Winner of this year’s Palme d’Or at Cannes, Romanian director Cristian Mungiu’s abortion drama plays out on the big screen as one of those tragedies that must occur every day behind closed doors: Otilia has arranged an illegal abortion for her university roommate Gabita, a process as (seemingly) simple as renting a hotel room, finding a "doctor", and paying him.

Set in a succession of shabby hallways and grey, overcast streets and filmed almost entirely in long single takes, 4 Months’ is almost disconcerting in its scrubbed-raw emotional honesty. The drab sets and verité performances are almost enough to fool you into thinking you’re watching a documentary surreptitiously captured on hidden camera (or, given the film’s

overtones of Soviet-era authoritarianism, maybe CCTV).

Little happens plotwise, but 4 Months isn’t about plot. It’s about the scrupulous observation of a grim social reality. It’s exhausting, enlightening, and brilliantly executed.

100 FILMS AND A FUNERAL
City Centre 9: Thu, Oct 4 (7pm)
****

Based on Michael Kuhn’s memoir of the same name, 100 Films and a Funeral combines talking heads and Monty Python-style graphics to create a primer on how to create a Hollywood studio outside of Hollywood. Thankfully, this fascinating look at the rise and fall of PolyGram Filmed Entertainment suffers only a little from Bob Balaban’s anemic voiceover.

In the early days of movies, Hollywood was the international underdog, but by the 1980s European filmmakers were loudly complaining about U.S. domination of the global industry. Kuhn and PFE changed all that in the 1990s with their inspired idea to run a movie business like the music business and a "local knows best" philosophy. Kuhn’s trick was to spend more money on marketing than on production, but when a little comedy like Four Weddings and a Funeral is going up against Jurassic Park you do what you can to get noticed. What they got was a truckload of money from movies with heart and edge, such as Fargo, The Usual Suspects, Trainspotting, and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.

This is a movie about movies, and missteps like Spice World and Barb Wire notwithstanding, this story of a "cool Britannia" studio with an "excess of good taste" makes for compelling viewing.

AN AMERICAN OPERA
City Centre 9: Sun, Sept 30 (2pm)
**

It sounds monstrous to criticize An American Opera. If ever a film had its heart in the right place, this one does.

But... it’s just not very good. A documentary about the animal-rescue operations in New Orleans and surrounding area in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, An American Opera combines an irritating soundtrack, unstructured, undisciplined storytelling, and vaguely nauseating handheld camera work to tell what should be a moving story, but ends up a confused mishmash.

There are moments, of course, when the subject matter supersedes the film’s weaknesses–when we see some grisly footage from a school, for example, in which hundreds of dogs have been locked up and killed by police with 12-gauge shotguns, corpses blown to pieces.

We see interviews with rescue workers with conflicting agendas, and we understand how the chaos and disorganization that followed Katrina trickled down even to these rescue efforts. Some of the firsthand post-hurricane footage is enough to make the film worthwhile, but only if you’ve got an interest in the subject matter. Otherwise, pass.

BODY/ANTIBODY
Princess Theatre: Sat, Oct 6 (4pm)
***1/2

Kip Polyard (Robert Gomes) is a recluse, an obsessive-compulsive who lives alone in his Manhattan apartment. The apartment has a fixed lease that Kip inherited from his grandmother and, as a result, he pays less than a tenth of its current market value–a handy arrangement when you can’t hold down a job that requires you to go outside. But into Kip’s life comes a free-spirited, seductive new neighbour, Celine (Leslie Kendall). And close on Celine’s heels comes Andy (Frank Deal), Celine’s sleazy, cash-strapped ex–who also turns out to be Kip’s landlord. Coincidence or design? Is Andy trying to win Celine back or is there a more complicated ulterior motive to their appearance?

The performances are refreshingly understated and natural–Deal, especially, is memorably repulsive as Andy. And the direction by Kerry Dye–a young American filmmaker whose only previous feature-film credit is a religious satire tantalizingly named Ultrachrist!–promises more good things to come.

BREAKFAST WITH SCOT
Garneau Theatre: Fri, Oct 5 (7pm)
**1/2

Feeling less like a feature film and more like the pilot for an upcoming series, Breakfast With Scot is nevertheless a likeable enough tale about a somewhat uncomfortably gay couple–Ed, an ex-Toronto Maple Leaf turned sportscaster (Tom Cavanagh, from TV’s Ed), and Sam, a lawyer (Ben Shenkman, from Angels in America)–whose relationship is disrupted by the arrival of an 11-year-old boy more in tune with his sexuality then they ever were. A series of events finds the two pressed into watching over the boy after his mother overdoses on drugs, the two finding to their mutual shock that their little charge is enamoured of all things girly, and absolutely unabashed about it.

Director Laurie Lynd’s breezy little film moves by with ease, but it also suffers from a strained clumsiness that undermines the humour and the excellent performances by the principal actors, especially Noah Bernett as the young titular hero.

CALLBACK
Metro Cinema: Fri, Oct 5 (7pm)
**

Callback is the story of the making of Bloodstain, a (fictional) indie crime movie that landed on the cover of Variety, The Hollywood Reporter and even Entertainment Weekly (apparently it was a slow week for American Idol) as the result of an on-set tragedy. And that’s about all the information we get in Callback’s first few minutes–the rest of the film goes back in time to explain the unique combination of bad luck, big dreams and mental illness that made Bloodstain such a disaster.

Director Eric M. Wolfson (who co-wrote the film with star Michael DeGood) gives Callback a visual polish unusual for a low-budget comedy. But the script’s sensibility is stale, with broadly conceived characters–including a low-level thug with dreams of becoming an actor, and a recently discharged schizophrenic who transforms from a dweeb into an arrogant jerk whenever he goes off his meds–that are like stock figures straight out of ’70s dinner theatre. Ultimately, this first feature may be more of a calling card for cinematographer Megan Schoenbachler than for Wolfson or the rest of his cast.

