Evil Does Not Exist
With Drive My Car, the world at large was introduced to the patience of Japanese director Ryusuke Hamaguchi. A loving, carefully crafted story of mourning and redemption through art, Hamaguchi has returned with Evil Does Not Exist. A beautiful, quiet fable that focuses on a remote community as a team of city-dwellers approach them, hoping to open a resort in their sleepy community. Focusing on the interactions between these outsiders and the townsfolk they are set to impress, the film gently guides us through a story of community versus modernity, selfishness versus togetherness, and the sacrifices we’re willing to make in order to protect the world we live in.
An environmental-minded film that takes pleasure in its simplicity, with the camera lingering for minutes at a time on the quiet actions of stoic yet powerful figures. These quiet tableaus are tinged with a sense of dread, of unstoppable forces, but it’s only a glimmer of dread that could be easily missed, but if picked up on leads to an amazing and abrupt final image. The final thirty seconds of this film are some of the best of the year, transforming the film from a tale to a myth, a morality tale of the dangers of the modern world, and a cry for simplicity.
I Used To Be Funny
For those of you who don’t know, I’ve been performing stand-up comedy for over 13 years, and have been doing it as a main focus for the last six. I am heavily invested in the topic of comedy, the scene, comedians, and more. So when a film about stand-up comedy, specifically about a scene I’ve performed in, and about the heavy topic of sexual assault within that community, is announced I became immediately interested. Throw in indie darling Rachel Sennot as the lead and I was more than ready for this to be my favourite film of the festival.
Unfortunately, that is not the case. In fact, I think this film absolutely falls apart and is never able to put itself together. Virtually nothing about this film works. One thing that my experience within the stand-up community was able to pick up on was the complete lack of electricity between the friend group of supposed comedians. When you get in a room with comedians, there is a certain electricity to it, a fire under everything, everyone doing even a modicum of verbal jousting, even unintentionally. Here there is nothing, absolutely not a single spark between our cast (all of whom are talented comedians off-screen, so something really fell apart here). The script in general is miserable, a one-note mess that contains no suspense, no intrigue, no growth.
But the real killer here is the absolute lack of chemistry between Sam (Sennot) and Brooke (newcomer Olga Petsa). The film hangs on the narrative that these two have formed a nearly unbreakable bond, and not once is it believable. I’d even argue that every scene they share seems like it’s the first time they’ve ever met. I don’t hang all the blame on Petsa as I feel the director really failed to capture anything here. First-time feature filmmaker Ally Pankiw throws everything she can at the screen, using so many techniques and ideas that it ends up saying nothing at all through the craft, coming off more as a high-budget film test than a complete, focused effort. A deeply disappointing experience.
Red Rooms
A stylish Quebecois thriller, Red Rooms follows an isolated woman named Kelly-Anne who develops an obsessive relationship with an ongoing murder trial. The trial features a man accused of the kidnapping and murder of three teenage girls, and the evidence includes videos he had made of the murders and uploaded to the dark net. Over the course of the film, Kelly-Anne’s obsession grows to dangerous levels, and eventually, she will stop at nothing to find out the truth about the murders.
A stylish, gripping thriller that will leave you guessing where it’s going until the final frames. The sound design is particularly menacing, with a hypnotizing score by Dominique Plante, and the soundscape adds to the overall tenor of dread that hangs over every frame. A chilling dive into the mind of a disturbed person, and what happens when their broken mind is turned to a subject that is blood-curdling. Juliette Gariepy stuns in the lead role, a fearless performance that is cold, menacing, and deeply affecting. One of the best Canadian films I’ve seen in a very long time, one that will be guaranteed to stay with you.