December 2018
FLIX PREMIERE Close-Up
this month’s UPCOMING PREMIERES
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Welcome Readers: The purpose of this magazine is to share with our movie-goers, the industry and our partners updates about what is happening at Flix Premiere each month. We aim to highlight and explore the upcoming month’s film premieres in each market, and occasionally announce new developments on our platform. Happy reading!
Eleph ant Song
IN THIS ISSUE:
Ma hjo ng an Sug d thearWe st
December Premieres Snapshot Learn about our exclusive new premieres showing each week. Th e St ai rs
US December Premieres Snapshot - pg. 3 UK December Premieres Snapshot - pg. 4
Close Up: Premieres Feature Reviews A chance to immerse yourself in the wonderful stories premiering each week. A Figh ting Seas on
Elephant Song - Xavier Dolan, Bruce Greenwood, Catherine Keener, Carrie-Anne Moss, Cindy Sampson - pg. 5 Mahjong and the West - Jerod Meagher, Tom Guiry, Alyssa Carpenter, Louanne Stephens, Janette Bloom - pg. 6 Get Happy! - Chris Riggi, Rebecca Blumhagen, Adam LaVorgna, Lauren Sweetser - pg. 7 A Fighting Season - Clayne Crawford, Lew Temple, JB Majors, Jim Hechim, Mathew Lipisko, Carrie Paff - pg. 8 Shooting for Socrates - John Hannah, Conleth Hill, Richard Dormer, Art Parkinson - pg. 9 The Stairs - (Documentary) - Marty, Roxanne, Greg - pg. 10
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“ Tender, moving, and deeply visceral, director Joseph Muszynski’s Mahjong and the West is a gripping portrait of love lost and gained.“
US PREMIERE December 7, 2018 - 7pm EST
A young New Yorker confronts her past demons in Wyoming cowboy country.
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A real eye-opener and one hell of a movie driven by stellar performances and a shockingly honest truth being projected for all to see.” Back to the Movies
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US PREMIERE December 14, 2018 - 7pm EST
On the brink of the 2007 U.S. troop surge, two Recruiters face extreme pressures realising that war isn't confined just to the battlefield.
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US PREMIERES SNAPSHOT
Starring: Jerod Meagher, Tom Guiry, Alyssa Carpenter, Louanne Stephens, Janette Bloom
DECEMBER 7, 2018 - 7pm EST
Starring: Clayne Crawford, Lew Temple, JB Majors, Jim Hechim, Mathew Lipisko
DECEMBER 14, 2018 - 7pm EST
Starring: John Hannah, Conleth Hill, Richard Dormer, Art Parkinson
december 21, 2018 - 7pm EST
Starring: Marty, Roxanne, Greg
DECEMBER 28, 2018 - 7pm EST
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UK PREMIERES SNAPSHOT
Starring: Xavier Dolan, Bruce Greemwood, Catherine Keener Carrie-Anne Moss, Cindy Sampson
december 1, 2018 - 7pm GMT
Starring: Chris Riggi, Adam LaVorgna, Rebecca Blumhagen, Lauren Sweetser
DECEMBER 8, 2018 - 7pm GMT
Starring: Jerod Meagher, Tom Guiry, Alyssa Carpenter, Louanne Stephens, Janette Bloom
december 15, 2018 - 7pm GMT
Starring: Clayne Crawford, Lew Temple, JB Majors, Jim Hechim, Mathew Lipisko
december 22, 2018 - 7pm GMT
Starring: Marty, Roxanne, Greg
DECEMBER 29, 2018 - 7pm GMT
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Elephant Song
Close Up: Premiere Feature Review UK Premiere DECEMBER 1 - 7PM GMT
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his is a film marked by the tense relationship between a psychiatrist and patient: Thrilling, dramatic, and punctuated by a sense of curious show-uppery. Elephant Song begins in an operatic theatre in 1947 Cuba, where a young boy is shown being ignored by his opera singer mother. It flashes forward to a mental hospital in 1966, to Dr. Green (Bruce Greenwood) investigating the disappearance of Dr. Lawrence (Colm Feore). Dr. Green is seen questioning patient Michael (Xavier Dolan), who seems to know a thing or two about the disappearance. Everybody at the hospital distrusts one another; intentions are hidden then revealed and covered up yet again. Truly, everybody there reads each other like a puzzle waiting to be solved. And Michael’s questioning is complicated by the fact that Nurse Peterson (Catherine Keener), Dr. Green’s ex-wife, seems to have taken a sick day on the very day of the psychiatrist’s disappearance. Befuddling, energized, and fast moving, director Charles Biname’s Elephant Song is a heart-pounding and poignant psychological thriller.
