Song Sung Blue - Review

Well, Hot Docs is over but my reviews keep coming. I'm off to Las Vegas in a few days so I'm going to keep this preamble short. Concordantly, Hot Docs was great this year but I didn't feel like I really enjoyed it as much as years past. This might have something to do with a deadline at work, or the tragic lack of popcorn at most of the venues I attended. I was very happy, however, to attend the Song Sung Blue screening. I really liked this movie, and not just because I have a deep and embarrassing love for Neil Diamond.

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Song Sung Blue
(USA, Directed by Greg Kohs)

Who knew a film about a Neil Diamond impersonator would be so fraught with pathos and tragedy? I went into the screening expecting to have a few laughs and maybe gain some insight into the competitive world of tribute artists. I didn't expect the sympathy I came to feel for Mike Sardina, his wife Claire, and their family. Based on what I saw, Song Sung Blue was one of the strongest films to screen at this year's Hot Docs. Much like the song in the title, the film stays in your head long after the credits roll.

Of course, Mike and Claire Sardina are pretty unforgettable people. Stationed in Milwaukee, they eked out a living at bars and parties as the duo "Lightning and Thunder". Mike (Lightning), was a completely committed Neil Diamond impersonator and musician in his own right, and Claire (Thunder) provided backup vocals and stole the spotlight with her strong Patsy Cline covers. They were in love with performing and the promise of fame. They had fans who followed them over the years and across the Midwest. On stage, they were an entertaining mix of enthusiasm and corn ball dramatics.

Off stage, however, the Sardina family were unravelling at the seams. Although obviously in love, Mike and Claire went through a bizarre accident that left Claire dependant on painkillers and in a deep depression. As she went so did the family, and the intimate access granted to the film makers (supplemented by home videos) gives a front row seat to the resulting dysfunction.


Without giving anything else away, there is a redemption, of sorts, for the family. Through all the hardships Lightning and Thunder remain committed to their music and to each other. This is a strangely epic story told on a very small, almost suffocatingly close scale. It's an exploration of family dynamics, personal struggle, and even the American dream. It’s a surreal and often strange journey, but one that leaves the viewer with more than just old pop songs to contemplate. 4.5 out of 5.

The TTC Strike - My Calm and Rational Thoughts (honestly!)

I will try to keep this short. Last night I attended a Hot Docs screening at the Rom theatre. After the screening a festival volunteer came in and told us we better get out of the theatre if we wanted to take transit. It was 11:15 and the TTC was going on strike in 45 minutes.

The huge network of buses, trains and streetcars responsible for getting people home safely was going on strike, on a Friday night, with barely an hour’s notice. Few bars, clubs, restaurants, and movie theatres were able to give their patrons a warning. At midnight - exactly when most people start thinking about getting home and sleeping off their fun - the TTC left everyone stranded.

Thanks to our Hot Docs volunteer, we were able to catch one of the last trains going North and made it home with minutes to spare. Then we tuned into CP24 coverage of the strike. We watched drunk (and, as time passed, drunker) citizens trying to hail cabs and call family. There were young women teetering around in high heels, trying to rouse themselves for the long walk home to Scarborough.

Union president Bob Kinnear said, in part, that they didn’t give us a warning because their employees experienced “verbal and sometimes physical abuse” when they gave a warning last time. They were concerned for the employees safety. What about our safety? What about the poor drunk kids who had to hoof it home from the downtown core? A lot of us don’t have family nearby and our friends are also TTC reliant. It’s one thing to know “hey, I can’t go out because the TTC isn’t running”. It’s a whole other thing to realize you can't get home in the middle of the night.

Now, I must make a comment on behalf of the TTC. I know this is a union thing and I don’t want to see TTC employees abused. Verbal and physical assault should not be tolerated. When a TTC employee is injured on the job, I think it’s fair for them to get full pay while they are off work. And all the people who say that TTC employees should be “nicer” and provide unflinchingly cheerful service have obviously never worked with the public. As someone with more than a few years retail experience, I can tell you that employees are just people with the same problems you have, trying to put up with strangers who can be real jerks. Don’t think your metropass bought you indentured servants.

That being said, it has since come to light that the main issue behind the strike was job security for the maintenance staff. Well, here’s a news flash for the union members, everyone is losing their job security. At least TTC staff get good hourly wages, raises, benefits, and pensions. That’s a lot more than most people who rely on the TTC can say about their own employment. You may lose your job? Join the effing club. It’s a new global economy and everyone can be out sourced. We can’t expect any company to take care of us for the rest of our lives.

