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Nina Wu – The Dark Side of Success

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“I really can’t take it anymore. You’re not only destroying my body, but my soul.”

An actress gets the roll of a lifetime in the Taiwanese film Nana Wu, directed by Midi Z. But while it may be a dream come true, it creates nightmares that she must try to figure out. What she discovers will put her career into a completely different light.

The title character (played by Wu Ke-Xi, who co-wrote the script) has spent eight years eking out a career doing bit roles. She is offered a leading role, but is a bit unsure because it involves nudity and a sex scene. Her agent tells her that she’s free to turn it down. But he also notes that this is an excellent role—the kind that can make a career.

We watch as the film is made, seeing occasional abusive behavior by the director. When the film is finished everyone thinks a new star has been found. Meanwhile Nina returns to her small hometown where she is reunited with her former lover who is still acting in a production of The Little Prince done for school children. When she returns for pre-opening publicity, she is pressed about the sex scenes of the film. She responds by stating she is a professional actress.

While on the trip, she begins to have nightmares—usually featuring the color red and frequently involving hallways (which also play a role in the film she was starring in). As we watch these nightmares (and some daytime events that may or may not be real) we sense that there is something from her past that is trying to find its way into Nina’s consciousness. Little by little, Nina begins to piece together the memories that reveal the true nature of her experience.

It is of interest that the quote I open the review with is a line from the film within a film. We hear Nina practicing the line before auditions. We also see her deliver the line in what is obviously a key scene of the film she is making. That line serves to help us understand not just the character Nina is portraying, but the feeling that is within her that is struggling to make its way to the surface.

In press notes, Wu Ke-Xi references stories involving the Asian film industry and the abuse of actresses. These stories were coming to light around the same time that the #MeToo movement began to raise similar issues in Hollywood. These stories highlight emotional, physical, and sexual abuse. This film is a reminder of the scars that such abuse can leave.

Nina Wu is opened in limited virtual cinema locations, expanding to more and to VOD on April 2.

Photos courtesy of Film Movement.

Cowboys – Dad to the Rescue

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Is it kidnapping or liberation? Anna Kerrigan’s Cowboys is the story of a father who is trying to give his child the chance to a potentially fulfilling life. But the only way to do that is to go against his estranged wife’s wishes and do so outside of the law.

Troy (Steve Zahn) and his wife Sally (Jillian Bell) have been separated since Troy was released from jail. Their ten year old child Joe (Sasha Knight) wants to spend lots of time with Joe, and one day alone with him Joe asks Troy to tell Sally that he is a boy in the wrong body. He no longer wants to wear dresses. We have seen that Joe is always sullen when at family functions dressed as a girl and expected to act as such. Sally is not open to this revelation. She keeps trying to force girly things and toys on Joe. Troy and Sally can’t even agree on a pronoun for Joe. Finally, Joe can’t take it anymore and wants Troy to take him away. That night, Troy shows up and Joe sneaks out the window and they’re gone.

Troy leads them up into the Rockies and is headed for the Canadian border. Meanwhile, Sally has called in the police. The detective in charge (Ann Dowd) can tell that there is more to the story than Sally is telling. As she learns more, she wants to help Troy and Joe find a way out of the mess. As the manhunt draws nearer, Troy (who is bi-polar and has lost his meds) becomes more erratic.

The story is told with lots of flash backs that reveal bits of the story leading up to Joe’s coming out. That backstory also includes the reason Troy had to spend some time in jail. We also see that even with the problems Troy and Sally have had, this is a loving family. Joe having to deal with coming out as transgender was a strain that Sally was not able to deal with. It is understandable that one cannot quickly come to understand one’s child as being totally different than what you have known them as.

The film comes up a bit short of its potential. Part of the reason is the part of the story dealing with Troy’s bi-polar issues really doesn’t add much to the story. In some ways it becomes a distraction to the real issue of coming to terms with a transgender child—both for the parents and for the larger community. At the end of the film we see Joe getting on a bus to return to school for the first time. We know that will be a difficult transition as well. There is grace at that point, but we sense that it has been arrived at a bit too easily.

Cowboys is available via virtual cinema through local theaters and on VOD.

Photos courtesy of Samuel Goldwyn Films.