Dolan’s performance is superb. Oli Davis, Flickering Myth
A twist-filled screenplay from Billon and tense direction from Biname ensure that this is a rewarding watch. Cine House UK
One of the most treasured aspects of this film is the all-star studded cast. Bruce Greenwood, Catherine Keener, and Xavier Dolan (who proves that he can act just as well as he can direct) bring emotional depth and nuanced performances to the already exceptionally well-written characters. They breathe life into them, so that every movement and gesture is suffused with importance. The richness of watching Elephant Song lies partly in the fact that there are few clear-cut answers. Ambiguity is fecundity here; suspense runs gloriously thick. The cinematography is similarly exceptional. The palette consists of dark undertones, enigmatic and shadowy, which allow the look of the film to perfectly reflect the mood.
A joy of being witness to this film as it unfolds before the eyes is the fact that viewer feels like an outsider looking in, never certain as to what will happen next. With every quip and every artful shot, director Biname encourages the viewer to always be keeping up with the pace of the film, so as not to miss a single word. Elephant Song, which was adapted from Nicolas Billon’s play of the same name, truly shines with the dialogue, but the sleek production value add dimensionality and distinct directorial vision. Elephant Song casts a spell of intrigue, seduction and trickery that will leave the spectator with a strong urge to re-watch the film so as to absorb every last detail.
Mahjong and the West
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Close Up: Premiere Feature Review US Premiere DECEMBER 7 - 7PM EST UK Premiere DECEMBER 15 - 7PM GMT
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ender, moving, and deeply visceral, director Joseph Muszynski’s Mahjong and the West is a gripping portrait of love lost and gained. Madison Linden (Jannette Bloom) is a big-shot designer in the city. She’s steadfastly dedicated to her job, and seems to work overtime often. One night, as she burns the midnight oil, her mother leaves the office that they both work at, and she is struck by a passing car. As Madison grieves, she learns that the funeral will take place in rural Wyoming, where her mother grew up and where Madison herself spent her childhood. She packs her bags and finds herself in what feels like an unfamiliar place: where rolling mountains, pastures, square and dancing are abundant. She rekindles her friendship with her cousin Kate (Alyssa Carpenter) a farmhand, as they bar hop and go fishing together. On Madison’s first night, Kate takes her to the local watering hole where she ends up getting into a fight - and arrested - for striking a man with a beer bottle after he aggressively made a pass at her. She’s tried in court, and must extend her stay in Wyoming and put her life in the city on hold.
Tender, moving, and deeply visceral, director Joseph Muszynski’s Mahjong and the West is a gripping portrait of love lost and gained.
Confronted with her past, familial history and a completely different way of life, Madison struggles to adjust in her former home. But as romance and family ties begin to blossom, she begins to see some good in her situation. Madison is a picture of composure and strength in the midst of deep hardship - she is a shining example of strong heroines in film witty, and self-assured. Mahjong and the West stands out for its honest and gritty storytelling. All of the characters are written with nuance and depth; they are all isolated in some sense, looking out into a world that they don’t quite feel a part of.
The cinematography works in complete harmony with the film’s superb writing and direction, as Wyoming becomes a character in the film. It is the beating heart of the film, pulsating with life, offering both solitude, vice, and even redemption in its high mountains and glittering blue skies. Mahjong and the West is peopled by unforgettable characters, and is defined by its clarity of voice. It succeeds in creating a specific mood, leaving the spectator with traces of the film’s vision: like a mid-western noir movie, the characters are guarded yet open and uniquely gorgeous for their ability to transport the viewer into a place of real emotional height.
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Close Up: Premiere Feature Review
Get Happy!
UK Premiere DECEMBER 8 - 7PM GMT
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ull of energy, light-hearted cynicism, and a love of poking fun at romantic comedy and self-help genre tropes, director Manoj Annadurai’s Get Happy! is a feel-good comedy for the ages. In a time when the rom-com is gaining in popularity and critical acclaim alike, Get Happy! meets and excels the bar for what rom-coms should be: It has terrific acting, a wry and playful sense of humor, charming characters, and a unique style, sweet at times in the best of ways. Protagonist Charlie (Chris Riggi) is having a really, really bad day. But it’s routine for him. He’s been in a perpetually grouchy mood since emerging from the womb. On his way to work, he barely has enough change on him to buy a donut. On the subway, even, he has the misfortune of sitting on a seat that has a piece of gum stuck on it. The pretty blonde next to him laughs. Later, his friends set him up with a barista at his favorite coffee shop - but the date does not go well.
Get Happy! meets and excels the bar for what rom-coms should be: it has terrific acting, a wry and playful sense of humor, charming characters, and a unique style, sweet at times in the best of ways.
