August Movies Part 1: Shortcomings, Dreamin' Wild, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

I have kicked off August with a series of dude-heavy movies. If you're interested in the travails of a grumpy Asian hipster, the true-life fairytale of a washed-up musician who discovered he may not be so washed-up, or the adventures of a bunch of teenage...mutant...ninja...turtles, keep reading.

Shortcomings: Written by Adrian Tomine (based on his graphic novel of the same name), this is Randall Park's directorial debut and presents the tale of Ben (Justin H. Min) an Asian-American man in LA who manages a movie theater, has very pretentious opinions on film, and has been living with Miko (Ally Maki), his filmmaker girlfriend for several years. When Miko gets an internship in New York, they agree to "take a break" which he interprets as license to try and date some white women. His best friend, Alice (the amazing Sherry Cola who is bringing a very similar chaotic queer energy like she did in Joy Ride), meanwhile also decamps to New York after a bad break-up. So finally, Ben flies over to New York to see her and figure out what Miko has been up to. 

This is a meandering, cringey tale about a rather terrible man who treats women poorly and has a lot of hang-ups about Asian identity. He is mad at the success of a Hollywood movie with an all-Asian cast (a fun little satire of Crazy Rich Asians) but Miko loves it, claiming that the success of this film will allow smaller, indie tales of other Asians to be told. Which is all very meta and fun, as that is emphatically the reason why we are now getting this movie. But at the end of the day, I did not particularly enjoy spending an hour and a half with a broody dude who made all the women around him mad. I get enough of that in real life, thank you very much. It's a perfectly well-directed film and Randall Park is clearly perfectly capable of making great movies, but this is not a story I was clamoring for.

Dreamin' Wild: Written and directed by Bill Pohlad, from an article by Steven Kurutz, this is the true story of Donnie and Joe Emerson, two brothers in Washington who made a record called Dreamin' Wild when they were teenagers in 1979. The record went nowhere, and the film opens with them in their 40s, Donnie still running a music studio and playing music with his wife and a band at local gigs, while Joe helps their father out on the family farm. However, when a music producer named Matt (Chris Messina) shows up at the farm with an old copy of Dreamin' Wild that has resurfaced in some record store and has become a cult favorite in music circles, their lives are forever changed.

This is a beautiful story about thwarted ambition, supportive families, and finally seeing your dreams come true. Casey Affleck plays older Donnie, while there are constant flashbacks to Noah Jupe as the young Donnie putting together this record, and both actors are wonderful at conveying the urgency and passion he felt for his music. Walton Goggins is great as the older Joe, a man who was not as talented as his brother, but still loved making music with him and quietly struggled, even though he continues to put a brave face on things, and Beau Bridges is stellar as their incredibly supportive father. I remember first hearing "Baby" from this record on the soundtrack of a film in 2012 and instantly loving it. Now all these years later, we have the origin story of the track and the amazing men who put it together, and their amazing family who supported them for all these decades until they were re-discovered and received their rightful due. While the film could do with some judicious editing, it's still emotionally resonant, thanks to some great performances, and that perennially evocative soundtrack.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem: Turtle power! What do you want me to tell you about this movie? I mean, you're either in or you're out. I do not have a deep connection to the TMNT franchise, having briefly watched the cartoons as a kid, but this film is definitely a fun one to watch if you love animation and you love New York (which of course, I do). The animation style is vivid and fun, and feels like a new style, similar to how the animated Spider-Man films have felt so fresh and visually arresting. And of course, there are lots of references to New York and the joys of getting a bacon, egg, and cheese. 

This is the origin story of the four turtles, so if you were hazy on the details (I certainly was), this will be a useful primer as to how they were contaminated by some ooze and became mutants who now live in the sewer with Slither, their adoptive rat father (voiced brilliantly by Jackie Chan). There's a villain named Superfly (voiced equally brilliantly by Ice Cube) who has a diabolical plot, and they need to stop him with their ninja skills and the help of a high-school girl named April O'Neill (voiced by the great Ayo Edebiri). There are many fun action sequences, all set to a bopping hip-hop soundtrack and score by the Oscar-winning duo of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, so be prepared for some propulsive thrills. For 100 minutes, this film is perfectly entertaining and beautiful to look at. It is also very funny and you won't be bored for a second. But again. Depending on your tolerance for mutant ninja turtles, your mileage may vary.