THE CHRISTMAS MIRACLE OF JONATHAN TOOMEY
Garneau Theatre: Sat, Oct. 6 (2pm)
***1/2

It’s odd–a lot of the beauty in The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey isn’t a result of what is said; instead, it’s found in the spaces where nothing is said at all. It’s found in the strong silence of Tom Berenger, playing lonely woodcarver Jonathan Toomey, and the silent, captivating, snow-covered settings.

Director Bill Clark’s family-friendly film, based on the book by Susan Wojciechowski, follows the relationship of three people who find comfort in each other in the midst of their own suffering as they near the holiday season: Toomey, the little boy who hires him to craft a wooden nativity scene to replace the one his late father gave him, and the boy’s mother, who watches them bond. Christmas movies are one of the most sentimental film genres around–and this particular story is no exception. But despite the tearjerking storyline, not to mention all the references to baby Jesus (and sheep, and cows, and angels), The Christmas Miracle successfully avoids preachiness. It’s no Christmas Story, but it’s got a warm-hearted glow that’s hard to resist.

CITIZEN SAM
Metro Cinema: Sat, Sept 29 (9:15pm)
**

This documentary–a behind-the-scenes account of quadriplegic politician Sam Sullivan’s 2005 campaign for mayor of Vancouver–benefits from the extraordinary access Sullivan granted to director Joe Moulins. Not only does Sullivan keep an ongoing video diary throughout the race, but he allows Moulins to film several intimate, undignified moments from his daily routine that illustrate the challenges he faces simply bathing himself and getting dressed in the morning.

But ultimately, Citizen Sam feels like a huge missed opportunity to explore the rough-and-tumble realities of civic politics. Moulins never explains what issues are at stake in this election for Vancouver, or even what separates Sullivan’s platform from that of his main opponent, Jim Green. We’re told at the start of the film that Sullivan is a huge underdog in the election, but Moulins fails to provide the slightest explanation of how Sullivan accomplished his amazing turnaround in the polls. And while Sullivan’s life story is compelling to read about, on camera he comes across as an oddly uninspiring figure who only comes to life in a brief segment where he envisions himself stomping on Jim Green’s neck.

THE CIVILIZATION OF MAXWELL BRIGHT
Garneau Theatre: Mon, Oct 1 (7pm)
***

When we first meet Maxwell Bright (Patrick Warburton), he’s in his front yard, naked, bloody, and berating his girlfriend about her sexual performance. In short, he’s about as much of an asshole as a man can be. He’s angry at the world–and in particular at the modern American woman, who doesn’t know how to properly respect a man and meet his needs. His solution? Purchase a Chinese mail-order bride, Mai Ling, who will fulfill his fantasies of the ultimate subservient woman. Neither Max nor Mai Ling get what they expected.

Warburton gives a strong performance, and Marie Matiko is truly luminous as Mai Ling. But the film lingers too long in demonstrating what a broken, violent man Max is. If I had gotten just one moment where he behaved like a human being, then I might have been more willing to cheer for him and root for his eventual redemption.

But when that redemption arrives, it’s like Maxwell Bright transforms into a different movie. The first 80 minutes left me angry and frustrated, but the last half hour is beautiful and moving. I admit it: it got to me–I even cried. But between my tears, I found myself wishing that the film could have spent less time on the "before" and more on the "after."

COMMIT
Princess II: Sun, Sept 30 (9:15pm)
**1/2

Commit starts out as a cute date movie and ends as an absurd, extreme exercise in black comedy. Shot in three long takes (about half an hour each), Commit chronicles three consecutive dates between a young couple. The first and second dates take place in a coffee shop as the two riff back and forth, developing a convincingly tentative if obviously scripted rapport. The last date takes place in motel room–but they’re not there for the reason you think they are. An over-the-top, entertainingly ridiculous and well-acted ending makes up for an overly mannered and precious opening. Although you’ve got to wonder what differentiates this from a stage play–given the spare setups and the lack of action (the whole movie is dialogue between two characters), Commit would probably be more effective and intimate as a play.

DANCE OF MY HEART
Garneau Theatre: Wed, Oct 3 (7pm)
****

If you live to be 90 years old, you can only hope to have as much life to look back on as Alberto Alonso, the subject of Ricardo Acosta’s vibrant documentary Dance of My Heart. Alonso is the creator of the Cuban classical ballet style, best known for choreographing the 1967 Carmen Suite, a starmaking vehicle for the Russian dancer Maya Plisetskaya.

Despite his advanced age, despite his failing hearing, and despite being recently diagnosed with cancer, Alonso continues to teach dance every day at the Santa Fe Community College in Florida, and the love and attention he bestows upon his students, not to mention his passion for dance and simply being alive, are genuinely inspiring.

Dance of My Heart is a wonderful portrait of a man who has thrown himself into his art and who has every intention of being thoroughly used up when he dies. It’s a film not just for people who love dance but who simply love life.

THE DOGWALKER
Metro Cinema: Sat, Sept 29 (7pm)
**1/2

The Dogwalker isn’t a bad film, but compared to the rest of the EIFF lineup, it’s not exactly mindblowing either. It’s just a simple profile documentary, one of dozens that the NFB pumps out every year, and nothing more.

This one’s about Edmontonian Michael Borowski, who suffered major head injuries in a car accident when he was six; ever since then, the only thing that’s given him peace is walking the neighbourhood dogs–which he does for hours and hours every day. Borowski’s theories on the Zen of dogwalking are quite interesting, but director Rosie Dransfeld frequently shoves them to the side so that Borowski’s troubled past–and the film’s secret political agenda–can take over.

But if you can overlook those faults, The Dogwalker has a simple charm that will interest anyone who’s ever found comfort in man’s best friend.

