#FIRSTLOOK: TRAILER FOR “PASSAGES”

Global film distributor, streaming service and production company MUBI and Canadian distributor Mongrel Media have announced that Passages – Ira Sachs’ critically-acclaimed, complex take on passion and lust – will open theatrically in Canada on August 11, 2023. The new official trailer for Passages has also been released today.

Directed by Ira Sachs (Love is Strange, Little Men) and produced by Saïd Ben Saïd (Elle, Bacurau) and Michel Merkt (Toni Erdmann), Passages stars Ben Whishaw (Skyfall, Paddington, Women Talking), Franz Rogowski (Great Freedom, Transit, Victoria), and Palme d’Or-winner Adèle Exarchopoulos (Blue is the Warmest Colour, The Five Devils).

Passages received its World Premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, and was nominated for Best Feature Film at the 2023 Berlin International Film Festival.

After completing his latest project, filmmaker Tomas (Rogowski) impulsively begins a heated love affair with a young school teacher, Agathe (Exarchopoulos). For Tomas, the novelty of being with a woman is an exciting experience that he is eager to explore despite his marriage to Martin (Whishaw). But when Martin begins his own affair, the mercurial Tomas refocuses his attention on his husband.

Set in contemporary Paris, Passages charts an escalating battle of desire between three people, where want is constant and happiness is just out of reach. With the film exquisitely shot and featuring honest, emotionally nuanced performances, Sachs has created a breathtakingly intimate and insightful drama exploring the complexities, contradictions, and cruelties of love and longing.

PASSAGES WILL BE IN THEATRES IN CANADA FROM AUGUST 11, 2023.

(Photo/video credit: Mubi/Mongrel Media)

#INSIDEOUTTO: 2023 INSIDE OUT 2SLGBTQ+ FILM FESTIVAL PREVIEW

Taking place between May 25 to June 4, 2023, the INSIDE OUT 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival is back in Toronto both in-person and online! The Festival kicks-off this year with PASSAGES from Director Ira Sachs and closes with Tom Gustafson‘s GLITTER & DOOM, and is packed with several quality films including Toronto-filmed I USED TO BE FUNNY, which premiered at SXSW ’23 and also Sundance Next Audience Award winner KOKOMO CITY. BLUE JEAN also is coming to the Festival with huge accolades and award wins as well.

Our George Kozera had a chance to preview some of the Festival’s marquee titles and he shares his thoughts below.

RUNS IN THE FAMILY

Set in modern day South Africa, we first meet Varum (Ace Bhatti) as he makes finishing touches on a tailored suit jacket for his friend Stan (Rob van Vuuren), a casino owner with whom he shares a nefarious history with. Varum is now a reformed con artist, struggling to make ends meet, and when leaving the casino he gets a phone call from his estranged wife Monica, asking him to rescue her from rehab. Meanwhile, his son River (Gabe Gabriel), a trans male, is practicing alongside Ollie (Cleo Wesley) his drag queen BFF to win prize money at an upcoming drag competition to pay for his gender-affirming surgery. Despite Monica having abandoned River when he was only months old, Varum convinces his son to join him on the most entertaining and jaunty cinematic road trip to hit the screens since “The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert”.

RUNS IN THE FAMILY is directed by Ian Gabriel with a Script by his real-life son and star of the Movie, Gabe in his first role as a trans actor. Using their relationship as a template, this is a heartfelt and very funny movie that captivates and elevates, with one of the best cinematic drag shows since the aforementioned “Priscilla”. Witty lines are fast and furious: Varum who is of Indian descent slayed me when he said, “sacred cows make the best burgers”. Then, the final act of RUNS IN THE FAMILY takes a dramatic tonal shift where secrets are revealed, old wounds resurface and previous bad habits reoccur. It is a stunning achievement, handled with finesse and made me even more invested with all the characters.

I urge all to see the World Premiere of RUNS IN THE FAMILY. It’s an astonishing piece of work that grabs you like a pit-bull and never lets you loose. In a good way!!

Date: Thurs. June 1, 9:15p Venue: TIFF Bell Lightbox Cinema 1

GOLDEN DELICIOUS

Jake (Cardi Wong) cannot wait to start his senior year in high school alongside his sexually curious and voracious girlfriend Valerie (Parmiss Sehat). Furthermore, his father George (Ryan Mah) is putting pressure on him to no longer be a seat warmer but an active basketball team player (a sport that George was a star athlete when attending the same school). Whereas they practice daily, Jake seems more preoccupied with Aleks (Chris Carson), the openly-gay teenager and accomplished basketball player living across the alley of his family home where he surreptitiously takes photos of him from his bedroom window than shooting hoops with his dad. Despite his funny and engaging personality, life at home is also no picnic: his father is unyielding, his mother Andrea (Leeah Wong) hates working at the family Chinese restaurant and his sister Janet (Claudia Kai) wants to pursue a culinary career much to her mother’s chagrin. The shining light in Jake’s world is his newfound and close friendship with Aleks, despite questioning these new feelings he is experiencing.

