Wolves, elephants, a pigeon and eccentric relatives
First-time director Crystal Moselle introduces us to the Angulo brothers, six real-life siblings who have been locked up by their agoraphobic father Oscar, a Peruvian musician. Oscar and his “tribe” reside in a cramped housing project on New York City’s Lower East Side.
Now aged16 to 23, all with Sanskrit names, the brothers connect to the rarely experienced outside world via films viewed on TV, violent classics such as The Godfather and also Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs. The lads obsessively reenact the movies using homemade costumes.
For The Dark Knight, they made a surprisingly good Batman costume out of yoga mats and cereal boxes. It’s a bizarre but apparently happy existence, although it’s impossible to shake the feeling that something may be seriously wrong. The brothers have a devoted mother, ex-hippie Susanne, and a camera-shy sister, who seem resigned to the situation. Something happens that puts family dynamics to the test.
The Wolfpack is reminiscent of the Greek drama Dogtooth a few years back. This one has the added curiosity of being real and of opening a window on a particularly intense kind of movie love. This Sundance 2015 hit is one doc that really has to be seen to be believed. Roy Andersson’s astringent new satire concludes the Swedish auteur’s loosely connected “human being” trilogy, which includes Songs from the Second Floor (2000) and You, the Living ( 2007). Pigeon combines laughter with cruelty, but then so does life.
Impeccably mounted and ruthless in its absurdity, this Golden Lion winner at the 2014 Venice Film Festival follows sad-sack novelty salesmen Sam (Nils Westblom) and Jonathan (Holger Andersson). Their offerings include goofy vampire teeth and a hideous latex death mask they call Uncle One-Tooth. Sales are far from brisk, much to their somnolent chagrin.
Sam and Jonathan trudge through a world of morbidity, monotony and absurdity, trying to spread the laughter and joy they can’t experience themselves.
The film is almost indescribable for both its humour and horror. The latter includes an appalling scene that comments simultaneously on imperialistic rule, the slave trade, the Holocaust and mindless mass entertainment.
And what does one say when Sweden’s 18th century King Charles XII and his troops suddenly march in to confront bored tavern patrons of the 21st century? Not much, it turns out. Pigeon is a film designed to confound and provoke, sometimes to wearying effect. But it’s riveting in its deadpan depictions of drained existence. Peter Howell Initially seeming so personal, Montreal filmmaker Thomas Burstyn’s family examination Some Kind of Love gradually reveals itself to be a relatable documentary.
His primary focus is his late mother’s eccentric stepsister, prolific London artist Yolanda Sonnabend. With echoes of Grey Gardens, Yolanda lives in a ramshackle London house with a posh address, packed with 50 years’ worth of art and assorted junk.
Burstyn is surprised to see Yolanda’s older brother Joseph is now living there. Once a pioneering AIDS researcher, he clearly can’t stand to be in the same room with his sister, who he dismisses as a being like “a wayward, crazy kid.” Yolanda chafes at his rudeness. Who knew they’d end up here, after such rich lives, sharing this shabby home in their late 70s? As secrets are exposed that help explain their relationship, Burstyn ponders the nature of his own 12-year estrangement from his older brother.
Two years later, Burstyn returns to find the siblings’ relationship has changed with Yolanda sliding into dementia and Joseph now protective.
Burstyn, who avoids contrivances elsewhere, goes for a couple in the final going of his doc but we are not expecting neat endings. Family, after all, can be a messy business. Linda Barnard Jerusalem-set codger caper Hunting Elephants brings walkers, Viagra jokes and Patrick Stewart to a lesser Ocean’s Eleven- style heist comedy that led the 2013 Israeli box office.
Preteen Yonatan (Gil Blank) is shattered by his bank security guard dad’s sudden death. Worse, his family was stiffed on compensation and now Yonatan’s mom is dating the slimy bank manager.
Friendless, Yonatan starts hanging out with his estranged grandfather Eliahu (Sasson Gabai of The Band’s Visit) and his pals at a senior’s home, which also appears to be a place where stale and sexist jokes go to die.
Enter Stewart as Lord Michael Simpson, Eliahu’s brother-in-law, barely making a lousy living as a hammy stage actor. He arrives to settle his comatose sister’s estate and skim a little for himself. But the money’s gone.
So everybody has a reason to want to rob the bank where Yonatan’s dad worked. Eliahu and sidekick Nick (Moni Moshonov), 1940s Jewish freedom fighters, have some unique experience for the job.
Occasionally Hunting Elephants lumbers in sentimental directions, which hardly square with its Benny Hill- style sensibilities.
Still, Stewart is an amusing Alec Guinness wannabe whose latest stage flop was Star Wars- themed Hamlet: Revenge of the Sith. Linda Barnard