Doc Corner: The Hollywood history of 'Cane Fire'

By Glenn Dunks

A history of exploitation unfurls in Anthony Banua-Simon’s Cane Fire like the plot of a Hollywood movie. A deeply empathetic documentary, Cane Fire takes its title from a Lois Weber film, White Heat. That film, Weber’s last from 1934, is considered lost and survives only in images and fragments. As Banua-Simon shows, that is a lot like the non-white population of the island of Kaua’i, where it was filmed, who have been worked until their backs were broken by a series of industries that have crushed and sapped the non-white population like you would strip bare sugar cane.

First it was sugar cane and pineapples, then Hollywood who used locals as extras in bright and colourful productions starring big names like Elvis Presley and John Wayne. Today it’s tourism—an industry that has caused Hawaii more broadly to become the most expensive state to live in, something that is inceasingly out of grasp to many of the population who predominantly work as service staff at hotels and resorts. If you saw The White Lotus, then maybe you could consider this its darker companion piece...

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Review: Haley Lu Richardson and Owen Teague in 'Montana Story'

by Matt St Clair

I've never been to Montana, being more of a metro/suburb-type person, but the luscious scenery always captured onscreen makes it compelling enough to want to explore. The deserted roads, the wide open spaces, the mountains accompanied by clear blue skies can make any Montana-set movie compelling even if the story isn’t. Such is nearly the case with the aptly-titled Montana Story, from the filmmaking duo Scott McGehee and David Siegel (The Deep End, What Maisie Knew, Bee Season). 

The story itself is pretty simple. Two distant half-siblings Erin (Haley Lu Richardson) and Cal (Owen Teague) attempt to reconnect and heal their troubled past as they say goodbye to their dying father...

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Review: Your Grandparents Will Love 'Operation Mincemeat'

By Ben Miller

I loved watching films with my grandfather. We called him Peepaw. It was always something he wanted to do. The problem with Peepaw was a measurement of quality. He always wanted middle-of-the-road stories with little challenges and concise, wrapped-in-a-bow storylines. One of his favorite films was the Kevin Costner snooze-fest Dragonfly. The conventionality and Costner’s charismatic banality was exactly what he wanted. He thought it was a masterpiece.

This doesn’t mean Peepaw only liked terrible movies. He was a huge fan of The Guns of the Navarone or The Great Escape. His generation couldn’t get enough of World War II films. These days, when my brothers and I see a film that hit those points, we would describe them as “Peepaw movies” for their ability to appeal to our late grandfather’s particular sensibilities. John Madden’s Operation Mincemeat is THE Peepaw movie...

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Quick Belated Reviews: AmbuLAnce, Deep Water, The Northman

by Nathaniel R

We know we know. We need to get better about always reviewing things in a timely manner here at TFE. Here are quick takes on some movies we have said too little about -- at least in a reviewish kind of way, two of which we'd heartily recommend and one quite unexpectedly...

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Review: 'Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness'

by Nathaniel R

In the recent What If? series on Disney+, which is based on the comic book series of the same name, Marvel's writers could fashion any kind of variation on traditional heroes (and villains) and storylines without any actual consequences for the large familiar canon. Zombie avengers? Sure! Peggy Carter as Captain America? Why not! The What If? series of the 1970s was not quite the beginning of the Multiverse in comics but it was close enough. These thought experiments were always pitched as alternate realities (as opposed to pure fiction) though it took awhile before the effects were felt. The multiverse essentially became a shortcut to any type of retconning any storyteller wanted to do; Contrary to all that dialogue in Loki, Marvel has no "sacred" timeline given all the reversals, resurrections, reboots, and switcheroos. The multiverse virus was even more of an epidemic in DC comics, Marvel's top competitor.

Unfortunately if What If is essentially fan-fiction without the fans, then Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is arguably stingers without a movie. The latest MCU movie is positively awash in cameos and teases for future installments, resulting in a film that feels very much like an incoherent feature-length mid-credits scene... 

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