Summer Binges: Stath Lets Flats, Survival of the Thickest, Hijack

I've been watching some very random TV this month and now it's your turn to dive in. There's a very silly British comedy, a very exciting British thriller, or a charming American comedy with heart. You can't go wrong.

Stath Lets Flats: I mean, just the title is fun to say. The show stars Jamie Demetriou (who also wrote and created the entire endeavor) as Stath, a Greek-Cypriot man in London who works for his father's letting agency (for Americans - he's a real estate broker who helps renters find apartments), and is painfully terrible at his job. Every episode, you will watch him try and convince some hapless Londoners to rent a flat, and every time it's an abject disaster. His other colleagues include his sweet but incredibly dumb sister, Sophie (Natasia Demetriou - Jamie's real-life sister!), Al (the very sweet Al Roberts) who is best friends with Stath and definitely has a bit of a thing for Sophie, Carole (Katy Wix), who is a go-getter and the only one at the agency who actually seems to be earning any commissions, and Dean (Kiell Smith-Bynoe) who hates this job but doesn't have anything else he can do.

This show ran for three seasons on Channel 4 and I am very late to the party since it wrapped up in 2021. But it’s never too late to discover a British comedy gem. There are only eighteen episodes, as each season was six episodes long in typical British fashion, but each character has such a wonderful arc and their relationships with each other evolve and grow in surprising and often hilarious ways. And while Stath never quite stops being an incompetent moron, you’ll be hard-pressed not to be very fond of him by the end. You still won’t want to let a flat from him though.

Survival of the Thickest: Michelle Buteau is a great stand-up comedian, but here she gets to show off her acting chops and be the star of a wonderful, heartfelt little gem of a show that is based on her memoir. Buteau plays Mavis, an assistant stylist in New York who is great at her job and is on the verge of a big break. Everything seems to be going her way. Until, of course, she walks in on her long-term boyfriend having sex with someone else and her life immediately implodes. 

What follows is a classic journey of self-discovery where a Black woman in her late thirties has to reinvent herself, move out to live in a cramped apartment with a strange white woman in Brooklyn (oh the horror), and pursue her dreams without letting men mess her around. It’s also a great show about body positivity and celebrating curvy women and making them feel good, and also celebrating trans folk and drag performers and revealing in their artistry. This is a show that aims to put marginalized voices front and center and not take any shit from anyone. It’s very sweet and hopeful, and to be clear, it is also chock-full of jokes and funny as hell. It’s a quick and easy binge, and perfect for a lazy summer afternoon, so what are you waiting for?

Hijack: Nothing about this show is quick and easy but my God it was the highlight of my week every Wednesday when I had a new episode to watch. Honestly, I don’t know if I would even want to binge this show because it is such a high-octane thriller, but if that’s the kind of thing you’re into, inject this show directly into your veins.

Idris Elba plays Sam Nelson, a corporate negotiator who ordinarily helps businesses come up with deals during mergers and acquisitions. However, when he gets on a flight from Dubai to London, he ends up having to use his negotiating skills for far more exciting work when the plane is hijacked. Over the course of seven episodes, you are going to be treated to a brilliantly twisty plot from writer George Kay, who created this show with Jim Field Smith. The production values are insane, the cast is fantastic, and every episode ends with a crazy cliffhanger that keeps your heart thumping. The final episode was emotional and cathartic and I was so glad they brought this show in for a smooth landing (yes, pun very much intended). Hijack will keep you guessing and keep you on your toes, but it also gets you emotionally invested in the various characters on board this flight. It a beautiful piece of storytelling and an absolutely epic binge for a day when you do not want to leave your couch.

Bollywood Blast: Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani

I had a rotten few days and desperately needed a pick-me-up so I took a half day from work (thanks boss!) and headed to the theater to watch Karan Johar's latest Bollywood confection. And my God, it was exactly what the doctor ordered. I found myself laughing, tearing up, and smiling so hard that my dimples could rival Alia Bhatt's (a girl can dream). 

Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahaani opens up with a Bollywood number that was cast with every hot young actor who showed up to do the latest season of Koffee with Karan. And while the women are hot, you gotta love Johar for ensuring he objectifies his male lead just as much as the women. For the next two and a half hours, be prepared to gaze on the magnificent form of Ranveer Singh in varying states of undress. But of course, we also have the gorgeous Alia Bhatt swanning around in the most delectable Manish Malhotra chiffon saris that evoke all the romance of old Bollywood. And ultimately, that is what this movie is all about. It's a loving ode to the classics, with a very contemporary twist.

Ranveer and Alia play the titular Rocky and Rani, who cross paths because their grandparents might have mysteriously known each other. Dharmendra plays Rocky's grandfather, who is suffering from memory loss but keeps muttering the name, Jamini. Turns out that's the name of Rani's grandmother, played by none other than Shabana Azmi. Rocky and Rani orchestrate a meet-up and...let's just say you might cry a little. And also whoop with delight.

Of course, in the process, Rocky and Rani start up a romance. Rani is an erudite host of a TV news show and has cultured Bengali parents (played by the glorious Tota Roy Chowdhury, whose character has an incredible arc in the course of this film, and the equally glorious Churni Ganguly). Rocky is a jovial Punjabi boy who is the heir to his family's laddoo empire that was founded by his grandmother, played by Jaya Bachchan. Let's just say that Bachchan goes full-on Disney villain in this role - Maleficent couldn't hold a candle to her. She rules her family with an iron fist, upholding patriarchal values in that gloriously sickening way that only an Indian mother-in-law can, and her coddled son is an abject asshole who treats his wife and daughter poorly and barely tolerates Rocky's shenanigans. But these families are both about to be shaken up when Rocky and Rani decide that they need to spend time living with each other's family to see how they would adjust to married life. 

Yeah, it's a Bollywood movie, it's not meant to make much sense, OK? But this is a typically contrived plot that then proceeds to deliver in spades. Get prepared for a complete takedown of toxic masculinity (you will find yourself cheering at a Kathak dance), and general Indian male haplessness. Rocky has a lot to learn when he lives with Rani's family, including how to make his own coffee, but they also have a lot to learn from him, including how to give good hugs. Meanwhile Rani spends her time inciting a revolution against the patriarchy. I know I can't spend the rest of this year constantly comparing movies to Barbie, but this really might be Bollywood's answer to the Barbie movie and I am here for it.

This movie has everything. Insane production design, beautiful costumes, an absolutely stellar cast (honestly the supporting cast almost eclipse the leads). The script by Ishita Moitra, Shashank Khaitan, and Sumit Roy is perfectly bonkers, and brilliant, and so full of heart. The soundtrack is very Pritam, i.e. it just remixes a bunch of classics, but even that is done in a clever way that really dug down into my psyche as someone who grew up with this music. The "What Jhumka?" song is a great example of something that would confuse any non-Indian person, but every Indian person in the theater was 100% singing along with the wordless tune in the chorus. And the random interludes of Mere Bhole Bhalam every time Namit Das popped up on screen made me giggle. I loved the Bengali versus Punjabi stereotypes, Ranveer's wild, colorful outfits, and the world's most perfectly deployed Emraan Hashmi joke. Again, is this movie really going to translate if you don't already have a robust history with Bollywood? I don't know. There are a lot of inside jokes and references to classic and modern cinema. But for someone like me, who has always found such solace in the movies, this ridiculous film was the perfect distillation of my Bollywood education to date. By the end, it turned into Shloka Aur Bollywood Kii Prem Kahaani.

July Movies Part 4: Theater Camp, Nimona, The Beanie Bubble

To round out July, I have three final film recommendations. Whether you're into theater, animation, or beanie babies, you're gonna enjoy these films.

Theater Camp: Directed by Molly Gordon and Nick Lieberman, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Ben Platt and Noah Galvin, this is a mockumentary about theater kids, written by former theater kids. It's the story of a summer camp in the Adirondack Mountains where a bunch of kids who love theater gather to learn their craft from a bunch of wacky teachers and put on some spectacular productions at the end of their stay. This year is a little different, however, because the beloved camp founder, Joan (Amy Sedaris), is in a coma, and her son, Troy (Jimmy Tatro), a finance bro who knows nothing about Broadway, has taken over running the camp. Or rather, running it into the ground.

