Toronto Film Festiblog

2012-01-09T02:06:00.002-05:00

I'd be OK with formally released live versions, but I don't see a re-mix (unless it's truly different) or a remaster as creating a new song and therefore for these I'd say no. Agreed on comp's, it's the original release that matters.

Three Monkeys, The Ghost

2008-09-17T12:40:00.005-04:00

I'm tired of writing reviews as well, Bri, and am pretty swamped at work so will close out the 2008 festival by saying:

Three Monkeys' was good, if a little slow, and probably something best appreciated during a film festival (in a theatre, where you can't fast forward but the sound and picture quality highlight the effort the director made to create a very sensory film).

Recommend for festival watching/a lazy weekend afternoon when the thought of a languidly-paced (festival speak for 'fucking slow') film may actually be inviting.

The Ghost was a bit of a conventional but no less enjoyable thriller that shows what happens when a writer decides to collaborate on a book with a known assassin. Despite the obvious plot holes (i.e. the educated main character's inability to foresee that regular meetings with a cold blooded killer could possibly take a turn for the worse?!?), the characters are interesting, the film is often shot in the dark and rain, giving the film a grey look that suits the tone of the story.

Recommend.

Okay, I'm done. Bye Bye till next year.

Disgrace

2008-09-16T20:57:00.003-04:00

A brilliant adaptation of Coetzee's powerful book, this was another high point of my festival. Malkovich does a remarkable job with the part of the loathsome but oh-so human professor David Lurie, and his determined daughter Lucy is convincingly portrayed by Jessica Haines.

I'm getting a little tired of writing reviews, so I won't bother with a synopsis. For those who have read the book, this is a very faithful adaptation, but through the performances, the bringing-to-life of the setting (both Cape Town and the Eastern Cape farm) , the crystalline screenplay, and the power of the story, this film has a life of its own, proving (although its clearly the exception) that great literature can be reinvented as great cinema.

Highly recommended.

Pontypool

2008-09-16T20:37:00.002-04:00

This was one of my favourite films of the festival. It's a fun, arty, cerebral zombie film from Canadian Bruce McDonald. Adapted from a book, but I would have guessed it was from a play, as the entire film takes place in a dingy radio station in a church basement in a small town in the Kawarthas. Great performances by the two main cast members - Stephen McHattie and Lisa Houle - and particularly McHattie as Grant Mazzy, a jaded old DJ who used to work in the big city but got in the face of too many producers.

This screenplay is clever and provocative, and the film has tons of low budget style and creativity. It's all abut the plot in this film, so I'll leave my synopsis at that. See it if you get the chance.....highly recommended.

Un Chien Nuit

2008-09-15T11:31:00.002-04:00

This could have been a good film. Maybe it's a great film. I don't know.
The reason I don't know? I showed up at the theatre at 8:30pm, thinking it started at 9:00pm. It started at 7:00pm.

I must have looked at the tickets three or four times that day, to make sure I had them with me, and not once did I look at the time, assuming, for some reason, that it was at 9pm.

Unfortunately, this was also the film I was taking my parents to see, so they missed out as well. Sigh.

Katia's Sister

2008-09-14T08:14:00.003-04:00

This is a bleak, difficult film about a Russian family - a mother and her two daughters - struggling to survive in Amsterdam. We join the story late, in the sense that mom has already fallen into a life of prostitution. Beautiful seventeen year old Katia is in a rebellious stage, and despite her mom's pleadings, begins to work at a strip club. Homely, sweet-natured 13-year old Lucia stays at home, searching for identity and someone to love her. She reaches out to her mom and sister desperately as their relationship falls apart and mom leaves the girls in the apartment to move in with a boyfriend.

This film was well conceived and made, immersing you in the family's love and pain right from the first shot. All of it was told from Lucia's perspective, to the point that the viewpoint never moved above her head....so for example, we saw a lot of mid-sections of boyfriends, and not faces. A significant problem as a viewer who speaks neither Russian nor Dutch (and was reading subtitles, perhaps overly lazily) is that there was no overt indication anywhere in the film that Katia and family were not from Amsterdam (ie were emigres - I got this only from reading the TIFF review after the fact), so much of the pathos of their plight was missed or misunderstood by me at the time. Mild recommendation.

A Year Ago in Winter

2008-09-14T07:49:00.003-04:00

I'll be brief as Sarah has already covered this film off admirably. Couple of additional thoughts I had:

(1) how strange it is that two films I've seen this year have as their central story the forbidden (and unrequited) love between a 19-year old brother and his 21-year old sister (the other being "Dioses"). Even the ages are exactly the same - weird. The treatments are very different; Winter only suggests it as one possibility (though it is the last and most likely theory) for Alexander's unexplained suicide. And Dioses is more about serial moping.

(2) This film was filled with many strong performances and rich characters, but had clunky moments / elements that very nearly ruined it (or may have for me, I'm still sitting on the fence...). Sarah has mentioned the dance scene, another was the portrayal of the artist with whom Lilli falls in love shortly after Alexander's death - a misguided relationship with an egocentric fella, classic artist type. The actor in this role was awful, completely unconvincing as an artist, he looked and felt more like generic beefcake, and the love she felt for him never made any sense. This fifteen - twenty minutes of the film played like an episode of Red Shoes Diaries.

Mild recommendation.

Parc

2008-09-13T18:00:00.002-04:00

Sigh. I could go on about how some of the scenes made great use of music and camera movement; one that stands out in particular features a couple passionately kissing, while the one of the characters narrates the relatively quick demise of their relationship, a neat juxtaposition that breathes some life into a pretty slow-moving film. And there is a nice visual energy to the film as a whole. But really, the whole film was mostly ridiculous, the storyline so bizarre at times that it's almost, but not quite, funny. A far less charitable review for a four-letter french word titled film would be a four-letter english word review starting with the letter s.

Overhead on the way out of the theatre: "Are you kidding me? I wanted to leave an hour ago".

Pretty much sums it up.

Gomorrah

2008-09-13T17:25:00.002-04:00

An unflinching look at the way the mafia corrupts and poisons, both literally and figuratively, a rundown area of Naples, Gomorrah is thought-provoking if a little emotionally bereft.

I think this is part of the point, though, and full credit goes to director Matteo Garrone for presenting the interweaving stories with an unglamourized naturalism; no slickly edited montages set to Gimme Shelter here. The characters are not heroes who are thrust by the fates into circumstances beyond their control but willing participants who have made choices that with which they are willing to live, and in some cases, die. The greatest success of the film is in demonstrating how the vicious cycle of violence is perpetuated.

Its one possible slight failing is its inability, at times, to really engage the audience emotionally. Few if any of the characters are very sympathetic. As the story progresses, the sheer volume of executions and shootings begin to numb most viewers; I don't think it was my imagination that most of the folks shuffling out of the theatre after the screening seemed vaguely indifferent.

Still, there's something to be said for a film that kept me thinking for the next few days.

Recommend.

Four Nights with Anna

2008-09-12T23:02:00.004-04:00

There was a distinctly Eastern European feel to this enjoyable film from Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski, which is reminiscent in its silence, its voyeurism, and its perverse sense of morality, of country man's Krzysztof Kieslowksi's famous Decalogue series.

The story appears simple, but in fact has a couple of layers. At its most straightforward, it is about a middle-aged hospital crematorium operator who is fascinated by a young nurse who lives in the residence opposite. Of course her window is observable from the pathetic crematorium op's rundown house just outside the hospital grounds, so he spends his nights watching her, and ultimately, sneaks into her room four nights in a row (after drugging her). However, our protagonist is motivated by a pure love of a sort, and while in her room he spends his time sitting quietly beside her, fixing her clock, mopping her floor, etc. and nothing more.

Skolimowski beings to weave in another plot element, of the same nurse being raped in a barn (we are for a long time kept in the dark about the chronology of this event), and as the story unfolds, we realize the crem op witnessed the rape, and is being questioned about his involvement by the bullying local police.

I'll leave the plot description at that so as not to spoil (though realistically no one will ever see it). I liked this film a lot, for its languid-though-not-painfully-so pacing and its non-verbal narrative style (there are probably no more than 100 words in the film), for conveying the agony of its protagonist's life, and for its commentary on love. Recommended.

The Hurt Locker

2008-09-12T22:22:00.002-04:00

Do you have a director whose work drives you crazy? For whom critiques and film buffs seem to fall all over themselves in praise, to your utter amazement? Steven Spielberg perhaps? Well, mine is Katherine Bigelow. I've seen a enough of her films (Blue Steel, Point Break, Strange Days) to know that she can take a strong idea and visual sense, and pulverize it with overlong action sequences, ridiculous dialogue and cartoon-ish characters.

So the Hurt Locker, her latest movie (and in my own defense, one I chose because it fit into a time slot on the only day of the week I was taking off) surprised me. It follows a bomb disposal team in current Iraq, on their last 38 days of their tour. It does have her signature elements, but has a much stronger human element to it. I cared about these characters - or more so than typical KB characters at any rate. And so, while I had my eyes cast down for probably 40% of the excruciating bomb disarming sequences, and so can hardly claim I loved it, I did get a real sense of the horror of Iraq, and of modern war. And the portrayal of James, the adrenalin-junkie veteran of 873 bomb disposals, by Jeremy Renner, is a compelling performance.

Sea Point Days

2008-09-11T20:50:00.003-04:00

Victoria and I went to see this South African documentary on an evening when we were celebrating our 15th anniversary, appropriately enough, as we spent a year fifteen years ago in SA, and half of that time in the suburbs of Cape Town, very near where this is set.

The film by Francois Verster is a rewarding look at contemporary South Africa, through the lens of Sea Point, a racially integrated suburb of Cape Town, and in particular, its huge and beautiful public pool complex and nearby promenade.

The film is formally challenging - Verster employs no voice over, nor straightforward narrative, instead just watches the comings and goings of the people in the pool, occasionally checking in with a few regular characters; a black homeless man, who struggles with alcoholism but is at times amazingly clear-thinking and philosophical; residents in a white seniors home (very familiar S'African types, though fully adjusted to the realities of the new SA; a couple of cheerful pool employees - including black, white, and coloured (pardon the SA racial terminology). Through them we take the pulse of the country, its on-going struggles for peaceful co-existence, search for forgiveness, and as always (in my experience), boundless love that its people have for the country itself.

V and I really enjoyed Sea Point Days, and while I think some of this sprung from our familiarity with (and to a degree nostalgia for) the culture, I believe anyone interested in South Africa and post-Apartheid, or more broadly, just the courageous process of a country and its people re-inventing themselves after a brutal past, would find this very interesting.