DON’T EAT THE BABY
City Centre 9: Sun, Sept 30 (4pm)
*1/2

This documentary needs to decide what it’s about. New Orleans native Todd Berger begins with footage of his devastated city, segues into a defence of Mardi Gras as a family-oriented parade sanctioned by the Catholic Church–apparently those Girls Gone Wild are all out-of-towners with attitude problems–and finally meanders into promising territory: the controversial first Mardi Gras after Katrina.

Unfortunately, Don’t Eat the Baby utterly lacks a narrative arc–as a director Berger seems constitutionally unable to stick to one topic. The footage is pieced together haphazardly, jumping from all-too-brief footage of the parade’s ingeniously crafted floats to anti-FEMA activists to flood-wrecked houses, to countless bureaucrats, merchants and citizens, including an enraged law professor ranting about conspiracies, his already-dubious credibility completely undermined by the unexplained hazmat suit (beekeeper’s uniform?) he’s wearing. Berger apparently felt compelled to include every piece of footage he could film, relevant or not; too bad he couldn’t take his own advice and throw out some of those babies.

DOWNTOWN DAWGS: ROAD TO THE HOMELESS WORLD CUP
City Centre 9: Sun, Sept 30 (9:15pm)
***1/2

It’s quite the concept: take homeless men, coach them in soccer, and bring them to Cape Town, South Africa, for an actual Homeless World Cup. Filmmaker and ex-national soccer team member Mike Scullion follows the personal trajectories of a quartet of Calgarians–Adam Vernon, Shawn McLennan, Mike Morgan, John Gagnon–struggling to beat their various problems and make it off the street while committing to a tough physical regimen from their coach. They bicker, fight, fall back into drugs and alcohol, fall off from the team, and question their own abilities as they progress through training and an early match against a team from Winnipeg.

Watching them grasp at this chance for some kind of redemption is as heartbreaking as it is riveting, but Downtown Dawgs isn’t the kind of movie that offers a neat and tidy story arc–it’s frustrating and bewildering to watch the missed opportunities among the triumphs, but never once do you want to turn away from the screen.

THE EDGE OF HEAVEN
Garneau Theatre: Tue, Oct 2 (9:15pm)
***

This Turkish-German entry is lean, subtle, heart-wrenching, and just a wee bit boring. Set in Germany and Turkey during a bayram (a non-national and non-denominational holiday), we meet Hamburg University professor Nejat in Bremen, where his dad still visits hookers. Pretty soon one of these pros is moving in, a decision that sets the stage for a convoluted tale of family deceit and endangered friendships.

Unfortunately, the characters are too spare to evoke much sympathy or understanding. At times it feels deftly plotted, and other times suffers from Kitchen Sink Syndrome. Is it a political movie? A love story? A thriller? A family drama? We’re not really sure.

Germany has the largest Turkish expat community in Europe, and at last count, the Turks account for more than 26 per cent of Germany’s foreign population. The ongoing conflicts over integration and assimilation, as well as the increasing ties between the two countries, are interesting enough script material on their own without adding mafia thugs and German jail cells.

THE END
Princess II: Thu, Oct 4 (9:15pm)
***

Calgary filmmaker Jeremy Thomas’ ambitious digital feature is better than you’d expect from the manifest cheapness of its opening moments, but it takes a while to get going and never does manage to find the right balance of humour, tension and irony.

Mild-mannered high school teacher Joseph is beset by cryptic visions that could help stop a masked maniac terrorizing his town. His cop girlfriend thinks he may be descending into schizophrenia, but she can’t ignore the possibility that Joseph’s increasingly bizarre view of reality is her best chance at rescuing the maniac’s next victim. There’s a disconcerting, dreamlike illogic to the proceedings and some promising conceptual twists, but the movie looks and feels flat, and the suspense elements of the story–such as they are–are hobbled by Thomas’ awkward pacing.

FORFEIT
Princess Theatre: Sat, Sept 29 (4pm)
***1/2

This oddball neo-noir, concerning a heist that’s even more elaborate than it first appears, is ornamented with memorably strange characters, unexpected humour and well-judged performances that pull the complex storyline all together.

John Rafter Lee’s quirky script details the machinations of tight-assed loner Frank (Billy Burke) as he maneuvers all the pieces into position in his plan to knock over the armoured car he’s supposed to be guarding. But the real tension comes out of mounting evidence that Frank is deeply disturbed–most vividly the intense arguments he starts having with the television evangelist whose sermons closely reflect the details of Frank’s personal life. Twisty and twisted, Forfeit is a quite acceptable entry in the crowded "shoestring indie thriller" genre.

GHOSTS OF CITÉ SOLEIL
City Centre 9: Mon, Oct 1 (7pm)
***

If you’ve seen the Brazilian film City of God, then you’ll know what to expect from Asger Leth’s troubling documentary Ghosts of Cité Soleil, which uses Haitian brothers and gangleaders 2pac and Bily as the springboard for a "real" account of the poverty, violence and corruption that haunts all of Haiti’s citizens. For the most part, Ghosts of Cité Soleil succeeds in conveying a vivid picture of the tragedies occurring on our doorstep (after all, Haiti is only two hours off the coast of Miami)–like City of God, Cité Soleil doesn’t draw an ethical line between horrors that "shouldn’t" be shown and those that should.

But the film suffers from a certain nearsightedness. For example, I wished Leth had spent more time on the story of Lele, a French aid worker who has had to befriend some of Haiti’s most feared gangleaders simply to provide them with counseling and aid. It would’ve been interesting to see more footage of the relationships she (and likely many other aid workers) must forge in order to make even a little bit of difference in a world where hope seems to have been snuffed out entirely.