Platt and Gordon also star as Amos and Rebecca-Diane, a pair of very co-dependent teachers who went to this camp when they were kids and have now returned as high-strung teachers, who write and direct an original production every year. This year, they are writing a play about Joan's life, but as the summer progresses, there are all manner of hiccups, and it's clear that these best friends have some long-buried issues they need to work through. The rest of the cast are equally compelling, hilarious, and great, serving as a motley crew of haggard experts and complete nitwits (Ayo Edebiri is particularly fun as a new hire who lied on her resume and has no idea what her class on Stage Combat is meant to entail). But the true stars are the kids, these child actors who absolutely nail it as precocious little theater nerds who are brimming with talent and bursting with enthusiasm. This is a breezy gem of a film and you will not stop laughing for 90 minutes straight. Get thee to the theater!

Nimona: Written by Robert L. Baird and Lloyd Taylor (based on the graphic novel by ND Stevenson) and directed by Nick Bruno and Troy Quane, this animated movie was a surprising little Netflix discovery that brightened up my afternoon. Riz Ahmed voices Ballister Boldheart, a soldier in a medieval-futuristic kingdom who rose up the ranks and is now eligible for knighthood into the Institute for Elite Knights. He wasn't born to this position, and his knighting would serve as progress for the city, an indication that even those from humble backgrounds can achieve such heights. Unfortunately, as the Queen knights him with his sword, something goes terribly wrong and she is killed. In the ensuing melee, Ballister escapes, but he is now on the run with the entire city and the Institute convinced he is a Queen killer. 

This is when he runs into Nimona (voiced by Chloe Grace Moretz). She is a teenage shapeshifter, who lives on the outskirts of society because she is viewed as a monster. She desperately wants to team up with Ballister so they can be villains together, which is a plan he is not keen on. However, he could use her help to clear his name, so they reluctantly embark on an adventure that is filled with many great plot twists that I will not spoil. Suffice to say, Nimona is a compelling film, chockful of gorgeous animation, a wonderful story, and a lot of meta commentary on unconscious bias, misinformation, and prejudice. This might also be the first animated film I've seen with such a matter-of-factly gay main character (Ballister's boyfriend is the deliciously named Ambrosius Goldenloin). Overall, it is a sweet and surprising movie and is well worth a watch.

The Beanie Bubble: Written by Kristin Gore, who also co-directed with Damian Kulash, this is the story of the rise and fall of Beanie Babies in the late 80s and 90s. If you're a millenial, you will enjoy this nostalgia trip - Lord knows I enjoyed collecting Beanie Babies with my Happy Meals when I lived in Toronto in the 90s, but hoo boy, I had no idea about the craze for these toys and how they were like the NFTs of their day (except, you know, more fungible). This is the story of the man who created the company, Ty Warner (Zach Galifinakis), but more importantly, it's the story of the three women who supported him through three distinct phases of this company: Robbie (Elizabeth Banks), his co-founder, Maya (Geraldine Viswanathan), an intuitive marketing whiz who helped spark the craze and fuel it with the newly burgeoning power of the Internet and eBay, and Sheila (Sarah Snook), his girlfriend, whose two daughters from a previous marriage helped him come up with Beanie baby designs.

This movie can be a bit tricky to follow given that it keeps jumping back and forth in time, trying to draw parallels between the experiences of these three women through three different time periods, some of which overlap. It was a bit distracting at first, but as the movie went on, I grew to appreciate why the story was being told in this fashion. Because of course, this is a story of how all three women were ultimately screwed over by this ambitious and petulant man. I have no idea how much of this story is embellished and how much is strictly true, but Banks, Snook, and Viswanathan are three incredible actors that I would happily watch for hours, so I was along for the ride. It's a fun streaming movie, especially for someone like me who was too young to appreciate the absolute madness of adults who were investing fortunes into Beanie Babies. So watch it for some nostalgia and some righteous feminist indignation - what a potent combo!

July Movies Part 3: Barbie & Oppenheimer

I did not subject myself to the full-on Barbenheimer experience where you watch both films in a day, but I have now watched both films (Barbie first, natch) and lived to tell the tale. Let's get into it.

