North America Best Films- Page 4 of 15

Right Near the Beach – Pan African Film Festival 2020

In Right Near the Beach, Jeffrey Jacobs, Jamaica’s world record breaking sprinter is beaten to death near his home. His murder sparks a frenzy of media coverage that digs into his friendship with a gay man. Jeffrey’s single father becomes a social pariah because of the reaction to his son’s death, living alone in the hills. It’s only when his youngest son returns that he is given a chance to transcend his isolation and grief.

Right Near the Beach tells its story effectively through the images and sounds it presents. Firstly, the film develops Terrence Malick’s visual style to create a more visceral feeling. Right Near the Beach still has the trademark wandering camera and meditative shots familiar to Malick’s films, but adds a varying shot length to better convey the varying emotions Jeffrey’s dad feels.

For most of the film, the average spot length feels longer than your typical Hollywood film. This gives the audience more time to watch the characters as they wander in rural Jamaica alone, allowing us to feel their search for inner peace. However, for a few key scenes, the emotional toll of the media and neighborhood gossip is too much for them and they release their frustration in sin scenes with frantically fast cutting. The quick shots that rapidly cut around Jeffrey’s dad when he starts axing a tree root creates an urgent feeling of blind rage that contrasts with the otherwise relaxed feelings generated by the longer shots. It’s one example of how the filmmakers brilliantly use shot lengths to change the feelings of each scene.

Secondly, the sound of Right Near the Beach provides the foundation for the visual experimentation. In the first half of the film, the soundtrack is dominated by a constant stream of radio show interviews with people discussing Jeffrey Jacobs’ homosexuality. The real homophobia you hear on air (these interviews were conducted with real Jamaicans) penetrates the silence of the rural area Jeffrey’s father lives. What he hears forces him deeper into isolation just to try and silence the country’s prejudice. This changes in the second half of the film, when the prejudiced voices that plague him start to ease after his youngest son’s arrival. They’re replaced by more natural sounds from the rural environment they live in, marking his successful coming to terms with his eldest son’s death. It’s as if he’s managed to meditate away the hateful media and replace it with a calm peace of mind. Just as the visceral visual style builds emotions, the sounds we hear guide us through Jeffrey’s dad’s grief.

To take the film full circle, the filmmakers end the film with the reunion of the dad and his youngest son. It’s a touching end to an emotional film that shows they have both transcended the deaths of their brother/son and mother/wife.

Right Near the Beach manages to accomplish a lot. Firstly, the editing and cinematography work incredibly well with the soundscape to depict the character’s raw emotion and path to overcoming their grief. Secondly, the full circle script gives the film a spiritual completeness that many films fail to achieve. But, that’s not all. Right Near the Beach also touches on the prejudice in Jamaica and how the country is largely overlooked internationally except for beaches and running (hence the ironic title). I’m excited to see more from these filmmakers.

Head to our Pan African Film Festival Hub for more reviews from PAFF 2020.

I Killed My Mother

I Killed My Mother Film Difficulty Ranking: 2

You haven’t heard of Xavier Dolan? He’s the young darling of the Cannes film festival, and he deserves all the praise he has got. He proves that you are never too young to start (he wrote this script when he was 16) just as Ridley Scott and Michael Haneke prove that you’re never too old to start (directing their first feature films at 40 and 47 respectively). So watch I Killed My Mother for a semi-autobiographical look at one of the brightest stars in the international film world.

Why Watch I Killed My Mother?

Watch the debut of one of the film industry’s brightest talents, Xavier Dolan. He’s only 27 year old!
For another dive into mother-son relationships (also watch his Cannes Jury Prize winner Mommy)
Just in case you didn’t think he was talented enough, Xavier also plays the protagonist in this semi-autobiographical drama
Get familiar with Francophone Canada!

The Breakdown

We love our mothers unknowingly and only realise how deep-rooted that love is at the ultimate separation.