Whereas it appears that Screenwriter Gorrman Lee hasn’t met a cinematic cliché that he won’t use (the Jake/Aleks “meets-cute” at school, the super serious and angry Chinese parents, the school’s Team Captain bully, the shallow excuses and so on), Director Jason Karman skillfully avoids the landmines in GOLDEN DELICIOUS and with great dexterity and glorious Cinematography gives the audience a rewarding movie. He magnificently manoeuvres all the possible pitfalls and the story’s potentially melodramatic undertones and fashioned a wonderful and entertaining movie experience. I truly appreciated the coming out process from an Asian-Canadian perspective and embraced the exceptional chemistry between Cardi Wong and Chris Carson, with a strong shout out to Claudia Kai, criminally-underused in an undeveloped character role. With some minor reservations, I strongly recommend GOLDEN DELICIOUS.

Date: Sat. June 3, 11:45a Venue: TIFF Bell Lightbox Cinema 1

I USED TO BE FUNNY

Positioned as a Special Presentation at this year’s Festival, Writer/Director Ally Pankiw’s feature film debut, I USED TO BE FUNNY, is a bravura accomplishment that MUST be savoured. Emerging star Rachel Sennott plays Sam was once a stand-up Comedian of substance and acclaim and fast tracked on the road to stardom. But we first meet her as she struggles with PTSD, where just taking a shower feels like an accomplishment and noises make her skittish. Fortuitously, her two roommates, Paige (Sabrina Jalees) and Philip (Caleb Hearon) are extremely supportive; even more so after the very drunk 14-year-old Brooke (Olga Petsa) – a young girl Sam used to nanny – breaks a window in their house and is then reported missing. This event pushes Sam over the brink.

As I USED TO BE FUNNY takes us on a journey between the present (where Sam continues to try to cope and overcome her condition) and the past (where we learn more about the relationship between Sam and Brooke), Pankiw brilliantly tackles delicate subject matters as mental health and sexual violence with candor, humour, and intelligence.

After Brooke’s mother passed away, her father Cameron (played by the real-life husband of Samantha Bee, Jason Jones) hired Sam to look after his daughter as he is a police officer who works extended hours and also has no idea how to deal with a young girl. Overcoming the initial resistance from Brooke, she and Sam ultimately bond and their relationship flourishes until something horrible happens which changes the dynamics and both their lives.

What makes I USED TO BE FUNNY shine is that every single performance by everyone in this Movie is letter-perfect. Rachel Sennott (obscenely ignored during the awards season for her performance in “Shiva Baby”) shows the audience her remarkable dramatic range alongside her pitch-perfect comedic timing. Jalees and Hearon (both real-life stand-up Comedians) shine as they skillfully traverse between delivering wickedly funny one-liners and genuine compassion and empathy. Jones registers with a performance that incorporates confusion, compassion, and menace. In the role of Sam’s boyfriend Nathan, Ennis Esmer genuinely surprised me as he disappears completely into the character. The standout performance comes from Olga Petsa as Brooke. Her range is exceptional and belies the age of this young soon-to-be megastar.

This Telefilm Canada in association with Crave production is scheduled to be released theatrically in 2024 and I predict it will receive accolades and awards during next year’s Canadian Screen Awards. But why wait? See I USED TO BE FUNNY now!

Date: Fri. May 26, 9:15p Venue: TIFF Bell Lightbox Cinema 1

MUTT

MUTT takes place over a very intense 24-hour period, set in New York City, where trans male Feña (Lio Mehiel) reconnects with his 13-year-old half-sister, ex-boyfriend and father arriving from Chile as he lost contact with them while transitioning. When first introduced to Feña, my initial reaction was that he was just a surly bitch, and I could not shake that impression throughout the Movie’s running time. Near the end of the Movie, when a character tells him satisfyingly that “People don’t hate you because you’re trans. They hate you because you’re an a**hole”, I literally applauded. But this is not to diminish the impact of Writer/Director Vuk Lungulov-Klotz’s Movie, which has won awards at Sundance and Berlin. The performances from Cole Doman as the ex-boyfriend, MiMi Ryder as the half-sister and Alejandro Goic (who has serious Pedro Pascal vibes!) as the father, are all compelling. Though riddled with cliché, MUTT offers a unique Latinx perspective rarely seen on screen and that is to be admired.

Date: Wed. May 31, 6:45pm, TIFF Bell Lightbox Cinema 3

BEFORE I CHANGE MY MIND

1987. Rural Alberta. Robin (Vaughan Murrae), recently transplanted from the States, is having a rough first day at his new school. It seems that everyone in school in unsure of Robin’s gender. He is either ignored, bullied, or beat up. When he finally makes friends with his chief tormentor and local troublemaker Carter (Dominic Lippa) at a school trip to the recently-opened West Edmonton Mall, all gets better until both of them develop a crush on Izzy (Lacey Oake). BEFORE I CHANGE MY MIND goes downhill from there.

Canada is world-renowned for its sense of humour, yet there is little in this Movie that would support that. Particularly, what I take offence to is its treatment of teachers: a noble, undervalued, underpaid, and underappreciated profession. On what universe is a teacher showing 11-12 year-olds how to properly put on a condom on a peeled banana funny? In the Film’s landscape, there are no repercussions to physical violent attacks on youngsters, amongst other horrors and this is problematic.

In a positive vein, the attention to detail when it comes to the Art Direction is exceptional, as they truly captured the look of the late ’80s. And I am definitely a fan of young Vaughan Murrae as his performance here is not only admirable, embodying some much-needed humanity.

Check out the Schedule and offerings this year here.