Hello Destroyer 2016

Hello Destroyer 2016
written and directed by Kevan Funk

Hello Destroyer was the last film of the TIFF Top 10 showing in Vancouver tonight, simultaneously with a screening in Toronto.  That meant that the director wasn't able to attend, but there were 5 guests for the post screening Q&A - one of the producers, Haydn Wazelle, and other members of the cast: Sara Canning, Kurt Max Runte, Paul McGillion, and drum roll ....future most valuable NDN player....Joe Buffalo.

It's a hockey movie, but mostly it's a movie about the toxic trap of masculinity.  Working title of this could have been "It's Hard Being a Hockey Boy", because holy shit it is! Guys have it rough, and they are brutal with each other, and especially brutal engaging in their sport, and to those of their sex who don't keep to the gender lines.

The movie uses the milieu of junior hockey to show how tragically narrow the acceptable parameters that comprise masculine identity are, and the terrible toll such restrictive roles can take.  Also the ruthless capitalism and exploitive nature of sports and industry as a whole is an overarching theme.

In the Q&A, I asked if the inclusion of native iconography in the film was deliberately provocative and the producer said yeah.  The team is called The Warriors, and there's a scene in the beginning where the game star is given a headdress regalia to wear in the locker room after the game as a reward for his prowess as a player.  bleagh.  There's also a character who is NDN - my fav - played in his first feature role by the wonderfully understated and emotive Joe Buffalo.  He's one of the few characters allowed to show compassion for the hockey boy sundered from his team.  After I asked my question about the Native content - he threw it back to me - saying he loved that the team was called The Warriors because a Warrior is a good thing to be, and of course for us NDN's, hell yeah that's f'n right on :D  He asked me what I would have them be called.  I said I didn't know, but then in that so common way, after the moment had passed,  my answer came to me - I would have used Spartans - since they were famous for sacrificing the members of their tribe no longer deemed useful.

It was a sad sad f'n film, and how could it be anything but -  the commodification and exploitation of  athletes and the dearth of allowable human expression our society affords for male identity is so detrimental to the psyches of our men,  and that our boys are currently learning how to contort and  suppress their natural human impulses and needs in order to become the men this system demands is the most pressing and ongoing disaster our society collectively faces - see TRUMP.

More of that provocative NDN content in this scene:

I believe it's getting released in March.  Not sure how wide, or if that's a theatrical run, or on a streaming platform or what, but however it plays, you'll get your chance to see it this spring.

The Five Senses

directed by Jeremy Podeswa (1999)

It took me a few days and 2 viewing sessions to get through this.  I almost quit and came real close to reading up on how it ended, because I felt played by the plot.  I'd already seen this on video, not long after it came out. I didn't realise this until I started it and since I didn't remember it well, inertia kept me watching.  Besides, the write up sounded interesting.  It's about a group of folk representing the 5 senses:  a chef who can't taste, an optometrist losing his hearing,  and so one.  It's just that all these folk are tangentially connected around the story of a missing kid. And I could not remember how that one key element of the plot played out.  Do they find her? Is she okay?  A 3 year old girl goes missing, and fuck you writer, is how I feel about that.  I get a real visceral reaction when flicks put kids at risk as a dramatic device.  It's a cheap tactic that totally works.  I feel exploited but I can't help but get sucked in.  I find it hard to believe I wasn't all that disturbed by this plot element when I first saw it, but it was before I looked after my nieces so I guess that makes some sense.  Anyhow, it was easier to go back to this more realistic drama of child endangerment, after watching the gothic kill the kids excess that was The Woman in Black.

I watched the rest of it after having my hissy fit of not wanting to feel worried about the little girl.  It was good.  I especially liked the Morrissey looking character played by Daniel McIvor.  (Check out his site and wordpress.) He's a freaky and hilarious cleaning guy with an acute sense of smell, who's doing housework for a few of the characters.  He meets up with past lovers so he can smell them, because he can tell if they still love him by their scent.  His search has not been going well when he describes his odd but charming quest to a client, "I don't like calling them lovers because they don't love me."  The client disagrees saying something like, just because they don't love you now doesn't mean they didn't once.

 

It's a Proustian flick, with some very poetic, and insightful sequences.  The ensemble cast does a great job and are totally believable in their scenes, because it's well written and good dialogue is much easier to deliver well.  While the dialogue rings true,  this movie is about more than words obviously, and the non verbal interactions and experiences are really well done too.  It left me thinking about what makes me happy and who and how, and why those questions are important.

 (This trailer is misleading, makes it seem like a romantic comedy, but it's much more melancholic)