Finally (did I say this would be short? Sorry), the really sad thing about the strike is how it further damages the goodwill awarded to TTC employees for their service. Most people in Toronto want the TTC to be happy. We keep paying more for our fare. Even when the most drunk and disorderly of us are left stranded on a Friday night, we don’t riot or react violently. We’re mostly nice people but there’s only so much we’ll take. I’m not going to pretend I know all the issues currently plaguing the union negotiations but I do know that it’s time to make the TTC an essential service (and / or privatized). We’re a middle class city full of people who work hard. We just want to get home (and to Hot Docs screenings) safely and without paying more than we can afford. It shouldn't be an impossible, or conditional, request.

Kids + Money, Emoticons - Review

Okay, I'm making up for lost time here. It's like an episode of Star Trek where the past will keep moving faster and faster until it finally meets with the present. And eventually I'll be writing about films before I've even watched them. And then the fabric of space and time will wrinkle and we'll have to send Data into the resulting wormhole. God's speed you lovable android!

That's not going to segue into the docs I'm talking about so.... here's some reviews!

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Kids + Money
(USA, Directed by Lauren Greenfield)

This short film screened before Emoticons on an "all about teenagers" double bill. Much like its succinct title, it focuses mainly on wealthy 12 to 16 year olds in LA, and the way they spend their parent's money. This is a very rich (oh the puns!) and fertile ground for a documentary film. It strikes a definite chord with the audience, especially when you consider the average doc watcher is probably a working class hipster or socially conscious hippie. There is something wonderfully scandalous about a twelve year old owning a $3,000 book bag, and I think the audience really enjoyed their righteous indignation. The sheer materialistic lust exhibited by these rich young things would make Paris Hilton blush. Perhaps appearances have always meant the most to us during our teenage years, but Kids + Money gives us a peek at a much grander level of decadence and greed.

To counterbalance the rich kids, the film also profiles kids from middle class and economically depressed families. These kids are working to help their families survive, but they are not immune to the allure of wealth. In the interviews with one teenage boy in particular, sitting in the back yard of his run down apartment, the film says something almost profound. Here is a boy who is smart and driven, but focused almost entirely of maintaining an image of wealth. He lives a lie, and his envy of the truly wealthy taints everything he does. He would like to stop caring but says that "money really does make the world go round". There is an undeniable truth to that statement. It's easy to criticize kids for being materialistic, shallow, and easily influenced, but they are only following society's lead. Our whole economy is based on consumption and teenagers were practically invented by retailers.

Kids + Money was very enjoyable and quite thought provoking. I appreciated the simple visual style of the interviews and the tight editing. Director Lauren Greenfield let her subjects speak for themselves without interjecting her own views of consumer culture. It's up to us to change our values and the role money has in our children's lives. It's a simple message, but one that's easily forgotten. 4.5 out of 5

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Emoticons
(Netherlands, Directed by Heddy Honigmann)

Emoticons is an hour long film that takes a look at how isolated teenage girls use the Internet. Social networking sites link girls who are bullied, misunderstood, depressed or ignored, so that they can communicate with each other. They play online games, chat, and use web cams to keep tabs on each other's lives. Some of the girls find real friends who give them the support they may lack at home or school. Others use the internet for autonomous advice and entertainment. In all cases, the internet provides an escape from difficult and sometimes painful reality.

Director Heddy Honigmann uses web cams to conduct her interviews, and this is my first criticism of the film. Not only is watching people on a computer visually boring, there is something almost creepy about Honigmann, a grown woman always partially in shadow, using chat rooms to coax her young subjects into telling us why they're lonely. The director has no malicious intent, but nonetheless it play a little close to the description of the internet predator we keep telling kids to beware. What if the director had been a man? Is it okay for teenagers to chat with each other but not, necessarily, to adults (or perhaps it is the absence of adults that sends teens to the internet in the first place)? To be fair, Honigmann also uses traditional in person interview techniques with her subjects, often giving us insight into the teen's social and family situations. In these segments, however, the cinematography remains flat and uninteresting.