Gigantic

2008-09-11T20:24:00.004-04:00

Thursday September 11

Why oh why must I always end the festival each year with a bad movie? I believe I have somehow been cursed. We had a really good box for the festival this year. We got all of our 1st or 2nd picks. My schedule changed unexpectedly and my poor husband stood in line for over an hour to exchange my Tuesday ticket for this film to a Thursday ticket. It turned out to be a real waste of an hour.

I was looking forward to what sounded like a cute, fun romantic comedy. I left the theatre feeling confused and disappointed. I will explain but first I need to set it up. Brian is a 28 year old who spends his days selling mattresses in a dreary showroom and trying to adopt a baby from China. He meets an odd girl named Happy after selling an expensive mattress to her father. A mutual interest between Brian and Happy quickly follows. Sounds like we are in for a quirky romantic comedy right? Not quite.

There is zero chemistry between these two and they spend most of the movie doing things that don't make any kind of sense. It is not quirky. It is just a series of random nonsensical scenes pieced together. This is the disappointment part. Now on the confusion.

I need to describe something that happen in the movie. I would not normally do this but it is necessary to explain my confusion and really will not give anything away - I wouldn't call this a spoiler. At four points in the movie Brian is confronted and attacked by the same individual. The individual is dressed differently each time. In one scene the man is dressed as if he was homeless. In other scenes he is dressed as a hunter, a regular guy on the street and a construction worker. It doesn't seem to make any sense. Who is this person? Why is he attacking Brian? It is NEVER explained or resolved in any way. The attacks cannot be a figment of Brian's imagination because he comes away from them with wounds that people in the movie comment on. Brian cannot be inflicting the wounds on himself because of their nature. He never tells anyone in the movie that he is being repeatedly attacked. He never involves the police. The police do not get involved when two people stumble on the man and Brian after the final attack scene where Brian is bloody and holding a knife. We know that the people on the street see what has happened because one of them says something like "hey, he has a knife." What the hell is up with this? If anyone has some insight I would love to hear it. The more I think about it the more confused I get.

My final complaint is that people in the theatre clapped when the movie was over. Seriously! No one from the film was present for the screening. No director, no actors. The movie was bad. I don't think that this can be argued. Why are you clapping? It is one thing to be polite but really......

A Year Ago in Winter

2008-09-11T19:56:00.002-04:00

Wednesday September 10

The story is not an original one. A family, and the three individuals within this family, struggle to accept the death of their son and brother. It has been nearly a year since Alex died. Alex's mother commissions a painting of her living daughter, Lilli, along side her lost son. Lilli must spend time with the artist who has been hired. Max, the artist, has family troubles and struggles of his own.

This is a movie that owes the bulk of its success to its lead actress. Karoline Herfurth is terrific as Lilli. The movie was nicely shot and I liked it overall but in my opinion there were a couple of problems with it. The movie would benefit from being 20-30 minutes shorter. I saw the movie with my fellow- blogger Brian and he nailed it on the head when he and I were talking about it afterwards - the last 20 minutes of the movie are not necessary and the dance scene where Lilli releases her hurt and angers and resolves to live life without her brother has been done too many times and just feels cheesy. It doesn't matter if you put the scene to a loud and moody song, we have seen it before.

One mystery is the origins of the movie. Brian and I also agreed on the fact that there must be a story there. The film is based on a book. This in itself is not uncommon. What is strange is that the book has yet to be released. How on earth is the film already made if the book that it sprung from is not in print?

You may be surprised to see me recommend the movie after reading the review above. I do think that there was enough good stuff there to be able to advise a viewing.

Medicine for Melancholy

2008-09-11T19:34:00.004-04:00

Tuesday September 9

Micah spends a sunny weekend day trying to convince Jo, the woman he woke up beside after a house party the night before, that they are meant to be together. The two wander through different areas of San Francisco while Micah alternates between two distinct moods. Most of the time he is sweet, funny and endearing but he has periods filled with anger and frustration where he rails against the city, interracial relationships and his experience as a black man in San Francisco. Jo spends the day stating that their relationship will only ever be a one night stand yet we get the feeling that she is uncertain at times.

This is a terrific movie. It is certainly the best film I saw at TIFF this year. The shots of the characters and the city are interesting and beautiful and I loved the soundtrack. I have only been to San Francisco once but the movie reminded me much I liked the city. The performances of the two leads were very strong. Wyatt Cenac's performance allowed me to forget that I see him several times a week as one of the funny new additions to the Daily Show. I only saw Micah.

The only complaint I have with the movie is that hand held camera films sometimes make me feel nauseous. The frenetic dance club scene certainly did the trick, making my stomach crazy swirly. This is just a personal tick though, not a fault of the movie at all.

Highly recommended. It is only a shame that all future audiences will not have the benefit of hearing the director, Barry Jenkins, speak and answer questions after the movie. At the screening I attended the director shared several amusing tales filming and of the people that filled the background roles in the film - local taco vendors and the directors fellow Banana Republic staff members.

You can watch a trailer at the film's website: http://www.strikeanywherefilms.com/

Still Walking

2008-09-08T10:06:00.001-04:00

Monday September 8

I would love to be able to tell you about this movie and what I thought of it but I can't. I got myself up and ready and on the streetcar this morning only to realise that I had forgotten my ticket at home. I rushed home, got in the car and attempted to drive to the theatre but didn't make it in time.

Dumb, dumb, dumb me.

Wendy and Lucy

2008-09-08T09:51:00.002-04:00

Sunday September 7

I was very nervous going into this film. Two friends attended the screening on Friday night and did not like it. They did not hate the movie but described it to me as lacking plot and feeling long. After seeing the movie I can say that I see where they are coming from but I will have to disagree with them and say that I did like it.

The movie follows Wendy, a young woman with $500 to her name trying to get to Alaska to find work. A bad decision and some bad luck find Wendy stuck in Oregon searching for her lost dog Lucy. The real strong point of the movie is Michelle Williams. She plays Wendy with few words but her expressions and body language portray a great deal.

I would not recommend the movie to everyone but those who don't mind a slow quiet study of a character will enjoy this one.

The Paranoids

2008-09-08T09:45:00.002-04:00

Friday September 5

I am not going to review the movie since Kyle covered it nicely below. The one thing I feel had to be mentioned was the Q and A with the director after the movie. The director was full of nervous energy and seemed a little overwhelmed by the experience. Although he was nervous he was very generous and engaging. It made me, and I think the audience, appreciate the film even more.

Rain

2008-09-08T00:25:00.006-04:00

Rain was an enjoyable first feature by Bahamian director Maria Govan, thought I suspect my upbeat feeling about the movie was influenced by the infectious energy at the screening from the large Bahamian entourage, and the triumphant "I can't believe we're here" attitude of the cast and creative team at the Q&A.

The story is one we've heard before, but told in a uniquely Bahamian context it felt fresh and real. Rain is the name of a teenage girl living on a smaller island, who has to find her mother when her guardian/grandmother passes away quietly in the first few minutes of the film. Mom, as as has been foreshadowed, is a base head living in a squalid area outside the city of Nassau known as "the graveyard". Mom very reluctantly takes Rain in, and manages to get her enrolled in school. Then gets right back at it with her depraved life....though, ever so slowly, through Rain's positive influence, she begins to question herself. Rain struggles to fit in with her mom and new school but meets a fantastic role model in the school track coach. What ensues is the standard Hollywood script of the redemptive value of sports and overcoming your upbringing/social standing/prejudice through perseverance. Anyway, to cut to the chase, Rain makes it (you heard it here first).

What I liked about the film was the fact that all of the characters were women - men were minor, useless characters, which felt right and real, and echoes my experience in Southern Africa many years ago. And the portrayal of The Bahamas, so commonly thought of as a quiet paradise, as a complex, troubled country, was pretty revelatory. Finally, the performances were very good, despite the at times cliche-ridden script and very obviously low budget shooting/sets.

Curious to see if this one makes a buzz at People's Choice time. It's the sort of feel good story (within and without the movie) that just might.

Dioses

2008-09-07T23:40:00.002-04:00

My second film on Saturday was the Peruvian feature "Dioses", from sophomore writer/director Josue Mendez. While ultimately a social commentary film on the state of the class system in Peru, Mendez uses the device of a dysfunctional family to convey his themes - a 19-year old son who is in love with his vapid, beautiful older sister, and their uber-rich father who has just brought to their summer home a gorgeous, treasure-seeking 20-something from the poor side of the tracks.

The first act mostly plays out with 19-yr old Diego dolefully watching his sister get trashed at parties and make out with numerous hot young Peruvian guys, while more peripheral characters such as the father and the new girlfriend establish themselves. At the same time, the continued development of the kitchen staff as real characters slowly triggers our realization that this story has less to do with families and more with the perversion of wealth - they become the quiet, but accepting witnesses to the ridiculous lives lived by their employers.

The Diego-swooning goes on for quite a bit too long (I'll leave aside a number of other plot elements), until the sister (Andrea) leaves the country at her father's insistence to have an illegitimate child. Diego leaves the summer house in a fit of desperation, borrowing a room in the slums from his long-time kitchen-dwelling mother figure, and there has an epiphany of sorts about real life in Peru. The metaphor complete, his obsession with sis vanishes as his knowledge/experience of the plight of real people grows, and in the final scene we see him acting very normally (talking to a pretty girl no less!) at a party thrown by his dad to celebrate the arrival home of his (dad's) new child - the illegitimate son that he has pretended to sire while taking a long vacation with treasure seeker.

Not sure if I've given a sense of this film. I had a couple of problems with it, initially, just that it felt like an episode of the Hills, with the vacuous blond rich partying for lack of anything better to do. This story is so tired in today's media culture. And while I think the metaphor of the dysfunctional family (representing the incestuous almost-nobility of the wealthy class) is/was a good one, the way it was written, directed, and performed didn't work for me. Diego just furrowed his brow and sobbed for most of an hour, and sis Andrea, though better performed overall, was so one-dimensional that even as a symbol she was ultimately boring to watch.

And while the first act was drawn out, the final act was way too rushed - all of Diego's changes, his realization about himself and the world, happen off screen....we see him looking at a dirty toilet in his borrowed slum house, and in the next scene it is six months later, and we hear that he has spent the interim time going to a local poor high school for his final term, presumably to connect with the people of Peru and distance himself from his family. But good film shows the key changes, it doesn't tell you about them. And neither the showing nor the telling needed to be done so abruptly.