Barbie: It's official, writer-director Greta Gerwig is one of our greatest living filmmakers. This movie is a wondrous feminist confection, bringing together an incredible ensemble to give us the story of...Barbie and Ken. Yes, this is ultimately a ploy by the corporate overlords at Mattel to sell more Barbie dolls, but my God, Gerwig has taken this doll and created a masterful commentary on the patriarchy, sexism, and the burden of being a woman through the decades. And given her ability to find the absolute perfect song to deploy in any scene (I will still never get over the use of Crash Into Me in Lady Bird), you will be pleased to hear that this film is practically a musical, with some incredible music throughout, and a particularly excellent deployment of Matchbox Twenty's Push that I have not been able to stop humming for days.

The production design is incredible, perfectly capturing the plastic and pink Barbie aesthetic, and the outfits are spectacular. But of course, the highlight is Margot Robbie as Stereotypical Barbie, a beautiful doll who is content with how every day in Barbieland is absolutely perfect until she is suddenly visited by "irrepressible thoughts of death." And cellulite. Seeking help from Weird Barbie (the glorious Kate McKinnon), she discovers she must go to the Real World to fix her ennui. She grudgingly heads out, but Ken (who is played to "pretty but dumb, oh wait no, just pretty dumb" perfection by Ryan Gosling) stows away in her car, so he also gets a taste of the Real World. Turns out Ken was pretty miserable in Barbieland where his entire existence was only to serve as Barbie's boyfriend, but in the Real World, he learns about the patriarchy. Chaos ensues. Meanwhile Barbie finds Gloria (America Ferrera), a Mattel employee who took to playing with her daughter's old Barbie doll, and unwittingly unleashed this existential crisis on Barbie. When the CEO of Mattel (played as a glorious dimwit by Will Ferrell) starts chasing Barbie down, it's time for Gloria and her daughter to visit Barbieland.

I know this is all very high concept and bizarre, but believe me, it is told magnificently, with so much heart and humor. There are a myriad mansplaining jokes, and it's wonderful to see the interplay between the different Kens (stalwarts like Simu Liu and Kingsley Ben-Adir), Barbies (folks like Issa Rae and Nicola Coughlin) and...Allan (Ken's best friend played by a hapless Michael Cera) and Midge (a pregnant Barbie played by Emerald Fennell and mostly treated like a horror element throughout the film). Every cast member is having a raucous good time, but Robbie in particular is a shining beacon, able to convey the drop-dead gorgeous womanhood of a stereotypical Barbie doll, but then infuse all that seeming perfection with vulnerability and pathos to give you a human woman who is suffering when she discovers that in the Real World, a construction site isn't filled with supportive women and there has never been a female President. This film is a joy from start to finish and I might need to watch it again to fully revel in its glory.

Oppenheimer: Well this is a good movie but it certainly isn't a joy from start to finish, more of a crescendo of ceaseless horror. The best thing about this film is probably its sound design that propulsively beats in your ears as the film nears its climax. And the central performance from Cillian Murphy is magnificent. Christopher Nolan is of course a consummate writer and filmmaker, so the script also does this magical job of weaving back and forth in time, with Nolan's trademark love for non-linear narrative. But yeah. The whole time I was impressed by all these technical elements, but did this film resonate with me emotionally and make me feel invested in this tale of man's ultimate hubris? Not really.

Perhaps the problem wouldn't be as noticeable if you weren't pairing this movie with Barbie but man, this film is about as patriarchal as it gets. It's a bunch of genius men standing around playing God, and the only major female roles in the film are played by Emily Blunt as Oppenheimer's alcoholic and decidedly uninterested in mothering wife, Kitty, and Florence Pugh as the woman Oppenheimer periodically has an affair with, so she spends most of her screen time naked. Which is obviously my least favorite use of an actor in a movie that already has a dearth of female representation. Also, the parade of cameos from famous male actors got a bit silly. They would pop in to say a few lines and pretend to be some famous scientist/politician and then disappear again. I would spend the whole time being so surprised to see that famous face that I wouldn't pay any attention to what they had to say, so I don't know that this helped the plot any.

