For most of the year, Dalhousie University students and local Halifax community members embrace the Cineplex Cinemas Park Lane, nestled under Park Lane Mall, as a place to catch a quick flick with friends or unwind after a long week at school or work. But, for eight days each year, the Spring Garden Road theatre transforms from an average local movie theatre to an international arts hub, showcasing over 100 films from across Canada and the world.
This year, the festival, which ran from Sept. 11 to Sept. 18, brought together filmmakers, viewers and our Dalhousie Gazette writers and editors alike to celebrate the year’s newest releases. We’ve curated some reviews of a few of our favourite films from the 2024 festival to give readers a glimpse into what was playing at Atlantic Canada’s premier film event.
The Apprentice takes the piss out of Trump (Reviewed by Toni Kleiner)
Seeing Ali Abbasi’s The Apprentice (2024) at the Atlantic International Film Festival felt like a forbidden indulgence. Maybe that’s because the biopic’s future in theatres is currently in question. The seedy movie, which portrays Donald Trump’s (Sebastian Stan) rise in the real estate business in the 1970s and 1980s, has provoked a threat from Trump’s campaign to pursue legal action.
It’s not surprising. The film is an unflattering look inside Trump’s earlier years and his relationship with lawyer Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong). It refuses to cater to the image that Trump works so hard to put out there. Young Trump is awkward, stumbling over his words, throwing up on the side of the street after not being able to handle his liquor and following crooked and self-assured Cohn around like an obedient puppy.
By the end of the film, Trump is the man we know today. He sports pursed lips, discards women like objects and attempts to manipulate his demented father into signing away hundreds of thousands of dollars. Unsatisfied with his growing stomach and male-pattern baldness, he opts for surgery, falsely but confidently claiming to his doctor that the body’s energy is like a battery, limited, and therefore he refuses to exercise. The surgery is shown in painful detail, comical but also grotesque, as his stomach is sliced open and staples are jammed into his scalp.
By the end, the power dynamic with Cohn has shifted, Trump now on top, blowing off Cohn’s calls as Cohn slowly dies of AIDS. Throughout the movie Trump denies that he’d ever run for president, a foolish claim now that elicited groans from the audience. But what stood out most was the final scene where Trump recited three rules he learned from Cohn at the beginning of the film. Rule one: attack, attack, attack. Rule two: admit nothing, deny everything.
And rule three: no matter what happens, claim victory and never admit defeat. Be willing to do anything to anyone to win. Rules now eerie as they echoed around the theatre, now that we all know Trump and all the things he’s done.
Girls Will Be Girls is a knockout slow burn (Reviewed by Rebecca Merner)
Girls Will be Girls (2024) is a tender, excruciatingly intimate and achingly awkward film. The film begins with Mira (Preeti Panigrahi) on the day she becomes head girl at her conservative boarding school. As head girl, Mira is the embodiment of the school’s strict “Indian values,” the model and enforcer of a harsh code of conduct. Mira upholds this role with pride, however, the film conveys the suffocating nature of unachievable social standards. The catalyst of Mira’s internal rebellion and self-actualization comes in the form of a transfer student, Sri, (Kesav Binoy Kiron) and their romance.
Girls Will be Girls is shot in a 4:3 aspect ratio, creating closeness and immediacy in every shot of the film. The film is firmly set in Mira’s point of view—we see as Mira see’s—from her perspective that director Shuchi Talati shows the significance of a long look, hooked pinky fingers, blue sky or the feeling of being encircled by another’s arms. The chemistry between Mira and Sri is tangible. The intense intimacy, portrayed through the literal closeness of the subjects to the camera, forces the viewer to feel the excruciating awkwardness of a first love, a complex cocktail of naiveté, insecurity and selfishness. Talati is incredibly effective in showing this fall into a teenage lust.
The film displays Mira’s sexual awakening and coming of age story. However, it’s also a story of girlhood and the wound that the loss of girlhood creates in women. In many ways, this movie is just as much Mira’s mother Anila’s (Kani Kusruti) story. Anila watches and participates in the developing relationship between Sri and Mira as they escape to Mira’s home to build their relationship away from their conservative school.
In the film, Anila is all at once a foil, a co-conspirator and an antagonist. Anila is an oppressive presence of motherly love, protective concern, unfulfilled desires and suppressed sexuality. Throughout the film, there is a pervasive sense of longing, a visceral nostalgia for the feelings that her daughter is experiencing, especially in stark contrast to her own unfulfilling and lonely marriage. Mira and Anila’s relationship is a constant push and pull between envy, contempt and genuine love and care.
This is a slow-burn movie that does not allow the pacing to be rushed. However, in its hour and a half run time Girls Will be Girls is able to pack a knockout emotional punch. This film is tooth-achingly sweet, heartbreakingly nostalgic and, maybe by the end, a little hopeful too.
