VIFF 2022 film reviews: Moving moments from the basketball court to the back country and beyond
The Mountain is simply lovely, Golden Delicious tender and genuine; The Grizzlie Truth drives into the untold history of Vancouver’s NBA team
The Grizzlie Truth.
Vancouver International Film Festival runs at various venues from September 29 to October 9
The Grizzlie Truth (Canada)
At the Centre for Performing Arts on October 1 at 2 pm and October 5 at 6 pm
Kathleen S. Jayme defines the term superfan. The local director and lifelong supporter of the Vancouver Grizzlies managed to track down Bryant Reeves for 2018’s hit film Finding Big Country. She’s back, this time with The Grizzlie Truth. Six seasons after the NBA franchise got its start here, it was gone. Jayme unravels the answer to the question: what the hell happened?
This is not a film merely about the fans who were wholly devoted to the team back in the day and who still miss them today, however. And Jayme does more than travel across North America, undaunted, to get some incredible interviews with key players on and off the court, including Stu Jackson, Shareef Abdur-Rahim, and Mike Bibby. She also shares entertaining commentary by fellow superfans like Justin McElroy, while viewers are in for some surprises bigger than Big Country himself. The filmmaker has all the chops of an investigative reporter, but she adds moving depth to the film by illuminating just how significant the Grizzlies’ presence in Vancouver was to so many people, notably second-generation children who found solace and their own identity by attending those games—no matter the team’s disastrous record, with the longest losing streak in NBA history. For Jayme herself, being able to see the team in action on home court was a way to connect with her roots in the Philippines, where basketball is more than the national sport; there, as her dad shares in the film, it’s even bigger than religion. If Jayme gets her way, Vancouver will one day get another NBA team to cheer for. In the meantime, her latest release shows off her own excellent pacing and the determination of a champion. GJ
(The world premiere of The Grizzlie Truth on October 1 will mark the first Vancouver Grizzlies reunion in 20 years with former players Antonio Harvey, George Lynch, and Tony Massenburg and Steve Francis in attendance at The Centre for Performing Arts, joined by the original Vancouver Grizzlies Extreme Dance team, Super Grizz mascot, and PA announcer Al Murdoch. The Grizz reunion continues after the screening, from 5 pm at the VIFF Plaza (šxʷƛ̓exən Xwtl’a7shn located outside Queen Elizabeth Theatre), with the chance to meet the players.)
The Mountain (France)
At International Village on September 29 at 6:45 pm, October 1 at 3:30 pm, and October 5 at 10:45 am
It’s very deliberately paced and notably averse to dramatic conflict, but The Mountain is like a perfect short story, transposed to the screen without a long moment wasted. Intentionally or not, It’s also alert to the historical moment we face, beginning with the film’s protagonist Pierre (writer-director Thomas Salvador) demonstrating, with mounting distraction, a robotic arm to a roomful of prospective clients in an Alpine resort. One scene later and he’s compelled to venture into the mountains, leaving his job, family, and Parisian lifestyle behind him, but winning the interest of the resort’s attractive single-mom chef. Venturing deeper into the ridges, Pierre encounters his physical fragility but also a miracle that re-enchants his world—via special effects delivered with the same elegance and taste as everything else in this lovely movie. Arriving in the very moment that western society reorganizes itself along disturbingly technocratic lines, The Mountain succeeds as much more than a shallow fictional gesture toward spirituality and magic. AM
Viking (Canada)
At Vancouver Playhouse on October 4 at 6 pm and at International Village on October 8 at 4 pm
Based on a careful analysis of their personalities, five Québécois people, including PE teacher David (Steve Laplante), are recruited by the Canadian Space Agency to simulate the first manned mission to Mars, adopting the personae of the actual (American) astronauts currently speeding toward the Red Planet. The purpose of this already sublimely silly exercise? To act out personality conflicts and model solutions for the bickering space jockeys, but with much less skill than the average drama class. Plonking these unimpressive nobodies and their low budget Canadian spacesuits in the middle of Alberta leads to one of the film’s best sight gags, but in general the humour is as dry as Drumheller in July. Everything goes wrong, just as we hope, and in ways we don’t necessarily expect. Outside of an obvious 2001 gag, otherwise pointless references to Stanley Kubrick heighten the pleasure while underscoring the cheerful poverty of writer-director Stéphane Lafleur’s latest. Its message? Like I insist to anyone who’ll listen: humans probably shouldn’t venture beyond their provinces or even their own homes, let alone Earth. AM
Golden Delicious.
Golden Delicious (Canada)
At the Rio Theatre on October 5 at 6:15 pm and October 9 at 12:15 pm
Tender and genuine, Golden Delicious offers new depth to the queer coming-of-age narrative that has been popular in the media in recent years. Navigating the fraying relationships of a Chinese-Canadian family, the film follows 17-year old Jake (Cardi Wong), who struggles with the expectations of his immigrant parents. When Jake falls for his openly gay next-door neighbour, the facade he has constructed to please others begins to crumble. Directed by Jason Karman, Golden Delicious is a heartfelt journey along Jake’s path toward finding his true self as his family tries to reconcile the consequences of a difficult past. Wong’s Jake is endearing, kind, and imperfectly human. Local viewers will love seeing East Van scenery, from neighbourhood streets to Trout Lake, and the North Shore in the distance. While exploring the complexity of identity and acceptance, the film shines a bright light on the power of authenticity. EJ
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