ScreenFish

where faith and film are intertwined

Jason Thai

Stay the Night: Love int he Modern Age

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Casual hookups and dating apps have become the new normal. However, Grace (Andrea Bang) has become an outcast due to her more traditional desire for her first time to be special and she remains a virgin at the age of 27. One hectic night, she meets professional hockey player Carter Stone and, when the two get friendly, Grace wonders if he is the solution to her problem. Following the events of one very long evening, they debate whether to stay the night with each other.

As Grace, Andrea Bang delivers an amazing performance and the film really does do an excellent job of highlighting Toronto in the background. (In fact, the film almost gives off Kim’s Convenience vibes as well).

As two lost souls, Grace and Carter parallel each other in their careers and personal lives. For example, Grace is turned down the promotion that she’s worked towards for the last 3 years, for the simple erasing that she’s not as “friendly and outgoing” as management would like. (Incidentally, this is also a reflection of her dating life as she’s very reserved and carefully considers how much effort that it’s going to take her to interact with new people.) At the same time, Carter is suffering in both his career and personal life as well. Having been demoted from the major leagues to now the minors, Carter believes that the only way he can seem to get a hookup is due to the prestige of playing professionally–but now that is in jeopardy as well. 

After they meet, Grace and Carter believe that their connection is only going to be a one-night stand. However, over the course of the night, the films takes a very different turn. What begins as something akin to an edgy ‘Hallmark movie’ becomes a more serious conversation on the commentary of hookup culture of young millennials. From Grace’s perspective, she yearns for something more special and romantic. Meanwhile, Carter’s perspective takes a more modern view of sex and believes that it doesn’t have to be any spectacular thing. This, of course, leads to conversations regarding how these views have affected the rest of their lives, eventually leading to their views on their careers and passions. As a result, Stay the Night becomes a solid commentary on hookup culture by taking different perspectives on sexuality.

It’s definitely worth Stay-ing out to see.

Stay the Night is available in theatres on Friday, November 18th, 2022.

The Menu: Eat the Rich

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Caution: Some potential spoilers

In The Menu, Hawthrone is one of the world’s most prestigious high-class “fou-fou” restaurants on the planet, run by a world-class chef that demands perfection of his staff to an extreme as well as doing whatever he can to please the customers appetite. Margot and her boyfriend as well as many other customers from interesting backgrounds are heading to the remote island of Hawthrones for The Menu of the night, run by Julian Slowik. Quickly descending into madness, what’s on the menu tonight? The customer. Trapped on an island with seemingly nowhere to go, the customers break out as they are hunted by chefs to the death for the menu.

Starring Anya Taylor-Joy as Margot, and Ralph Fiennes as head chef Julian Slowik, The Menu is a commentary on food culture as a whole as well as the experience of both the customer and the chef over the course of a meal. Very early in the film, we see the horrible treatment that people in the food industry experience from different types of customer. Beginning with the critics, the foodies, the rich saps who don’t care about your actual food, the investors who believe that they “own you,” until it culminates with Margot, an average consumer that just wants “food to be food.” In every scenario, the abuse of power that the customer has over the restaurant is apparent, showcasing the effort that these chefs go through to cater to their clientele and prepare a culinary experience. (In fact, Menu even reminds the viewer that chefs must constantly change their menu so that they don’t become irrelevant, though they still draw criticism and complaints.) In this world, food is an art, and Julian and his staff are finally fed up with their work. Their goal were simply to make good food that they thought others would enjoy. Unfortunately though, the better that they become at their jobs, the worst their lives are. As he prepares his final Menu, Julien invites a carefully catered group of customers that he’s always hated in order to exact his revenge.

The actual food on the menu is incredibly satirical. Like real life, high class food, every single course tells a ridiculous story and is made to be something a typical eater would find weird. Representing the average consumer, Margot is not familiar with this rich lifestyle of “culinary prestige” and speaks for the average viewer. To her, this food isn’t really food. One of the dishes is completely foam, and one dish is “breadless bread.” However, the critics eat this up as innovative and begin to use long, complicated words to make their review sound more sophisticated.

The Menu was an incredibly dark comedy, horror(ish) film with great insight into the perspective of a chef and career and gave light to what the career of one starting from the bottom to what is considered the highest echelon of food service. Despite being the antagonist, Julien really is the star of the film. As the embodiment of all passionate chefs who want nothing more than to serve good food. The life that he’s built up to achieve the money and prestige is incredible to all around him, but the levels that he’s dedicated to achieve has made his life horrid. (Even his own chefs under him admit they would rather die than become him.) In the end of the day, what all passionate chefs want is to be able to satisfy their customers. His days flipping burgers were the days that he was at his happiest. Food industry workers have it rough, and the sacrifices they make to achieve their dreams is torture. Feeding strangers who are looking for a good meal, the majority of their lives is out of their control. Critics shut restaurants down, investors hang their over your head and, once you become a “high-end” chef, the majority of your customers become only rich snobs (since they’re the only clientele that can afford it). In this way, The Menu becomes a euphoric experience for chefs that have lost control in their lives and want seize it back from their customers.