@Sundance – The World to Come

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“You are my city of joy.”

Mona Fastvold’s The World to Come takes us to a world that seems long past, but that reflects many of the same struggles people face today. It is a love story filled with yearning. But it also is a story of confinement and oppression.

Set in the mid-19th century, the story is told by Abigail (Katherine Waterston) who lives on a farm with her husband Dyer (Casey Affleck). She has begun to keep a journal because the ledger Dyer keeps about the farm only speaks of numbers: money, supplies, animals. It doesn’t mention the passions, fears, and griefs of their lives, and they have had many. When Abigail asks if she every shows up in Dyer’s ledger, he replies only when she creates an expense. Abigail is especially suffering from the loss of her young daughter. She says, “I have become my grief.” They are busy with the struggle to survive the winter on the farm, but there seems to be little affection or warmth in their relationship.

Katherine Waterston and Vanessa Kirby appear in The World to Come by Mona Fastvold, an official selection of the Spotlight section at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Vlad Cioplea.

As spring arrives, a wagon goes by with new leasers for the neighboring property. In the few seconds they are stopped, Abigail is immediately drawn to the beautiful young wife, Tallie (Vanessa Kirby). Tallie’s husband Finney (Christopher Abbott) is controlling and demanding. He expects his wife’s submission in every way. He is very free in quoting scripture to underline his belief. Tallie, however, is too much of a free spirit to give herself up, even with some thinly veiled threats.

In time the two women meet and create a very strong bond. Their visits fill the emptiness that each woman is experiencing. Soon Abigail’s thoughts and journal entries are constantly on Tallie. Their visits become more frequent and more intimate. They are obviously deeply in love. But the constraints of the time—and of marriage—prevent them from fully living out that love. At one point, the two women speak of their experience as prison, leading to Abigail referring to the story of King Lear and trying to view this prison (with Tallie) in a positive light. But the darkness of this confinement will in time become annihilation.

While this is the women’s story, the two men are also an interesting contrast. They, too, seem to be trapped by the world. We see that Dyer is interested in all things mechanical. Abigail says he would have loved to followed the natural sciences, but circumstances demanded he go into farming. That inclination to the mechanical and the strict accounting of his ledger may explain some of his emotional distance from his grieving wife. Finney is not only controlling over Tallie, but seeks to convey a superiority over Dyer and Abigail as well. He seems unable to form a real bond with anyone, male or female. We sense that he believes they are all below him.

The film opens in the depth of winter. That reflects very much the coldness within Abigail’s marriage and her personal life. The storms she and Dyer face are not just against the violent weather, but against the emotional tempest they are struggling to survive. As spring—and Tallie—come on the scene, the world becomes much brighter, although there are still deep shadows within the two homes when the two are apart. The gorgeous cinematography and exceptional production design help to convey all this.

The World to Come was spotlighted at the Sundance Film Festival and is coming soon to theaters (where open), then soon after that on VOD.

Photos courtesy of Bleecker Street.

Uncle Frank – The Person You Decide to Be

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Family can be a place of pain or a place of healing. It can be the place we try to escape from or the place we need to return to. It is where we hear words that are like a knife in the heart or like the warmth of a hug. In Alan Ball’s Uncle Frank, it is all of those things.

The story is told from the perspective of Beth (Sophia Lillis), in high school when we first meet her. But the focus is really her Uncle Frank (Paul Bettany). During one of his rare visits to their southern family, Beth is fascinated by Frank and how different he is from the rest of the family. He lives in New York City where he teaches. Beth has no idea why her grandfather (Frank’s father) is so rude to him. When Beth talks with Frank he tells her, “You get to be the person you decide to be or the person everyone else tells you you are. You get to choose.” That conversation changes her life.

(L-R) Sophia Lillis and Paul Bettany star in UNCLE FRANK Photo: Brownie Harris Courtesy of Amazon Studios

Beth heads off to New York for college. When she crashes a party at Frank’s apartment, she discovers that he’s gay and has a long-time partner, Walid (Peter Macdissi). When Frank gets a call to tell him his father died suddenly, he and Beth drive down to South Carolina for the funeral. Frank doesn’t want Walid to come because he doesn’t want his family to know he’s gay. Walid, knowing that Frank will need his support, rents a car and follows them. In time the three of them are on a road trip.