THE GITS
City Centre 9: Tue, Oct 2 (7pm)
***1/2

Kerri O’Kane’s documentary is a tragic portrait of the Seattle underground punk band The Gits, who were about to get their big break when lead singer Mia Zapata was raped and murdered in July of 1993. The film features interviews with the surviving members of the band, as well as tons of enjoyable live performance footage.

The film does a nice job of tracing not just Zapata’s short life, but the life of the band as a whole, as well as the far-reaching effects of Zapata’s death on her friends and the Seattle music community. Sadly, there is no footage of Zapata when she’s not performing, but we get a good sense of her offstage personality all the same through interviews with her friends and family, through photographs, and through her lyrics. O’Kane neatly splits the film into the story of the band and the story of the investigation into Zapata’s death, including a break in the case that occurred partway through filming and which gave some closure to everyone involved in the project.

Ultimately, O’Kane ensures The Gits will be remembered not for the end of their story, but for their beginnings, their potential captured forever on film and on their albums.

HEART OF AMERICA
Garneau Theatre: Sat, Sept 29 (1am)
**1/2

In 2003, before director Uwe Boll began his series of much-reviled movie adaptations of popular videogames, he made this issue-driven ensemble drama about a Columbine-style school shooting. Of all the films in Boll’s English-language oeuvre (Uwevre?), this may be the only one where you feel like the cast aspires to do more than simply collect a paycheque.

Heart of America came out the same year as Gus Van Sant’s Elephant, and it employs a similar dramatic structure: it takes place entirely within the 90 minutes before the last day of class in an unnamed American high school, with our knowledge of the violence to come lending an air of tension to even the most banal character interactions.

Despite a clumsy drug subplot and the distracting presence of B-movie stalwarts like Clint Howard and Jurgen Prochnow (bizarrely miscast as the caring school principal), Heart of America isn’t the fiasco you’d expect, given the sensitive subject matter and Boll’s, shall we say, abysmal critical reputation. But don’t be fooled by the self-important closing narration (a ponderous enumeration of various real-life school shootings from Columbine to Taber); this is still a straight-to-DVD exploitation movie at heart. But by Boll’s standards, it’s practically The Rules of the Game.

HEAVEN O
City Centre 9: Wed, Oct. 3 (9:15pm)
***

Rare is the cab driver who doesn’t claim to know his city like "the back of his hand," when what they really mean is they know a good shortcut to the airport.

Ray Kottner, on the other hand, probably knows the streets of his hometown better than the back of his hand–or any other part of his anatomy. A New York cabbie for 60 years, Ray currently drives the last Checker cab in the city. (He’s retired, so he offers rides for free in his spare time.) In the summer of 2005, documentary filmmaker Jena Starkes joined him on his rounds to get a passenger’s-eye view of his New York.

The result, Heaven-O, starts off a little shakily, with no clear structure–or even an explanation as to who Ray is. But Ray’s rambling, old-timer’s monologues about local landmarks and history are ingratiating, as are his bemused relations with the other cabbies, mechanics and shopkeepers who comprise his daily circle of acquaintances and colleagues, and especially passengers, all of whom look bemused and privileged to be riding in his black-and-yellow anachronism on wheels. Slight but charming.

HOPE FOR THE FUTURE
City Centre 9: Sun, Sept 30 (noon)
***1/2

By the end of the 1990s, Serbia had lived through harsh economic sanctions, witnessed three civil wars, undergone a severe recession and withstood 78 days of bombing by NATO forces. The heartfelt "videomentary" Hope for the Future follows 32 students from across Canada who travelled to the Balkans "to make the world a better place." "We don’t come from a high-income area," explains one of the wide-eyed young people at the start of the film, "and to raise money for this project was extraordinary in itself."

The trip is part of a program founded by Halifax schoolteacher Hetty van Gurp called Peaceful Schools International, and is designed to create a dialogue between young people from different cultures and social circumstances. It’s all very earnest and high-minded, and the film certainly sounds cloyingly obvious and manipulatively "inspirational," but it’s actually illuminating to see these Canadian kids (some of whom had never even flown before, let alone visited a war zone) responding to the resilience and generosity of their Serbian counterparts.

INLAWS & OUTLAWS
City Centre 9: Thu, Oct 4 (9:15pm)
****1/2

It’s no small feat to direct a documentary about marriage without succumbing to sentimentality or cynicism, but with Inlaws & Outlaws Drew Emery has done just that. He lets his dozens of subjects tell their stories, revealing only gradually, and with perfect pacing, which ones are straight, which are gay, and which of them ended up together. These are love stories so compelling, about couples so charming, it’s a joy to learn how they each–some at great cost and through terrible obstacles–came together. (Even the one divorce story is touching and hopeful.)

Felicia Loud’s cabaret-style musical interludes, and children’s takes on marriage, same-sex unions and divorce playfully and poignantly frame each thematic segment. Emery could be accused, I suppose, of presenting heterosexual marriage unfairly; the straight couples come off a bit feeble in the passion department compared to the gay ones. Still, this optimistic, heartwarming film ultimately celebrates all manner of couples lucky and headstrong enough to nurture their love over a lifetime.

THE INSURGENTS
Princess II: Wed, Oct 3 (9:15pm)
***1/2

What at first seems like a trite and way-too stagy (it has monologues, for Chrissakes) exploration of the political dissonance that followed in the wake of 9/11, The Insurgents soon becomes something much more interesting. A tautly plotted thriller about a group of domestic terrorists, the film, a first by screenwriter Scott Dacko, balances its heart-on-sleeve political exposition with a genuinely involving personal drama about a well-intentioned southern boy (Michael Mosley) and his romance with a would-be American terrorist (Juliette Marquis). The structure seems a little wonky at first, and it isn’t perfect, but the performances are uniformly strong and the ideas consistently engaging–even radical.

