ART & COPY

(U.S.A., 2009)

Dir. Doug Pray

Oct. 4, 7:15 p.m., Eau Claire

Working from the premise that “creativity can solve anything,” director Doug Pray walks us through the world of advertising. Well, not the whole world. Due to the inherent limitations of an 89-minute documentary, Pray can’t quite see his vision all the way through. The film starts at the low end of things — a workman sports a harness and a hard hat as he hangs a brand new billboard along a highway. Ideally, the next step would be the freelance writer, or the tiny ad firm trying to take a name for itself. Instead, Art & Copy skips a few steps to the most successful people in advertising, both past and present.

Admittedly, that’s a petty gripe. Art & Copy is wonderfully crafted and relentlessly interesting — provided you’re interested in learning the history behind the commercials that interrupt your favourite TV shows. The history behind “Got Milk?,” “Just Do It” and the famous neon-coloured iPod ads is shown, as some of the best salespeople in history tell us why we like the things we like. Most importantly, the people featured aren’t snake oil salespeople. Pray shows artists that have simply found a venue that allows them to be creative and make a living. Art & Copy is a nice show of respect for an industry that rarely gets any.

NATHAN ATNIKOV

BREATHLESS

(Republic of Korea, 2009)

Dir. Yang Ik-Joon

Oct. 3, 6:45 p.m., Globe

Oct. 4, 2:15 p.m., Globe

At the beginning of Breathless, it seems like Sang-Hoon (played by writer-director Yang Ik-Joon) has never met a problem he couldn’t solve with a well-placed slap to the face, a series of kicks to the ribs, a barrage of colourful insults or, most likely, all three. Sang-Hoon, a stoic gangster who has long ago risen above the need to get his hands dirty but continues to do so anyway, is a grade-A jerk. He abuses co-workers, his boss, innocent bystanders, his nephew and even the police with impunity. The closest thing to a friend he has is Yeon-Hue (Kim Gol-bi), a high school student he met after spitting on her and knocking her unconscious.

As the film progresses, it becomes clear that his violent ways actually stem from the one problem he couldn’t solve: the death of his sister and mother during an ugly domestic dispute during his childhood. Ik-Joon is trying to make a point about violence and the impact of being exposed to it at a young age, but his message is lost in the film’s endless string of over-the-top punching, kicking and swearing. Breathless is entertaining throughout but, just like with Sang-Hoon, all the kicking in the world won’t solve its biggest problems.

GARTH PAULSON

H2OIL

(Canada, 2009)

Dir. Shannon Walsh

Oct. 3, 2 p.m., Eau Claire

In this efficient documentary, director Shannon Walsh provides an expansive overview of the troubling environmental and health concerns in the Athabasca region due to oilsands development, tying local worries into global tensions over water and oil. The film’s main subjects are Fort Chipewyan chief Allan Adam, ecologist Kevin Timoney (author of a shocking study of water quality in the area) and family doctor John O’Connor (who called attention to rare cancers in the small First Nations community). Walsh interweaves their stories with news clips, political speeches and animation, as well as stunning, eloquent aerial footage of the mines and the boreal forest. One weak point is the film’s contention that all of Canada’s fresh water comes under NAFTA; in fact, while the proportionality agreement does lend credence to the film’s assertion that we are only an “energy satellite” of the U.S., the issue of fresh water exports is not nearly as clear cut as Walsh makes it out to be. Albertans will have already heard much of the material in the film. Still, wrapping it up in a clear and understandable package is a valuable service.

ANGELA BRUNSCHOT

MY SUICIDE

(U.S.A., 2009)

Dir. David Lee Miller

Oct. 2, 7:15p.m., Eau Claire

David Lee Miller’s film purports to be the video diary of Archibald Holden Buster Williams (Gabriel Sunday), a sleepy-eyed suburban teenager with a suicide obsession and what must be about $200,000 worth of cameras, lights and editing equipment in his bedroom. (There doesn’t seem to be a moment when Archie doesn’t have a camera in his hand, filming his life — even when he’s alone in his room, he passes the time by re-enacting his favourite monologues from The Deer Hunter and Apocalypse Now.) The nonstop barrage of quick edits, video effects and animation, the histrionic performances and the utterly unsympathetic characters all add up to a pretty much unbearable viewing experience. That Archibald’s suicidal posturing winds up attracting the prettiest girl in school — who turns out to be a secret cutter! — is just one more phony touch. Featuring a jaw-droppingly terrible performance by Joe Mantegna as an East Indian psychiatrist!

PAUL MATWYCHUK

PASSENGER SIDE

(Canada, 2009)

Dir. Matthew Bissonnette

Oct. 2, 9:30 p.m., Eau Claire

Oct. 3, 12 noon, Eau Claire

If your brother is a drug addict, you obviously want to help. You probably don’t want to help him score any more drugs, though. When Michael (Adam Scott) gets a call from his estranged and troubled brother Tobey (Joel Bissonnette) asking for a brotherly favour in the form of taxi service, Michael is naturally skeptical. But this sibling relationship is more mutually dependent than it looks: Michael, an aspiring novelist, writes books with his addled brother as the main character while trying to pretend Tobey isn’t the model. His brother then surprises him by admitting that he’s read Michael’s first novel (and noticed the striking resemblance), and then by revealing he’s not planning to score drugs at all. Passenger Side is an engaging look at sibling rivalry and the disappointment that comes with failing to accomplish your life’s goals. It’s a meandering, occasionally long-winded film, but Scott and Bissonnette are likable enough to keep it afloat. In the end, after countless pit-stops and indirect conversations, Michael and Tobey grow as brothers, but realize entirely different things as individuals.

CURTIS WRIGHT

A PROPHET

(France, 2009)

Dir. Jacques Audiard

Oct. 4, 7 p.m., Plaza

When 19-year-old Malik el Djebana (Tahar Rahim) begins his six-year prison sentence, he is nobody: He has no family, no friends on the outside and no allies on the inside, either. He has no vocational skills and little education. He has no real religion and doesn’t even ally himself with the other Muslim inmates. He is barely able to read. His first day in the yard, a couple of thugs beat him up and steal his sneakers. But from this unpromising start, Malik slowly evolves into a resourceful, formidable criminal, managing a thriving drug trade from behind bars. The new film from Jacques Audriard (The Beat My Heart Skipped) has the painstaking, authentic social realism of Gomorrah while also weaving matter-of-fact dream sequences, precognitive visions and even a ghost or two into the epic two-and-a-half-hour running time. Improbably, it all works: Rahim, especially, is mesmerizing as a blank slate who becomes a terrifyingly ruthless blank slate.

PAUL MATWYCHUK