So, while it definitely had some appealing elements (interesting to see Lima, for example, and to gain some insight into the social realities of Peru) Dioses falls short of getting a recommendation.

The Paranoids

2008-09-07T15:15:00.006-04:00

A very pleasant surprise by this very accomplished debut from filmmaker Gabriel Medina.

The film chronicles the life of quirky, fearful, perfectionist Luciano Gauna, a children's performer who can't seem to finish a screenplay he's been writing for years. A childhood friend comes to visit, along with his girlfriend Sofia, who ends up staying with Luciano for a few days and learning about his life. Will he finish the screenplay? Find love? Find a job that doesn't include wearing a furry purple costume?

To be honest the plot itself isn't all that remarkable but the performances, the visual style, and a pretty great soundtrack--used to great effect in the climactic dance scene described in the programme book--really bring the film alive.

Highly Recommend.

Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

2008-09-07T14:48:00.005-04:00

A decent film that frequently wastes the good will generated by the genuinely sweet interplay between the two titular characters by ceding far too much screen time to the zany antics of the mostly two-dimensional secondary characters (the bitchy evil ex-girlfriend, the manipulative user ex-boyfriend, drunk teen girl, wacky Asian buddy).

There are enough laugh out loud funny bits to keep the film going and its enjoyable to see so much of NYC in all its nighttime glory, though cynical viewers will justifiably point out the unrealistic ease with which that characters are able to navigate the city by car and indeed, actually find parking.

Michael Cera hones his nervous deadpan persona as Nick, guitar player, mixed cd maker extraordinaire, and piner of the forementioned ex, Tris (Alexis Dziena). Kat Denning, as Norah, is at turns sultry, vulnerable, tough, and engaging as the romantic lead who challenges but ultimately falls for hapless Nick.

Juno fans will enjoy some quirky touches here and there but others will wonder what a better film it would have been if the producers/director had been able to resist what was likely the siren call of the box office.

Mildly recommend.

Other Notes:

Most of the cast and crew were in attendance, and it was nice that their family also had a chance to come and see the premiere with them.
The soundtrack features a lot of current alt-indie faves like The National and Vampire Weekend and will likely be released shortly.

Acne

2008-09-07T10:31:00.003-04:00

Thursday September 4

I have had some truly awful 1st movies at the festival in past years so I am always pleased when I get a good start. I enjoyed Acne. The movie follows Rafael. Rafael lives in a small Jewish community in Uruguay and has recently become a man both through celebrating his bar mitzvah and having his first sexual experience. Rafael spends s great deal of time asking for and stealing money from his parents so that he can visit the local brothel. When he is not at the brothel, Rafael is at school or receiving treatment for a bad case of acne. Although he is having a lot of sex for a 13 year old, what he really longs for is a kiss from a girl. It is the one thing that he cannot get from the prostitutes he visits.

The film moves at a fairly slow pace, which did bother me at times. Rafael is not a very chatty kid. Many of the scenes find him saying little or nothing at all, making the scenes feel longer than they actually are. This could be a real turn off for many.

I would recommend the movie. The young actors do a good job of bringing the quirky cast of characters to life and the storyline is surprisingly charming.

Zift

2008-09-06T23:44:00.003-04:00

Always-fun 9:00 am showing this fine morning to kick off a three-film day. And a full house, remarkably. Filled with more people whom I overheard saying "I have no idea what this film is about" then I can ever recall. I hope they were all as pleased as I was with Zift.

I loved this film. It's a Bulgarian noir film set in the early 60's Soviet-rule-era Sofia. It had all of the elements of the noir genre, along with a rich sense of irony, interlaced with an effective critique of totalitarianism. Very stylish, well-paced, dramatic and surprising, and at times hilarious, in a very Eastern European way. Great performances and cinematography, taut direction.....highly recommended.

Interestingly, the film's only other showing to date was at the recent Moscow International FF, where it was well enough received despite the content, to garner the best director's award.

33 Scenes From Life

2008-09-06T23:09:00.002-04:00

I started my festival this year with this Polish drama about Julia, a young, up-and-coming photographer whose mother is diagnosed with terminal cancer, and the stress that this misfortune puts on all of the other elements of her life, both through the natural grieving process that ensues, and the changes that Julia consequently undergoes.

This is a subtle, believable piece, with a wide range of characters that we come to understand and empathize with. Some of the more memorable moments are around the deterioration of the mother's health (she is a wonderful character, brilliantly acted) and the growing attraction between Julia and her photography partner, as she and her husband drift apart.

I liked the story, but also the verite execution, with convincing group scenes and natural performances. Strong writing too, particularly in the crucial emotional scenes, which tended to be quiet, largely non-verbal, but very compelling. It wasn't perfect - I think of a few scenes where the grief was played out as hysterical laughter that felt overdone - but this was a very good film, genuinely sad and insightful, and a nice way to get the festival going.

Rocknrolla

2008-09-05T12:36:00.005-04:00

I couldn't have picked better film to kick off the film festival. A packed house at the 'beautiful and historic' elgin theatre. The pretty and the gritty principal cast and director in attendance, revved up, offering alternately to head butt (Jeremy Piven) and shag (Thandie Newton--um, yes please) an enthuastic audience, comprised mainly of mobs of otherwise respectable middle aged women screaming ecstatically for gerard butler (one of whom rushed towards him to kiss his cheek as he made his way from stage to seat), and hordes of younger women whose make up and attire signalled they planned on attending the after-party. The crowd roaring in enthusiasm prior to and throughout the screening....

The only difficulty is in figuring out how much enjoyment can be attributed to what happened onscreen and how much of the very favourable reception the film received last night at its North American premiere can be attributed to the dynamics of the opening night of the festival and the forgiving (supplicant?) tendencies of festival audiences in general.

So yeah, it was fun but what about the film?

Similar in many respects (pacing, editing, storyline, use of music) to "Lock, Stock..." and "Snatch", "Rocknrolla" is an energetic, funny, violent, somewhat cartoonish but mostly clever romp through criminal London. The twisting narrative centres on a series of heists, bribes, double-crosses, and past betrayals serve mainly an excuse for a lot of scene chewing, over-the-top performances by the large ensemble cast. There are a few glaring plot holes and a few characters, specifically those played by Ludicrus and Jeremy Piven, which don't seem to really belong in the story at all. But the film has a certain style and self-assured feel to it that propels it past these minor quibbles. The action sequences are inventive, breathtaking, and unexpectedly hilarious. There's also a great sex scene, brilliantly concise, that plays off the onscreen chemistry between Gerard Butler and Thandie Newton.

Other Notes:

I bought this as a single ticket at the online box office on Wednesday afternoon. I was surprised that it wasn't sold out already but learned yesterday, from speaking with others, that it had been listed as sold out only a day or two previously. Two audience members who were in town from Cleveland had, in fact, paid $60 each on Craigslist for their seats. Lesson to be learned for those discouraged by sold out shows: keep checking the online box office.
Read through some reviews at rotten tomatoes this morning and methinks the UK critics are being unduly harsh.
Cast/Crew in Attendance: Toby Kebbell, Idris Elba ('Stringer Bell' from 'The Wire'), Ludicris, Jeremy Piven, Gerard Butler, Thandie Newton, Guy Ritchie. Mrs. Guy Ritchie did not make an appearance. Had she done so, it's quite possible the entire theatre would have caved in on itself in excitement, such was the buzz already.

Daniel's Films

2008-09-04T09:29:00.001-04:00

Wendy & Lucy - September 5, 7:45pm

Victoria's films

2008-09-02T21:50:00.003-04:00

Pretty decent list here:

The Burning Plain - Sunday morn

Ghost Town - Sunday noon

Harvard Beats Yale - Sun aft

The Other Man - Monday morn

NY I Love You - Monday noon

L'Heure D'ete - Monday late aft

Management - Tuesday morn

Kisses - Tuesday noon

Gigantic - Tuesday aft

Sea Point Days - Tuesday eve

The Brothers Bloom - Thursday noon

Lymelife - Thursday aft

Il y a Longtemps que Je t'Aime - Friday noon

Brian's films

2008-09-02T21:38:00.003-04:00

Ah, Box 64.

My rag tag selection of films is:

33 Scenes from Life - Friday aft

Zift - Saturday 6th morn

Dioses - Saturday 6th noon

Rain - Saturday 6th aft

Sea Point Days - Tuesday eve

The Hurt Locker* - Wednesday morn

A Year Ago in Winter - Wednesday noon

Four Nights with Anna - Wed aft

Katia's Sister - Thursday aft

Good - Friday aft

Pontypool - Friday late aft

Disgrace - Saturday 13th morn

Parc - Sat 13th noon-ish

Tale 52 - Saturday 13th aft

Hoping for some brilliant sleepers in this lot.

* I really despise Katherine Bigelow (or at least, the other movies she's made) but it was the only film available after three failed selections. It looks gross.

Sarah's Picks

2008-09-02T09:08:00.003-04:00

Des Filmes de Ma Femme, Sarah
(obligatory incongruent festival title translation: Blue Dog Night)

Thurs Sept. 4 - 8pm - Acne

Fri Sept. 5 - 8pm - The Paranoids

Sat Sept. 6 - 6pm - Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

Sun Sept. 7 - 12:45pm - Wendy and Lucy

Mon Sept. 8 - 9:15am - Still Walking

Tue Sept. 9 - 3pm - Gigantic

- 9pm - Medicine for Melancholy

Wed Sept. 10 - 12pm - A Year Ago in Winter

My picks

2008-09-02T08:51:00.002-04:00

Here's my official sched:

Friday Sept. 5 - 8pm - The Paranoids

Sat Sept. 6 - 12:45pm - Three Monkeys

- 6:00pm - Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

Sun Sept. 7 - 9:00pm - Gomorrah

Sat Sept. 13 - 10:00am - Nuit de Chien

Box 9

2008-08-29T13:35:00.002-04:00

Kudos to Tifftalk for posting. Most effective use of twitter, imho.

As I'm in Box 39, this is a better spot for me than last year. Figure I've got a decent shot at getting most of my pix.

And the box called is....

2008-08-29T13:30:00.003-04:00

not sure yet!

Trying to call in but the phone lines are jammed. I'm mostly interested in avoiding a tense, 2-3 hour Labour Day morning spent at lines trying to rejig what is going to be a very tight schedule for me this year. Will post my initial film list shortly. And well as the box number called, for those wondering.

