lost on the filmmakers) that points to contemporary phenomenon like Q-anon. I won’t sink to quoting P.T. Barnum, but (sadly) there will always be “someone” out there poised and ready to cash in on ignorance and fear.

Drama, Family Issues

SIFF 2023: Retreat (***)

May 21, 2023 Dennis Hartley Leave a comment

By Dennis Hartley

(Originally posted on Digby’s Hullabaloo on May 20, 2023)

Movie rule: If a father picks up his young son, whisks him to an isolated location (in this case, a family cabin in the mountains) and casually asks something to the effect of “So-what’s Mommy’s new boyfriend like?”- you know there is going to be a lot of brooding. And unease. Swiss writer-director Leon Schwitter’s impressive feature debut contains a lot of brooding and unease (I was reminded of Roger Donaldson’s Smash Palace). The lovely Alpine setting belies a creeping dread. With two actors carrying the film, the story simmers on a slow boil, but nonetheless keeps you glued to the screen.

Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Historical drama

SIFF 2023: Irati (**)

May 21, 2023 Dennis Hartley Leave a comment

By Dennis Hartley

(Originally posted on Digby’s Hullabaloo on May 20, 2023)

Writer-director Paul Urkijo Alijo’s fantasy is set in Moorish Spain, with pagans, Christians, and the odd mythical creature engaging in various set-tos in the time of Charlemagne’s domination of Europe. On the plus side: impressive sets and lush photography; but the uneven blend of historical fiction with sword and sorcery never quite gels. The film strives to be an adult fairy tale like John Boorman’s Excalibur but falls about one grail short of its quest.

Documentary, Movie Movie

SIFF 2023: Douglas Sirk-Hope as in Despair (***)

May 21, 2023 Dennis Hartley Leave a comment

By Dennis Hartley

(Originally posted on Digby’s Hullabaloo on May 20, 2023)

I’ve never thought of director Douglas Sirk (best-known for vivid technicolor 50s melodramas like Written on the Wind and Imitation of Life) as a personal filmmaker, but Roman Hüben makes a convincing argument in his fascinating portrait (it turns out that elements of Sirk’s personal life were quite…Sirkian, and formative to his work). Pigeonholed during his heyday as a purveyor of “women’s weepies”, Sirk has gained critical appreciation and influenced filmmakers like Rainer Werner Fassbinder.

60's Counterculture, Documentary, Movie Movie

SIFF 2023: Desperate Souls, Dark City, and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy (***1/2)

May 21, 2023 Dennis Hartley Leave a comment

By Dennis Hartley

(Originally posted on Digby’s Hullabaloo on May 20, 2023)

Aside from its distinction as being the only X-rated film to earn Oscars, John Schlesinger’s groundbreaking, idiosyncratic character study Midnight Cowboy (1969) also ushered in an era of mature, gritty realism in American film that flourished from the early to mid-1970s. The film was Schlesinger’s first U.S.-based project; he had already made a name for himself in his native England with films like A Kind of Loving, Billy Liar, Darling, and Far From the Madding Crowd.

As pointed out in Nancy Buirski’s absorbing documentary, what came to be called the “New Hollywood” movement was fueled in part by ex-pat European filmmakers (like Schlesinger) bringing their unique “outsider” perspective on American politics, social mores, and popular culture to the table. Buirski not only offers fresh insights on how Midnight Cowboy came together, but perfectly recreates the zeitgeist of 1969.

Documentary, On Pop Culture, Show Biz

SIFF 2023: Being Mary Tyler Moore (***1/2)

May 20, 2023 Dennis Hartley Leave a comment

By Dennis Hartley

Robert Redford recalls in this film, “I had a place in Malibu. I was sitting there, looking out at the ocean, and this woman walks by. What it looked like to me was that she was sad. I said ‘Oh…that’s Mary Tyler Moore.’ And we’d always seen Mary Tyler Moore as this happy, upbeat, wonderful, wonderful character who was full of joy and innocence.”

Famously, what Redford saw in Moore the day of that chance encounter led to him offering her the part of the insular mother in his critically acclaimed 1980 film Ordinary People (a very un-“Mary Richards” character). This dichotomy forms the nucleus of James Adolphus’ documentary, offering an intimate glimpse at a complex woman who, while undeniably groundbreaking and influential, had her share of tragedies, personal demons, and insecurities.

Horror, Thriller

SIFF 2023: Mother Superior (***)

May 20, 2023 Dennis Hartley Leave a comment

By Dennis Hartley

Submitted for your approval: A young woman in 1970s Austria hired as a live-in elder care nurse for a demanding Baroness is about to embark on a strange psychic journey, making an unscheduled stop at the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Hotel Terminus. Writer-director Marie Alice Wolfszahn’s gothic chiller/Wagnerian nightmare is economically paced, well-acted and stylishly photographed, marred slightly by a “gotcha” dénouement that makes what proceeded it play like an extended Twilight Zone episode.

Con Game, Documentary, Religion, True Crime

SIFF 2023: Gloriavale (**1/2)

May 20, 2023 Dennis Hartley Leave a comment

By Dennis Hartley

Just when you thought you’d heard about every faith-based commune led by a charismatic figure who preaches altruism but ultimately turns out to be an autocratic sexual deviant, another one pops out of the woodwork. Directors Noel Smyth and Fergus Grady’s expose of New Zealand’s Gloriavale Christian Community follows the story of several courageous whistleblowers (former and current members). The film is a tad dry in presentation, but the survivors’ tales are harrowing and eye-opening.

Dramedy, Drug Culture

SIFF 2023: Adolfo (***1/2)

May 20, 2023 Dennis Hartley Leave a comment

By Dennis Hartley

Strangers in the night, exchanging…cactus? Long story. Short story, actually, as writer-director Sofia Auza’s dramedy breezes by at 70 minutes. It’s a “night in the life of” tale concerning two twenty-somethings who meet at a bus stop. He: reserved and dressed for a funeral. She: effervescent and dressed for a party (the Something Wild scenario). With its tight screenplay, snappy repartee, and marvelous performances, it’s hard not to fall in love with this film.