TIFF ’23: “Days of Happiness” goes down a familiar road

by Cláudio Alves

You first notice sounds – the gurgle of running water, then the chirps of distant birds. It’s symphony-like, played by an orchestra with no maestro, though it’s through such a person we come to experience it. She’s Emma, a promising young conductor whose life is on the precipice of unraveling and to whose subjectivity Chloé Robichaud ties her new film. While the character’s vocation, sensitive ear, and relationship with a female cellist will inevitably draw comparisons to TÁR, Days of Happiness differs significantly from Todd Field’s Volpi Cup champion—the biggest distinction residing in the pictures’ narrative trajectory. One is about a public downfall, the other a private ascent…

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TIFF ’23: “The Human Surge 3” is cinema’s dream of itself

by Cláudio Alves

I don’t even know where we are and you keep asking where we’re going.

Where is cinema going? Does it know where or what’s ahead? Is it like us - lost in the dark, blindly navigating a road somewhere, maybe nowhere? Perhaps it’s just like us in other ways, too. Can it dream? It must. When it leaves the waking life to visit Morpheus’ realm, it may consider yesterday, today, and tomorrow, others and itself, the possible made impossible, and the other way around, too. Paths appear and disappear as the mind wanders, a string of consciousness twisting itself mad. I’m not sure if writer/director Eduardo Williams’ films know where they’re going, but they’re undoubtedly mad. They dream the future and themselves, infinite possibility.

So it was with 2016’s debut, Human Surge (2016), and so it is with its follow-up, The Human Surge 3, one of the most exciting films at this year’s TIFF…

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TIFF ’23: In “Seagrass,” marriage is a fragile ecosystem

by Cláudio Alves

Down the Pacific coast, there’s a place that looks like heaven but is no safe haven. You reach it by boat, sailing over turquoise waves, the wind carrying hopes of healing and promises of solutions to problems that have none. First-time feature director Meredith Hama-Brown and cinematographer Norm Li capture the environment’s full spectrum of color in their new 1990s-set film Seagrass, rendering bleak material beautiful. Skin tones are sun-kissed, while the deepest shadows are cobalt blue. It’s like we’re seeing the shoreline through a painter’s eyes. We’re not.

Rather than the artist’s gaze, we experience a family’s troubled perspective. They’re two girls and their parents, bound to a couple’s retreat where they hope their marriage will find salvation…

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Review: An unlikely friendship blossoms "Before, Now & Then"

by Cláudio Alves

Indonesia's troubled history serves as backdrop for director Kamila Andini's latest feature. Adapted by Ahda Imran from her novel, Before Now & Then sets its scene during the 1960s ascendancy of General Suharto, but the bloody strife is only perceived through gossip and radio, murmurs at the margins of privileged domesticity. Other older horrors live on within the intimacy of memory, influencing the lives of those without the power to change more than their fate. In some ways, the film is an example of classic melodrama in period costume. That said, its cultural specificities and an affinity between two women who should be at odds comprise a strong backbone that both supports and elevates the simple tale.

In 2022, this West Java-set narrative competed at the Berlin Film Festival, where Laura Basuki won the Silver Bear for Best Supporting Performance. Now, it arrives in American cinemas, in limited release…

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Review: Two Incredible Performances Galvanize "Our Father, the Devil"

by Cláudio Alves

For those following the awards season as a celebration of cinema rather than just a long trail to the Oscar stage, the Film Independent Spirit Awards can represent a treasure trove of delightful surprises. Last year, no choice caused more shock than one lone nomination for Our Father, the Devil in Best Feature. For most, this directorial debut by Cameroonian filmmaker Ellie Foumbi came out of nowhere. At the time, it was an oft-forgotten title with scant hopes of a commercial release that had been making the festival rounds since 2021, winning some juried prizes along the way. In retrospect, the Spirit nomination did its magic, and now, Our Father, The Devil is enjoying a limited release in American theaters. 

There's reason to rejoice, for Foumbi's film is nothing short of an acting showcase. It contains two of the year's most fascinating performances, a pair of galvanizing turns ready to shake viewers to their core…

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