This year, we're probably going to be a little bit lighter on the reviews, as we are down to three reviewers/contributors. If anyone outside my circle of friends ends up at this space and would like to post their own reviews, I'm happy to extend you an invitation. Email me.

Daniel's Film Fest Round-up

2007-09-17T15:39:00.001-04:00

Like Sarah, my festival experience was merely OK this year. Nothing really awful, but nothing awe inspiring either. Here is how I would rank the films I saw in order of preference:

1. Lars and The Real Girl (really, there was nothing even close)
2. Boy A
3. Son of Rambow (if I was about 23 years younger this would have shot straight to #1)
4. XXY
5. Barcelona (A Map)

My nomination for most ridiculous over-heard quote

2007-09-17T15:35:00.000-04:00

"I like HATE these Q&A sessions. People ask the stoooopidest questions. Just yesterday we were at this Brazilian film and some idiot puts up her hand and asks what language the characters were speaking. I was like so embarassed. I mean obviously they were speaking Brazilian"

- Overheard at the Ryerson Theatre, one row behind me at Son of Rambow

SON OF RAMBOW

2007-09-17T15:06:00.000-04:00

Y'know, Ryerson Theatre isn't so bad when there isn't a 2km line-up to get in. I guess the intense rain made the festival organizers take pity on us pee-ons and the line was quickly moved indoors.

I'm not sure what I expected from this film. The promise of an incredible child cast and a heartwarming story did not have my hopes up.

But I have to admit, this movie won me over. Sure, its a little fluffier than I usually like my films (OK, a LOT fluffier) but short of a few minor expletives this was good clean fun (now THIS is a movie to take your parents to).

Inspired by a bootleg tape of Stallone's First Blood, two kids set-out to make their own movie - Son of Rambow. At first they are a two-man filmmaking juggernaut - writing, directing, acting, stunts. Then as word of the film spreads, everybody wants to be in on it. Eventually their pet project gets usurped by an artistically tortured, flamboyantly 80s French exchange student named Didier (this kid was hilarious). This leads to tension between our two heroes and all kinds of innocent hijinx.

The cast really was excellent - especially considering that most of them had absolutely zero previous acting experience. The script held some genuine laughs and didn't require too much of a suspension of disbelief. The soundtrack was killer - Siouxie and the Banshees? C'mon, you gotta love it.

Recommended. Especially if you're in the mood for some light-hearted fare. Or, if you have your parents over for dinner and a movie.

PIRACY UPDATE: I SAW THE NIGHT VISION GOGGLES!!!!!! TWICE!!! About half way through the movie a security guard on the outside aisle was intently scanning the crowd with what looked like a telescope. He then returned with about 5 minutes left in the movie. I found this quite amusing on a few levels: One - this really doesn't seem like the type of movie that would be hot in bootlegging circles...no-name cast, it doesn't get released until April 2008 and it has pretty much zero buzz around it. Two - if you haven't found the evil criminals by now I don't think you're going to catch them with a few minutes left in the film. Three - that an antipiracy device would look like something used by a pirate

XXY

2007-09-17T14:32:00.000-04:00

Kyle predicted that this movie would leave me confused about my sexuality.

While it didn't do that, it did make me wonder what I would do if I happened to be the father of a hermaphrodite child. Would I opt for early surgery and force the child into one of the two acceptable gender roles? Or would I wait to see which gender the child most identifies with?

This film examines that decision through the story of Alex, raised as a girl but housing the equipment of both genders. Her Mom has brought an old friend to town and with her comes her surgeon husband. Unbenownst to Alex or her father, Alex's Mom plans on having the surgeon permanently assign Alex's gender to female. Alex's father wants Alex to decide what she wants to do and Alex wonders why she has to make a choice at all.

Though this all might seem quite promising, I found the movie just OK. First-time Argentinean director Lucia Puenzo is to be commended for making a bold feature that doesn't shy away from or sugar coat its subject matter (the graphic anal scene between Alex and the surgeon's son set that straight right away). However, I found the script to be wildly inconsistent and the characters very blah. For example, the surgeon character starts off by being this shadowy doctor interested more in medical accolades than Alex's well-being. He then seems to soften-up by helping Alex in dealing with her issues with some of the young locals. He then ends the movie by telling his son he has no talent and that he is concerned he is a "faggot".

Not a bad movie. Linda seemed to like it more than I did. I can only give it a mildly favourable review.

Oh, and I'm glad I didn't take my parents to see this one

Sarah's Film Fest Sum Up

2007-09-17T09:11:00.001-04:00

It was only an okay year for me at this festival. In my mind I had too many so-so or full on dud movies.

I am going to go back to the book and look at descriptions for movies that failed me. There must be some code words there in descriptions that I can remember and try to avoid for next year. Does anyone have any suggestions for me?

Shadows

2007-09-17T09:05:00.000-04:00

If you have seen The 6th Sense you do not need to see Shadows. Lucky, the main character of the movie is a resident doctor who returns to work after taking a year off to recover from a nasty car accident. While at work and home Lucky is bothered repeatedly by four mysterious people who seem to want something of him.

None of the characters in the movie are very engaging or likable. Worse still, the movie lacks any kind of tension because the solution to Lucky's situation is so obvious to everyone but Lucky 1/4 of the way into the two hours that Shadows takes to play out. Don't go to see this one.

Chaotic Ana

2007-09-17T08:50:00.000-04:00

My second to last film of this year was a disappointment. Ana is a free spirit who lives with her father in a cave in Ibiza Spain. Ana's unusual paintings are discovered at a tourist market one day by an arts patron. The patron takes Ana to live in her artist commune in Madrid. At the commune Ana learns that through hypnosis she can remember several dozen of her past lives. This part of the film is enjoyable.

Sadly the movie then takes a bizarre turn 3/4 of the way in and tries to turn a simple enjoyable story into a political message about the current Iraq war (and I guess all wars in general) and woman's role in the world. The setting is moved to New York. The film required a suspension of disbelief from the beginning but once the storyline moves to New York it becomes entirely implausible and ridiculous. One scene see Ana take a dump on the face of a politician that we are told is responsible for starting the war. It is a very funny scene but is meant to be taken seriously.

I cannot recommend this movie solely because of the last 1/4.

Eight Films

2007-09-15T21:05:00.000-04:00

Well damn, the whole thing is over for another year. It's gone by quickly as usual, and I never got fully into the swing of things in my own mind, perhaps because all but three of my films were at the Scotia Bank. Nevertheless, I've been very happy, with a couple of exceptions, with the films I saw this year. I lost a bit of momentum on the whole review thing, but I hate to leave a job unfinished, so I thought I'd polish off all eight in quickie reviews:

With Your Permission
A Danish film co-written and directed by Paprika Steen, who's apparently been in a few famous Dogme films, this is a quirky (utterly non-Dogme-esque) comedy about an uptight loser who's a victim of domestic abuse - his frustrated, depressed, former opera singer wife beats him up regularly. It was very entertaining and unusual for 90% of the film, but ended in a haze of Hollywood confection which seemed to play against the film's strengths up to that point. Still, recommended.

No Country for Old Men
Kyle got it right. Utterly entertaining, energetic, hilarious, harrowing, and extremely violent. Not my favourite of all time of theirs, but that's likely pure sentimentality on my part. A must see.

It's a Free World
Ken Loach's latest is a drama set in London about the problems of illegal immigration as told through the eyes of an opportunistic single mom who sets up her own casual labour staffing agency, and loses her moral compass along the way. I loved the verite-style and most of the performances...and I thought the loss of innocence and, later, control in the brash lead as she falls from grace was well portrayed. Also just interesting subject matter. Recommended. Incidentally, Derek didn't like the film at all.

Une Vieille Maitresse
Catherine Breillat doing a period piece? Seems very out of character for the creator of Romance and The Fat Girl, but somewhat surprisingly, this is a convincing and compelling dark anti-romance, in the tradition of Dangerous Liasions. Strong performances, and a script that takes us down an inexorable path to the death of love and innocence. Well worth a look if it ever gets wide release, or shows up in your video store.

The Savages
Another satisfying film, this time from American writer/director Tamara Jenkins (her first film in ten years, and yet she looked to be in her late-30's), this one is a slice of life about two unhappy, 40-ish siblings who have to come together to deal with their dying father. Sounds moribund in its own right, but on the strength of a great screenplay, sensitive direction, and winning performances by P.S. Hoffman and Laura Linney (be still my heart), this was a strong, memorable film. Good mid-winter rental.

Silent Resident
Yikes. See Sarah's post. Laughably incomprehensible. Entirely un-intriguing too. Only real clunker this year.

L'enemi Intime
A French film dealing with the Algerian military campaign of the 1950's, this one was almost a take on Stone's film in its focus on the day-to-day activities of the French platoon and its struggles of trying to quell the vicious Algerian freedom fighters, the Feghalla. The story centres on a new platoon leader, who tries to stay above the brutality of the fighting methods that both sides use. I found this to be far too well-trod material, and not especially new or compelling in its perspective. However, I did leave with the profound realization of just how horrific the French occupation of Algeria was (+/- 500,000 Algerian deaths over twenty years.)

Angel
I ended my fest this afternoon with Francois Ozon's latest film Angel. A strangely toned movie that danced between obvious (almost Mel Brooks-esque) satire, 30's hollywood homage (which generally equated to a less jarring satirical approach), and serious drama, I found this film pleasant to look at and funny at times, but too unsure of itself. Satire does not expect you to care much about its characters, and so when the gears shifted into high drama, there was nobody to hold onto. Good performances nevertheless from newcomer Romola Garai as Angel, and Michael Fassbender as her lover/husband Esme. Curious to hear other people's thoughts on this one.

Hope you all enjoyed the rest of your festivals.

A Gentle Breeze in the Village

2007-09-14T13:57:00.000-04:00

As the title suggests, this is nice, lighthearted fare. Set in a small village in rural Japan, 'A Gentle Breeze...' is the story of an 8th grade girl, Yoyo, and the new student to the school, Osawa, who becomes her first boyfriend. Though the film primarily explores themes central to young adolescence (the loss of innocence, the mixture of sadness and excitement of change), it's also a lamentation on the decline of pastoral life in contemporary Japan.

The languid pacing, sun-drenched cinematography, and adorable cast make for pleasant, laidback viewing. At times, it was almost like watching a litter of puppies playing with each other, with many audience members (myself included) unable to refrain from tilting their heads and cooing, 'Awww' each time the youngest student appeared on screen.