KENNY
Princess Theatre: Sun, Sept 30 (2pm)
****

This immensely likeable Australian film follows an unsung working-class hero: Kenny (Shane Jacobson), whose job is to install and maintain Porta-Potties at various public events. Shot in true documentary style, it’s takes place against the backdrop of numerous summer festivals where Kenny performs his down-and-dirty business, with occasional scenes of Kenny interacting with his family and friends.

It’s charming, funny, and full to overflowing with poop and toilet jokes. But somehow, Kenny never descends into "toilet humour"; the gags are never disgusting or at someone else’s expense. Although Kenny has a job that no one even wants to think about, he goes about his work with pride, dignity, and compassion. And while director Clayton Jacobson spends what might seem like an unseemly amount of time explaining the logistics of Porta-Potties, the business of poop turns out to be strangely fascinating. There are funny, heartbreaking, and honest performances throughout Kenny, whose portrait of its good-natured everyman hero is poignant and full of everyday adventure.

LIGHT AND THE SUFFERER
Princess II: Tue, Oct 2 (9:15pm)
****

Based on a story by Jonathan Lethem, writer/director Christopher Peditto’s feature debut follows a recent college dropout and his crackhead younger brother as they steal a drug dealer’s stash to bankroll their escape from New York to California, only to find themselves trapped within easy reach of their vengeful pursuers. Added to which there’s a large, human-faced feline alien following them through the lurid cityscapes of perpetual night.

Somehow Peditto, whose background is in Chicago’s theatre scene, manages to make the brothers’ fraught relationship the centre of his gritty drama. The limitations of a skinny budget and digital shooting format, fortuitously, only add to the films claustrophobic, off-kilter atmosphere. More than the sum of its highly unlikely parts.

THE LIMITS
Princess II: Mon, Oct 1 (9:15pm)
**

The Limits is one of those heartfelt indie films chock-full of promising talent. Some great performances, intelligent writing, and compellingly gritty, simple, cinematography illuminate this collection of interwoven stories set in a rundown motel on the edge of Toronto. But writer/director Ben Mazotta undermines his own ambitions–there’s way too much going on. The plotlines only connect tenuously, and though all of them are compelling in their own ways (albeit some more than others), none are given enough screen time to breathe.

The stories–about a former prostitute turned social worker, a cheating husband, a poor black kid on the run from gangsters, and the immigrant Indian proprietor of a motel–seem engineered to conform to expectations of what a good, properly multicultural modern Canadian film should be, and the unambiguously redemptive finale is dishonestly joyous. Promising, but nothing more.

THE MAN WHO SOULED THE WORLD
City Centre 9: Tue, Oct 2 (9:15pm)
***1/2

Steve Rocco was never a particularly good skateboarder. And in the late ’80s, it looked like his career as a skateboard designer would be similarly inauspicious–funded with a few maxed-out credit cards and a $20,000 loan from a bookie, his company name, "World Industries," was a self-deprecating joke.

But as Mike Hill’s documentary The Man Who Souled the World makes clear, the joke didn’t last long: in 2002, he sold World Industries for $46 million. But Rocco’s main influence is cultural rather than financial: he nurtured the careers of guys like Spike Jonze, Jason Lee and Johnny Knoxville, and shook up the corporate skateboard industry with a blast of irreverent, street-skater fresh air.

Whether you respect those achievements or not, Hill’s film reveals a likable man who is both compassionate and a born leader, someone whose approach to life is so far outside the box that he might not be aware that boxes even exist. There’s lots of footage of skateboarding here–maybe a little too much–but you’ve got to marvel at (and envy) these athletes’ agility, their energy and their intuitive command of their boards. I wish I had a little of Rocco’s business savvy too.

You quit your job, but not just any job–a sweet job as a television producer–to give up everything you know, pack everything you need into a backpack and travel the world for a year. What would that be like?

Director Brook Silva-Braga’s first feature, A Map for Saturday, gives you a pretty good idea. Though this documentary essay might be appreciated most by those who are considering following in Silva-Braga’s footsteps (or perhaps have done so already), anyone can respect the smooth production and editing, not to mention the breathtaking scenery from four different continents. If you’re looking for practical advice on how to get by with only the clothes on your back and ten bucks in your pocket, A Map for Saturday won’t provide it; it’s more interested in capturing the texture of the whole experience, the fleeting relationships Silva-Braga struck with fellow travelers and the isolation he feels in their wake. And when it’s all over, it leaves you wondering how much you really value your clean toilet and the ability to sleep in a place where you’re not surrounded by several other snoring strangers.

THE MEMORY THIEF
Metro Cinema: Fri, Oct 5 (9:15pm)
**1/2

Gil Kofman’s tale of survivor guilt was a big hit at the film festival in my old stomping grounds of Philadelphia. Mark Webber gives a really, really watchable performance as Lukas, a tollbooth operator confused and bemused by life until someone tosses him a copy of Mein Kampf along with their change–whereupon a Holocaust survivor spots him reading it. What follows is a journey into the indie film meat and potatoes of personal identity and madness, with a few stops along the way.

Webber is the standout in this movie, but there are also strong performances from Rachel Miner and Jerry Adler as a daughter-father team who have conflicting ideas about what to remember and what to forget about your past.

It’s hard to tell if Lukas’ quest for Holocaust connections arises from loneliness, rage, spite, boredom or simple curiosity, but he is meticulous and dogged in his search for meaning. It’s like what could happen if an unstable loner volunteered for the Shoah project, and the results are certainly interesting.

MOJAVE PHONE BOOTH
Princess Theatre: Sat, Oct 6 (2pm)
**1/2

Borrowing the structure of Crash (but subtracting the violence), Mojave Phone Booth explores the life, love, and screwed-up relationships of four sets of people in Las Vegas, all connected by the phone booth they use as a kind of confessional. (This may be the most famous phone booth in the world. It stood in the middle of the desert from 1960 to 2000, when Bell removed it, and became kind of a cultural totem. People all over the world would call it to see who would answer, and one unbalanced man spent 32 days there taking phone calls after receiving instructions from the Holy Spirit.

