Film Reviews: Bones of Crows & Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Two totally different films

Bones of Crows & Spider-Man: Across the Spider Verse

By Marc Glassman

Bones of Crows

Marie Clements, writer and director

Starring: Grace Dove (Aline Spears), Phillip Lewitski (Adam Whallach), Remy Girard (Father Jacobs), Karine Vanasse (Sister Ruth), Alyssa Wapanatahk (Perseverance Spears), Michelle Thrush (January Spears), Glen Gould (Matthew Spears), Gail Maurice (Older Taylor Whallach), Carla-Rae (Older Aline Spears), Cara Gee (Percy Whallach), Jonathan Whitesell (Thomas Miller), Patrick Garrow (Archbishop Thomas Miller), Summer Testawich (Young Aline), Sierra Rose McRae (Young Perseverance), Ethan Evans (Preteen Johnnie), Payne Merasty (Young Tye), Alanis Obomsawin (TRC film director), Joshua Odjick (Jake Whallach)

There is a scene in Marie Clements’ devastating multi-generational drama Bones of Crows that exemplifies the intensity of the film. Adam, a Cree Canadian fighting in Germany towards the end of World War Two busts open a door in a Nazi camp expecting to encounter soldiers only to discover Jewish prisoners near death from starvation and torture. Shocked, he falls to the ground in horror, flashing back to his own childhood in residential schools. Suddenly, Adam is comforted by a Jewish boy, who senses his pain and the two hold each other in mutual support. 

It’s a tremendously moving scene in a film that is overflowing with them. Clements’ film concentrates on Adam’s wife, Aline Spears, who, like him, fights for Canada during the War after suffering from the abuses of the horrendous Indigenous school system. As the film points out, the terrifying term “the final solution,” which was used by the Nazis in their policy of extermination of the Jews was first employed in 1910 by Duncan Campbell Scott, then Deputy Superintendent General of Indian Affairs in Canada in dealing with the so-called “Indian Problem.” Bones of Crows is a no-holds-barred account of what happened to this country’s Indigenous population for decades and decades thanks to a racist program executed by law-abiding Canadians.

We follow Aline Spears’ life from childhood as part of a loving Cree family to her dramatic confrontation with one of her main abusers as an octogenarian in Rome. As a child, Aline and her siblings are forcefully taken from their parents to a Catholic school, where they’re deliberately fed badly (as an experiment), placed in regimented tightly packed facilities that fostered tuberculosis while treated with contempt by nuns and priests. When Aline shows promise as a pianist, her fate is played out between an initially supportive apprentice priest who is giving her lessons and a nun, who despises her small privileges. Eventually, both abuse her, one sexually and the other by breaking her hand, destroying her future as a pianist. 

Bones of Crows will be broadcast later this year as a five-part hour-long series on the CBC and, truth be told, this two-hour feature film suffers due to its episodic nature. Not much time is given to Aline’s work as a code-maker using Cree during World War Two, which was clearly a fascinating time for her. We don’t get to follow the tragic life of her sister Perseverance nor what happens to Adam when he tries to adjust to life as a handicapped veteran after serving honourably during the War. Too often the film is forced to move from one big emotional scene to another, with lots of time shifts, which can be quite jarring.

Still, this is a powerful film, anchored by compelling performances by Grace Dove as the adult Aline, Summer Testawich as the young Aline, Phillip Lewitski as Aline’s husband Adam Whallach, the legendary Remy Girard as the hypocritical Father Jacobs, Karine Vanasse as the devastating Sister Ruth, Alyssa Wapanatahk as Perseverance Spears and, above all, Gail Maurice as the older Taylor Whallach. It was a pleasure to see the great filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin in a cameo as a director.

Kudos to Marie Clements for bringing this powerful indictment of the residential school system to the film and TV world. Bones of Crows shows the ups and downs of a very talented Indigenous family over nearly a century. As such, it’s a true accomplishment.  

