The 38th annual Festival Du Nouveau Cinema launches today in Montreal, featuring over 250 films from 48 countries including recent work from such heavyweights as Lars von Trier, Lone Scherfig, Catherine Breillat, Pedro Almodovar, Manoel de Oliviera, Harmony Korine, Bong Joon-ho and more. The festival, which runs until October 18th, is Canada’s longest running festival and often acts as the Quebec debut for many of Cannes and Toronto Film Festival’s biggest buzz films.
As we take a deep breath and get ready to sustain multiple screenings per day, stayed tuned to this page for updates and reviews over the next week and a half. While we can’t offer our thoughts on the festival’s opening film, “Les Dames En Bleu” by Claude Demers (curiously being shown without English subtitles), here are two reviews of films we managed to see at press screenings before the start of the festival:
“Handsome Harry” – The first feature film from Bette Gordon (not counting 2003’s made-for-TV “Life On The Line”) in a decade is a curiously empty drama of sexual identity that frankly feels every bit as old as the ten years between the director’s films. The story is set in motion when Thomas Kelley, a dying Navy veteran (Steve Buscemi in a throwaway role) calls upon his old crew mate Harry Sweeney (Jamey Sheridan) to ask him to seek out the forgiveness of another colleague, Kagan (Campbell Scott), who they, and they rest of their crew gay bashed over thirty years ago, leaving him permanently disfigured. Harry reluctantly agrees and sets out on a journey to visit the other members of the crew who were present at the assault as he tries to get a clear picture of what happened oh so long ago, before confronting Kagan himself. As Harry visits the other Navy toughs, each is dealing with their guilt from so long ago in a variety of obvious cliches such as religion, academia or outright homophobia (shock! one of them has a gay son!). By the time the already creaking drama gets to its all too predictable “twist” ending, the film is so deflated by the script’s lazy and routine stab at this material that the final meeting between Harry and Kagan lacks the electricity it so deserves. While this kind of film might’ve been somewhat intriguing in the mid-90s it’s borderline embarrassing in 2009. Queer cinema has practically leaped into the mainstream, offering far more complexity, emotional resonance and bravery than this film feels entitled to. [C]
“Prince Of Broadway” – The third feature by writer/director Sean Baker (“Take Out”, “Four Letter Words”) continues in the minimal, neo-realist vein of his previous films. Uniquely set in the rarely seen New York world of bootleg apparel, the film follows one hustler (and illegal immigrant), Lucky (Prince Adu), who is confronted one day at work by an ex-girlfriend who arrives with a baby in tow, claims it’s his, leaves the child with him and then takes off. Lucky, of course, is utterly floored proclaiming he can’t be the father and scrambling to keep working, while taking care of the child.
Unfortunately, while Lucky questions his paternity, the obvious thing for him to do – to get a DNA test – is inexplicably dragged out for nearly an hour, until the end of the film. Until then, Baker takes an unwise detour into a subplot involving Lucky’s boss, Levon (Karren Karagulian) and the dissolution of his marriage. Thematically, Baker has a lot on his plate – illegal immigration, exploitation of illegal workers (despite their friendship, there is an astonishing gap in living conditions between Lucky and Levon), the plight of young parents, copyright law – and wisely Baker’s script doesn’t take to the podium. But unfortunately, it’s hands off to the point of inertia. By the time the credits roll, “Prince Of Broadway,” which has spent the better part of 90 minutes approaching a “Traffic”-like sprawl on its subject, doesn’t accumulate any kind of impact. The ending rings false, tying a big, digestible bow around a film that could’ve and should’ve been so much more raw and real. [C]
