In a somewhat sad attempt to get caught up on my VIFF reviews (please forgive me, it was crazy during the festival and I was very, very ill over the long weekend), many of which are still outstanding, I’ll be shortening the majority of them into capsule reviews and expanding on a few others for which I have a lot more to say. So, here we go into round one. Click on the movie title below to skip directly to a particular film.

In this all Canadian edition we’ve got:

Fifty Dead Men Walking
Control Alt Delete
45 RPM

Fifty Dead Men Walking

Earlier this year I caught up with Kari Skogland’s film The Stone Angel (our review), one I thought showed great potential for the up-and-coming director. Skogland’s follow up couldn’t be more different. Based on a novel and the real life of Martin McGartland, a young man recruited by the British Police to spy on the IRA, Fifty Dead Men Walking has all the trappings of a great film, except it isn’t.

The film features some excellent performances from up and comers Jim Sturgess in the lead role of McGartland and Kevin Zegers is excellent as his best friend Sean. It’s the supporting performances that lack a fair bit. Ben Kingsley is mediocre at best as McGartland’s police contact Fergus (his hair was hot topic of conversation after the screening) and Rose McGowan is laughably bad in her Irish accent. But even with the mixed performances, the real problem with the film is that it goes no where mind you, it does so stylishly.

Skogland’s film is pretty to look at, great cinematography from Jonathan Freeman and excellent production design, but it lacks any heart. The story forges ahead yet there’s never a feeling of angst, fear or excitement; something which is particularly hard to swallow when one considers how fantastically dramatic McGartland’s story is. The problem is partly due to the direction but also the editing which badly breaks up the film’s pacing. Compensating for the lack of emotional connection with music doesn’t do the film any favours either and by the time the credits rolled, I was relieved: I’d had enough of the music which drown out nearly every scene.

Fifty Dead Men Walking was the festival’s biggest disappointment for me. Though the film looked great and I had big expectations from Skogland, I was thoroughly disappointed. I may have been on my own: the film took home the Citytv Western Canada Feature Film Award.

Trailer available at Movie Set.

More reviews tucked under the seat!

Control Alt Delete

Continuing to entrench the idea that Canadian film’s are all about weird sex and snow shoes comes a sex comedy from Cameron Labine. Control Alt Delete is as weird as they come. It features Lewis, a guy who can’t seem to get into the sex groove with his girlfriend but manages just fine with internet porn. All seems to be going smashingly well (or as well as one could expect for a guy addicted to online porn) until Lewis takes it a step further and starts having sex with his computer. Yes, you read right: he has sex with the hardware. Things get progressively worse when his addiction turns into a problem at work. I’m sure you can fill in the rest and if you can’t, the trailer below will do the work for you.

One of the reasons Labine’s film is getting so much attention is because it stars Labine’s brother, Tyler Labine of TV’s “Reaper” fame, and to his credit Tyler brings quite a bit to the role of Lewis. He’s immediately likeable and his on-screen charisma is excellent, as are the supporting performances from girlfriends Laura Bertram and Sonja Bennett along with Lewis’ office buddies Keith Dallas and Jonathan Young, but aside from the performances, there’s little to praise about the film.

Though adequately shot, much of the story and dialog feel contrived and the situations that Lewis is forced to deal with are beyond believability and though the same can be said for the basic premise of the film, the package as a whole lacks emotion and what we’re left with is a couple of interesting characters navigating through odd situations which are occasionally amusing but forcibly trying to pull a laugh.

Though the film was warmly received by the Vancouver audience, I’d hedge a bet that the reception was due in large part to the fact that the film’s director and stars are local, I have a hard time imagining the film making a splash anywhere else. The performances are good but not nearly enough to rescue the film from the depths of unfunny and I can’t imagine anyone searching this out – unless they’re big fans of Tyler Labine. All that said, Control Alt Delete is likely to make the rounds across Canada and perhaps even find a small audience but I can’t see the film being as big of a success as Martin Gero’s much funnier and less quirky Young People Fucking.

45 RPM

Dave Schultz’s coming of age story sounded like it could be a lot of fun. Set in 1960’s Goose Lake, Saskatchewan, 45 RPM features two friends, Parry and Luke, who manage to catch the broadcast from a rock and roll station in New York. The station happens to be running a contest: identify the 30 songs in the mash-up clip and win a trip to NY. The duo see this as their way to get out of Goose Lake and make a run for the big city but as expected, things don’t go exactly as planned.

My first thought as the lights went up on this sweet story is that it felt a little too much like a made for TV movie. Though the film is beautifully shot, highlighting some of the gorgeous landscapes of Saskatchewan, it felt a bit too neat and tidy; too clean. Yet, I’ve come back to the film a few times since I saw it, remembering it fondly. Everything from the music and the radio DJ (wonderfully played in short clips and mostly as a voice by Terry David Mulligan) to the sweet love story that underlines Luke and Parry’s friendship (and eventually translates into a mismatched relationship between Parry and Peg , the new girl in town) something about the film nags for a second viewing.

Regardless of how sweet the story and how gorgeous the film looks, the entire project would be a disaster without the great performances from newcomers Jordan Gavaris as Parry and Justine Banszky and though both are good, Banszky is the real star. The young actress is not only tasked with portraying a girl in love with her best friend but she’s also more comfortable dressing like a boy – something which comes into play later in the film.

Though on the surface 45 RPM seems fairly inane, it’s an engaging and entertaining film and, go figure, kid friendly without dumbing down or hiding the bigger issues at play. A surprising treat, this is one to look for in wider release in 2009.