Mojave Phone Booth is a well-made indie film with decent actors (including the underused and still-foxy Steve Guttenberg), but the dialogue is a little stilted. It holds your attention, but it’s fairly superficial. We don’t spend enough time with any of the characters to care enough about their choices, particularly the stupid ones.

It’s a laudable first effort from director John Putch, whose collectivist experiment in profit-sharing among cast and crew has produced an interesting, if at times self-conscious movie.

NAMING NUMBER TWO
City Centre 9: Sat, Sept 29 (7pm)
***1/2

Naming Number Two is one of those cases of a determined actor carrying an otherwise average film on their back, elevating it from a film that’s not-bad to a film that’s... well, not-great, but still a decent way to pass an hour and a half at a local film festival. In the case of Naming Number Two, it’s the always wonderful Ruby Dee who works her magic on what would otherwise be a by-the-numbers tale of familial reconciliation.

As Nanna Maria, the moribund (only physically, mind you) matriarch of a bickering clan of transplanted Fijians in New Zealand, Dee invests a potentially clichéd role with a delicate understanding of the film’s larger theme of generational bridge-building. We shouldn’t like the octogenarian Nanna–and for the first two-thirds of the film, she’s pretty much unbearable–but director Toa Fraser makes her more than just a one-dimensional curmudgeon. (In fact, Fraser hints at her initial steps towards dementia.) Though contrived at points and with an ending many moviegoers will likely find overly neat, Naming Number Two tells a poignant family drama in an intriguingly exotic location. Sometimes not-great is still good enough.

NETHERBEAST INCORPORATED
Garneau Theatre: Sat, Sept 29 (9:15pm)
***1/2

Imagine The Office but with fewer humans and more vampires (and a lot more cheaply obtainable TV and movie stars), and you’ve got Netherbeast Incorporated. With a cast that includes Darrell Hammond (Saturday Night Live), Judd Nelson (The Breakfast Club), Dave Foley (Kids in the Hall), Jason Mewes (Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back), Steve Burns (Blue’s Clues) and Robert Wagner (Hart to Hart), Netherbeast tells the story of a business run completely by bloodsucking creatures of the night... that is, until the CEO falls ill and mistakenly hires a human.

What starts out as a clever business satire turns into a somewhat less interesting whodunit when one of the executives turns up with a stake through his heart, but Netherbeast still contains enough acerbic wit, subtle humor and outlandish characters–not to mention a few amusingly disgusting images of cooked flesh–to satisfy anyone with fond memories of those episodes of Joss Whedon’s Angel TV series involving the Satanic law firm of Wolfram and Hart.

NORMAL
Garneau Theatre: Fri, Sept 28 (7pm)
***1/2

A well-made examination of grief among the denizens of an affluent community, each of whom is coping with the death of a teenager in a car accident. Bereaved mom Carrie Anne Moss walks dazedly through her days, ignoring the rest of her family; drunk driver Callum Keith Rennie lets his own marriage go to smash and takes up with a vacuous weathergirl; best friend Kevin Zegers emerges from juvenile detention into a very dysfunctional domestic setting; various uptight grownups and an agoraphobic autistic man loom in the background.

The emotional agony lurking beneath the surface finally bubbles over in obvious ways that don’t entirely unite the film’s thematic preoccupations, but writer/director Carl Bessai, who served as his own cinematographer, interweaves the stories compellingly and maintains an appropriate mood of stifled remorse.

POSTAL
Garneau Theatre: Sat, Sept 29 (11:15pm)
***

Wildly uneven in its humour and wildly offensive in its subject matter, Uwe Boll’s Postal is hard to defend in terms of quality, but it’s certainly worth recommending to jaded EIFF audiences as sheer jaw-dropping spectacle. Like most of Boll’s films, it’s based on a videogame, but instead of the half-baked horror-fantasy of BloodRayne and Alone in the Dark, Postal is a go-for-broke satire on post-9/11 paranoia, religious fanaticism, the Bush administration and the Taliban that still manages to find room for a scene where Verne "Mini-Me" Troyer gets gang-raped by a thousand monkeys.

The script, by Boll and Bryan C. Knight, isn’t funny so much as it is astonishingly willing to revolt its audience–whether that means showing a window washer at the World Trade Center getting creamed by an airplane... or letting former Kid in the Hall Dave Foley do an entire scene with his robe open and his dick hanging out... or staging a massive amusement-park shootout in which even eight-year-old kids get to die on camera, big, juicy blood squibs exploding from their chests.

Often amateurish, completely indefensible, but utterly unforgettable, you’ll remember Postal long after the Lust, Cautions of this year’s EIFF have faded away.

RIGHT AT YOUR DOOR
Garneau Theatre: Thu, Oct 4 (7pm)
***1/2

Every since 9/11, the entire world seems to be waiting for the other shoe to drop. Right at Your Door lets the Reebok fall in the form of a "dirty bomb" attack in downtown Los Angeles. Trapped in the mayhem are Brad (Rory Cochrane) and Lexi (Mary McCormack).

Although the majority of the film is shot in three rooms of a house, the disaster happening outside is ever-present, thanks to the constant updates provided by an always blaring news radio station. Even though the movie’s "science" is occasionally dubious, its atmosphere of paranoia is always credible–due largely to the fact that it’s told entirely from Brad’s perspective. We are trapped in the house with him, just as shut off from the realities of what’s actually going on, and just as distrustful of the information being fed to him via the steady news updates and the roaming men in camouflage biohazard suits repeating, "Everything is fine. Please stay indoors." While the ending is a little too Tales From the Crypt for my tastes, the fantastic performances by McCormack and Cochrane and the anxiety-filled direction of Chris Gorak explore intimate psychological territory that disaster flicks usually shy away from.

ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS: THE WAY OF THE TOSSER
City Centre 9: Fri, Oct 5 (7pm)
**1/2

This cute mockumentary by April Mullen and Tim Doiron follows competitive Gary Brewer (and his girlfriend Holly) to the 2006 Rock, Paper, Scissors World Championships. In the tongue-in-cheek style of Christopher Guest’s Best in Show, RPS: The Way of the Tosser almost works because of its committed characterizations and its familiar format.

Every time things threaten to get too silly, the film seriously reminds us of the global importance of rock, paper and, of course, scissors. Sincere descriptions of "tosses" like "cup-a-fart" and the "power pump" are brought back to earth with insight from real experts from the World RPS Society (who are holding the 2007 World Championships in Toronto on October 13).

I said the film "almost works"–and that’s because it has competition: Rock Paper Scissors: The Documentary, Mike McKeown’s nonfictional exploration of the professional RPS circuit, which was five years in the making and the first movie to sell out at the Calgary Film Festival last week. McKeown’s rock beats Mullen and Doiron’s scissors.

ROW HARD, NO EXCUSES
City Centre 9: Sat, Sept 29 (2pm)
***

Row Hard, No Excuses isn’t a documentary about two middle-aged friends, John Zeigler and Tom Mailhot, who decide to enter the Atlantic Rowing Challenge, a 3,000-mile race across the ocean that begins in the Canary Islands and ends in the Barbados. Well, it is a documentary about just that–but it’s also a lot more.

The film’s premise immediately presents a big logistical problem for rookie director Luke Wolbach; how are you supposed to document a race that occurs in a rowboat in the middle of an ocean? Wolbach came up with an elegant solution: give each of the 30-odd, two-person teams a portable camera and let them record themselves as their bodies react–or don’t–to being on the ocean for, in some cases, more than 100 days.

More about the midlife crises of Zeigler and Mailhot, the concept of masculinity in today’s society, and chasing your dreams than the actual rowing, Row Hard, No Excuses benefits and suffers from its voyeuristic approach. A candid and naked (sometimes literally) look at "the world’s toughest race," the film doesn’t have enough of an overarching directorial perspective to really do the story justice. But there’s compelling stuff here, and Wolbach knows it.

SHUT UP AND SHOOT ME
Garneau Theatre: Sun, Sept 30 (9:15pm)
***1/2

Writer/director Steen Agro’s film is a slight but tidily expedited slice of black comedy in which a polite, podgy Brit (Andy Nyman) loses his wife and his will to live while on holiday in Prague. His decision to hire a Czech odd-jobber (Karel Roden) with a gold-digging wife (Anna Geislerova) to end his misery doesn’t quite work out as planned, but mayhem and grim slapstick ensue when they run afoul of a vicious gangster with a bulletproof carload of cash.

The whimsical treatment of dark themes feels a bit familiar, but Nyman and Roden make for a watchable and sympathetic mismatched pair, and Agro resists the urge to lapse into gratuitous nastiness for its own sake. Plus, you know, it’s pretty funny.

SPEED DATING
Princess Theatre: Sat, Sept 29 (noon)
****

Speed Dating may sound like a lame chick flick, but it’s probably one of the funniest movies at the festival this year. The film follows 30-year-old James Van Der Bexton (Hugh O’Conor, young Christy Brown from My Left Foot), a distraught and utterly depressed man traumatized by his recent breakup with his longtime girlfriend. In desperation, he turns to speed dating to ease his pain... and that’s when his misfortunes really begin.

Speed Dating is a string of comedic slip-ups involving dangerous run-ins with the law, amnesia and a group of friends whose attempts at helping James out only make matters worse. There’s no cheese, no lovey-dovey emotions, no phony characters or unbearable acting in Speed Dating; rather, it all comes down to one simple guy whose facial expressions (reminiscent of Superbad’s Michael Cera) are alone enough to crack you up.

STARTING OUT IN THE EVENING
Princess Theatre: Sun, Sept 30 (4pm)
***1/2

From the moment ambitious young grad student Heather Wolff (Lauren Ambrose from Six Feet Under) shows up to persuade aging novelist Leonard Schiller (Frank Langella) to let her interview him for her master’s thesis, you know there’s only one way their relationship can possibly play out. Schiller keeps making references to his age and his failing health, but with her red hair, her avid lips, her short skirts, her enticingly patterned stockings and her worshipful interest in his work, she’s simply too ripely sensual to resist.

Heather and Leonard do indeed wind up getting intimate, but director Andrew Wagner (adapting a novel by Brian Morton) depicts their relationship, and its repercussions on Leonard’s daughter Ariel (Lili Taylor, also a Six Feet Under alum) in a satisfyingly nuanced way. The film is perhaps too low-key for its own good, and the dialogue, which wants to sound lofty and intellectual, often merely comes across as mannered, but the stellar cast is always worth watching. Langella, especially, is very moving as a great writer, his novels long out of print, making one final stab at literary immortality.

STRICTLY BACKGROUND
City Centre 9: Sat, Oct 6 (7pm)
***

Jason Connell’s documentary about the confusing world of being an "extra" in Hollywood lacks star power. These extras are indeed necessary to the filmmaking process, but they are an odd group of people who are desperate to be in show business even if they’re virtually invisible. It seems that if you want to be a professional background player, you need a special combination of personal flexibility and flakiness.

There’s a reason these people are extras: they don’t have the talent or charisma to get the speaking roles. Unfortunately, that makes the movie a little boring to watch. For every Clint Eastwood that started as an extra, there are a thousand more banal, pathetic, self-aggrandizing people waiting for their big break.

Unfortunately, Strictly Background lives up to its title. It’s light on the stuff that would bring it into a starring role–gossip, politics, money, sex, back-stabbing. We don’t really want a travelogue of L.A. ("That’s where I did Major League!") or ha-ha-so-funny anecdotes ("My neighbour thought I was a hooker because I was always going out to work in strange outfits"). We want the dirt, and this movie is too clean to be as engaging as it could have been.