As Frank talks with Beth on the trip, he recalls his youth and the discovery of being gay. It was young love, but it also carried a great deal of condemnation from church and home. After the death of his first love, Frank has carried guilt and shame all these years, even though outwardly he seems comfortable with his life (at least while he is in New York). But when his father’s will surprisingly and cruelly outs him, his emotional turmoil overwhelms him.

SOPHIA LILLIS, PAUL BETTANY and PETER MACDISSI star in UNCLE FRANK

It all goes back to that conversation between Frank and Beth about choosing who you will be. In New York, Frank is the person he has “decided to be”, but does not live that out when he comes home. His father has always looked at him with shame and loathing—that is what society says Frank should feel. When at home, that is who he becomes. That serves as a kind of demonstration of the way pride and shame often play out for LGBTQ people. They may go to gay pride events, but remain closeted to the people closest to them.

(L-R) Lois Smith and Margo Martindale star in UNCLE FRANK Photo: Brownie Harris Courtesy of Amazon Studios

However, Frank may be surprised by how his family responds to his sudden outing. The revelation may be hard for them, but these are people who have loved him his whole life. They may not be able to put that into words well, but it comes through clearly. There is a nice supporting cast that makes up this family, including Margo Martindale and Stephen Root as Frank’s parents, Steve Zahn as Frank’s brother and Beth’s father, Judy Greer as Beth’s mother, and Lois Smith as Frank’s Aunt Butch. While not everyone is welcoming to this news about Frank, there is grace that comes out in various ways.

Uncle Frank is available on Amazon Prime.

Photos courtesy of Amazon Studios.

Ammonite: Reigniting the Spark of the Soul

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Set in the 1840s, acclaimed palaeontologist Mary Anning (Kate Winslet) continues her daily search for fossils along the harsh coastline of Lyme Regis. Although she has made significant contributions to the scientific community, she is now largely ignored by the male-dominated historical society and spends her days looking for common fossils to sell to rich tourists. When wealthy visitor Roderick Murchison asks Mary to care for his young wife, Charlotte (Saoirse Ronan) in his absence, she begrudgingly accepts due to her financial needs. However, as Mary and Charlotte spend more time together, their mutual support for one another starts to bring their hearts back to life. As their friendship turns into a passionate love affair, the two women’s lives are irrevocably changed.

Written and directed by Francis Lee (God’s Own Country), Ammonite is a slow burn of smoldering sensuality. Based on the life of Mary Anning but not on true events, the film is an interesting look at a historical context without feeling forced to recreate actual events. As a result, Lee’s film is an intriguing mix of fact and fiction as he manages to tell a story that seems to flesh out the experiences of women during the 19th century yet also maintains his creative license to explore the modern female voice as well.

While period pieces can become tropes unto themselves, the performances in Ammonite help to elevate the film above other more recent examples. Both Ronan and Winslet have genuine chemistry onscreen and each unspoken glance offers more passion than any flurry of poetic words. Both women are excellent together onscreen yet it’s Winslet that is absolutely remarkable as the emotionally stilted Mary. Anchoring the film with her performance, Winslet says few words yet communicates much. Like the fossils that she uncovers, Mary too is frozen in time and requires gentle care to free her soul from her hardened emotional shell. As such, Winslet brings a complicated subtly to the role that reveals both an inner strength and underlying fear.

While the film’s sweeping romance remains the focal point of the narrative, the empowering of women in the midst of a toxically masculine society is telling. Having both been taken advantage by men in different ways, Mary and Charlotte have both been silenced by their culture. Though the effects of Charlotte’s abusive relationship are much more visible, Mary too has been neglected by the male-dominated historical society that features her work. As such, both women have lost their voices at the hands of others. As they begin to carry one another’s burdens, sparks of life begins to resurface within them and their spirits lighten.

photograph by Agatha A. Nitecka/RÅN studio

While Ammonite uses this spiritual resurgence to emphasize their sweeping romance, the joy that stems from feeling heard and seen by another is far more important. By highlighting the healing power of relationships, the film serves as a reminder of the value of each human soul and how easily they can be trampled on by the ignorant and selfish. Then, when their sexual journey finally comes together, their affair stems not merely from some base, animal attraction but from the fact that both women have empowered one another in ways that have restored their souls. In this way, Ammonite recognizes that genuine intimacy and mutual support is far more life-giving than raw physical attraction and celebrates the spiritual spark that such relationships bring.

