North America Best Films- Page 3 of 15

Towards The Battle – Spain/Latin American Competition – SBIFF

In Towards the Battle, Louis, a French photographer, gets lost in French occupied Mexico in the 1860’s. He wants to photograph the French-Mexican War, but gets lost in the Mexican wilderness trying to find it. However, his encounter with Pinto, a Mexican peasant, gives him the companion and support he needs to carry out his quest.

Louis is in Mexico as commissioned by the French army. He holds a permission slip from the French general which acts as his pass to freely travel the region without reprimand from the roaming French army. It’s the only thing that separates Louis from the rabble of the French army. If he loses it, he’d be conscripted into the army, or, if he’s lucky, sent back to France.

Whilst he can escape from the marauding French army, he can’t escape from the Mexican wilderness. As the scenery changes from mountainous scrub-land to deep rain-forest, Louis is (literally) one step away from a premature death. It’s obvious he can’t survive by himself with two horses carrying his huge amount of photography gear. Luckily for him, a Mexican peasant named Pinto finds him when he’s starving and gives him the food he needs to survive.

From that moment on, they become Don Quixote and Sancho Panza-esque partners. Louis is Don Quixote: a leader of a well off background that loses himself in the quest of one of his hobbies. Instead of chivalry, Louis drags a mountain of photographic equipment across the Mexican wilderness in search of a war that doesn’t appear to exist. When Pinto finds him, he’s already gone a bit mad in his quest to capture a photo of the elusive war. Pinto is Louis’ Sancho Panza: a Mexican peasant that knows Louis is mad, and doesn’t understand him (he doesn’t speak French), but happily goes along with Louis’ delusional quest because he’s got nothing better to do. Along the way, he saves Louis a couple of times, and subordinates himself to him to allow Louis to live out his fantasy. The Don Quixote allegory gives Towards the Battle a timeless feel, and gives an extra layer to Louis’ madness and his slow progression to his own awareness which he reaches in the final scenes.

From the scenery to the setting to the characters, Towards the Battle was one of the films that flew under the SBIFF radar. It’s a well made update of Cervantes’ Don Quixote applied to the French occupation of Mexico. It’s used to show the madness of the French in Mexico and the absurdity of the French occupation of Mexico. The French (Louis) and Don Quixote both live a world away from the reality.

Lucia (Cuba) – This 1960s Film is Stylish and Progressive

Lucia Film Difficulty Ranking: 4

How well do you know your Cuban history? Lucia charts the evolution of revolutionary consciousness in Cuba from Spanish Imperialism until after the Cuban revolution through the stories of three women named Lucia (living in 1896, 1932, and 1960 respectively). Who’d thought a Cuban film made in the 1960s would be more progressive than most of the Hollywood films of today because of it’s political consciousness and female protagonists.

Image result for lucia 1968

Why Should You Watch Lucia?

To experience life in Cuba before and after the revolution
If you like period films you’ll love the first two parts
For some chaotic battle scenes
To see how to add emotion to film scenes

The Breakdown

Part one. It’s 1895. Lucia, a lady from the upper class, gossips with her friends about another lady who has just returned from Paris with a rich, chubby husband before they all head into church. She catches the eye of a trader whilst in church, and they both exchange smiles. This is romance of the 1890s.

As part one progresses, you gradually see more and more of the demise of Spanish imperialism. Firstly, from the horrific story of Fernandina; a former nun that crazily roams the streets after being raped. Secondly from the doomed love affair of Lucia. And, lastly from the chaotic battles that take place at the end of the segment. The chaos which ends part one is a long way from the playful gossip that starts the film.

You’ll also notice how Humberto Solas adds loads of emotion to his film. For example, in Fernandina’s rape scene, he quickly cuts between different angles preventing us from focusing on one view point which disrupts our viewing flow. To add to the effect, he uses a hand-held camera. The combination of the quick cutting and the hand-held camera make us feel Fernandina’s confusion and horror as all these soldiers are frantically chasing her. If you’ve seen Sergei Eisenstein’s famous Battleship Potemkin, you’ll recognise this chaotic montage.