I was quite impressed at how Nolan kept the pace of this film brisk - the first two hours genuinely flew by and as we get to that inevitable test at Los Alamos when they first detonate the atomic bomb, you will be on the edge of your seat. But this film certainly has some third act problems when it tries to get you re-invested in Oppenheimer's show trial for alleged Communist sympathies and his damaged legacy. This is a movie that is all about how no one ever knew how he really felt about his involvement in creating a weapon that murdered hundreds of thousands of people, but the movie makes it clear that he was pained by it and spent his life trying to get governments to reign back the horror that he and his scientists had wrought. But I was expecting so much more. I would have rather had a shorter movie that was a true character study, than this three-hour hagiography with a somewhat inevitable conclusion that mankind is doomed. 

Look at the news, we're all well aware that we are perpetually on the brink of nuclear annihilation. I was hoping Oppenheimer had something more profound to say, but that's about the gist of it. Men suck, and the apocalypse is nigh. I'm gonna go watch the Barbie movie again. 

July Movies Part 2: Joy Ride & Mission: Impossible 7

Do you just want to have a fun time at the movie theater? Like a crazy good, delightful time? Then these next two movies will provide exactly what you seek.

Joy Ride: Written by Cherry Chevapravatdumrong and Teresa Hsiao and directed by Adele Lim, this is a perfect movie about a group of Chinese* (I won't spoil, but that asterisk is there for a reason) women who head to China for a work trip/girl's trip and all manner of shenanigans ensue. 

Ashley Park plays Audrey, who was adopted by white American parents as a baby and lived in Washington in a town called White Hills that wasn't exactly a beacon of diversity. As a child she befriended another Chinese girl, Lolo (Sherry Cola), and the two of them continue to be best friends into adulthood, though their paths have significantly diverged. Audrey is a successful lawyer, while Lolo lives in Audrey's guesthouse and is a struggling artist who likes to make sex-positive artwork. Audrey is  straight-laced and proper, Lolo is decidedly not. But Lolo was raised by Chinese parents and is fluent in Mandarin, so when Audrey has to go to China for work to woo a big client, she brings Lolo along to serve as her translator. Lolo's Kpop-obsessed cousin "Deadeye" (Sabrina Wu), joins them as well, and when they get to China, they team up with Audrey's college roommate, Kat (Stephanie Hsu) who is a successful actress on a Chinese soap opera.

After the business stuff takes a turn for the worse, they pivot to trying to find Audrey's birth mother, which leads to a road trip that has many lewd and hilarious pitstops. It's an incredible R-rated rampage, but at the same time, it is also an incredible story about identity and friendship. Audrey's struggles with racism and always being told she's too Asian for white people and not Asian enough for Asian folk was very relatable as a third culture kid. This is a movie with so much heart, even as you bust a gut laughing at all the inanity that takes place on screen. This is a phenomenal cast, all doing phenomenal work, and I am ready for them to give me Joy Ride 2: Electric Boogaloo. 

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One: Phew, did you make your way through that title? Well, just wait till you watch the glorious two and a half hour extravaganza that is this movie, the seventh entry into the Mission: Impossible franchise. The plot revolves around a dangerous artificial intelligence called The Entity that has stealthily found its way into the nooks and crannies of top secret intelligence software across the planet and now seems poised to wreak havoc on the world. I wish I could tell you more, but come on, we all know the plot is completely besides the point in these movies. I'm just here to watch Tom Cruise run.

Oh man. There's so much running. And epic car chases through Rome (which definitely gave me Fast X flashbacks - Hollywood has really destroyed Rome this year!), an insane fight in a narrow and claustrophobic alley in Venice (I found myself aghast at how they even managed to film that), a finale on a train where you will literally be on the edge of your seat for twenty minutes, and then be like, oh my god, it's still going! And of course, the famous motorcycle jump right off a mountain. Tom Cruise filmed that stunt on Day 1, so that if he got terribly injured, or, you know, died, at least they wouldn't waste all their money shooting the rest of the movie. Which is some foolhardy commitment to the craft. 

And while the action is incredible and wondrous, I was also very pleased at how funny this film was. Writers Erik Jendresen and Christopher McQuarrie (also the director!) have injected way more comic relief into this movie, particularly when Simon Pegg and Ving Rhames show up as the bantering sidekicks, and there are also plenty of meta asides about how the Impossible Mission Force (yes, IMF, no, not the World Bank one) is such a ridiculous organisation. This movie contains a hearty serving of absolutely everything you wanted from a Mission: Impossible movie, and at the end, I clapped my hands in glee. Part Two, I'm ready.