While the film may not be for everyone, there is something poignant about Ammonite that stays with the viewer after the film is complete. As Mary and Charlotte’s relationship blossoms, their love carries an intimate beauty that is often missing from today’s romance films. Like each fossil that the women, Lee shows the viewer that the heart can be restored once again, even when it has been embedded in the muck and mire.

Ammonite is in select theatres now and will be available on VOD in early December. 

Tuesday at AFIFest 2020

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AFIFest 2020 Presented by Audi has teamed up with NBC News to present the Meet the Press Film Festival, programs of short documentaries about issues facing the world. Today I took in the program entitled “Justice for All” which included three shorts.

My Brother’s Keeper (22 minutes), directed by Laurence Topham, is the story of Mohamedou Slahi, a Guantanamo detainee for 14 years, and Steve Wood, who as a Marine was assigned to guard him. In their time together, they developed a friendship. After Slahi was released (he was never charged with a crime), he went home to Mauritania. In this film Wood makes the trip to visit his friend.

Laurence Ralph uses animation in The Torture Letters (13 minutes). The film is a series of open letters to various victims of police violence in Chicago. That violence ranges from intimidation and harassment to violence that can lead to death. The use of animation makes it possible for us to better understand that such abusive behaviors by police are indeed torture. An interesting connection to My Brother’s Keeper: In the Q&A after the films, Ralph noted that one of the people who tortured Slahi was a Chicago police officer.

Can fight solve problems? In Lions in the Corner (9 minutes) Paul Hairston introduces us to Chris Wilmore (known to most as Scarface), a past felon with a very difficult childhood who runs Street Beefs, a backyard fight club in which people with issues come and fight it out rather than solving problems with guns of knives. In the process he has created a community of people who have found a place where they can find respect. Often the battles in the ring serve to vent the anger, but also create a bond between former enemies.

Twin brothers Arie and Chuko Esiri bring us Eyimofe (English title: This is My Desire), the stories of two people seeking a better life away from Nigeria. Set in a Lagos slum, the stories of Mofe and Rosa are told sequentially (although their paths cross at a few points). Both are trying to gather the necessary paperwork (all of which requires money) to emigrate to Europe. But events do not work well for them. Mofe loses his family and then his job. Rosa, who is seeking to take her younger sister Grace with her, struggles to fend off the advances of her landlord, while navigating an unscrupulous woman who will pay for their trip (but at a great price). The film shows us the struggle, the hope, and the desperation of those in or near poverty. The colors and customs we observe provide a sense of ethnography set within the narrative.

Jacinta and Rosemary at Maine Correctional Center, 2016. Photo © Jessica Earnshaw.

Jacinta is a heartbreaking documentary from Jessica Earnshaw. We first meet the young woman named Jacinta as she has a month left on a nine month sentence in the Maine Correctional Center, where her mother Rosemary is also incarcerated. It follows her after he release through times of hopefulness and despair. Jacinta is an addict who isn’t able to fight her addiction very long. The first trigger is when she reconnects with her daughter Caylynne. The emotions are too much for her so she retreats into getting high. The spiral continues. But all this is tied together by mother/daughter relationships—Rosemary and Jacinta, and Jacinta and Caylynne.

Earnshaw has incredible access both inside the prison and in the personal lives of Jacinta and her family. It creates a very honest film about addiction and its consequences. That can be heartbreaking in itself, but it is even more so as we learn about Jacinta’s youth and her relationship with her mother (whom she still loves and idolizes) and also see the bond that Jacinta has with Caylynne and how Caylynne deals with all the things in her mother’s life. A very moving and powerful film.

Heidi Ewing is better known for documentary filmmaking (Jesus Camp, The Boys of Baraka, and Detropia), but brings her first narrative feature, I Carry You with Me, to the festival. It is based on the story of Iván and Gerardo, to young men who fall in love in Mexico. Iván has a son, but when it is discovered that he is with another man, he is forbidden to see his son. Iván works in a restaurant and is trained as a chef, but cannot get past dishwashing. He decides to “cross over” to the US. He expects to find good work, but only can get the most menial of jobs.