TAKE
Garneau Theatre: Thu, Oct 4 (9:15pm)
***

Take, a gray and gritty film from first-time director Charles Oliver, hops back and forth in time as it follows the paths of two strangers heading to a tragically inevitable intersection: Ana (Minnie Driver), a young mother struggling to make a life for herself and her learning disabled son, and Saul (Jeremy Renner), a down-on-his-luck loser who will wind up crippled if he doesn’t pay back a gambling debt by the end of the day. Both characters are holding on to what little they have with all of their might after everyone else in their lives has given up on them. For Ana, this means an extra job and extra time with her son. For Saul, the decisions are more desperate and dire.

While the performances are strong–especially Renner–Take’s pacing is slow and plodding. Fewer closeups of actors’ faces and less time devoted to showing characters driving town around would have helped. The story leads the viewer into familiar themes, but there’s a certain satisfaction in knowing that both characters will ultimately find some form of forgiveness.

THE UNION: THE BUSINESS BEHIND GETTING HIGH
Garneau Theatre: Fri, Oct 5 (9:15pm)
****

This extremely enjoyable Canadian-made documentary provides an in-depth look at the marijuana industry and the conspiratorial campaign big business has led to make sure it stays illegal.

Through narration and interviews, Adam Scorgie sifts through the potential positives and negatives of decriminalizing or legalizing pot, and explain why it would be a practical impossibility to do either without significantly affecting the North American economy.

Scorgie’s enthusiasm is contagious and I get the feeling that the topic of "bud" is one that’s very close to his heart. The Union makes some familiar points: marijuana usage (pot does not kill brain cells, regardless of what the "Just Say No" folks told us), marijuana has very real and very positive medical applications. The surprises come in the scenes where Scorgia demonstrates just how much pot is out there, who has it, and who’s growing it. (Simple answer: everyone.)

While The Union’s subject matter is engrossing, Scorgie and co-director Brett Harvey only undercut their argument with their use of kitschy stock footage from 1950s propaganda films–a by-now-clichéd documentary device which will probably amuse only those watching this film under the influence of its subject matter.

THE WALKER
Garneau Theatre: Wed, Oct 3 (9:15pm)
****

The steely, amoral corridors of power in Washington, D.C provide the backdrop for writer/director Paul Schrader’s newest film, which follows aging companion to wealthy old ladies Carter Page (Woody Harrelson), whose world is turned upside down when he agrees to protect one of his closest friends after the murder of her lover. A witty, charming and safe date for these aging socialites–he’s openly homosexual–Page revels in the superficiality of his existence, with a kept younger lover and a one-day-a-week work schedule that gives him plenty of evenings out.

Schrader’s direction is characteristically cold, but his script takes fascinating turns within turns as Page attempts to live up to the rigid code laid down by his revered senator father. Harrelson is excellent as the poised, ironically detached Page, channelling some of Truman Capote’s southern mannerisms as he scrambles to hold onto some sense of self-worth while wandering ever-deeper into an endlessly complicated conspiracy.

WILD CHICKS
Garneau Theatre: Sat, Oct 6 (noon)
***

Based on German children’s author Cornelia Funke’s Die Wilden Hühner, Wild Chicks follows the five preteen girls who make up the titular gang as they go about their adventures–most specifically, their dealings with their adversaries, a gang of boys named the Pygmies. Saving grandma’s chickens from the woodblock becomes the girls’ main mission, and for that they need the assistance of the Pygmies–who also discover that they actually might need the girls as well.

Wild Chicks is like an updated Disney film from the ’70s, chock full of coming-of-age moments, blooming young love and lots of gently silly comedy; but it’s also unstinting in its depiction of some of the kids’ problems at home.

THE WONDER OF IT ALL
City Centre 9: Sun, Sept 30 (7pm)
*****

The premise of Jeffrey Roth’s extraordinary film The Wonder of It All is simple but stirring: it looks at the lives of the 12 men who, between 1969 and 1972, walked on the moon. That remarkable feat turns out to be not the only thing these men have in common: they all share a similar sense of warmth, wonder and fulfilment.

The film opens with newsreel clips–Martin Luther King, JFK delivering the address that inaugurated the project to put a man on the moon, escalation of the war in Vietnam, Nikita Khrushchev–that richly capture the context of the times. These are familiar images, but the reminiscences of these former astronauts are fresh, revealing and movingly candid–Buzz Aldrin, for instance, talks about his mother’s suicide and his own battle with alcoholism after his return to Earth.

By the end of this absorbing, thoughtful film, Roth has done something special: besides crafting a worthy tribute to these deceptively ordinary-looking men, he’s recaptured the collective wonder and pride that the entire planet felt during NASA’s glory days. It’s a good feeling.

THE YEAR MY PARENTS WENT ON VACATION
Garneau Theatre: Sun, Sept 30 (noon)
****

In 1970 Brazil won its third World Cup, an apparently indelible memory for every Brazilian who lived through it, but especially those too young to have been around to celebrate the first two.

Case in point: 10-year-old Mauro (Michel Joelsas) is excited by the upcoming tournament, but also worried about the fact that he has to leave his home for the alien environs of São Paulo, to be looked after by his grandfather Motel. Unfortunately, unknown to Mauro’s parents, who are fleeing the country for political reasons, Motel has just died. Next-door neighbour Shlomo–and by extension the Jewish community he’s part of–takes on the responsibility of looking after the child, who finds himself embroiled in the social turmoil of the time as the World Cup progresses and the Brazilian team moves on to victory.

A bittersweet, gentle and often amusing movie, The Year My Parents Went on Vacation is also a gorgeously shot reverie on memory, courage and loss.