In this world, one can’t help but want to “eat the rich.”

The Menu is now available in theatres.

Bros: Love in the Real World

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Directed by Nicholas Stoller, Bros is a rom-com and is based on a screenplay that he co-wrote with Billy Eichner, who also stars in the movie and serves as its executive producer. It is the fourth LGBT love comedy made by a significant legacy studio (Universal) and the second movie with an openly LGBT main cast. Billy Eichner stars as Bobby Lieber, a “loud and proud” gay man with a podcast but also an afraid and self-doubting New York LGBTQ+ history museum director who is in charge of raising $5 million in funds to complete the museum. Things get rocky once he meets a buff single lawyer (and “quiet and unproud” gay man) Aaron along the way and begins to fall in love with him.

Bros is a very self-aware movie and probably the most innovative rom-com in the LGBTQ+ sector. Early into the film, we are made very aware that dating as a gay person is vastly different than not only what straight couples face, but also what is portrayed in typical LGBTQ+ media. The idea of how gay dating is the same as that of the straight community and the idea of “love is love” is simply not true. Gay dating is incredibly difficult. In the current era, hookup culture is incredibly prevalent amongst dating apps, as well as the messiest of 2 men dating. The whole film in general is about taking clichés, addressing them and destroying them with what actually happens. Another issue is well… the sex itself. Intimacy between two men is totally different physically than what is shown in other LGBTQ+ projects, and the film protrayt it as dirty and aggressive in a comedic way.

Throughout the film though, Bros is really an acknowledgement of the struggles that Billy Eichner has face when crafting and pitching the film to studios and the struggles that he has faced his whole life for being who he is, including the gay community in general. In terms of pitching, studios had a very romanticized version of what they wanted the film to be, even comparing it to a Hallmark version of what the script initially should be. They were willing to buy into the idea that people wanted to see gay rom-coms on screen, but didn’t want to see the gritty details nor the realism of what people in the LGBTQ+ community face. 

Though, Billy really wanted to discuss how difficult the community has had it most of time. Bobby’s role as a museum curator for LGBTQ+ American history is a reflection of how so many people have been silenced, erased, or edited in history in order to hide any relation to a non-straight sexuality and how beautiful it is. Bros shows not only how far we’ve come as a society, but how sad and terrible of a sacrifice it was for so many to get to this point, and for those that never got to live to see it.             

Overall, Bros is a very self-aware and innovative take on the rom-com genre. But it’s also just as important as a look into Billy Eichner’s life as a gay man and the LGBTQ+ community as a whole, who have endured hardship for 1000s of years. 

Bros is available in theatres on Friday, September 30th, 2022.

TIFF ’22: Soft

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Directed by Joseph Amenta, Soft (Previously announced in the festival as Pussy) is about three young classmates, Julien, Tony, and Otis, who are struggling with their sexual identities. However, unlike other coming of age stories, Soft revolves around a person discovering their homosexuality and their identity. Although, our three protagonists have a good sense of who they are and what they like, the greatest challenge that they face is trying to live and navigate through life being gay.

Taking place across the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) of Canada, these boys are struggling with issues that many youth struggle with after coming out of the closet. Coming from a conservative immigrant family that is disgusted with homosexuality, Julien is forced out on the streets as a homeless teen. At the same time, although Tony has a supportive parent, Otis remains ‘in the closet’ at home, out of fear of his father’s response.

Soft is a beautiful and sad journey, that follows these boys as they just try to survive. The film highlights the dangers and rejection of coming out, especially at a young age, and how the system has the potential to demolish one’s self-esteem and force members of the LGTBQ+ community into poverty. With no support network of his own, Julien is left to rely on Dawn, a transwoman who is working as a prostitute, for food and shelter. Dawn is one of the few people that understands his situation, having lived it themselves before. Because money is tight, Julien considers going into the business himself, reinforcing a cycle of poverty that’s reflected by the lack of financial and emotional support offered to members of the LGTBQIA+ community. 

Soft digs deeply into the hypocrisy of one the biggest and ethnically-diverse cities in the world. Known as an inclusive community, Toronto still frequently separates individuals from one another despite its vows to bring them together. This supposedly welcoming metropolis is the setting for this tale of lost individuals. In this way, Soft is very aware of how desperately each of us needs to be seen, as well as how infrequently that occurs for some of us.

Soft premiered at TIFF ’22. For more information, click here.

