I am still working my way slowly through the online offerings for this year's Flare, but I want to say how amazing it felt to attend in person for the first time since 2019. I had one short screening but to settle into the plush seats and see something on the big screen for the first time since January 2020 was lit. Will review that one later on.
But Polarized is probably something that would look good on the big screen, with its wide open vistas showing acres of lush Canadian farm country. Shamim Sarif's drama follows her other films in foregrounding forbidden love, in this instance between white farmer Lisa and her employer, Palestinean emigre Dalia, who is engaged to a man. Oh, No!
No spoilers but hmmm. I wonder if they get together? The first 20 minutes are rather painful in cramming in the exposition but once it gets going, the film maintains interest as the two women grapple with their difficult families and try to be true to themselves. Kudos to the two leads Holly Deveaux and Maxine Denis for their chemistry and Deveaux also sings quite well. The ending is a bit rushed and unsatisfying but there is drama aplenty in this small town....
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Among the shorts viewed was Home, which I found intriguing but hard to hear in places. I was less enamoured of The Dads, which seemed oddly pleased with itself as the fathers of various LGBT kids gathered for a fishing trip to share their feelings. It seemed perfunctory and superficial to me. Grace and Sophie was amusing in its depiction of the awkward morning after, but the camerawork was all over the place with its oddly shifting focus and it distracted from the story.
And then there's A Different Place which puts two women in one hotel room for a totally unbelievable chat about honesty before they go back to their respective lives after a night of passion. A whole other kind of crowd pleasing.
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