Category Archives: Film

Coming to theatres today, Friday, September 18: BEING CANADIAN

Rob Cohen’s survey of all things Canadiana had its world premiere at Hot Docs. It went on to screen at Nantucket, and Traverse City.

I previously wrote about the doc for Nantucket’s program, saying:
Like many who have made it in Hollywood, comedy writer Robert Cohen (THE SIMPSONS, THE BIG BANG THEORY) has long harbored a dark secret: He’s Canadian. Realizing that his American friends and colleagues dismiss his homeland as little more than a joke, Cohen sets out on a coast-to-coast journey to dispel the stereotypes of self-effacing, igloo-dwelling, beer-swilling yokels, and to show off the best that Canada has to offer. Drawing on the hilarious insight of a star-studded group of fellow Canucks, including Mike Myers, Seth Rogen, Will Arnett, and Dave Foley, Cohen rediscovers his own national pride in a country that’s more than just “America’s hat.”

Coming to DVD today, Friday, September 18: SALAD DAYS: A DECADE OF PUNK IN WASHINGTON, DC (1980-1990)

Scott Crawford’s exploration of DC punk scene history debuted at DOC NYC last year. Other screenings have included Sound Unseen, Big Sky, Asbury Park Music in Film, Florida, Helsinki’s Night Visions, BAFICI, and at engagements around the country.

I previously wrote about the doc here.

Coming to theatres tomorrow, Friday, September 18: SONGS FROM THE NORTH

Soon-Mi Yoo’s exploration of North Korea made its debut last year at Locarno, where it won the award for best debut feature. Since then it has screened at Rio, Vienna, Cairo, Gothenburg, BAFICI, Vilnius, and NYC’s Migrating Forms, among others.

Taking a free-flowing, essayistic approach, Yoo’s film eschews a traditional narrative trajectory to instead offer a more impressionistic view of the ever-captivating enigma of the closed-off Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and of the South Korean filmmaker’s conflicted relationship to the nation. Combining footage shot during several trips, an interview with her father that serves as the film’s strongest through line, clips of various state-sponsored celebrations, selections from popular North Korean cinema, and occasional introspective title cards, Yoo forms an at times mesmerizing vision of the country that is at the same time strangely commonplace and located within some bizarre parallel universe.

Coming to theatres this Friday, September 18: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO: THE WILD, UNTOLD STORY OF CANNON FILMS

Mark Hartley’s revisitation of the schlock cinema of the legendary 1980s film group debuted at Melbourne last year. It went on to screen at Toronto, London, Haifa, Sitges, Mar del Plata, Rotterdam, San Francisco, Glasgow, Dublin, New Horizons, Film Comments Selects, and Fantastic Fest, among many others

At the center of Hartley’s infectious if unexceptionally mounted film are B-Movie kings Menachem Golan and Yoram Globus, the Israeli cousins who headed the prolific Cannon Films and produced a range of primarily low-budget, disposable genre and T&A heavy films. However, as amusingly noted at its end, they declined to participate, and appear here only in archival footage, having decided to make their own documentary (Hilla Medalia’s THE GO-GO BOYS) – which debuted at Cannes three months earlier, echoing their beat-them-to-the-punch tactics as recounted throughout Hartley’s retrospective. His film assembles scores of talking heads – Cannon directors, actors, crew, and other behind-the-scenes folk – to give the inside track on the so-called “Go-Go Boys” and their remarkably bad output, illustrated through copious clips from gems like NINJA III: THE DOMINATION, BOLERO, and MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE. While prone to nostalgic anecdotes and a fair amount of repetition, the film is undeniably entertaining, and expresses a genuine affection for Golan and Globus and their enterprising spirit and over the top showmanship – even if their taste level remains in question.

Coming to theatres tomorrow, Wednesday, September 16: PEACE OFFICER

Scott Christopherson and Brad Barber’s exploration of the rapid militarization of America’s police force made its world premiere at SXSW this year, where it claimed both best documentary and audience awards. The film also picked up awards at Full Frame and Montclair, and has screened at Hot Docs, Little Rock, AFI Docs, Traverse City, New Zealand, and Milwaukee, among others.

Christopherson and Barber ground their film in the compelling story of their protagonist, Dub Lawrence, a law enforcement vet who introduced Utah’s first SWAT team in 1975, only to see that same force go on to gun down his disturbed son-in-law three decades later. Since then, Lawrence has single-mindedly devoted all his energies to investigating the consequences of police militarization, tackling not only the truth behind his family’s tragedy, but other instances throughout the state involving unnecessary fatalities and excessive force. While localized to Utah, these often shocking tales of whole squadrons of heavily armed police teams facing off against unarmed, non-violent suspects speak to a broader, systemic issue – law enforcement viewing ordinary citizens as de facto enemy combatants, ready and willing to shoot without hesitation, belying the sentiment that lends the film its title.