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Hudson – Odd couple road trip

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“Try not to run away from stuff that isn’t there.”

Hudson, the first feature film from Sean Daniel Cunningham, received a fair number of awards from film festivals. It is certainly the kind of film that festival audiences like to find—a sweet, feel good story from a new filmmaker. One of the pleasures of going to festivals is finding such nice films that most people will not get a chance to see. But Hudson is now available on Amazon. Apple TV, and VOD. That gives more people a chance to see the kinds of things that festivals provide.

Ryan (Gregory Lay, who also co-wrote with Cunningham) leaves New York City to go upstate a bit, ostensibly because of a film he’s going to be in. So he stops in to visit his cousin Hudson (David Neal Levin), whose mother recently died. Hudson is reclusive and morose. He shows Ryan a room that hasn’t been cleaned up and says, “What’s the point?” That is what his life has become.

But since Ryan can drive, Hudson asks him to take him to a special tree from their childhood to scatter his mother’s ashes. And the odd couple road trip begins. Before long, they have added a flaky, but very kind-hearted hitchhiker name Sunrise (Mary Catherine Greenawalt), who knows exactly where they want to go. A series of small adventures unfold, allowing the characters to discover their common connections. Eventually, when they are lost in the woods, they share their failures, which allows them to look ahead to what new life they can find.

This film combines road trip and odd couple (or in this case, trio) genres to offer viewers a window into lives that are beginning to find healing from their brokenness. But that healing only begins when they open themselves to their brokenness. They also find the hope of healing in this small community that they have become.

Quickening: Tradition Versus Independence

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Quickening

Sheila (Arooj Azeem), a Pakistani-Canadian university student, is trying to find her independence while dealing with traditional and overbearing parents.  As she experiences love, sex, and heartbreak for the first time, Sheila has to deal with the fallout of those things essentially on her own.  She doesn’t seem to mesh well with her family or her peers.  With the exception of one friend, Sheila doesn’t confide in anyone.

Directed by Haya Waseem, Quickening is an interesting look at the immigrant experience and the difficulties navigating cultural traditions versus independence. As a first generation Canadian, Sheila has certain values that she is expected to uphold.  In one scene, Sheila is asked by a family member if she has forgotten those values.  In many scenes, it’s apparent that Sheila is conflicted between her family life and the life that she is trying to create as an adult.  You can almost see her mulling this over in her head as she quietly goes about her business.

On top of her own experiences, we see Sheila’s parents going through their own difficulties.  As immigrants trying to make their way in Canada who desire to make their children happy, Sheila’s parents experience financial hardship which threatens to uproot them again.

Quickening

Sheila is a very contemplative character but doesn’t seem to let the audience in.  Personally, I found it difficult to connect with her.  Although, perhaps this speaks more about the tribulations that she was experiencing during this time in her life.  Even thought she was going through quite a complicated mental health struggle, Shiela was forced to keep it inside so she wouldn’t reveal anything to her family.

There were numerous unique camera angles throughout the film that would often cut off the heads of the characters.  In some scenes, I found this style creative but, in others, I felt like perhaps I was missing out on something. While I was very interested in one of the main plot points of the film, I didn’t feel as though it was fleshed out enough.  I wanted to know more about this particular situation.  Though the piece was coming to a crescendo, it still felt vague about its. intentions to me.

Quickening premiered on Saturday, September 12th, 2021 at the Toronto International Film Festival.

TIFF ’21: All My Puny Sorrows

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Ever since their father’s suicide in their youth, sisters Yoli (Alison Pill) and Elf (Sarah Gadon) have wrestled with tragedy. Now adults, All My Puny Sorrows follows the two women who carry their grief in different ways yet both are having difficulty coping to get through the day. Navigating a divorce and her struggling career as a writer, Yoli is getting by emotionally (but barely) while Elf is now a famous concert pianist who seems to have the world at her feet. However, neither woman find it easy to confront the emotional trauma that haunts them. After Yoli attempts to commit suicide, the family is forced to dig up their personal demons and figure out what it means to move on.

In many ways, the term ‘puny’ is an understatement for the sorrows in this film. Instead, Sorrows is very much a piece where the weight of death and sadness is simply too much to bear. This is a family of tragic figures who grip a torch of mental health that is being passed along within this family. Broken by the death of their father ‘by his own hand’ [though they hate that term], they carry the weight of his suicide with them into adulthood. Now, Elf may seem like the picture of success yet cannot bear to make it to the next day. While Yoli may be more emotionally stable, she too is struggling to get by, primarily financially. 

Tightly written in a way that pays homage to classic tragic authors, the language in this film is often framed poetically. With constant literary references, Sorrows deep dives into the stories of authors who used their skills to express their pain so beautifully in the past. Though the content is extremely heavy, Sorrows benefits from solid performances from its stars. Allison Pill does a wonderful job leading the cast as a woman struggling and fighting to survive but ultimately forced to release all expectations of life. At the same time, Gadon (who may be one of Canada’s finest actresses right now) continues to turn in grounded performances that feel present with her characters.

