One giant leap for conspiracy freaks
Operation Avalanche
(out of 4) Starring Matt Johnson and Owen Williams. Directed by Matt Johnson. Opens Friday at TIFF Bell Lightbox. 94 minutes. 14A
That’s one small step for Apollo 11 hoaxers, one giant leap for Matt Johnson ( The Dirties). This what-if wonder by the Toronto filmmaker is structured like a documentary within a documentary, exploring (and teasing) rumours that the 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing was a hoax.
It plays like a vintage espionage thriller or 1970s paranoia classic like The Parallax View. Writer/director/ actor Johnson combines fact, fiction and the most wild-eyed of speculation for this doc hybrid, which is set in the late 1960s during the Cold War/space race between the U.S. and Russia.
It boldly goes on a cosmos-quaking conspiracy theory: Apollo 11 was a hoax, cooked up by a desperate NASA, a sneaky CIA and a complicit Stanley Kubrick, who made moonwalks look real in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Operation Avalanche unspools like vintage film, with much grainy B&W and desaturated colour. The late Kubrick, whom some people really do think faked Apollo 11’s landing footage for NASA, is resurrected through artful editing of photographs.
Johnson stars with Owen Williams, his accomplice in The Dirties, as two CIA agents posing as filmmakers. They’re pretending to be making a doc about NASA’s preparations for the July 1969 first moon landing.
What they’re really trying to do is to unmask a Russian mole within NASA, but in their sleuthing they discover the space agency is hiding a terrible truth:
it’s nowhere near ready to put a man on the moon, not in time to meet the end-of-decade deadline set by late president John F. Kennedy, whose lunar challenge opens Operation Avalanche.
It sounds absurd and the film has many funny moments. But there are also many frightening ones, when other players in the scenario set out to silence any squealers. Peter Howell
The Lovers and the Despot
(out of 4) Documentary written and directed by Robert Cannan and Ross Adam. Opens Friday at Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema. 98 minutes. PG
The atrocities of the North Korean regime, known as the Hermit Kingdom, are well-documented and, sadly, ongoing.
The film tells one long forgotten but fascinating story, the 1978 kidnapping of South Korean actress Choi Eun-hee and the subsequent kidnapping of esteemed director Shin Sang-ok, who went searching for his ex-wife. Dictator Kim Jong Il, an ardent cineaste, hated North Korean films. Too much ideology and too much crying. Through archival footage, photos and secret tapes — including rare recordings of the reclusive leader’s own voice — it’s a riveting story steeped in Cold War intrigue and personal tragedy but also not without its ironies. For example, South Koreans bought into the North’s propaganda, believing the couple to be traitors until their escape. Though the tapes they secretly recorded helped vindicate them, no happy ending awaited. PH
Imperium
(out of 4) Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Toni Collette, Sam Trammell and Tracy Letts. Written and directed by Daniel Ragussis. Opens Friday at the Carlton. 108 minutes. 14A
Bullied and undervalued by his FBI associates, nerdy but ambitious agent Nate Foster (Daniel Radcliffe) infiltrates white power groups in a bid to stop a dirty bomb terror attack on U.S. soil.
Sounds like something Kevin Hart might attempt as comedy, but Radcliffe and rookie writer/director Daniel Ragussis combine to make this a deadly serious thriller. Drawn from ex-FBI agent Michael German’s own story, it seems unnervingly accurate for anxious times. Coaxed by a gum-snapping superior (Toni Collette) to prove he’s more than a wannabe, meek Nate goes full neoNazi, shaving his head and concocting a violent military back story.
Initially greeted with skepticism by skinheads, Klansmen, the Aryan Brotherhood and a right-wing radio host (Tracy Letts), Nate soon proves his nasty worth. Most troubling amongst his new friends is a wealthy benefactor (Sam Trammell) who illustrates that the worst evil smiles come from the shadows. Bruce DeMara
Milton’s Secret
(out of 4) Starring Donald Sutherland, William Ainscough and Michelle Rodriguez. Directed by Barnet Bain. Opens Friday at Cineplex Yonge-Dundas. 89 minutes. STC
Donald Sutherland has certainly played stoners in his august acting career, but he seems positively glazed in Barnet Bain’s powder puff adaptation of an Eckhart Tolle novel of self-awareness.
Sutherland plays free-floating and Zen-quoting Grandpa to bullied 11year-old protagonist and narrator Milton (William Ainscough). Milton lives on “Planet Fear” due to marital and financial troubles for his parents (Mia Kirshner and David Sutcliffe) and threats from a violent classmate (Percy Hynes White). Michelle Rodriguez bides time as a concerned teacher.
Ex-soldier Grandpa wears Hawaiian shirts, quaffs herbal “tranquility” tea, grooves to Donovan and credits his pet cats for Zen wisdom.
He wants his grandson to think his way out of problems, but Milton and his equally nerdy pal Timmy (Hays Wellford) prefer to be alchemists. It’s perfectly nutty and perfectly dull, like St. Vincent on Quaaludes. PH
Swiss Army Man
(out of 4) Starring Daniel Radcliffe and Paul Dano. Directed by Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert. Available Tuesday on DVD. 97 minutes. 14A
Video creatives turned filmmakers Daniel Scheinert and Dan Kwan use their ample imaginations and visual talents to tell a unique love story.
Marooned on a remote Pacific Ocean isle, Hank (Paul Dano) is prepared to take desperate measures to end his loneliness — until the day the body of a man played by Harry Potter’s Daniel Radcliffe washes ashore.
Hank becomes involved with the stiff he calls “Manny,” in what makes for the strangest of bromances. No sensibilities are spared as Hank employs Manny’s surprising dead-guy talents, which include mad flatulence that allows him to be ridden like a Jet Ski. Go ahead and guess how Manny works as a compass.
When Manny shows signs of an after-death personality, all bets are off as to where this story is headed. But it’s impossible not to get caught up, even if you’re simultaneously repelled. PH