The subjects of the film are varied in their particular situations but they share hardships any teenager could recognize. The desire for acceptance while feeling alienated and awkward are universal teenage experiences. The fact that now teens connect over the internet is a valid point, but not very surprising. I don't want to give the impression that I did not relate to some of these kids, or that I was insensitive to their problems. I was just too aware of what I was supposed to feel, with the film giving emotional cues as obvious as a tearful email and slow motion hug. Also, some subjects were forced through to not very satisfying conclusions, while other teens were dropped from the narrative without reason. In the end Emoticons felt as distant to me as, well, an internet chat room. 2.5 out of 5

Anvil! The Story of Anvil - Review

There comes a time in any rock star/blogger's life when they must pick up the pieces of their battered music career/no career and continue to pursue their dreams. I'm a full six days late in starting my Hot Docs blog. The reasons for my tardiness run the gauntlet from "not enough time" to "too much work" to "I'll write a review after I finish this very important sudoku". But I will not give up. Like the metal band Anvil I will not be dissuaded by my age, unpopularity, and the obvious futility of my goals. I will fight another day. ROCK ON!

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Anvil! The Story of Anvil
(Canada, Directed by Sacha Gervasi)

Hot Docs 2008 opened with a pair of films. One was the somber and very well reviewed "Air India 182" about the 1985 airplane bombing tragedy. The other was a film about a largely forgotten hard rock band from Toronto called "Anvil! The Story of Anvil". I choose to attend Anvil, because I'm the type of person who likes my opening night films underscored by wailing guitars. Under the strange dreamy ceiling of fake leaves and giant trees in the Winter Garden Theatre, a packed house laughed, cheered and even cried along with the true story of Anvil. Even if you never wanted to be a rock god, there is something quite touching in this story of every day dudes who never give up on their dreams. The guys in Anvil have jobs, but not careers. They refuse sensible hair cuts. They are making barely enough money to survive until their music takes off. And they've been doing this for over thirty years. Inadvisable? Yes. Inspirational? Surprisingly, yes.

Anvil centres around founding Anvil members Steve “Lips” Kudlow and Robb Reiner - best buddies since they were teenagers - and their odyssey to recapture the brief success Anvil enjoyed in the early 80s. The film opens with famous musicians like Slash and Lars Ulrich opining on the importance of Anvil to heavy metal, and theories on why the band never made it (Lars thinks it may be because of the whole "Canadian thing"). Cut to Toronto, present day, and the lads of Anvil have grown into greying delivery men and construction workers. They play gigs on weekends and continue to record albums, but the crowds to see them perform are neither numerous nor consistent. The band mates' long suffering families continue to support their loved ones, but Anvil's future is bleak. Hard rock is a young man's game, and Anvil's members are way past their marketable prime. Everything seems destined to finally, perhaps mercifully, decline until an email from a fan suggests the possibility of a European tour. With little to go on but a wing and a prayer, Anvil packs up their gear and heads to Europe.

Photo of rock's real deal? Or worst Crocs ad ever?

From this point on, the film is a roller coaster ride of huge expectations and crushing defeat. The European tour in particular is alternatively hilarious and heart breaking. Clashing egos, bad tour managers, skipped payments and empty venues test the band's mettle. Reconciliations, appreciative fans, and good rocking out give the band strength. Even when they are yelling and throwing tantrums, the members of Anvil are likable. Perhaps this is because we believe that they simply do not know better. Lips, especially, reminds me of a muppet - part Animal, part hoser - who remains eternally optimistic in the face of huge, crushing obstacles. Eventually the band records a new CD, and even rekindles a bit of the old fan support. Will Anvil succeed? Well, the story is still being written. At the screening I attended the band was there and they were quick to tell us we could buy a CD in the lobby.

Visually, the film is very well shot and the editing is strong. Concert footage features plenty of song snippets but thankfully cuts out much of the loudest head banging. The film's director, Sacha Gervasi, was actually a roadie with Anvil on one of their early tours. He obviously has affection for his film's subjects, but he never makes the uninitiated feel left out. This is not a geeky inside story that will only appeal to metal heads. The larger questions in the film - questions about personal fulfillment, fame, respect and selfish needs - can apply to anyone in any walk of life. We've all felt the desire to shake off our nine to five jobs and become the person we dreamed about when we were teenagers. To paraphrase The Big Lebowski, I'm glad Anvil is out there, rocking it out for the rest of us. 4 out of 5

** Extra name dropping bonus feature. Film critic and TV personality Geoff Pevere came into our office last week. We were chatting, Geoff and I, about the Hot Docs festival and he brought up Anvil. He was quite enthusiastic about the film, and made favourable comparisons to Spinal Tap (mocumentary, I know) and the Metallica doc "Some Kind of Monster". I think you can take it from me, Geoff Pevere's buddy, that he would also recommend you see this film.**