film review: Falling

 

Directed by Viggo Mortensen

Written by Viggo Mortensen

ChinoKino score: C

Review by Allan Tong

Falling marks the directorial debut of Canadian award-winning actor Viggo Mortensen. The death of Mortensen's mother inspired him to reflect on his parents' divorce and led to him to write this story. How much of this film is autobiographical is unclear, but Falling centres on a fraught father-son relationship as the father searches for a new home and struggles with his health. Mortensen performs triple duty by playing son John, who lives in Los Angeles with his husband Eric (Terry Chen) and their adopted daughter. They take in the old man.

The father is Willis (Lance Henriksen) who is frankly a homophobic, nasty old man. He is suffering the early stages of dementia, which makes John's burden even heavier. Unsurprisingly, Willis attacks his son's homosexuality relentless, even as John feeds and shelters him. John's family restrains itself and doesn't fight back. They just grin and bear it.

TIFF celebrates 2019 Top Ten Canadian films

Story by Allan Tong / Photos by Sally Warburton
 
Last week, TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) announced its annual Top Ten Canadian features and shorts at a public panel held at the Samsung Store in the Eaton Centre, breaking away from the Lightbox in past eyars. After a private reception, co-CEO Cameron Bailey (far left, above) moderated a public panel in the store with directors (from left to right) Sophie Deraspe (Antigone), Calvin Thomas and Yonah Lewis (both White Lie). Per tradition, the Lightbox will screen all the films into January.

Features

And the Birds Rained Down (Il pleuvait des oiseaux)
Dir: Louise Archambault | Quebec

Anne at 13,000
Dir: Kazik Radwanski | Ontario

Antigone
Dir: Sophie Deraspe | Quebec

Black Conflux
Dir: Nicole Dorsey | Newfoundland/Quebec

The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open
Dir: Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers & Kathleen Hepburn | British Columbia

Matthias & Maxime
Dir: Xavier Dolan | Quebec

Murmur
Dir: Heather Young | Nova Scotia

One Day in the Life of Noah Piugattuk
Dir: Zacharias Kunuk | Nunavut

The Twentieth Century
Dir: Matthew Rankin | Quebec

White Lie
Dir: Calvin Thomas, Yonah Lewis | Ontario

A step forward for Canadian diversity at 2017 CSAs

Tatiana Maslany (above) walked away with two big statues at Sunday's Canadian Screen Awards gala in Toronto. That's three if you count the award that Orphan Black (below) snagged for its farewell season. Pretty good for a show that nobody in Canada picked up until BBC America did. Oh, Canada...

Other big winners were Montreal director Xavier Dolan's It's Only the End of the World, the Jesse Owens biopic Race and Letterkenny for best TV comedy series.

Nominations announced for the 2017 Canadian Screen Awards

The nominations for the 2017 Canadian Screen Awards were announced today in joint press conferences in Montreal and Toronto. Montreal director Xavier Dolan’s It’s Only the End of the World | Juste la fin du monde and Space’s series Orphan Black are the leading nominees for this year’s Canadian Screen Awards.

Dolan’s French-language drama It’s Only the End of the World | Juste la fin du monde leads the film portion with nine nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Actor for French actor Vincent Cassel.

Orphan Black leads the televion categories with 14 nominations. CBC comedy “Schitt’s Creek followed with 13 nominations, while another of their comedies “Kim’s Convenience had 11. “19-2 and “Vikings each received nine nominations.

Christopher Plummer had been previously announced as the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2017 Canadian Screen Awards.

Telefilm and Birks salute women at TIFF

Story and photos by Allan Tong

Sandra Oh

Last night at the posh Shangri-La Hotel in downtown Toronto, Telefilm Canada and jewelerer Birks feted a dozen women in Canadian film at the Birks Diamond Tribute. They included actresses Amanda Crew (Silicon Valley),Caroline Dhavernas (Hannibal) Christine Horne (Hyena Road),Sandra Oh (Grey's Anatomy, Window Horses) and Jennifer Podemski (Fire Song); directors Tracey Deer (Mohawk Girls),Ann Marie Fleming (Window Horses), April Mullen (Below Her Mouth, 88), Léa Pool (Set Me Free) and Ann Shin (My Enemy, My Brother); and, for the first time, screenwriters Emma Donoghue (Room) and Marie Vien (La passion d'Augustine).

What distinguishes this list of honourees this year from last is racial diversity. In 2015, the honoured women were all white, a point not lost on some attendees. Perhaps to rectify this imbalance (particularly in the year of #OscarsSoWhite), Telefilm has included Asians (Oh, Shin and Fleming) and First Nations (Podemski, Deer) in a profound way. 

Documentarian Shin feels she she has been "lucky" in getting her films made about Asian and black issues, but is about to make her first fictional film. "I hear it's tougher," she says. In particular, she feels it's hard to get Asian males on screen. "There's a bias."