Film Reviews – Girl Who Would be KING on Life, Style and INSPIRATION.

VIFF: The Secret Agent

This film was a special presentation as part of the Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF). In Portuguese with English subtitles, most of the story is set in Recife, Brazil, which was the main reason I wanted to see this movie. I spent a year living in Brazil with very fond memories of Recife.

I took this from the balcony of our hotel room in Recife. The beach was amazing. The carts along the beach were unlike anything I’ve seen before – people selling everything from suntan lotion and seafood to hard liquor.

I loved the locals for their vibrant spirit, warmth, and deep love for life – a cultural energy that pulses through everything from their music and food to their festivals and everyday interactions. It’s infectious. It can be referred to as “alegria”– a kind of joyful resilience that’s woven into the national identity, despite facing economic and political challenges.

However, I have one not very fond memory of the kind of corruption that I had only heard about. My late husband was waiting for me in the car outside a store in Rio while I quickly went inside to purchase a few postcards. A police officer came by and said he wasn’t allowed to wait there and immediately issued a ticket for $1,000 usd. I called the concierge of the Copacabana Palace Hotel where we were staying, to find out if he could talk to the officer and reduce the ticket. The concierge ended up coming to where we were and after some back & forth with the officer, the ticket was then reduced to about $400 – which I believe the concierge and the cop ended up splitting between them. He said “you realize that we have families right?”

Then there was the time when my young Portuguese instructor was escorted to her bank by an officer and told to withdraw all her money – at gunpoint. This was real life – not a movie.

“The Secret Agent” synopsis from the VIFF guide:

Having run afoul of an influential bureaucrat working inside of Brazil’s military dictatorship circa 1977, Marcelo (Narcos’ Wagner Moura) decamps to Recife to live under an assumed name and reconnect with his young son. Bedding in with a cadre of political dissidents and refugees while finding work in the state identification archives, the former university researcher comes to understand precisely how insidious and all-encompassing the country’s corruption has become.

GWWBK: The movie overall was interesting, but way too long. “The Secret Agent” clocks in at nearly 3 hours, with a runtime of 2 hours and 52 minutes. That extended length gives director Kleber Mendonça Filho room to explore the film’s layered themes of political paranoia, memory, and identity in meticulous detail.

Too meticulous if you ask me. I made my Secret Exit at around the 2 hr mark.

Note to self: 1) Always check the length of the film. 2) Don’t go see a film based on the fact they you’ve either visited or lived where it was filmed (btw, in this film you won’t see anything like the photo I posted here along the beautiful beach). 3) Do more research.

Best Director, Best Actor, Cannes 2025; Oscar Submission: Brazil

Missed it at VIFF? Catch it at the VIFF Centre after the festival.

VIFF: JAY KELLY

Oh, what to say about this movie which is a musing on fame, regret, and identity.

You know that I tend to see movies that I hope to write a good review about.

This one is marketed as a bittersweet comedy about a good looking world-famous actor, not unlike George Clooney. Oh my, it is George Clooney! Clooney plays a fading movie star in “Jay Kelly”, which is ironic, because by the end I felt like I was fading too.

Not to worry – my little review won’t hurt his career. And I like Clooney in other things, just not this one.

The film tries to be profound by showing a movie star questioning his fame, but ends up feeling like a celebrity’s therapy session we didn’t ask to attend. I don’t always know a lot in advance about the movies I choose to see at festivals. The title might initially intrigue me and I might like the actors and know a bit about the story, but what I’m seeing a lot of is dysfunctional family drama in almost every movie no matter what the storyline is. It gets tiring.

With Adam Sandler, Laura Dern, and a European road trip, it had all the ingredients for charm. Instead it lacked spontaneity, realism and failed to captivate. Humour is all about surprise….and this one, at least for me, held no surprises. Imagine “Eat Pray Love” without the eating, praying, or loving. Or “Marriage Story” without the story.

The film is directed by Noah Baumbach – known for introspective dramas such as “Marriage Story” and “White Noise.”

Director’s Statement: “Jay Kelly: is about a man looking back at his life and reflecting on the choices, the sacrifices, the successes, the mistakes he’s made. When is it too late to change the course of our lives? Jay Kelly is an actor and as such the movie is about identity. How we perform ourselves. Who are we as parents, children, friends, professionals? Are we good? Are we bad? What is the gap between who we’ve decided we are and who we might actually be? What makes a life? Jay Kelly is about what it means to be yourself.

This is the last weekend for VIFF. You can enjoy movies all year long though at the Viff Centre.

https://viff.org/

Film Reviews

VIFF: Bones of Crows

We cannot go back in time; we can only move forward and learn from our past for a brighter tomorrow.

After world premiering at TIFF earlier this month, Marie Clements’ poignant film “Bones of Crows” opened the Vancouver International Film Festival last night as the perfect lead-in for Truth and Reconciliation. The director and most of the cast and crew members were in attendance.

