The Film Junkie

This remarkable film is the story of a son whose lifelong socialist mother falls into a coma in East Germany just before the wall fell and wakes up eight months later.  The son is told to try and protect his mother from any huge shocks and thus he must recreate the socialist world she remembers with the help of his friends, girlfriend and sister.

There are some comedic parts to this movie, but above all it is a moving portrait of the utopic world that socialists (like me) envision, despite the harsh realities that always stop that dream from being realized.

The son seeks out the East German products that are no longer available, creates his own news and ultimately a world that none of them will ever see.  What he discovers through this process is what is lacking in the new capitalism of the West that is invading their streets: simplicity.  He begins to understand both his mother and what she had spent her life fighting for, why it was so important.

The acting from Katrin Sass as the mother allows the viewer into the heart of the matter.  She looks like a German Frances Fisher, but with an angelic air about her despite her hardened socialist values.  In this one woman we are able to understand the complexity of wanting the best for one’s country while also having the constant pressure to conform to the more popular capitalist values of much of most powerful countries in the world.  She is lovely and tragic, with such a great performance that we can understand why her son would strive so hard to invent a new world for her.

Students learning about the history of socialism becoming capitalism in Germany should be required to see this film.  It gives heart and relatable characters to a complex and critical issue in modern history.

A great film.

Grade: A

This is a very funny Canadian film about trying to make the kinds of movies they make in that country down South without completely selling out…and then totally selling out. 

They attempt to adapt a beloved Canadian novel to the big screen, but to get the kind of budget they want they must attract a Hollywood star, who turns out to be batshit crazy.  The setting, premise and moral of the film are all changed to make the actor happy and the whole thing falls apart under his weight.

Thus this is a film about making a film, the fake film is set in 1950’s Cuba, while the actual film is set in 1970’s Toronto.  The actual film stars an American, Matthew Modine, with a large supporting cast of Canucks.  From Jennifer Tilly to the mindless starlet who ‘hates real life’ to Deborah Kara Unger as the documentarian capturing the madness of the fake film to Alan Thicke as the financier who seems to know nothing about Hollywood.

This film is sharp and original and is especially prevalent in this day and age when Canada is the setting for hundreds of American films and TV shows.

I laughed, what more can I say?

Grade: A-