Food Inc. is the latest documentary/expose of corporate finagling within the food industry. By buying a ticket, you are paying for a dose of depression and guilt, both of which you get in spades, but you also get a multi-layered and valuable insight into a very real and unmonitored problem. Oddly enough, what gives the film special credence is Eric Schlosser’s (author of ‘Fast Food Nation’) unabashed claim that his favourite meal is still a hamburger and chips. Obviously, this isn’t some vegan polemic, as all foods get the same treatment.
BY MATTHEW MCKERNAN
www.queensfilmtheatre.com
With the Oscars less than a fortnight away, audiences must exercise caution when choosing a film to go and see. Oscar dramas are a tricky class of film. Taking as an example last year’s Oscar race, for every ‘Gran Torino’ and ‘Frost/ Nixon’ there was a ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’ or ‘The Reader’. If you’re lucky, you could get something moving and riveting. If unlucky, however, you might end up with a dull movie with terrible Oscar clips (the scenes in which venerable actors give loud and annoying bravura performances), which merely serve to startle you back into lucidity. The Last Station, oddly enough, falls between these two stools.
‘Adoration’ is the new film by Canadian-Armenian auteur Atom Egoyan, a director held in high regard by the art house crowd. His latest is a puzzle box of a movie that looks at terrorism with a complex and thought-provoking approach. It tells the story of Simon, a student, raising a kerfuffle when he presents the tale of a botched act of terrorism as the work of his own father. Egged on by Sabine, his French teacher, he develops the story, which spreads across the internet. Opinions get more and more reactionary and the situation soon spirals out of control.
The new film from Jean-Pierre Jeunet, of ‘Delicatessen’ and ‘Amelie’ fame, features quirky comedy, a plethora of weird characters and a political message. Through its comedic story, we are introduced to the homeless Bazil (Dany Boon), who takes revenge against two warring arms traders, both inadvertently responsible for his troubled existence. One produced the mine that killed his father; the other produced the bullet now lodged in Bazil’s brain. Assisting him in his seemingly futile mission is a diverse group of seven second-hand dealers, the “Micmacs”, each with a unique talent.