Awesome News: Spider-Man is back in the MCU, Kevin Feige Takes to the Stars War, VIFF 2019 is in full effect, the return of the trifecta, and more!

Spider-Man

There really is a whole lot of news each week, isn’t there? This week has seem some pretty big bombs drop such as Kevin Feige working on a Star Wars, VIFF starting up, Jurassic World 3 casting news, Jason Bateman directing news, Phoebe Waller-Bridge gets a truck load of cash from Amazon news, Batman news, Wes Anderson news, and Spider-man is back in the MCU news. Let’s dive right in!

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VIFF Review: ‘Amare Amaro’, bitter love indeed

Amare Amano / VIFF 2019

Tragedy is defined as a form of drama based on human suffering that invokes an accompanying catharsis for the audience. A story in which the characters suffer, and no one ends up happy, and maybe we learn something along the way.

Amare Amaro is, very loosely, an adaptation of the Greek tragedy Antigone, in which the heroine attempts to secure a proper burial for one of her brothers in defiance of the king. Her brother was killed in battle, fighting for the wrong side, and fought to the mutual death against his own brother. This is not a happy story, in case the genre didn’t tip you off.

The updated story, in which Antigone is removed, and one of the dead brothers is now the protagonist, has been transposed to modern times and results in a beautifully shot but melancholy picture about the lengths we’ll go to for the honour of the people we love.

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VIFF Review: ‘Babysplitters’ has some great moments but overstays its welcome

Babysplitters / VIFF

Having a baby is an overwhelming life change. Of course, I’m stating the obvious here, but it is the inciting idea behind the plot of Babysplitters, in which two couples who are divided on their intentions to have a child get together and decide that if the four of them have one baby together, then the burden might not be quite so life-changing.

That right there is a pretty great setup for a comedy. There’s plenty of room for hi-jinx as the four people make the decisions that two normally would, as double the normal number of values and undisclosed religious backgrounds and other exiting biases and expectations clash together.

Add a great cast, and you have a hell of a movie. Luckily, this movie has that too, with Danny Pudi (Community) and Emily Chang in the lead roles. Together they enjoy easy and sincere chemistry as a married couple at odds over whether to have a child (she wants one, he’s not so sure). Once they learn that their best friends (Maiara Walsh and Eddie Alfano) are in the same boat (but with the roles switched), the plot and hi-jinx ensue. But also it’s where the film’s problems begin.

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VIFF Review: ‘Assholes: A Theory’ is a disappointment

Assholes: A Theory / VIFF 2019

Everyone knows one. A friend or acquaintance you tolerate because of a shared history or friend circle. He’s an asshole, but he’s your asshole. But why is he such an asshole?

Assholes: A Theory wants to explore this segment of society. Why are people Assholes? How are they assholes? Can we distinguish different kinds of assholes? What kind of behaviour is asshole behaviour? What can we do about it?

A documentary with such a strong setup could be equal parts fascinating and hilarious. Unfortunately, this is not that documentary, as while there are a few laughs and a few interesting examinations, the film peters out before it starts to hit the meat of the problem.

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VIFF Review: “Ursula von Rydingsvard: Into Her Own” highlights a lifetime of art

Ursula von Rydingsvard: Into Her Own / VIFF 2019

Documentaries are a difficult thing. The amount of time spent with the subject and the amount of footage shot compared to what’s used in the finished product are both monumental. One needs a compelling subject with a compelling story to tell, and those are not as easy to come by as many would probably assume.

Luckily, Ursula von Rydingsvard is a compelling subject. A woman at the forefront of the contemporary art scene creating massive cedarwood, bronze, and copper sculptures, she has been a creative force since the 1970s. She felt a lifelong determination to be an artist, a drive recalled by everyone in the film from her brother to her patrons, but with a runtime of only 57 minutes, this film a little light on the details of the story of this drive.

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VIFF Review: ‘White Lie’ is a tense psychological drama

White Lie / VIFF 2019

The problem with telling a lie –even a white lie– is that to maintain it, you have to tell more of them. Each new lie you tell builds on the ones you’ve already told until one day, instead of maintaining some small mistruth, you’re maintaining an entire narrative that you can barely keep straight.

This is the world of Katie Arneson (Kacey Rohl), the university student and dancer at the heart of Yonah Lewis and Calvin Thomas’s White Lie. With one minor difference: she hasn’t told a little white lie; she’s told the world she has cancer.