If there is any darkness, it's hinted at in brief, fleeting moments--the suggestion of a father's infedility, the light teasing of friends that could become bullying but doesn't-- that pass quickly. [To the audience member who claimed, in her 'question' to the director during the Q&A, that she was really worried Osawa was being manipulated by Yoyo, I hope you were able to get some sleep last night. Also, you may want to pick up a newspaper, read any article about what's happening internationally, and get a life.]

To some, a story like this may sound a tad dull, but it really was a beautiful film that I enjoyed more than I thought I would. Why have I suddenly become a sucker for such sentimentality?

A quick glance back at the films I've seen over the past 7 days at the festival may shed some clues. On screen I've witnessed countless brutal murders by drowing, firearm, and airgun, a suicide by hanging, the self-severance of an ear, and the brutal group beating death of a young boy. Guess this film was a bit of an antidote.

Reccomended viewing, particularly if you're looking a cinematic experience with your parents that avoids discomfort for both parties.

And Along Come Tourists

2007-09-14T11:27:00.000-04:00

This is a movie that deals very tastefully with tough subject matter. The movie follows Sven, a young German man who has come to Auschwitz to complete his mandatory year of civil service. During his time at the camp he is made responsible for a holocaust survivor that chooses to live on the camp site and befriends a young Polish camp tour guide.

Mr. Krzeminski lives at the camp after all of these years to ensure that the story of all of those who weren't as lucky as him survives. He refuses to go to live in the comfort of his sisters lovely country home to finish what he believes to be his life's work. He works to restore the personal items of the camp inmates for the camp museum.

The film also details the frustration of the people of the town of Auschwitz with the history imposed on them. The young camp tour guide applies for a job in a more urban area, looking to get away from her small hometown. She explains to Sven the horror on the faces of the interview panel as they ask and she tells them where she is from. One character seems to sum up the feeling well when he tells Sven that he wishes that they didn't have to deal with the constant reminder of the camp, that he wishes the Germans had taken their camp with them when they went.

I would recommend this movie. For being set in the camps at Auschwitz there are hardly any shots of the camp or the museum. In the Q & A the director explained that getting permission to shoot anything but the outer edges of the camp (usually the shot of the entrance to the camp or the watch towers) is impossible. Instead the movie focuses on the people living in and around the camp and those who work there. Shots of the camp may have taken away from the story of the characters in the movie. The three actors in the movie make the characters real by giving understated, authentic performances.

It is just too bad that all of those who see the movie in the future will not also have the experience of the Q & A with the director as well. He spoke with humour and shared interesting insights into the writing and making of the film.

Silent Resident

2007-09-14T08:32:00.000-04:00

In my opinion there is no reason to ever see this movie.

From what I could gather, Hannah, the movie's main character, may or may not be the victim of a government (or at least a police) plot directed at those living in very creepy looking apartments in a gated type of community at some point in the future. Trust me when I say that you really won't care to figure it out. When the movie ended last night I turned to fellow festi-blogger Brian and the two of us just burst into laughter.

There were two funny scenes in the movie. I don't think they were meant to be funny. They were only funny because they were so ridiculous. In one scene an elevator jockey turns to Hannah and gives her the cunnilingus sign (making a v with his fingers and wiggling his tongue between the fingers). In the other scene a man explains that Hannah's name is like Otto. They can both be spelled forwards and backwards. But the goes on to explain, Hannah is a pretty name and Otto is not. Now that I have shared the two funny scenes I have made certain that you really do not need to see this movie.

Do not believe the film fest book. This movie is not "wracked with perplexity and intrigue." It only contains uninteresting perplexity. I do not buy that it is an "allegory for 21st century's perpetual state of alienation and unease." Something must be done about these film fest book write ups!

El Pasado (The Past)

2007-09-13T14:15:00.000-04:00

The Past follows Rimini (Gael García Bernal), a man who cannot seem to get his life together after leaving his wife Sofia. He sets out to form relationships and make a new life for himself but the unfinished business he has with Sofia keeps taking over.

This felt very much like an Almodóvar movie to me - something I enjoyed. The characters were quirky and storylines did not all tie up neatly like they do in many conventional films. The acting was solid and I liked the pacing. I do recommend this movie.

There is one thing I found bothersome. There is a fair amount of sex in this movie - this is not what bothered me. Most of the women Rimini had relations with were fully naked. Some had a token piece of clothing on. Rimini remained fully dressed during all love scenes. All he did was unzip. It became very noticeable to me as the movie when on. Seemed very odd. Is GGB no longer okay with on-screen nudity?

GGB was present to introduce the movie. The director was on hand after the movie for a Q & A. I left after the first question of the Q & A. The question (The character in the film was a translator. How do you feel about movie translation?) was so lame that I figured nothing interesting was going to come from this audience. To be fair the director did handle the question well.

Married Life

2007-09-13T14:05:00.000-04:00

The story centres on an adulterous yet sensitive husband, Harry Allen, who plots the death of his wife in order to save her from the humiliation of a divorce. Set in the late 1940s and narrated by the husband’s friend Richard, who falls in love, at first sight, with the ‘other woman’, the film moves back and forth between period drama and black comedy, eventually reaching a satisfying compromise. Characters shamelessly lie to one another, justifying their actions with pure intention, but failing to realize the consequences of their various extracurricular romantic entanglements.

The film’s greatest strength may lie with the cast, who manage to elicit sympathy even when their scheming characters are at their manipulative worst. The always great Patricia Clarkson gives the loving wife an intelligence and independent spirit seldom seen in films set in this era (though her roles in 'Far From Heaven' and 'Good Night and Good Luck' may belie that statement). Chris Cooper, as the romantic but frightening husband and Rachel MacAdams, as the mistress torn between two men, instill a sense of sadness and fragility in their respective characters while Pierce Brosnan, as the charming, smooth-talking Richard, lends the voiceover a soothing, lullaby-like quality.*

If at times the plot seems to stray—as if the screenwriter was unsure whether to plunge the characters into farce or tragedy—it ultimately comes together in the end, in a manner that’s far more plausible and meaningful than either of the two extremes. I think that’s why I liked it and would recommend it to others.**

Couldn’t stay for the Q & A as the film started 20 minutes late (stupid red carpet!!) and I had to literally run to the Wintergarden to make it to Mad Detective. Director Ira Sachs and stars Rachel MacAdams, Chris Cooper, and Patricia Clarkson were all in attendance so I’m assuming the discussion afterwards was interesting one. If any readers attended the Q & A for this screening, I’d love to hear your comments.

Footnotes:

*As soothing as Pierce’s voice may have been, I wonder if the film might have been improved by ditching the voice-over narration completely and letting the onscreen action speak for itself. With such an accomplished cast, it may have been more interesting to let the audience interpret their emotions and thoughts from their facial expressions. While the ending would have been a little more ambiguous, this may have been an improvement as well.

**Having recommended this to others, I'm a little unsure as to this film's fate mostly because I'm not quite sure who the intended audience for this film might be. It's definitely a quieter, character-driven film that doesn't employ the standard pacing and plot devices that seem necessary for mainstream success/appeal. Yet the presence of higher profile actors may make it less marketable to independent film audiences, who would be most likely to embrace it. At any rate, I wish it well.

Sleuth

2007-09-13T10:51:00.000-04:00

Sleuth directed by Ken Branaugh, starring Michael Caine and Jude Law.
I lucked out thanks to a client and managed to get passes to this ....highly enjoyable
dialogue drama, based on a play by someone I should probably know...
It is also a remake of a 1973 film by the same name in which Michael starred in the role played by Jude Law this time around (ie the yonger man)...
It is really an exploration of mind games and manipulation, but the real star is the script....the acting while bang on , especially from.....yes actually Jude law, is very very good, as of course Caine unsurprisingly is always great.... There is a twist to this plot , which is simply mind boggling , so dont read reviews about it or it may be spolied if you wish to watch it. There is also a minor homoerotic component which is lame and not critical to the plot, which takes a bit off the final act , but overall a highly fun film... and I was surprised to see that what the ladies have been telling me is actually true, now having seen him in person, I see that I actually am a dead ringer for Jude Law...

Mad Detective

2007-09-13T10:32:00.000-04:00

An inventive, hilarious, sometimes graphic twist on the hardboiled Hong Kong police thriller, Mad Detective follows the titular character’s initial descent into madness—a shocking gesture in the opening minutes that sets the manic tone for the rest of the film—and his subsequent involvement in a new case with a younger, eager former colleague.

As they track the disappearance of a missing police detective, the younger colleague, Ho, relies on intellect and facts, while Bun, the mad detective, relies on intuition and a preternatural ability to see the distinct ‘personalities’ that lurk within an individual. Once this skill is established, in a funny scene where a toadying investigative team member’s insecurities are revealed, the perspective shifts back and forth between Bun’s reality and the reality experienced by other characters. The real strength of the film rests on the way the filmmakers exploit this device, setting up scenes where multiple ‘personalities’ are played by actors of different ages, sizes, and genders, often physically grappling with one another.

It makes for fascinating viewing. There’s a nervous energy throughout as the audience is never entirely sure which perspective is ‘real’ or whether Bun can be trusted. His unpredictable outbursts and revelations are particularly memorbable. But there are also some affectionate moments between Bun and his (late? ex?) wife which resonate, underscoring the way relationships are often undermined by memories of a less complicated past.

My only tiny grumble is that the film falls a bit short as a detective story. Since the main character can, at any time, ‘know’ whodunnit and how, there's very little doubt about how the mytery will be solved. Still, what the film may lack in suspense, it more makes up for in originality and humour. Recommend.

In the Q&A after the film, the filmmakers explained that they were influenced by Vincent Van Gogh, who saw in the world around him what others could not. The premise of this film is thus, “What if Van Gogh were a police detective in Hong Kong?” How can you NOT like that?

Free Seat Questionnaire

2007-09-13T09:05:00.000-04:00

I am going to have to begin to ask people a few questions before answering if the seat next to me is free. Are you currently well? Are you one of those people who makes random comments to themselves, hums, talks to others, clears their throats or rustles food packaging constantly during movies?

Yesterday a perfectly normal looking individual asked me if they could have the seat beside me.....then she sat down. Sitting down caused her to launch into a long and nasty series of coughs. She then opened up her bag and took out a whole series of cough and cold medications and began applying and taking them. I really wanted to move but the theatre was quite full by that point. Now I am just waiting out the cold incubation period to see if I got a free viral gift while screening this movie.

Anyone else have bad seat mate experiences this year?