TIFF ’22: Biosphere

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Presumably the last two men on Earth, Ray and Billy (Sterling K. Brown as Ray and Mark Duplass) as Billy are trapped in a biosphere. Ray is a logical, innovative scientist and Billy is an emotionally-grounded Republican (and former president of the United States).

This simple premise is all that we’re given as the film begins as you, the viewer, are thrown into the middle of the lives of these two men with no explanation or context. In doing so, Biosphere causes you to eagerly pay attention to every single conversation, awaiting any nugget of information that could shed light on their current situation, including the mystery of what happened outside the dome. Immersed in total blackness, the viewer is left to all possibilities for their predicament, including adrift in space itself. 

Without giving too many spoilers, Biosphere may be one of the strangest movies in years. Although the film’s trailers suggest strong sci-fi elements to it, the film takes turns that you won’t believe. Overall though, the film is based on the belief that the impossible can happen, fueling the film with an optimism and hope for the future. What’s more, the film delves into the relationship between Ray and Billy, who grew up together, and explores what they believe about each other and how they’ve treated each other to this point. Most surprisingly though, the film is also a take on the idea of identity, including gender fluidity. This unique twist within Biosphererecognizes that people are fluid in their beliefs and willing to change their ideas about themselves more than one would expect.

Biosphere premered at TIFF ’22. For more information, click here.

TIFF ’22: Project Wolf Hunting

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Directed by Kim Hongsun, Project Wolf Hunting begins as dozens of Korea’s most dangerous and infamous criminals are set to be shipped to a maximum-security prison in the Philippines, including the heir to one of their most dangerous gangs. Accompanied by two dozen armed policemen and detectives on a large freight ship, a plan to overtake the ship and free all of its criminals ensues. However, in the depths of the ship, something far more sinister than any criminal aboard—Project Wolf Hunting—is released in the chaos. Trapped on a ship with no way out, both criminals and law enforcement must fight to survive the night from this vicious killing machine that threatens to destroy them all.

Project Wolf Hunting is a horror action film with incredibly bloody fight scenes. Filled with tonnes of gore, the film is incredibly violent but anybody fans of slasher films will enjoy this movie greatly. In a lot of ways, Hunting also feels like a video game in its style. Similar to Alien or Five Nights at Freddy’s, the goal of the characters is simply to survive the night, without any realistic way to fight back against this monster. At the beginning of each scene with the monster, one is never quite sure who will survive the chaos that follows. What you can count on though is a gory raging mess, fueled by an eruption of frantic firefights, gruesome martial arts, and an underlying story of a decades-old conspiracy, complete with shady government syndicates and covert human experiments.

Project Wolf Hunting premiered at TIFF ’22. For more information, click here.

TIFF ’22: V/H/S/99

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Set at the conclusion of the millennium, V/H/S/99 is the fifth instalment in the V/H/S series and tells five new found-footage stories. Following the same format as the other V/H/S instalments, each story begins very grounded in tone, eventually evolving into supernatural mayhem and carnage. 

In 99, all five stories are insanely horrific, with solid premises fueled by creative twists and turns that that fans of the original franchise will love. In the first story, a group of teenagers break into a haunted house to play music but the ghosts of female rock group in the building wreak havoc upon them. Frankly, the episode is nothing but a mix of good music and death. The second tale focuses on a desperate girl trying to get into a sorority but, in order to do so, she must stay in a coffin for the night. The catch? A young girl died in there years ago. This short is uper claustrophobic, and disgustingly terrifying. The third—and my favourite episode—is an homage to Nickelodeon’s Legends of the Hidden Temple. Here, a girl’s family gets revenge on a game show host for torturing their children on the show, and demand the prize they were promised in the form of a mysterious “wish.” Fourth, 99 tells the story of a group of boys trying to record an attractive woman, only to see something they shouldn’t have seen. And, in a surprising buddy story, the last episode follows two friends who accidently travel to hell.

The best aspect of this instalment is that it has kept is the use of practical effects, with a limited use of CGI. In doing so, 99 really gives a sense of realism to their storytelling. Practical effects and makeup seem to add to the uneasiness to horror, capturing the disgusting realism of gore. It really pairs well with the grounded and ‘realistic’ scenes that they attempt to portray with the found-footage style of filming. In the end, V/H/S/99 proves to be a great addition to the series, as the franchise inches closer to modern day. 

V/H/S/99 premiered at TIFF ’22. For more information, click here.

TIFF ’22: Zwigato

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In Zwigato, the very talented writer/director Nandita Das takes a crack at a social commentary drama that focuses the side-gig and gig economy industry. Starring famed Indian comedian Kapil Sharma as Manas, Zwigato looks at the nightmarish lives of workers for meal delivery apps such as UberEats, Postmates, DoorDash, etc. In Das’ film, the fictional delivery company is called Zwigato, an app that serves as a representation for all food delivery services and how they operate. 