Throughout the course of the night, he runs into the pretty blonde from the subway again, who reveals her name to be Holly (Lauren Sweetser), and she encourages him to rob a vintage clothing store with her. They do; he looks hipster cool as he is being arrested. They fall in love and Charlie has never been happier. His publisher friend Bobby (Adam LaVorgna) implies that Charlie should be wary of Holly, because she fits the stereotype of the “Manic Pixie Dream Girl” trope - she seems to do nothing other than work towards Charlie’s self-improvement, she’s energetic, and she has lots of ex-boyfriends.
Charlie begins to let his friend’s words get inside his head and then suddenly tragedy strikes, derailing his relationship with Holly and his worldview. Get Happy! is an uplifting film, joyous, and gorgeously crafted. It’s instantly likeable for style, direction, cinematic verve and the acting. The wild and wonderful characters grow with the viewer and are used as vessels for exploring interesting questions on the nature of romantic relationships, the rom-com genre, and the self-help book phenomenon. The film is a cultural critique just as much as it seems to work lovingly within the genres that it is critiquing. Absorbing, hilarious, and intelligent, Get Happy! will transport the viewer to a happier place, full of hope, laughter and self-confidence.
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Close Up: Premiere Feature Review
A Fighting Season
US Premiere DECEMBER 14 - 7PM EST UK Premiere DECEMBER 22 - 7PM GMT
A Fighting Season is a war drama with a unique angle, bringing the psychological tensions and contradictions of military service to bear on life in the home front itself. Knowing the harsh realities of war, Mason must come to terms with witnessing and participating in Harris’s efforts to sign low-income adolescents without money for college, young offenders and convicts who are offered military service as their only way out of serving time in jail, and young women who must contend with harassment and sexual advances in their quest to serve in the army.
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fter an Improvised Explosive Device sends him into shock on the battlefield in Iraq, Sargent Mason’s [Clayne Crawford] behavior grows volatile and erratic. When he bursts out in anger at a military interviewer investigating reports that he abused prisoners of war, it is determined that he is unfit for active duty. Reassigned to a desk job at a recruiters’ outpost, Mason soon learns that the war is being fought at home as well – in a battle to enlist new recruits when turnout is low and the need for a military surge is on the rise.
A Fighting Season leaves quite a
It sketches out a series of frequently conflicted motivations for enlistment, including the patriotic, the economic, and the coercive, that are often lumped together under the rubric of a selfless fulfillment of a sense of duty.
sour taste in the mouth on an ethical note. A real eye-opener and one hell of a movie driven by
At the same time, it never demolishes the sincerity and earnestness of the belief that service is carried out precisely to fulfill an obligation to patriotism and the greater good.
stellar performances and a shockingly honest truth being
Clayne Crawford gives a tour de force performance as Sargent Mason. Demonstrating strength and resolve while also betraying reservations and flickers of doubt, Crawford delivers a portrayal with genuine depth. He is well complimented by the contrast of his character with Lew Temple’s Sargent Harris.
projected for all to see. Sean Evans, Back To The Movies
The film is a harsh indictment on the system of an all volunteer military Mason is a wounded hero, suffering from the onset of PTSD. But his new commander, Sargent Harris, has never seen a real battlefield. Rather, the latter strategizes and maneuvers to persuade potential recruits and their parents that a career with such high risks is worth the rewards that it offers.
and surviving an unending war on terrorism and truth. Michael Knox-Smith, Mike’s Film Talk
Full of masculine bravado, and prone to an abrasive barking of orders, Temple’s Harris is a psychologically damaged soldier whose injuries derive from never having seen the action of battle. The conflict between the two men escalates as the film progresses, building to an explosive finale.
A Fighting Season is a critical drama, reflecting on a recent and even contemporary period in American history – it is not to be missed.
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Shooting for Socrates
Close Up: Premiere Feature Review US Premiere DECEMBER 21 - 7PM EST
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hooting for Socrates is set in a tumultuous year for Northern Ireland. Taking place from 1985-86, under Thatcherian politics and social unrest, Northern Ireland seems to be granted a miracle: competition in the 1986 World Cup finals. James Erskine’s film, which is based on a true story, sometimes has a documentary feel and interweaves actual documentary footage within his own film, is a profoundly hopeful, if poignant and also conceptually top-notch work. The film follows a young boy named Tommy (Art Parkinson) whose anticipation and expectation for the Northern Ireland team is delightfully infectious, the coach Billy Bingham (John Hannah) and David Campbell (Nico Mirallegro), a player ecstatic to be chosen to play on the World Cup team. In many ways, this film is a classic David versus Goliath story. The David, in this case - Northern Ireland’s players, and its ardent fans - is a story punctuated by expectation and anticipation. There are many shots of people watching a game in their living room, or in the pub, their eyes fixated on the screen.