First we see Hubert’s eyes, then his face, as he is being interviewed by the camera. He talks about his mother and says that he could be anybody’s son. A montage of fake butterflies and kitschy statues precede a slow motion shot of Hubert’s mum eating a cream cheese bagel. Hubert begrudgingly tells her to wipe some food off her face.

Next, Hubert’s mum is driving him to school. All we see is a front-on view of the two characters through the front wind-shield sitting in the front two seats. The scene proceeds as follows:

Hubert berates his mum for putting on her make-up while driving
Mum complains that Hubert never talks
Mum then turns up radio when she hears something of interest
Hubert hates the ‘news propaganda’ and shouts at her to turn it off
Mum doesn’t so Hubert puts in headphones
Mum asks why he never wants to talk any more

The first 10 minutes are a portrait of the difficulty of motherhood and the difficulty of adolescence. It is always a battle of very few words.

It is the moments away from his mother that we truly get to know Hubert. With his mother there is no sign of himself; his creativity, his homosexuality, his sophistication, and honesty. Instead, at home, stuck within his mother’s suffocating furnishing and poor fashion style, there is no room for him to be himself. This is shown when he returns home from a party on speed and urgently tells his mother that he has so much to say to her but not enough time or words to say it. In this moment we see that he wants to be understood by her, he wants to tell her everything, but he cannot. He, like many adolescents can never get back the openness of communication they had with their parents that they used to have during their childhood.

Conclusion

Xavier Dolan’s stylish debut feature is a testament of his talent (which has been justified at Cannes). Use of special features, like slow motion, montages, and intimate black and white interviews contribute to his style. He is an auteur (meaning he is a director with a distinguishable style) in a world where they are harder to come by. Do yourself a favour and check out this film, and then some more of his films (such as Mommy).

Black Mexicans – Pan African Film Festival 2020

In Black Mexicans, a fisherman splits his time between two women: his wife, Juana, and his lover Magdalena.

Neri, the fisherman, is an old Don Juan. He’s known in the community for his promiscuity, which doesn’t end with Juana and Magdalena. However, the film focuses on his two lovers and their two daughters of a similar age. Whilst Nero’s two families share similarities, they have different problems. Juana has Neri, but she’s dying from a terminal illness, whilst Magdalena lives waiting on Neri and the relationship with his wife to end. Magdalena isn’t hoping for Juana to die – she regularly donates blood and even offers her donating her liver to help her – but she does want clarity from her relationship with Neri so she can move on with her life.

The other difference between the two families is their wealth. Whilst neither family is wealthy, Magdalena at least has her health to continue earning money through her restaurant. She’s able to buy a new fridge, and isn’t too worried about Neri not being able to catch any fish. Her ability to earn money, also gives her daughter the freedom to do what she wants as she doesn’t have to help support the family. In contrast, Juana is too poorly to earn, and Neri can’t support them, so her daughter has to find work to keep them afloat. Juana’s daughter therefore doesn’t have the same freedoms as her step sister and resents her absent father more for it.

Black Mexicans is set along the picturesque Oaxaca coast within the Afro-Mexican community in Costa Chica. The remote and empty setting reflects the Afro-Mexican experience in Mexico. Just like Afro-Mexicans in Mexico, the setting is hidden away from the rest of Mexico. No one makes the effort to take the boat trip there, except for the rare pair of backpackers. There’s also no sign of any non-black Mexicans here, just as the Afro-Mexicans here are hidden away from the rest of Mexico. The empty beach chairs and beach restaurants show that people just don’t care about the Afro-Mexican community. It’s isolated enough to pretend it doesn’t exist and empty enough that it doesn’t attract any attention.

It’s no surprise then that the Juana’s daughters efforts to make a life for herself appear hopeless. Her father will always be promiscuous and forget about her, her mother is terminally ill, she’s in inescapable debt, and there’s no support from the government (as indicated when a highway policeman says she’s not Mexican on a rare trip outside the community). Without her mother she’s alone. Her hopelessness is expressed through her stoic expressions. She never smiles or frowns, and never appears disappointed or angry. She’s aware of the hopelessness of her situation and her inevitable prostitution to pay off her debts.