To a Land Unknown punches deep in the gut (Reviewed by Toni Kleiner)
To a Land Unknown (2024) is a painfully real film about the lengths some go to in order to find a place to call home. Directed by Danish-Palestinian filmmaker Mahdi Fleifel, the film lingers and peaks in all the right places, showcasing the dingy areas of Athens, Greece that Palestinian refugees and cousins Chatila (Mahmood Bakri) and Reda (Aran Sabbah) inhabit, and the crimes they commit and justify.
Really, this film is a lesson in humanity. Desperate to come up with the money to purchase fake passports so they can fly to Germany, Chatila and Reda spend their time stealing from those around them to save up the money. But when Reda spends the money they saved up on his opiate addiction, their situation becomes more dire and they turn to more and more questionable means of making money.
The film is both loving and disturbing, contrasting the cousin duo’s unethical plots of making money with the deep connection they share. Chatila can be brutal and manipulative of others, but his love for Reda is boundless, and really this film is a study on Chatila’s love. As things spiral further and further out of control, Reda slips deeper into addiction and their commitments to each other are tested. The film asks the question, what really matters in the end?
The Substance is the hottest new addition to body horror (Reviewed by Gökçe On)
The Substance (2024) follows Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) on her journey to finding a “better” version of herself. The runtime is just over two hours, in which the director and screenwriter Coralie Fargeat packs in countless twists and turns. The Substance is surely a powerhouse that fans of Beau is Afraid (2023) will enjoy.
It’s hard to get into the plot without revealing too much or giving spoilers because everything happens really fast and the plot points are intrinsically connected. The premise is simple; you take “the substance” and it generates another you. However, the cardinal rule is to not forget both are essentially the same person—you. The Substance shows how far you can push people under the guise of the promise of a “better” life.
Critics have praised both leads, Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley, for their performances in their respective roles, saying they may be career defining. While that is up for discussion, it is no secret that the acting is one of the main aspects that makes this movie so engaging. Both actresses manage to draw the audience in with their characterizations. The camerawork is definitely a helping factor here as well. Whether it’s the slightly distorted fisheye or the closeups, the camera makes sure the audience is paying attention. The direction from Fargeat makes it so that even the empty space on the screen is deeply intentional.
Some of the visual effects were on the cheesier side. That said, the practical effects manage to reel the audience back in. Fair warning, if you are not good with blood or tend to get queasy when seeing internal organs where they don’t belong, you might want to skip this one. However if you are a fan of body horror, this might just become your new favourite film.
Never Look Away shines light on a truly remarkable life (Reviewed by Gökçe On)
Never Look Away (2024) dives head-first, full speed into the life of Margaret Moth, a CNN combat camerawoman. This documentary is full of life, just as the late Moth was. Even if documentaries aren’t always your go-to, Never Look Away might have more action than a couple of this year’s blockbusters.
Director Lucy Lawless shows the audience how truly remarkable Moth was through interviews and found footage. The documentary is outstandingly edited, and it engages the audience, leaving them wishing they could’ve met Moth themselves.
There are a couple of interviews that truly stand out and show how Moth managed to leave her mark on people she crossed paths with. Lawless spends most of the documentary highlighting Moth’s fearless, anarchistic and non-traditional way of life. The footage of her in war zones, home videos of her taken by lovers and incredible photos of her in action paint the image of a confident woman.
So it is only more striking when Never Look Away changes gears and turns its lens onto Moth’s childhood, late life and her accident in 1992, in Sarajevo. However, this shift is not so the audience thinks Moth wasn’t an incredible journalist or somehow weaker than she was painted in the earlier parts of the documentary. These instances only humanize her and work to show the audience just how remarkable she truly was.
Never Look Away is a riveting documentary about every love, truth and war in Moth’s life. This is a must watch.
The Girl with the Needle (Reviewed by Gökçe On)
The Girl with the Needle (2024) is a Danish film following Karoline (Victoria Carmen Sonne), who finds herself pregnant, abandoned and unemployed. While the premise is rather grim, the watching experience is not as depressing as you’d expect.
The one thing this film does exceptionally is worldbuilding. In just under two hours, the audience becomes immersed in the world of the film. The way the plot is revealed makes the audience connect with Karoline in a manner that is much more curious than just simple empathy. As the film advances, in a twisted, parasocial way, you become Karoline—which no doubt makes the cinematic experience that much more stressful and stimulating.
Sonne’s performance is made in a couple of scenes, their interactions with Karoline help connect with her further, showing her social standing, inner thoughts and feelings.
Shot in black and white, the atmosphere of The Girl with the Needle traps its audience and holds on tight for the whole runtime. The grip of the atmosphere on the audience is only made tighter with the phenomenal writing and the way the director chose to unravel the plot.
Admittedly, the film does feel somewhat slow paced in the beginning, but this might also be a favour to the audience from the director so they can take a breath before the film takes off full force.
There are some heavy themes discussed throughout which, for some people, might make this a hard watch, but if you do find yourself looking for a film with a good twist, this is definitely a solid choice.
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