Grace Dove as Aline Spears in “Bones of Crows”

In Canada, every September 30th now marks the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation which honours the children who never returned home and Survivors of residential schools, as well as their families and communities. Public commemoration of the tragic and painful history and ongoing impacts of residential schools is a vital component of the reconciliation process.

Orange Shirt Day which also falls on September 30^th, is an Indigenous-led grassroots commemorative day intended to raise awareness of the individual, family and community inter-generational impacts of residential schools, and to promote the concept of “Every Child Matters”. The orange shirt is a symbol of the stripping away of culture, freedom and self-esteem experienced by Indigenous children over generations.

Bones of Crows

The message in this commanding film which was written, produced and directed by Marie Clements; a Canadian Métis playwright, performer, director, producer and screenwriter (founding artistic director of Urban Ink Productions) was powerful and not to be overlooked.

Inspired by true events, Bones of Crows tells the life story of a Cree woman named Aline Spears (strikingly performed by Canadian actor Grace Dove) through varying stages of her life. From a child taken from her parents to an 85 year of woman who confronts a former abuser from the church. A line that stuck with me from the film is “parents don’t always know what is best for their children – that’s why we should leave it up to the government and the church.” REALLY???

The film is intended to be disconcerting and that, it is. It is a must-see for all so that we may learn from the past so we can move forward mindfully.

Here is further description taken from the VIFF Programme:

VIFF 2022 Opening Film

In these troubled and lopsided times, we need our storytellers to help us understand our inheritance, be it pain or privilege, and to lay the intellectual and emotional groundwork not only for reconciliation, but for reparation and restoration. Vancouver-born Dene/Métis writer-director Marie Clements (whose previous films The Road Forward and Red Snow have been part of VIFF’s year-round and festival programming) squares up to the challenge with this bold, necessarily harrowing tale of oppression and resilience which spans the greater part of the 20th century.

Aline Spears (played at different ages by Grace Dove, Summer Testawich, and Carla Rae) is a happy, gifted child, until she and her siblings are removed to a residential school. The scars of that experience will run deep through the remainder of their days, though it will not be the only time that official government policy will act as an instrument of abuse and trauma. Despite this, Aline enlists in WWII, where, ironically, her fluency in Cree becomes a national asset. The reward for her service is yet more anguish and struggle.

This is a tough film, but it has epic ambition, deep-rooted conviction, anger, and urgency. Clements is not afraid to make provocative and important connections, and she marshals an outstanding cast of Indigenous actors with care and compassion.

This program contains scenes that may distress some viewers, especially those who have experienced harm, abuse, violence, and/or intergenerational trauma due to colonial practices.

Support is available 24 hours a day for anyone affected by their experience at residential schools and for those who may be triggered by content dealing with residential schools, child abuse, emotional trauma, and racism. The national Indian Residential Schools Crisis Line is available at 1-866-925-4419.

About VIFF | viff.org

Founded in 1982, the Greater Vancouver International Film Festival Society is a not-for-profit cultural society and federally registered charitable organization that operates the internationally acclaimed Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) and the year-round programming at the VIFF Centre. VIFF produces screenings, talks, conferences and events that act as a catalyst for the community to discover the creativity and craft of storytelling on screen.

Film Reviews

Octoberfilmfest – VIFF

The Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF ) is in full swing until October 11th. I just saw two amazing Special Presentations.

Just Mercy

starring Jamie Foxx, Michael B. Jordan & Brie Larsen

This is a true and thought provoking story about young Harvard graduate lawyer Bryan Stevenson (Michael B. Jordan) and his history making battle for justice in Alabama working with death row inmates at a time where the legal system was hell bent on not following the truth. One of his first cases was that of Walter McMillan (Jamie Foxx) with a disturbing no mercy glance at how corrupt and unfair the people in power were at keeping an innocent man behind bars for a murder he did not commit. Powerful performances in this discriminating story of people and prejudice. Intense.

Motherless Brooklyn

starring Edward Norton, Bruce Willis, Alec Baldwin, Willem Dafoe

This is an Incredible film set in the 1950’s written, produced and directed by Edward Norton who is also the main star. With outstanding performances from the whole cast and twists and turns at every corner, it is surely a worthy Oscar contender.

Lionel Essrog (Norton) is a private detective with an annoying infliction to his character. Although his mind is quick and his memory impeccable, he suffers from tourette syndrome which makes him twitch and say inappropriate things and act obsessively so he’s always apologizing for his behavior. At times it is quite funny and Norton carries this off in a superbly endearing manner. Lionel sets out to solve the crime of who murdered his boss and best friend P.I. Frank Minna (played by Bruce Willis) who pulled him out of an orphanage at six years of age. While trying hard to solve the mystery he deals with thugs and corruption at almost every turn.

The trail leads to Moses Randolph (Alec Baldwin), a ruthless construction magnate with deep ties to the mayor’s office and a suspicious prowler (Willem Dafoe) who seems to know everything about him. He follows a beautiful girl from Harlem (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) whose fight against Randolph’s “slum-clearing” operations have targeted her and he must find out the reason why.

Stay tuned for more film updates

For more information and tickets please visit:

http://viff.org/