In a lot of ways, Zwigato feels more like a documentary than it does fiction. Exploring the tribulations that a food deliver endures on a daily basis (including life outside their work), the film highlights the challenges one must face working for a tech company that’s focused on corporate employees and profits. Zwigato tries to sell potential employees on the benefits of working for their company, like how you can make great money, work on your own schedule, and get paid almost instantly. What’s more, they also like to appear helpful by pointing out how they’ve created so many jobs at a time of great unemployment. Although, while it is important to note the value that these companies have by creating work for people who are in desperate need of employment, the job itself is a gruelling hell. 

For Manas, working for Zwigato causes only pain and suffering. The pay isn’t that great and he needs to pay for his own fuel and vehicle maintenance as well. (Manas even claims that fuel alone eats up 40% of his income.) However, Zwigato’s solution to the problem is to introduce an electric vehicle that their drivers have to purchase, further making them dependent on them for survival. Imagine needing to pay to work? Further, although the promise of “working on your own schedule” is true, working 12+ hours a day just to make less than someone working minimum wage is hardly worth it. Diving into the suffering of gig economy workers who are forced to work full-time for major tech companies, Zwigato shows how we should value their services more while fighting against major companies who take advantage of their situation to use them as ‘slaves’.

Zwigato premiered at TIFF ’22. For more information, click here.

TIFF ’22: The Good Nurse

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Netflix’s The Good Nurse is based on the popular book by Charles Graeber, which recalls the true events that happened to Amy Loughren (Jessica Chastain) and Charlie Cullen (Eddie Redmayne). Amy is a working, single mother of 2 in an absolutely horrible situation. In need of a heart transplant and working nights in the ICU to support her family, Amy is in a living hell. Everyday inching closer to death, she tries desperately to manage herself until her work gives her healthcare in 4 months. Despite her horrible circumstance, Amy still operates as a good nurse, one that goes above and beyond for her patients and does so regardless of what the hospital administration enforces. The story takes off when Charlie comes to work as a nurse, quickly becoming friends with Amy. However, at the same time, patients are mysteriously dying in similar and unexplained ways.

The Good Nurse follows Amy as she helps to put away a serial killer, one that was only possible due to flawed system of American Healthcare. The bureaucracy and corruption of profit-driven private hospitals are ever so present. Charlie is an individual who has gotten away with killing potentially over 400+ patients over the course of his career. Even though all the hospitals suspected it was him, they all decided to terminate him unrelated issues (such as “the dates on his application being incorrect”) in order to protect the hospital from liability. Had these hospitals not been so profit-driven and informed the police, Charlie would not have gotten away with his decade-long murder spree. For example, held back by bureaucracy, hospitals employee talking to the police without legal counsel would be terminated due to violation of contract. 

Another flawed aspect of the healthcare system that’s highlighted in Nurse was that frustrating way that hospitals treat their workers. Right now, we’re witnessing a massive number of resignations from healthcare workers, specifically nurses. Work is tough, hours are long, and dangerous situations (COVID for example) for little pay by comparison have helped drive this forward. Even so, the main issue is that, as a healthcare worker, you are not entitled to provide healthcare to yourself. For instance, in Amy’s case, she had to provide for her family although every shift literally drained the life out of her. By showing these moments, The Good Nurse highlights the flaws in what is truly a broken system.

The Good Nurse is currently playing at TIFF ’22. For screening information, click here.

TIFF ’22: The Happiest Man in the World

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Based off true events, The Happiest Man in the World starts off from the perspective of Asja (Jelena Kordic Kuret), a wearied woman in her 40s who works in law. Still looking for love, she decides to join a blind dating event in her hometown of Sarajevo to try to spark romance. It is here that she meets the very shy (and, for some reason, unhinged) Zoran (Adnan Omerovic).

Set during the time when Sarajevo was under siege by Serbian forces between 1993 – 1996, Happiest Man shows the brutality of a war that killed and injured many civilians yet treat the events as though they never happened. As the story progresses with light hearted questions due to the games in the dating event, it’s revealed that Zoran is a soldier who had injured Asja years ago, reigniting the trauma of a trauma that killed so many of her people. 

Through Zoran’s eyes, the film lets us experience what it’s like to see the aftermath of war, while also revealing that it still rages on after 25+ years. Of course, the title The Happiest Man in the World is very ironic, as he is in fact the exact opposite. Having enlisted as a young man, Zoran was taught the propaganda of his home country and convinced to fight a war that he never wanted to be involved with. This leaves him with incredible trauma as he attempts to reconcile the tragedy of war with his everyday life. (What’s more, Happiest Man feels even more timely in the midst of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, two sides that were also once united as a people yet are now torn by propaganda and battle lines.) Beautiful and moving, The Happiest Man in the World shows the scars of war and the challenges of healing in the midst of conflict.