Shiver me night vision goggles

2007-09-13T09:00:00.000-04:00

You know we’re in the final stretch of the fest when audiences start getting goofy. Not sure precisely when it happened but people are now shouting out ‘Arrr’ and ‘Matey’ when the anti-piracy warning scrolls in the opening credits.

And what of the threatened deployment of night vision goggles? I keep looking out for camouflaged ushers creeping through the aisles, periodically scanning the crowd, signaling to each other as they spot a potential offender but…nothing. Of course, maybe I’m just not learned in the subtle art of recording detection in a large theatre. Is this practice so clandestine that it’s happening without my knowledge? If any readers have witnessed a mid-screening pirate takedown, please post here. Oh and, um, yarrr.

I know what you're thinking.....

2007-09-12T21:26:00.000-04:00

separated at birth.

I TOLD you he stole my styles! BASTARD!

Can't a man invent growing a beard without having it stolen by every "famous" guy??

Chrysalis

2007-09-11T22:59:00.000-04:00

A French (did I mention it's French) noir flic half-heartedly disguised as sci-fi, Chrysalis had many enjoyable elements, but ultimately failed to create enough of a connection with its characters to build much in the way of care, anxiety and catharsis through its (noir-esque) roller-coaster plot.

On the style - substance spectrum, this film, which was made by French people, was heavily skewed towards (you guessed it) style. One suspects that the director (first timer Julien Leclercq) set it in the future so that he could show some cool sleek police uniforms, and excellent designer fridges in sparsely furnished metallic apartment complexes.. That's about as deep as the future gets apparently (which I'm fine with). Paris (France) looks a little greyer, and has a couple of new skyscrapers, if you were wondering. So while not immensely creative in its vision, and definitely not "M"-like (M-esque?) in its disavowal of script quality, one sensed that much more time was spent setting up each shot then in writing the dialogue.

The sci-fi twist involves a machine which allows people (mostly bad guys) to erase memory and re-program personalities, although interestingly the machine was created for good reasons (.....like.....leave it with me) and was stolen by the evil do-ers and used for malicious purposes. There are numerous bloody, bone-crunching, cartilege-julienning showdowns between the psychopathic tortured lead (policeman David Hoffman) and the psychopathic mercenary baddy (Nikolov). David has his memory erased in the third act (which I saw as a bit of a positive) but annoyingly still recognizes Nikolov in the cosmetic surgery clinic where this unlikely retinue seem to hang out, thereby engaging in another mano-a-mano for, oh say, nine minutes. Maybe I just don't like "action" sequences but this stuff is dull with a capital B.

In the end David is fine but chooses to forego his memory, recognizing that he's not sure likes that guy he was. Fair enough.

And I wonder what the same strong raw material would have yielded in the hands of a Teutonic or Slavic director?

LARS AND THE REAL GIRL

2007-09-11T18:11:00.000-04:00

I've been lucky enough to have gone 2 years without seeing a movie at the Ryerson Theatre. That streak ended as I rounded 2 blocks just to find the end of the ticketholder line-up. Now I'm sure this happens at the other venues, but I've never witnessed so blatant an epidemic of people waiting to jump the line. I mean do you really think we don't know what you're doing as you walk up and down the line, talking on your cellphone only to suddenly find your friend as soon as the line starts moving?? Between the line jumpers and those saving whole rows of seats at a time, I'm surprised that Linda and I managed to scrounge-up two. Somebody at TIFF, please, STOP THE SEAT CARTELS!!!

Then, as I walk by the red carpet I discover that Ryan Gosling has usurped my "scraggly beard with puffy hair" look. Isn't it enough that he gets to sleep with Rachel McAdams? Can't he leave anything for the little people? Sheesh

OK - enough venting and on to the movie....

Lars & the Real Girl is the story of a small-town boy who falls in love with a sex doll.

Before you snicker or roll your eyes - I LOVED THIS MOVIE!! What could have easily devolved into Weekend at Bernie's meets The Notebook was instead a hilariously quirky film. Ryan Gosling's performance as Lars was exceptional, as was the rest of the cast. Gosling again harnesses his understated yet immensely powerful charisma he utilized to great effect in Half Nelson. The script was intelligent and touching. Sure, the doll gag got a tad tiring once or twice (a very minor quibble) but overall the story zipped right along and I was totally caught up in Lars' pediophiliac relationship (definition: somebody who is sexually attracted to dolls - not exactly applicable here but I just wanted to impress you with my medical/scientific vocabulary).

I would highly recommend this movie....especially to those who've enjoyed movies like Fargo and The Royal Tennenbaums. This is definitely a feel-good movie without the Disnefication (not a word - I know) the term usually entails.

I had never heard of director Craig Gillespie before this film. My crack research team informs me that's because his first two features were/will be released in 2007. His other film? The cinematic masterpiece Mr. Woodcock. This might qualify him for treatment for multiple personality disorder (just showing off that medical vocabulary again). He may also want to seek treatment for chronic hatism - he's worn a newsboy hat in every picture I've seen of him, his TIFF photo and his appearance last night. Hey Craig, bald is beautiful - set that cranium free!!

Lars & The Real Girl - my favourite film of the festival so far.

M

2007-09-11T15:37:00.001-04:00

Though I'm tempted to simply invoke the concise yet passionate two-word stuart watson review from last year, I'll elaborate and try to be charitable.

Ostensibly a story about a writer haunted by images and nightmares from his past, 'M' veers from intrique to slapstick comedy to mawkish sentimentality in the span of twenty minutes, then repeats this loop until the film's uninteresting, trite, wholly pointless conclusion. A showcase for the filmmaker's cinematic technique, I will give the movie points for style; from gorgeous sets to carefully edited chase sequences to the use of still-life photography, the director is clearly technically skilled and the premise itself could have been fleshed out into an interesting if somewhat slight narrative. But he gives little if any thought to developing empathic characters, instead presenting a series of bumbling fools who flit from one unconvincing emotional state to the next, usually managing a maniacal laugh or scream along the way, apparently for the sole purpose of irrating the audience.

What else did I like about the film? Very little, other than the fact that it eventually ended, and I could leave. Had I been seated at the end and not the middle of the aisle, this would have occurred thirty minutes into the proceedings. You should be able to guess my recommendation on this one.

No Country for Old Men

2007-09-11T14:42:00.000-04:00

I hate to ratchet up the hyperbole on what is already a highly praised/rated film but I'm going to do so anyway. 'No Country for Old Men' is not only the best film I've seen this year but quite possibly the Coen Brothers' best film. Ever.

I suspect most of their fans won't embrace it the same way they do ‘Lebowski’ or ‘Fargo, largely because McCarthy’s source novel offers little in the way of affection or redemption for its main characters (to say nothing of its shockingly poor treatment of those in the periphery) . ‘No Country…’ is executed with such precision, detail, and nuance. Every frame is filled with elements of dark humour, suspense, horror, and intelligence. The dialogue is pitch perfect (better dressed dead bodies are conjectured to be ‘managerial types’, a half naked man in cowboy boots is asked how his footwear is working out for him), with characters spouting a equal measures of wisdom and humour in as few words as possible. The cast is incredibly strong, with particularly impressive turns from Tommy Lee Jones, as the world-weary lawman and Javier Bardem, as the 70s-coiffed killer (more on the doo below).

Looking back, I can't recall a scene that went on too long or didn't leave me hanging on what came next. That the film also contains—somewhat improbably, given the setting is rural Texas-- the most harrowing 'animal pursues human in water' sequence since Jaws (with perhaps a quicker, more cathartic resolution) is further evidence of the filmmakers’ genius, as is creating a chilling psychopath with a page-boy haircut.

I’ll say little about the storyline itself because I don’t want to ruin it for others. I will say that it does not conform to audience expectations and that it offers little for those who may be uncomfortable with a high body count and bloodshed. For everyone else...

Highly Recommend.

The Banishment

2007-09-11T14:08:00.000-04:00

This is a fine film, from Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev, whose only previous film - The Return - won the Golden Lion at Venice in 2003. I haven't seen The Return but I will definitely look for it now.

As for the Banishment, it's a character study revolving around fidelity, the bonds of family, and the distance that (sometimes) builds over time in our love relationships. Its plot focuses on an apparent affair and a pregnancy. It has some twists and turns so I will leave it at that in terms of narrative. Except to say, the plot takes dramatic shape halfway through the first act with a classic reversal - an unexpected confession, which later is re-examined for its veracity, and in a brilliant third act is revealed for what it truly was. However, the confession itself, upon reflection and revelation of its truth later in the picture, struck me as requiring a pretty huge leap of faith in the viewer. All of which to say that, other than this very central weakness, I thought this was a brilliant screenplay.

The acting is uniformly excellent, such well-drawn characters that will stay with me. I see in re-reading the package that Konstantin Lavrenenko's portrayal of the enigmatic Alex won him the best actor prize at Cannes this year. The other principles are also extremely strong. The cinematography is equally captivating, with gorgeous interweaving of the countryside where much of the film is set, with the nearby bleak and black cityscape (both unidentified, but presumably in Russia) where the characters drive to and from throughout the film.

My early choice for best pic of the fest.

No Country For Old Men

2007-09-10T15:48:00.000-04:00

I will let Kyle and Brian take care of the reviews for this one. Derek...were you there?

I thought it was fantastic and would highly recommend it!

A Thousand Years of Good Prayers and Princess of Nebraska

2007-09-10T15:24:00.000-04:00

On Sunday night the two Wayne Wang films playing at the festival played back to back - two movies for the price of one ticket. I could not resist that bargain.

My review must start before the movies even began. Noah Cowan was on hand to introduce the two films and the director. I know that he must have many films to introduce during these 10 days and that it must all blur together but I do not think it is acceptable to read in a robot like way from cue cards to introduce the movies and the director who is standing right beside you. Was he drunk? Was he rushed? Is he just a poor film introducer? I don't know. All I can say is that I found it embarrassing.

Now to the movies....

A Thousand Years of Good Prayers
A Chinese American woman grates at the presence of her visiting Chinese father. Past history and a recent divorce (one the father finds shameful) mean that dinner each night is full of either tense silence or a series of questions addressed to the daughter about why her marriage did not work and what her father can do to get her married again and producing grandchildren. Many of the scenes of the parent overstepping boundaries and refusing to see his daughter as an adult rang very true. It was an enjoyable movie and was well done but not one I would go out of my way to recommend. I gave it a 2 on the audience choice voting card.