Black Mexicans is the first feature film that tries to depict the Afro-Mexican experience with an all Afro-Mexican cast. It does have its problems: some Afro-Mexicans have called out the stereotypical depictions and the ignorantly prejudiced comments of the director. However, separating the director from the film, Black Mexicans deserves credit for depicting a community invisible to the rest of Mexico. Well constructed images and storyline might remind you of Costa Rica’s Land of Ashes or Eve’s Bayou. It’s use of setting and the stoic character of Juana’s daughter highlight the lack of opportunity and support for the black community in Mexico and their exclusion from their Mexican identity.

Fausto – Immerse Yourself in a World of Wonder

Fausto Film Difficulty Ranking: 4

Fausto isn’t like the usual films you’re used to. There’s no main characters and there’s no narrative that you can follow. Instead, Fausto is a collection of mysterious stories and images; some might fill you with wonder and others might just drift through you. It’s all in the name of searching for something bigger than ourselves – nature, the universe, magic.

From: Mexico, North America
Watch: Trailer
Next: Tabu, Serpentarius, Extraordinary Stories

Read The Full Review

The Crime of Father Amaro (Mexico) – Controversy in the Catholic Church

Crime of Father Amaro Film Difficulty Ranking: 2

If you love controversy with plenty of drama, check out The Crime of Father Amaro. It’s a full frontal attack on the Catholic Church in Mexico which many tried to ban. Whilst it’s not as damaging as Spotlight, it will remind you that all of us are human no matter what position we’re in.

Here’s a dramatic trailer for a dramatic film.

Why Watch Crime of Father Amaro?

It’s controversial – religious groups lobbied to ban it in Mexico but their attempts backfired as the publicity rocketed this film to success at the box office
To see Gabriel Garcia Bernal (famous for Y Tu Mama Tambien, No, Motorcycle Diaries and many more)
If you love a bit of melodrama
It was Oscar nominated for best foreign language picture

The Breakdown

The opening of the film deliberately leads us to sympathize with the young Father Amaro (Garcia Bernal). Firstly, he’s charitable. When the elderly man he sits next to on the bus is robbed, he reimburses him with his own money. Secondly, he appears friendly. The local kids run around him after he playfully grabs their football and he chills with the fellow pastors to watch football on TV. He has all the makings of a great guy. However, the melodrama slowly kicks to life as he begins to take advantage of one of the parish girls who is clearly infatuated with him.

There are plenty of omens that something is going to go wrong. Firstly, you’ll notice that wherever Father Amaro is, the statues of the Saints and Jesus are always watching him. There’s a statue of Jesus that watches over him at home, from his bedside table. Furthermore, the director makes sure you notice each of the saints looking down at him whenever he is in the church by cutting to static shots of each one as he walks down the aisle. Nothing he does escapes from their view.

Secondly, the saints have a helper in a crazy old woman aptly named Dionisia after the Greek God Dionysus, the God of Wine, as well as ritual madness and religious ecstasy. It’s clear that Dionisia is both mad and madly religious. In addition, she also comparable to the witches from Shakespeare’s Macbeth. She predicts the love affair between Father Amaro and Amelia.

The two omens (the Saints and Dionisia) are both critiques of Catholicism. Firstly, of all the sins that are committed in plain sight of the saints and then confessed the next day. And secondly, of how it is interpreted by the population (Dionisia has malformed dolls posing as Saints, and tries to exorcise her disabled neighbor).

Image result for crime of father amaro

Conclusion

The Crime of Father Amaro is another great controversial melodrama from Mexico. It attacks the Catholic Church it’s hypocrisies, so it’s not surprising that Catholic groups tried to ban it. Unfortunately for them, the controversy propelled it to become the biggest film in Mexico.

If you want even more religious controversy, check out Oscar winner Spotlight. However, if you want blatant provocation, check out the Mexican film Battle in Heaven. If you want to see some more great Mexican film, check out our Top Ten Mexican Films here.