July Movies Part 1: Every Body & Black Ice

There are even more movies to watch in July than there were in June, so here we are again, with a plethora of film reviews. To kick things off, I give you two stellar documentaries that are sure to broaden your horizons and remind you of the ongoing injustices many people face in our world. They pack an emotional wallop and provide an incredible education in 90 minutes that will stick with you for a good long while after you leave the theater. 

Every Body: Directed by Julie Cohen, this film is a wonderful portrait of three intersex people, Sean Saifa Wall, Alicia Roth Weigel, and River Gallo, and their experiences of growing up intersex in different parts of the United States. As they share their stories with the documentary crew, we also get a history of how intersex people have been treated in the past, and the work of Dr. John Money, a man who pioneered the surgical and medical care given to such people from birth, and who is responsible for the dangerous ideology and misinformation that is still quoted in medical textbooks and spread in the medical community today. 

Intersex people are born with any combination of sex characteristics that don't fit our binary model of male or female bodies. For example, you could have a vulva and a vagina, and externally present as female, but internally you could have testes, with no ovaries or uterus. Historically, doctors would assign a gender to the intersex baby, and perform invasive surgeries or medical procedures as an infant as well as when the child entered puberty to ensure they "conformed" to their assigned gender. Which of course doesn't take into consideration what the child wants, and what gender they feel is right for them. And the entire thing was shrouded in secrecy, with parents often being told never to talk to anyone about this, and the patients often even keeping medical practices secret from their parents.

It's all very horrifying and sad, but the three wonderful people at the heart of this documentary are now incredible activists, fighting to give intersex people more visibility, leading protests, and actively trying to persuade lawmakers to change laws to ensure intersex people have more rights and agency. A startling fact that Alicia notes is how anti-trans bills are often about how trans people should not have the right to get surgeries or take hormones to makes their bodies align to their chosen gender identity, but at the same time, those same bigoted lawmakers are desperately pushing bills demanding intersex surgery and hormone therapy be performed on infants and children so they would be forced to adopt a gender that may not reflect their true identity. I know it all sounds very heavy, but I promise this is also an inspirational film that showcases the improvements in recent years to treat intersex individuals with more compassion, and ultimately ends on a note of joyous positivity. There is much work to be done, but perhaps you can begin by educating yourself with this movie.

Black Ice: I do not watch ice hockey, but I certainly watched the hell out of this documentary. A comprehensive look at the racism directed towards hockey players in Canada, it is a wondrous history lesson about the contributions of Black people to the sport of ice hockey, as well as an infuriating reminder of the many barriers to entry they currently face at all levels of the sport. It also offers up a fascinating insight into Canadians and their view that they are not racist - that's viewed as an American problem, but as this film proceeds to demonstrate, Canada is no multicultural paradise.

Directed by Hubert Davis, over the course of the film we learn about the Coloured Hockey League in Nova Scotia, which was an all-Black hockey league where many innovations that are commonplace in the sport today were first seen. These players were great athletes who simply wanted to play the sport they loved, but any attempts to integrate them into the National Hockey League were denied and there were so many socioeconomic factors that consistently kept them down. As is true of the history of so many sports, there were some pioneers who broke that color barrier, and this documentary tells their stories as well, featuring Willie O'Ree, who was the first Black man to play in the NHL. 

In addition to the historical perspective, however, this movie is urgently driven by interviews with current hockey players and their many tales of the systemic racism they have encountered beginning as young children and all the way into the NHL. The running theme with all these stories is how isolating and startling these experiences can be - they were usually the only people of color in their entire team, and it is particularly disheartening to hear them say that this abuse was often coming from adults and they had no idea what to do as children. Hearing a player talk about playing in a junior league and walking past parents hurling racist abuse at him is beyond the pale, but alas, that is the world we live in. As distressing as this documentary is though, it also offers up many uplifting examples of diversity initiatives that these folks are now running to ensure that young kinds of color can play hockey with their peers and have a safe space to hone their skills and gain mastery of the game. This film is a searing indictment of the NHL's pitiful attempts to diversify hockey, but at a grassroots level, it offers up a lot of hope that perhaps these new leaders in the sport, who already went through their share of horrors, will help create a better world for future players.