Princess of Nebraska
This movie could be subtitled "should I have an abortion?" Basically the main character spent the length of the film walking around San Fran either being an asshole to people (even those who were trying to help her), playing at prostitution, trying to figure out how much money she could get for her unborn baby on the black market and taking camera phone videos of herself (including shots of her hands and her eye). I think that there is a message to be found on the film about children with lots of money and a lack of direction and values going to school in a strange country. It just didn't appeal to me that much.

The director did speak before the movie and between the two movies. I found what he had to say as he spoke interesting and funny. I didn't stay for the Q and A simply because I was tired and very thirsty.

What's the Dealio?

2007-09-10T14:22:00.000-04:00

How come there's no TIFF film trailer this year?? Did they get tired of people cheering? I knew the program cover graphics were dull - but I figured they'd be able to squeeze something out of it.

Also - anybody see anything at the Cumberland? I think they've put in new digital projectors and the picture is amazing - incredibly crisp, even to the untrained eye. I noticed the quality of the picture right away. When I saw a movie at Scotiabank the next night I definitely noticed that the picture wasn't quite as good. Coincidentally, one of the pre-film ads at the Cumberland was for some brand of digital projector - this same ad was not played at the Scotiabank screening. I think I'm on to something here!

Lastly, the Cadillac "Be Original" ads are hilarious. What are some of the plot synopses you've seen so far? My fave is "in this movie we've got 2 cowboys, one horse"

BARCELONA (UNA MAPA) / BARCELONA (A MAP)

2007-09-10T13:56:00.000-04:00

Another world premiere! A surprisingly packed house greeted us at the Scotiabank theatre as we arrived just in time for the flick.

Barcelona traces the lives of three characters as they intersect with an old couple hellbent on evicting them from the rooming house that they run. Unlike The Man from London, this movie is incredibly heavy on dialogue. It didn't surprise me to find out that this film was based on a play. Although the movie benefits from its ability to use flashback vignettes to illustrate whatever the characters happen to be talking about, this is basically a theatre production committed to film. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, but I do question the choice of the original source material. I mean nothing really happens. Sure, we get to discover a few skeletons in the closet and we get to see some shots of the majestic city of Barcelona. But other than that, we invest a large chunk of time getting to know these characters and their dirty little secrets without the payoff of something actually happening. As I've said before, I'm not generally a fan of subtlety so the fault may lie with me and not with the movie - but I'd give this movie a pass. I mean surely you can take adultery, sexual deviance and cross-dressing and make SOMETHING memorable happen - can't you?

BOY A

2007-09-10T13:12:00.000-04:00

My first film of the festival and a world premiere to boot!

The story behind Boy A is loosely inspired by Jon Venables and Robert Thompson - the 10-year olds that kidnapped and murdered 2-year old James Bulger in 1993. The film centres on "Jack". We meet him as a young man just being released from prison. He has spent the majority of his life behind bars due to his participation in a sadistic crime as a young school boy. There is such public hatred towards him that he is forced to enter a sort of witness protection program for felons. As a result, he takes on a whole new persona in a new city with his only support being the life coach assigned to him. We are taken on his journey to settle into his new city, get a job, make new friends and even date - all while he struggles to adjust to life "on the outside" and the fact that he is forced to be dishonest with everybody he knows in regards to his past.

The film moves along at a good pace. The performances are understated and totally believable. I would especially commend the young actor who played Philip - Jack's partner in crime (literally). The key to his role was to walk a line between pure evil and childhood vulnerability - a difficult task to be sure and he handles it brilliantly.

We catch glimpses of the crime in flashback sequences and we begin to understand the horror of this boy's past. The film leaves us with unanswered questions regarding forgiveness and an individual's right to a second chance. Definitely one of those movies that would provoke discussion following a viewing.

I liked the movie - certainly better than average. The English accents were tough to decipher at times - but hey, I guess that is to be expected in a movie from the UK.

Before I actually saw the film I was trying to find out some info about it (like Sarah, I was taking my parents to the movie and was concerned about the potential for "uncomfortable content"). I was a little disappointed to learn that this movie was originally made for British TV. Although this calmed my fears of scenes involving a huge Roman orgy or a prolonged torture sequence, I automatically lowered my expectations assuming I was about to catch a Lifetime movie of the week. Now, I don't know whats considered acceptable for network viewing in England, but I was wrong on both counts. Apparently lots of sex on TV is OK. As well, the quality of the film was excellent - far better than what you would expect from North American television and I wouldn't be surprised if it got a theatre release on this side of the pond (the fact that the Weinstein Group scooped up the worldwide rights to it before anybody really had a chance to see it kind of supports my hypothesis).

Lastly, Andrew Garfield, the actor who plays Jack has generated quite a nice buzz for himself as a result of his perfomance. Monday's Star had a fairly lengthy article about him predicting all sorts of future big things for him (apparently his next film is with Tom Cruise and Robert Redford). If this little bit of fortune telling proves true, I can say I was there for the premiere of his first film and that he was quite polite as he excused himself to get by me on the way to the bathroom.

Nothing Is Private

2007-09-09T16:27:00.000-04:00

Oh my goodness!

Last night I attended the screening of Nothing Is Private as my first film festival movie this year. A fabulous movie. It shows us a short period of time in a 13 year old girls life. Jasira has been sent to live with her father in a Texas suburb after her mother learns of inappropriate behaviour that has occurred in her home. She decides that her daughter is out of control and needs more discipline in her upbringing. So Jasira leaves the home of her self centred, manipulative mother to live in the home of her ultra-strict, abusive father. Since she receives no love and only the most basic care from her parents, Jasira accepts the attention of men. This is the most basic of descriptions. To give any other detail is to destroy the tension the film opens with and continues to build until the very last moment.

This is a movie that you feel in your gut. Although none of the characters in this movie are entirely evil or good, we do spend a great deal of time with the nasty bits of these people. The nastiness and redeeming moments are carried off because of the talents of the actors. There is not a bad performance in the movie. In fact, all performances were amazing. The movie also succeeds because of the fine script (based on the novel "Towelhead" by Alicia Erian) and excellent direction.

There will be many comparison's with American Beauty. There are many similar themes in the two films: bigotry, the sexuality of young people, abusive family relationships and social isolation. Some of these same themes were even to be found in Six Feet Under. Nothing Is Private, American Beauty and Six Feet Under all also use daydreams to show the inner thoughts of characters. I believe that Nothing Is Private stands on its own.

The only drawback to my experience last night was that this was the movie that I chose to take my parents to. I had worried that the movie might be racy and might be uncomfortable to have watched with parents. Visions in my head of what racy material I might see were far surpassed by a huge volume uncomfortable sexual material. If you are not comfortable with movies that involve the shaving of a 13 year old's genital area more than once.....do not take your parents to see this movie! Now....having said that I must point out that all sexual material in the movie is very tastefully handled. Many events are implied rather than viewed and my parents did tell me that they thought the movie was excellent. Still I feel pretty comfortable saying that it is not a movie that most people would feel comfortable viewing with their folks.

The cast and the director attended our screening and took part in a very enjoyable Q and A.

The Man From London

2007-09-08T23:22:00.000-04:00

I started out my festival this year with Hungarian director Bela Tarr's take on film noir, The Man From London. The film is based on a Georges Simenon novel (though not a Maigret), and contains many of the elements of the famous French crime writer (the few that I have read anyway) - a cerebral, almost philosophical slow-motion plot, and a central crisis of morality, rather than crime per se.

However, Tarr is a supreme stylist (I've spent a little while looking him up after seeing TMFL), and his take on Simenon and film noir generally is unlike any I have ever seen. Indeed, his style is completely new to me - though Kyle mentioned Bergman as a possible influence, and I don't disagree - so I'll try to describe the style of the film and its effect, rather than the plot or other elements.

It's shot in rich, beautiful black and white, particularly well suited to its setting, an ancient European port, mostly at night. The key stylistic elements are pace and stillness - Tarr uses long (excruciatingly long on many occassions) shots and a very slow and still camera to evoke the loneliness, monotony, and pain of its central characters' lives. We watch the main character walk from the local bar to the port's breakwall for a minute and a half; we see the same man's wife screaming at him over a misguided purchase of a fur wrap for their daughter, and the camera stays on her for 45 seconds after he has left and she has stopped crying; we watch the detective (the Man From London) interviewing the wife of a key supsect in the robbery (but never mind the plot), and we close in on her face for possibly as long as 7 or 8 minutes - as an interminable accordion plays on and grows in volume. The opening shot of the film is twelve minutes long, half of which is the slowest pan in film history (I'm guessing) up the hull of a passenger ship. There are countless other examples...and yes, I did start using my watch to time some of the by the end. I was curious (and bored). All in tight close up. If you hadn't intuited this already, there's very little talking; I'm guessing about 100 lines of dialogue, and the film is 2hrs 15 long.

So, yes, it was extremely difficult to watch at times. Particularly after you absorb the technical elements, and are waiting for something to "happen". On another level, it was fascinating, and strangely refreshing to find a director who slows everything down - not a common technique these days. And, to be fair, things do happen, the plot does advance in a torpid fashion, to a meaningful conclusion, so that is not a weakness. However, I found that the exaggeration of style largely overwhelmed that plot.

One becomes aware very early on that the agony of watching this, in sharing each character's simplest action, and tortured thought, is at least partially the point of the exercise, but that didn't win me over in the theatre. And so by the third act I was more than ready for it to end. However, after the fact the film continues to resonate - like the languid but powerful pace of a Bruckner symphony (I would have liked to have used Bartok here to keep the Hungarian theme intact, but it's nothing like Bartok). So, if you're up for a unique, very challenging piece of film-making, then sure, why not consider The Man From London. Be brave.

Control

2007-09-08T20:26:00.000-04:00

As suspected, I loved this film.

Most biopics of musicians follow the standard, drearily predictable story arc: artist grows up in obscurity/pain, catches a break, becomes successful (montage of screaming fans, billboard chart listing, spinning record should the era require it), starts to show signs of becoming an asshole, artist really becomes an asshole (requisite scene where angry wife throws a glass against a wall) something really bad happens to artist involving drugs, alcohol, violence, or a combination of all three, artist hits rock bottom, artist finds redemption, gives one last great performance, title credits explain what happens to every tangential character in the film; in short, tedious fare I avoid like the plague.

But a few years ago I read ‘Touching from a Distance’ by Deborah Curtis on which ‘Control’ is at least partly based, the story of her late husband and his band, Joy Division. It was a very honest, moving book, remarkable for its heartfelt sincerity and its refusal to overdramatize or psychoanalyze. Similarly, first-time feature director Anton Corbijn avoids the forementioned cliches, opting to treats the people in the story with a restrained dignity that celebrates the life of Ian Curtis and the music of Joy Division. That his first job is as a photographer means that the look of the film is incredible, the black and white scenes adding lightness and melanchology in equal turns.