Conclusion

Lucia is stylish and progressive. It mixes quick cutting montages and hand-held cameras into it’s three parts which all feature women. For a film that charts the evolution of the revolutionary consciousness in Cuba from Spanish Imperialism to after the Cuban revolution, check out Lucia!

Click on the poster on the left to buy on Amazon!

Mommy – Sexy Moms and One Uncontrollable Teenager

Mommy Film Difficulty Ranking: 3

Sexy Moms + One Uncontrollable Kid = Mommy, a film with Canadian Karaoke and Violence. Sounds like a game of Cards Against Humanity right!? A smart-phone like aspect ratio takes headlines in this one in a beautifully shot film about a single mother trying to raise her unpredictably violent son.

From: Canada, North America
Watch: Trailer, Rent on Amazon, Buy on Amazon
Next: We Need to Talk About Kevin, Tangerine, Room

The Wolves (Los Lobos) – Berlinale 2020

The Wolves is a spiritual sister to Sean Baker’s The Florida Project. Instead of a boisterous white mum and daughter living in a motel by Disney World, The Wolves features a single mum with two young boys that have just crossed the border into the United States. The kids are happy to follow their mum and spend more and more days passing time in a shabby apartment on the understanding that they’re going to Disneyland.

The two boys are stuck at home everyday making their own entertainment whilst their mum works double shifts to try and create a better future. There’s no school for them to go to and they’re forbidden from leaving the apartment. Any chances of being caught and deported must be avoided.

Despite being stuck in the apartment all day, The Wolves is presented with a lot of warm nostalgia. There’s a slow and lazy guitar soundtrack that generates the same warm melancholic tones of films imbued in Americana like Mud, Bombay Beach, or even parts of Thelma and Louise. There’s also warmth in the games that the two boys play to keep themselves occupied and the drawings that come to life in their imagination. Even though the melancholic soundtrack and bleak surroundings hint that the American dream is out of reach, their playfulness shows it won’t stop them dreaming.

The Wolves is an ode to the faceless people of America. Not just the immigrants that cross the southern border seeking a better life, but the homeless, and anybody scraping together a life living below the poverty line. A few times in the film, Samuel Kishi Leopo (the director) inserts montages of portraits of people from different racial and ethnic backgrounds living within the new family’s community. All the portraits feature people staring straight into the camera like you might see in a National Geographic magazine, showing them without anything to hide. It shows them purely, in front of their humble homes. What these people have in common is an absence of the white picket fenced house promised by the American dream. It’s a sign that being American, or simply being in America for those that migrate north, doesn’t automatically grant you a well spring to health and prosperity. The Wolves honestly highlights the people that the country has left behind.

For more films from the Berlin film festival, head to our Berlinale home page.

Land Of Ashes – Spain/Latin American Competition – SBIFF

In Land of Ashes, thirteen year old Selva lives in a small costal town surrounded by sea and dense forest. Her mother has passed away, so she shares the duties of looking after her frail old grandfather with Elena, an older woman who comes and goes as she wishes.

Elena is the only female role model that Selva has, but their relationship is a strange one. Selva obviously needs her for companionship and help navigating her path to adulthood, but she also despises her. She spits in her food and trades vicious insults with her over the dinner table which eventually unravels into laughs thanks to her grandfather. Later, Elena invites her dancing, but disappears soon after hitting the dance floor in order to score a few drugs and never returns. It reinforces Selva’s vulnerability and her inevitable life alone.

To keep herself company, Selva manages to conjure visions of her dead mother. These visions help to guide her through the challenges she faces, such as looking after her grandfather, and they also help her to come to terms with the impermanence of life and her future life alone. Her grandfather’s death is inevitable, but it’s not until Elena’s disappearance that she realizes that she will be living alone. Seeing her mother in the nature around her provides her with the comfort that her family will continue to live in her and her surroundings after her grandfather passes away.

Land of Ashes was one of the best films I saw at SBIFF. It creates a vivid world from just a few images of the natural world they live in – mostly of the night sky and dense jungle, but also of the local fauna. The magic in it adds some mysticism about Selva’s future alone and the life in the wilderness around us.