Eventually Gerardo joins him and they struggle together until luck gives Iván a shot at his dream. Through the years Iván and Gerardo eventually find a good life in New York City. They are even able to be openly gay and share in Gay Pride events. But they are cut off from their families. They can never go back, or they may not be able to return. This is at once a decades-long love story and a commentary on the lives that many people are living in our midst.

Sunday at AFIFest2020

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As AFIFest Presented by Audi continues to unfold, each day new films are being opened for viewing. During normal years, most films would play a couple times during the week. That challenge was to find the day and time that you could fit things. This year, I get to pick and choose the order I see films in each day. The lack of a rigid schedule is a plus for having a virtual festival. On the negative side, you don’t get to hear people saying how good something was so you can add it to your list to see.

Writen and directed by David Carbonier and Justin Powell, The Boy Behind the Door is a taut thriller. It is the kind of film that might, in normal years, be presented in a selections of Midnight films. Bobby and Kevin are best friends and dream of growing up to head off to someplace different from their home. They dream of California. But then the two boys are kidnapped. Bobby manages to escape, but he cannot leave Kevin behind. He is soon playing a cat-and-mouse game with the kidnappers as he tries to locate and free his friend. The film maintains a constant tension, with a few moments that make you jump. There is a fair bit of blood and violence, which for some people would be a plus, for others a turn-off. Bobby is the more resourceful of the boys, but he must also rely on Kevin for them to succeed. When one needs the other, these friends will do whatever is needed to save the other.

Japan’s Under the Open Sky, directed by Miwa Nishikawa, tells us of a man who, after spending the last 13 years in prison, is trying to adjust to the outside world. Masao Mikami has served his sentence for murder and returns to society. He vows that this time he will go straight. A lawyer serves as his sponsor and helps him get set up with welfare and a place to live. Mikami wants to make his own way, but there are challenges for an ex-con trying to find work. He is contacted by Tsunoda, a TV director, who is interested in helping him find his mother, who abandoned him as a child. The producer of the story wants something more interesting—using his gangster background to set him up to fail. Mikami was known as a brawler and has trouble keeping his temper in check. But he also manages to collect a group of people who care about him and help him find the chance of success in the outside world.

The dangers of recidivism as common for those who are released from prison. If they do not have access to jobs and help, the life of crime seems like an obvious choice. Tsunoda wants to write about Mikami as “an ordinary man” The world may not pay much attention to ordinary people, but for Mikami to fit into the role might actually be extraordinary.

(L-R) Paul Bettany as “Frank,” Sophia Lillis as “Beth,” and Peter Macdissi as “Wally” in UNCLE FRANK Photo: Brownie Harris/Amazon Studios

Family can be the source of pain or healing—and often both. In Allan Ball’s Uncle Frank, Beth Bledsoe (Sophia Lillis) has grown up in rural South Carolina, where she doesn’t really feel like she fits in. On the rare occasions that her Uncle Frank (Paul Bettany) visits from New York City, she is drawn to how different he is from her family. He counsels her to be who she wants to be, not who others tell her she is. She heads to New York for college, and to get to know Frank better. Crashing a party at Frank’s home, she discovers that he is gay. His partner Walid (Peter Macdissi) is the embodiment of kindness.

When Frank’s father dies suddenly, Frank and Beth drive together to the funeral. Walid follows separately because Frank doesn’t want the family to know about him. The three of them will have to face many of the pains of Frank’s past, especially after he is involuntarily outed. Those demons include a sense of guilt about who he is, which has led him to live with his self-loathing all these years. The film is set in 1973 when such closeting was even more prevalent than it is now. Frank’s advice to Beth to be who she wants to be was much harder for him to live out himself.

Inside Out 2020: I am Syd Stone

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Written and directed by Denis Theriault, I Am Syd Stone is a coming-of-age (of sorts) mini-series that follows the emotional journey of Syd Stone (Travis Nelson), an celebrity heartthrob who is constantly stopped by fans who want take a selfie with their idol. Though he exudes masculinity, Syd is at war within himself as he struggles with his sexuality. When his career slows down, he finds himself in a small town, shooting a B-movie that he despises. Sitting at the hotel bar, he meets Matt (Benjamin Charles Johnson), a lawyer who’s in town for a trial and the two men are instantly attracted to one another. As the two men begin a passionate affair, the life that Syd has built for himself is threatened to crumble in the wake of his personal revelations.

