mouskouri Reviews

For Angela (1994)

Haunting, disturbing, inspiring, exceptional!

[10/10 · 31 March 2004]

Tina Keeper delivers one of her best performances in this National Film Board of Canada (NFB) short film that has slowly become one of the most referenced films in anti-oppression/racism circles as well as the most recognizeable educational tool in working in teaching anti-racism to youth - particularly on aboriginal issues in Canada.

However, on its own this film is utterly brilliant and compelling with stellar performances from the entire cast. The story involves an aboriginal single mother who is verbally assaulted with venomous racist stereotypes by three teenage boys while taking her young daughter to school one morning. As the story moves along the young daughter develops anxiety over her native heritage following the incident leading to a confrontation between the mother and the leader of the three teenage boys at the local high school.

The leader of the teenage boys was all too realistic, combined with the mother's quiet and emotion filled performance convey an indellible impression of the effects racist attitudes towards aboriginal peoples.

Tina Keeper, who is probably most famous for her role of RCMP Constable Michelle Kenidi in the popular Canadian syndicated drama "North of 60" gives one of her finest performances and it shouldn't be missed if you ever have a chance to see it.

If you live in Canada you can view this film for free by visiting your local NFB offices, or borrow it from many libraries or free rental NFB offices. For anyone else, there is always <www.nfb.ca>.

I can't recommend this film enough.

The Versace Murder (1998)

Words can't describe how truly bad this is...

[1/10 · 16 September 2003]

I just finished watching this on late night television and I am in awe. I mean, I have seen a few TV movies in my day, but this one almost comes across like a bad satire of TV movies. It is bad in just about every way imaginable.

The music is pretentious, the editing bears the mark of a first year film student, and the acting is horrifyingly bad. At some points this movie heads off following Andrew Cunanan in aimless directionless scenes. It has the characters fighting in swearing fits that come off like children learning the "f-word" for the first time. And every scene, particularly those with the actor playing Andrew Cunanan are stretched out with the most appalling acting I have ever seen. I mean it. Every single line of dialogue is delivered almost painfully. The most excruciating example is the scene at the very end when the two FBI agents have this really presumptuous and pretentious theory session on murder and consumerism. It was truly "crap-tacular".

This movie is a complete waste of time, and unintentionally turns a horrifying true-life story into a sloppy farce. Worse still, I got this impression the film makers were vastly overestimating the importance of this movie in their own minds. This comes off with endless scenes with the various characters where they spout speeches thinly veiled single entendres about their motivations and society. I get the impression the film makers even wanted to make a connection between the glitz and glamour of the fashion world and how it drove Cunanan to kill - except that no viewer is going to buy that the way it is presented here.

If I were Donatelli Versace, I would sue on principle alone just to end TV movies of mediocre quality.

The Passerby (1995)

What is the sum of our existence?

[10/10 · 1 August 2003]

I have seen this movie a handful of times - mostly on Cinema Canada (CBC - late Thursday nights in Canada).

The first time I saw it I almost turned it off, because it got off to a real slow start, but then I found myself sitting with my eyes glued to the television set.

This movie is part narrative, part documentary, part existential question. This movie is about the pieces we leave behind that become the only proof we were ever here on earth - that we were even alive, had friends, had children, had any accomplishments.

The movie flows with the director narrating (I think) and speaking about events that led him to wonder about what is the realy legacy we leave when we die. He tells the particularly profound story of how he found a suitcase abandonned by the side of the road. Inside were photographs, letters, and momentos of one man's entire life - from childhood to manhood to the golden years and then it ends. At the time he wondered why the case had been left by the side of the road - either because of indifference, housecleaning, or because someone was feeling too much pain to keep them - and so left the case with the physical documentation of one man's life to chance. At the time the narrator wasn't thinking and immediately threw out the letters and written paper stuffs, but as time went on he became obsessed with who this man was. Through the photographic evidence he had he pieces his life together as best he can - but notes that the substance is gone. We see him, but we don't know him. And these are all the pieces that remain of him. I was crying, it was truly heartbreaking.

The film goes on to speak of other stories and experiences, and interviews several prominent Canadian artists, authors, and poets - including one woman (I think it was JAne Urqhart, it has been a while) who tells the story of how a friend of hers died when she was still a kid and she grew up to one day realize that he had told only her many of the secrets they shared - she felt if she didn't tell others in her lifetime those intimite pieces of that boy's life would be lost forever and no one will ever know them. She said this inspired her to write - so that part of him would not fade away to ages.

I think of this film all the time, and it has kind of changed my outlook on life, and how I share my life with others. In the end there is no amount of effect we can have on history that won't forget the truly intimate aspects of who we are, and the truly special moments we shared with others. So in the end, what is our legacy to the ages...

If you live in Canada you can rent this movie for free through the NFB (I think...), but it comes around once or twice a year on Cinema Canada.

If you like this film, I highly recommend a similar one through the NFB called "Let Me Go".