What lengths would someone have to go to maintain that lie? How long could you keep your head above water with the lies swirling around you? These are the questions at the heart of this movie.

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Heads up Vancouver: VIFF is coming!

VIFF

Greetings local film lovers. The 2019 Vancouver International Film Festival is back for it’s 38th year and I will be attending again. I’m excited to immerse myself in the cinema of the world again and I’ll be reviewing films as I see them.

I’m also bringing you a sneak peak at some of the films, you can look for reviews of White Lie, Ursula Rydingsvard: Into Her Own, Assholes: A Theory coming up this week before the festival.

If you want to keep an eye on all the my coverage this year you can check out the VIFF 2019 tag here on Awesome Friday!. In the mean time consider joining the festival, there are a ton of great films playing and you can get tickets at the VIFF webpage.

Also, as always, if you like what you’re reading please consider becoming a patron and helping me keep doing it. Or at least click an ad or two. Every bit helps.

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See you at the movies!

Awesome Friday: Iko Uwais in G.I. Joe, Sony & Marvel’s Spider-Powered Divorce, That New Batsuit Smell, & More

Iko Uwais / The Raid

Dear readers,

Yes, both of you. Here’s a new experiment to get me writing a bit again. Sans the time to write up each bit of movie news there is (guys there is so much news every week, it’s nuts) I’m going to try to keep a digest on a weekly basis. Hopefully this works and hopefully you like it. Let’s hop right to it, shall we?

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VIFF Review: ‘Wonderstruck’ is a magical, moving tale for all ages

Todd Haynes movies, love ’em or … not? Wait, does anyone not love Todd Haynes movies? Anyway, the point is that the man is a consummate visual storyteller, and in that regard, Wonderstruck might be his magnum opus. There are two main stories, one set in the 1970s and another in the 1920s, each with a child protagonist and each moving in their own ways. If you think that they might be connected, yes, of course, they are both to each other, and a third story told later in the film.

It would have been easy to adapt this story, a kids novel, for kids, but Wonderstruck is a moving tale for all ages.

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VIFF Review: ‘Columbus’ is one of the years best

It’s easy to say that _Columbus_ is architecture porn for one good reason: it _is_ architecture porn. Video essayist Kogonada’s feature film début frames buildings in ways that I can’t recall seeing them framed before: not only in just the right light and at just the right angle, but with just the right context. This is why it’s misleading to say that it is architecture porn: because it’s so much more than that.

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VIFF Review: ‘Lipstick Under My Burkha’ is hilarious, heartbreaking, and hopeful

_Lipstick Under My Burkha_ is a hilarious movie that explores women’s daily lives in India. It’s also a heartbreaking movie that explores the daily lives of women in India. It’s a movie that has to be hilarious because if it weren’t, it would just be heartbreaking, and it’s important that this story ends with some hope.

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VIFF Review: ‘A Fantastic Woman’ is a beautiful, important movie

An older man, Orlando, spends a day at a spa and then heads to a nightclub to see a woman sing. She is his girlfriend Marina, and they are very much in love. After the performance, he takes her to dinner, and later at home, they make love against the floor to ceiling windows of their shared apartment. Later that night, he falls ill, and they rush to a hospital where he dies, and she is immediately treated like a criminal. Not, however, because of the bruises on his torso and the impact wound on his head he obtained from falling down the stairs on their way to the car, but because she is transgender.

The rest of _A Fantastic Woman_ follows Marina as she copes with losing the love of her life and coping with the prejudices of the doctors, the police, and the bulk of her lovers family. It’s not the easiest watch, but it’s a vital one.

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VIFF Review: ‘Borg vs. McEnroe’ is frustratingly not quite good (but Shia LaBeouf is great in it)

The rivalry between Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe was one of the ages, and their match at the 1980 Wimbledon Championship is probably one of the greatest matches in tennis history. On track to win his fifth consecutive title, Borg had a reputation as being cool and graceful under pressure. McEnroe, the newcomer at the beginning of his ascendancy, had a reputation as a hothead who regularly threw tantrums on the court and argued with umpires. Even their styles of play were opposite, with Borg playing from the baseline and McEnroe rushing to the net. Literally, everything about this match makes it ripe for a great movie which is why it’s so frustrating that it isn’t one.

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