Anchored by strong performances from leads Travis Nelson and Benjamin Charles Johnson, Syd Stone is a beautiful character portrait of a man lost within himself. Theriault’s decision to let the camera repeatedly sit on Nelson’s face as he wrestles internally is both uncomfortable and fascinating to watch. Though he says nothing, Nelson’s work here says volumes. For the most part, the film’s pacing operates on a slow burn and even feels like a one-act play. (In fact, the first 5 episodes are so well scripted that, admittedly, the finale feels somewhat jarring. Though well-done in its own right, it simply can’t match the intensity of the rest of the piece by expanding the world so rapidly.)

Passionate and intense, I Am Syd Stone is an incredible picture of a man who needs to decide (or admit) to himself who he intends to be. Theriault’s work here is simple yet effective and showcases the challenges of accepting one’s self in the present, regardless of the damage that has been done in the past.

I am Syd Stone is currently streaming at Inside Out 2020.

Inside Out 2020: Dating Amber

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Set in 1995, Dating Amber tells the story of Eddie (Fionn O’Shea), a young Irish teen who is struggling to come to grips with his closeted sexuality. Growing up in a home with a military father, expectations are high that Eddie will follow in his dad’s footsteps and join the military. However, Eddie’s life changes when he meets Amber (Lola Pettigrew), another gay youth who has yet to come out. Pressured by his peers to get involved sexually with the girls, Eddie suggests to Amber that they pretend to date in an effort to fit in with the other youth. While the ruse works at first, soon their desire to be themselves begins to cause tension and they must decide whether speaking the truth is worth the cost.

Written and directed by David Freyne (The Cured), Dating Amber is a fun coming-of-age story that entertains as much as it engages. With a sharp wit and strong sense of purpose, the film charms with its characters and humour yet neither does it shy away from the complexities of young hormones. Featuring a charismatic cast of youth, Amber pops with energy and life as it explores the challenges of adolescence and sexual exploration. Though their onscreen relationship may be fake, stars Fionn O’Shea and Lola Pettigrew have genuine chemistry together as they support and challenge one another throughout their emotional journey.

Endearing and poignant, Dating Amber is an loveable film about what happens when the innocence of youth collides with the harsh pressures of an unfeeling world. As Amber and Eddie grow more comfortable with themselves, the film serves as a reminder that, when we own who we are made to be, it enlivens the soul.

Dating Amber is currently streaming at the InsideOut Fest.

TIFF20: Good Joe Bell

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Directed by Renaldo Marcus Green, Good Joe Bell tells the true story of Joe Bell (Mark Wahlberg), a loving husband and father from the American Heartland. The picture of traditional manhood, Joe’s conservative worldview is threatened when his son, Jadin (Reid Miller) tells him that he’s gay. After Jadin is bullied mercilessly at his high school, Joe sets out on a mission across America to speak to school groups, communities or anyone who will listen about the corrosive dangers of bullying. However, as he sets out on his journey, Joe must also confront his own inner demons in an effort to be fully transformed by his experience. 

Good Joe Bell is a timely look at what means to be truly changed from within. By telling the story from Joe’s perspective, the film effectively delves into inner biases that create a dangerous culture of oppression, as opposed to merely citing examples. Known for action blockbusters and comedic roles, Wahlberg is not generally known for subtly within his work yet his performance as Joe feels both personal and authentic. As Bell, Wahlberg offers an honest portrait of a man searching the very depths of his soul for new understanding. 

For this reason, the beauty of Good Joe Bell is that it feels so much larger than Joe himself. Structurally, the story may be a tale of one man’s attempt to confront his own prejudices out of love for his son, it also serves as an example of a Conservative culture in dire need of doing the same. Moving and sincere, Green’s story of a man who understands the need for change within his own life comes at a time when Joe’s voice needs to be heard.

After all, though his walk is his own, Joe’s journey to redemption could be anyone’s.

Good Joe Bell is currently streaming on the TIFF Bell Digital Theatre during the Toronto International Film Festival.