Perhaps to its credit, Sorrows offers few answers of hope for those battling mental health issues, depression and suicide. Set against the cold winter, this too is a film which focuses on the winter of the souls of its characters. Whereas many other films attempt to explain away the reasons (and solutions) to issues of depression, Sorrows instead highlights the toxic ways that culture has tried to placate these feelings in the past. For example, in one particularly interesting scene, a pastor shows up to Elf‘s room and attempts to shame her into forgiveness and hope. Instead of listening to Elf’s pain or taking on a posture of humility, he shows a shocking level of insensitivity in the moment and utilizes shame in order to ‘provide help’. In response, she lashes out at him and takes off her clothes. The shock of the moment forces him out of the room in fear, leaving her alone in her suffering. Afterwards, Yoli and her mom discuss Elf’s story, recognizing the perils of shame and the way that we carry it. While this is hardly the most uplifting of moments, it also shows the cold insensitivity of a culture that too frequently stands on the outside, unwilling to acknowledge the depth of pain in others.

However, it’s worth noting that this also means that hope within this world also feels more elusive. As answers become less clear, so too does the pit of suffering feel more… inescapable. By the end, Sorrows seems to lean into hope as the practices of letting go yet finds it difficult to offer ways by which to do so. While it’s appreciated that the challenges of mental health are taken so seriously, so too does the film bear a heavy weight on the viewer’s soul as well.

In many ways, the title All My Puny Sorrows feels immensely ironic as these burdens are far from small for its characters. There is a heaviness to this film that is both painful and poetic as its characters sit within their struggles, seeking some form of light. Even so, due to a smartly written script and engaging performances, the film manages to remain compelling, even when its sadness can be overwhelming. 

All My Puny Sorrows premiered at TIFF ’21 on Saturday, September 11th, 2021.

F9 – The Fast Saga: Getting Ludacris

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The ninth episode in the Fast & the Furious stream of action flicks takes our crew of car thieves-turned-government-heroes into space. Seriously. Your ability to appreciate the film depends on how you read that first sentence. It’s either a recognition that when you jump sharks, you keep looking for the next shark to jump, or you call it quits and go after a different target. (Word on the street is that Vin Diesel wants the next film to involve time travel. Is that Back to the Fast Future?)

Old problems and family issues rise up in F9, as Dom Torretto (Diesel) discovers that his estranged brother Jakob (John Cena) is mixed up with Cipher (Scarlett Johansson), who is back to cause trouble for our heroes. First, she crashes Mr. Nobody’s (Kurt Russell) plane, and then sends Jakob to recover some black ops tech that the team acquires. Han (Sung Kang) isn’t dead. Queenie Shaw (Helen Mirren) gets involved. And did I mention they go to space? To stop a massive satellite that Cipher’s sidekick (Thue Ersted Rasmussen) sends up to hack worldwide computer systems? The stakes have never been higher!

The film has its spectacular moments, with fistfights on tanks and crazy electromagnets, but it’s still the witty dialogue that really draws the audience in. The melodrama aspects are so soapy that they’re almost funny, whether they’re intended to be or not, but the action is top-notch stunt-oriented, to the point where it seems like Furious and Mission Impossible are trying to settle a neighborhood bet about who can outdo whom.

With the theatrical and extended cuts, Universal has released the Blu-ray that includes a gag reel, commentary from Justin Lin (director, co-writer, producer), a look at John Cena’s love for supercars, and featurettes like “Practically Fast,” “Shifting Priorities,” and “Justice for Han.” With the tongue-in-cheek and laugh outloud, it’s begging for Universal to take the meme and make it reality: “Fast 10: Your Seatbelts.” (Right before Doc shows up driving the DeLorean.)

C’mon, guys, it could totally work!

TV Roundup: Mare of Easttown, NCIS: NO, Seal Team

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Mare of Easttown was an unexpected gem, first telecast on HBO Max and now available via DVD. Over seven episodes, Kate Winslet’s detective Mare Sheehan navigates the troubling world of her hometown, where she once starred on the basketball court for her high school, and now lives in a tenuous web of family and relationships. When a young girl is murdered, just a year after another teenager disappeared, Sheehan’s grief over the loss of her son and her alcoholic self-medication threaten to derail her career, and crush what remains of her life. With Julianne Nicholson, Jean Smart, Guy Pearce, and Evan Peters, Winslet turned in a performance that helped the show net sixteen Emmy nominations, and win four. Winslet provides terrific soul in revealing gradually all of the layers of humanity, motherhood, addict, and detective in a searing performance that makes for must-watch television. While lacking in special features, the DVD delivers the complete, gritty arc over seven episodes, for fans of True Detective and other “complete” mystery storylines.

In its final season, Scott Bakula’s SAC “King” Pride fights for sixteen episodes to clean up crime on NCIS: New Orleans, a NCIS-spinoff that ran for seven seasons on CBS. In a season that touched on the impact of COVID-19 and wrapped up the arc started in season one involving Callie Thorne’s criminal Sasha Broussard, fans are treated to a completion of the story begun when NCIS included a two-episode introduction during the eleventh season of the original in 2014. On the DVD, special features include “Season 7: Pride and Joy,” “The Best of Times,” and “Perfect Pair,” to accompany the action of Pride’s crew takes against those who threaten the peaceful, easy feeling of The Big Easy.

Just in time for the fifth season, Seal Team Season Four arrives on DVD with all of the David Boreanaz that audiences are hoping for. When Boreanaz left Bones to become the leader of the Bravo team, Jason Hayes, audiences tuned in to see what would happen, and the squad including Neil Brown Jr., A.J. Buckley, and Max Theriot have not disappointed. While previous seasons took a longer look at Brown’s Ray Perry, this one gives more insight into the lives of Spenser and Quinn when they’re not out on a mission. Audio commentary, deleted scenes, and a trio of special features (“Brothers in Arms,” “Meeting of the Minds,” and “If You Build It”) highlight the DVD, while Boreanaz writes an episode in addition to the one he directs.