Spider-Man: Across the Spider Verse

Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers & Justin K. Thompson, directors

Phil Lord, Christopher Miller & David Callaham, script

Voice actors: Shameik Moore (Miles Morales/Spider-Man), Hallee Steinfeld (Gwen Stacy/Spider-Woman), Brian Tyree Henry (Jefferson Davis, Miles’ father), Luna Lauren Velez (Rio Morales, Miles’s mom), Jake Johnson (Peter B. Parker/Spider-Man), Jason Schwartzman (The Spot), Issa Rae (Jessica Drew/Spider-Woman), Karan Soni (Pravitr Prabhakar/Spider-Man India), Daniel Kaluuya (Hobie Brown/Spider-Punk), Oscar Isaac (Miguel O’Hara/Spider-Man 2099), Shea Whigham (George Stacy), Amandla Stenberg (Spider-Byte)

When I was a kid, I used to love the Marvel comic book Spider-Man, about a moody teenager named Peter Parker, who had been bitten by a radioactive spider, which died while giving him super-powers. He lived alone with his Aunt May after his Uncle Ben died and worked part-time for a daily newspaper called the Bugle with a colourful boss named J. Jonah Jameson, who loathed Spider-Man. Peter’s girlfriend was Gwen Stacy until she died (Peter was an unlucky, neurotic guy) and then she was replaced by a lively girl-next-door named Mary Jane Watson. The comic book—we didn’t call them graphic novels then–was outrageously popular because Spidey, as most kids called him, was wickedly sarcastic and seemed to channel the odd rebellious nature of teens in the Sixties and Seventies.

That was a long time ago. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) today, there are two Spider-Man film franchises, one live-action and the other animated. The live action one still features a version of Peter Parker, but the animation films star a Brooklyn-based Puerto Rican-African American 15-year-old named Miles Morales as Spider-Man in a wildly futuristic series. Stretching the premise even further, while Marvel is involved with both, Disney handles the Parker live action films while Sony/Columbia produces the Morales films. 

Apologies for the deep dive before tackling the latest Morales animated film Spider-Man: Across the Spider Verse, but I suspect that many Zoomers may need a refresher course in Spider-lore to follow this amazing, hyperbolic film. Not only does it feature Morales as a contemporary mercurial teen, his Gwen Stacy is a Spider-Girl and very much alive–but she’s aware of the awful fate of her other namesakes. I don’t know what Roland Barthes would have thought about this version of Spider-Man but the term post-modern does seem to apply. Everything in this series is based on the viewer knowing the Spider-Man mythology. Our Miles has replaced the now defunct Peter Parker in his world but there’s an older white one in another dimension, who has a poopy baby, is married to a version of Mary Jane and offers ineffectual advice to the Morales Spidey.

How is this possible? The plot, which is so dense that it battles becoming incomprehensible, is based on the idea of an infinite number of universes in which a multitude of Spider-Men or Women battle to save their world from super-villains. The creators of the animation series, scriptwriter-producers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller have crafted an immense Spider-Society of heroes, who are sworn to protect the multiverse. There are Spider-Women and Men, octopus Spiders and AI ones, a Spider-Wolf and Spider-Monkey, even a Lego-Spider. They’re led by an Irish-Mexican “ninja vampire” Spider-Man named Miguel O’Hara, the only webslinger without a sense of humour.

Over the course of the film, Miles Morales’s Spidey shuttles through other dimensions while meeting other members of the Society through his Gwen/Spider-Woman. The most colourful of his new allies are Spider-Punk “Hobie” Brown, an ardent British revolutionary, who looks like a cross between Jimi Hendrix and Thin Lizzy’s Phil Lynott, and Pavitr Prabhakar/Spider-Man India, who is mystical and arrogant while protecting his city “Mumbattan,” a brilliant mash-up of Manhattan and Mumbai. Morales is a rebel, who doesn’t want to follow Miguel O’Hara’s rules and ends up battling his would-be allies in the Spider-Society except for a group of Gwen/Spider-Woman’s friends. Sounds complicated? It is, but much of it is a lot of fun to watch.

The main villain in the film is The Spot, a scientist, whose body is covered with portals to the multiverse due to that familiar sci-fi trope, the nearly-fatal accident. It’s not entirely clear how The Spot is going to use his power to threaten the many universes, but it may become evident in this film’s sequel. In any case, Miles his lots to occupy himself between the Spider-Society and The Spot. And both Gwen and Miles have to spend time protecting their policeman fathers as well, in Morales’ case, a very supportive mother. 

The life of a superhero is never easy.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider Verse is a brilliant exercise in illustration, combining the graphic design of the best “comic books” with virtuoso animation techniques that look fabulous in IMAX. The voice acting is excellent throughout with standouts being Hallee Steinfeld’s Gwen Stacy, Daniel Kaluuya’s Spider-Punk and Jason Schwartzman’s The Spot. People willing to go with the flow in this freewheeling feature will enjoy the film especially if they’re fans of the Spider-Man franchise. Others will find it hard to appreciate; it may not be intended for everyone to love.