Shooting for Socrates shines for its sense of timing, and for its crafting of witty dialogue and quirky characters.
The World Cup brings the world together, while pitting countries against each other. Shooting for Socrates expertly digest’s a nation’s worries through exploring the psyches of a wide array of people. Cinematically, the film adopts a playful look, frequently featuring a film grain look on the television for authenticity with the high-definition feel of a film made in 2014. This is sports film par excellence, with complex characters, superb writing, and innovative camerawork. The viewer will be holding onto their seats in anticipation of every move - both for the characters and for the players in the World Cup.
Shooting for Socrates shines for its sense of timing, and for its crafting of witty dialogue and quirky characters (such as a philosophizing coach). The world of the film, though tumultuous and sometimes violent, is ruled by a sense of hopefulness and faith that the “good” shall triumph, and it’s a mindset often needed in the present moment. Erskine is at the height of his filmmaking powers, skillfully rendering a zeitgeist through impressive cinematic form. Shooting for Socrates will please anyone interested in a warm-hearted film, an excellent sports movie, or a viewer interested in learning more about Northern Ireland in this tumultuous time. Gorgeous, textured, and powerful, Shooting for Socrates triumphs.
The Stairs
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Close Up: Premiere Feature Review US Premiere DECEMBER 28 - 7PM EST UK Premiere DECEMBER 29 - 7PM GMT
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f the police in Toronto’s Regent Park, one man—and an employee at the harm reduction clinic StreetHealth - says: “We are fodder for their arrest stats.” Hugh Gibson’s The Stairs is a remarkably poetic, biting and personal documentary following several individuals who have recovered from substance abuse and who frequent StreetHealth. What is most impressive about the documentary, though, which was an official Toronto International Film Festival selection, is the intimacy that it creates. It’s the kind of film, sometimes rare even in the cinema verite genre, that you can tell that the filmmakers spent a great deal of time getting to know their subjects.
And yet, the film also intersperses such expectation with social commentary, particularly socio- economic struggles and women’s suffering. There seems to be genuine collaboration and a sense of comraderie and respect. The central subject, who remains nameless like all of the subjects out of concern for their own safety, often tells the cameraperson to cut, or he will tell the camera to follow him as he shows off his new Bob Marley t-shirt collection. Money, he says, which would have been spent on drugs before. This creates a feeling of playfulness, and a breaking down of barriers, which is remarkably refreshing.
The Stairs delivers humanizing portraits of drug addicts that are needed now than ever before. Travis Lupick, The Georgia Straight
Despite the unrelenting heaviness of their stories, Gibson’s minimalistm, realist approach to his subjects is characterized by an uncommon warmth. Angelo Muredda, Torontoist
There can be a tendency among films that portray people who have recovered from substance abuse one-dimensionally, meant to illicit a tear-jerk reaction in the viewer, or for us to assign moral judgement or pity. But The Stairs skillfully avoids such tropes. The subjects are diverse and their stories are richly complex and personal. One woman, who suffers extreme PTSD from witnessing her partner’s overdose, has been sleepwalking. She woke up one morning in a park and couldn’t say how she got there. Through talking head interviews with her, the viewer sees her honestly tackle subjects that some documentaries might shy away from.
She says that she is frank with her children about her sex work and her struggles with substance abuse. Such frankness is what the film aspires to: collaborating with an initiative - StreetHealth - which tackles substance abuse head-on. The organization, which gives $20 each week to every participant over the course of the several months that they sign up for - which is also the cost of buying crack, according to one employee - to grab a sandwich and a cup of coffee and listen to recovered substance abusers tell their stories. The main subject of the film says that, in his early days at the clinic, when he would listen to them speak, he could have sworn they were talking about him. The Stairs is bold and urgent.
HOME OF AWARD-WINNING CINEMA AND MORE
“ Get Happy! meets and excels the bar for what rom-coms should be: it has terrific acting, a wry and playful sense of humor, charming characters, and a unique style, sweet at times in the best of ways. “
UK PREMIERE December 8, 2018 - 7pm BST A perpetually miserable man finds happiness when he starts dating a manic pixie dream girl, to the befuddlement of his cynical best friend.
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“...a uniquely realized story that lingers in the psyche even after the closing credits have rolled by. ” Richard Propes, The Independent Critic
UK PREMIERE December 29, 2018 - 7pm BST 3 people use their experiences surviving decades of drug use and sex work to help their community.
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