Sam Riley gives an amazing performance, particularly during the concert scenes where he just becomes Ian Curtis, capturing the lead singer’s lanky, slightly spastic, raging dance moves and microphone posture perfectly. The other members of Joy Division/New Order also were well cast, never dominating but not simply there as decoration to the story. The decision to have the actors play the songs gave the concert scenes an added dose of energy, and the use of select original recordings as background were well-timed.

Ultimately, of course, it’s a sad film, and the scene that you know is coming and are dreading is distressing, but isn’t drawn-out. One of the final moments on screen fo Samantha Morton, as his wife Deborah, occupies only seconds of screen time but may be one of the saddest I’ve watched in recent memory. It's all the more effective for capturing, in its brevity, the tragegy of a family abandonned and a shining career lost.

Also bittersweet was seeing the recently deceased Tony Wilson depicted on screen again. Steve Coogan was great playing the former owner of Factory records and early Joy Division supporter in 24 Hour Party People, and here Craig Parkinson is remarkable as well.

Highly Recommend.

THE BATTLE IN SEATTLE

2007-09-08T18:08:00.000-04:00

Another dispatch from my brother

"One of the best movies I've seen in a long time (with him watching movies like Balls of Fury on a regular basis, please take this with a grain of salt). I didn't really even know about any of the events that the movie was centred on. It didn't really matter - the movie told a very powerful story. As for star power, Charlize Theron, Michelle Rodrigues and Andre 3000 (???) were all there - as was writer/director Stu Townshend (apparently Charlize had to sleep with him to get the part). And Ryerson theatre still sucks"

Maybe one day I'll get to write a review of a movie that I've actually watched.

THE BRAVE ONE

2007-09-08T11:27:00.001-04:00

OK - I didn't watch this - my brother did - but I got him the tickets. Here is his review:

"Jody Foster, Terrence Howard and the director (Neil Jordan) were all there. It was too commercial. Even with the warnings of extreme violence there wasn't anything too off the wall. Just take what you would expect to happen in a vigilante pic and that's exactly what happened in this movie. Ya, and the balcony at Ryerson sucks!"

Too commercial??!! This coming from the guy who selected Shark's Tale (quite) a few years ago. My little brother is all grows up!!

Boy A tonight - with my parents. I think I have the same fears we all do when we accompany our parents to a movie we really know nothing about. At least Harvey Keitel isn't in this one.

Mad Props for Mad Detective

2007-09-07T11:08:00.001-04:00

Also some dissent on the previously linked 'masterpiece' status of 'Useless'.

Control, yes. Self-control, no.

2007-09-07T09:53:00.001-04:00

Okay, no more trips to the online Box Office for me. It's become an obsession.
Online at 7am this morning to report another day of non-paper delivery to the Globe and Mail (arrgh), I drifted over to the Tiff site to see by chance if there were any tickets to Control available. Lo and behold, I managed to snag a ticket to tonight's 9:45pm performance.
So, if you are looking to pick up tix for films you didn't get, you might try going online at 7am.

Looking forward and back

2007-09-06T16:06:00.000-04:00

What am I most looking forward to? Like Kyle I chose the Cohen brothers movie on Monday as a replacement for a ticket I didn't get. I figured that it would be coming out in wide release soon and that I would see it then. Now that I have the ticket I am quite excited about it.

What am I most worried about? I am worried about seeing a movie described in part to be about the sexual awakening of a teenager with my parents on Saturday (Nothing is Private). What was I thinking? My mom fast forwarded through the love scene from Top Gun when I watched it with her many years ago.......

But really, I will be happy if I can get by this year without an experience as bad as "Trauma" two years back, the mind numbingly dull experience of the Thai film I walked out of last year or the experience of seeing Harvey Keitel naked again.

Sadly, I have to wait until Saturday for my 1st movie.

It was the worst of times, it was the worst of times

2007-09-06T10:26:00.000-04:00

Brian, are we to choose the presumed worst from just your picks or our own? Might as well go through all our lists.

From Brian’s list, the obvious choice is Chrysalis, because it’s a French sci-fi thriller and I’m deeply suspicious of this combination genre, as I suspect it’s going to take itself far too seriously. Despite the presence of the ever luminous Juliette Binoche, sporting the blond locks that I spied when she passed within a few feet of me last year, je pense Le Voyage du Ballon Rouge va etre un voyage très ennuyeux pour m. Derek. Have a sneaking suspicion that Sarah will dislike the one I just got her yesterday ‘Silent Resident’ because it will get be too sci-fi and not enough thriller and that Da…I mean…festival co-director #3 will find himself deeply confused about which way to go regarding XXY. My biggest question mark is ‘A Gentle Breeze in the Village’, which my parents are seeing with me. It has the potential to be either too saccharine-y, too slow, or a lethal combination of both.

Back to celebs, I have a feeling that I’m most likely to bump (that’s with a b not an h, Bri, honestly…) into Rachel McAdams on my way out of Married Life as I frantically try to make Mad Detective on time. I see myself quickly explaining to her that I’d love to stay for Q & A but that Johnnie To beckons. She’s cool w/ it but Ryan Gosling gives me dirty looks and the two of us end up starting a massive brawl later that evening in the lobby of the Four Seasons Hotel. I scramble out a side door, ducking and narrowing avoiding a punch from Jodie Foster that inadvertently lands on Woody Allen (who consequently hightails it back to Manhattan, vowing never to return to TO), and look up to see Keira K staring down at me. She asks me where she can find really good falafel so we cab it to the Annex and….okay…NOW I’m getting silly.

Another question, given the glowing reviews of the Coen Brothers flick, are we bound to be disappointed? Even though it wasn’t among my initial picks, it’s now the film that I’m most looking forward to seeing. Hope that isn't the case. Happy film going, all!

UPDATE: We're number 1! Or possibly 2!

Interesting article in the Star today. The last paragraph illustrates why Piers is Da Man: articulate, gracious when it comes to describing competitors, but with a balsy certitude in stating, simply that Toronto is THE fall festival. You, Mr. Handling, rock!

2007-09-06T07:30:00.000-04:00

Ironically, I turned in two tickets to Useless on Monday. It did look interesting, but I had my eye on a few others.

Celebrities I'd like to bump into (is that a euphimism?).....let me mull on that. OK, how about Laura Linney? She's my age, is great in almost every flic she's in, reasonably well fed, and darned attractive.

The game I like to play at this point is, to guess which film will be the best and the worst from among my picks. I'm thinking that Silent Resident may be the best, based on the plot summary, the simple picture, and the fact that it's German, and not French. The one with the greatest potential for failure is clearly Man From London, the review of which proclaims its mood of a "vacuum in which no joy may enter", and celebrates "long periods of silence and stasis". The dark horse is The Banishment, whose director last film won the Golden Lion in Venice in 2003...mind you, it's a relationship film that runs 2 1/2 hours.

Goodbye skinny ebert

2007-09-05T17:34:00.000-04:00

After reading an article in The Star regarding Roger Ebert's battle with cancer and his return to active "festival duty" at TIFF, I have finally been persuaded that my former psuedonym was in very poor taste.

So in honour of Piers Handling and his arch nemesis Noah Cowan I am now "festival co-director #3"

Nice to meet all of you (again)

So Tired, Tired of Waiting....

2007-09-05T16:51:00.000-04:00

no reviews yet, obviously but interesting reading from the Venice festival about films that will be playing at TIFF. apparently, derek, you've chosen a masterpiece in 'Useless'. will look forward to hearing your impressions, especially now that i've raised your expectations.

couldn't resist a visit to the online box office this morning. added 'King of the Hill' on Friday September 14th at 9:15pm to my list and 'Silent Resident' on Thursday September 13th to Sarah's list. $20/per ticket w/ a $4.75 handling fee per order is not bad, at least relative to what they are charging for VSR and Gala tix.

still two days till my first film so i'll pose another question to the group:

are there any celebrities you'd like to bump into this week?

i'm hoping keira knightley will ask me to take her out for a proper meal or at the very least that she will flirt with me shamelessly. since i'm not seeing 'atonement', i'm guessing the chances of this happening are quite remote. if i were seeing 'atonement', my chances would be...well...quite remote. still, she's very pretty, albeit slim, which i think is my point.

Daniel's Picks

2007-09-04T23:06:00.000-04:00

Boy A - Sept 8
Barcelona (A Map) - Sept 9
Lars & The Real Girl - Sept 10
XXY - Sept 13
Son of Rambow - Sept 14

Sarah's Picks

2007-09-04T15:26:00.000-04:00

Nothing is Private - Saturday September 8

A Thousand Years of Good Prayers and Princess of Nebraska - Sunday September 9

No Country For Old Men - Monday September 10

The Past - Wednesday September 12

And Along Come Tourists - Wednesday September 12

Silent Resident -Thursday 13th

Chaotic Ana - Friday September 14

Shadows - Saturday September 15

2007-09-04T14:36:00.000-04:00

Brian's picks:

Friday 7th - Man From London
Saturday 8th - The Banishment
Sunday 9th - With Your Permission
Monday 10th - No Country for Geezers; Chrysalis
Wednesday 12th - It's a Free World; La Vielle Maitresse; The Savages
Thursday 13th - Silent Resident
Saturday 15th - Angel

2007-09-04T11:51:00.000-04:00

Derek's list:

September 7 - Ne Touchez Pas la Hache, Le Voyage du Ballon Rouge
September 8 - Useless
September 9 - Boy A, Secret Sunshine
September 10 - No Country for Old Men, It's a Free World...

Kyle's List

2007-09-04T08:12:00.000-04:00

Okay, the final list:

Friday September 7th - The Man from London
Saturday September 8th - Happiness
Sunday September 9th - La Zona

Monday September 10th - No Country for Old Men, M

Wednesday September 12th - Married Life, Mad Detective
Thursday September 13th - A Gentle Breeze in the Village
Saturday September 15th - Shadows

Very odd that I don't have any French films this year. Guess my first review will be here on either Friday night or Saturday morning. Until then, you can amuse yourselves looking at trailers at the TIFF screening room site.

skinny ebert: teacher's pet

2007-08-31T22:19:00.000-04:00

I had absolutely NOTHING to do this Friday night so I came up with TEN films you really don't want to see.

I haven't looked at the other posts - so forgive me if I've snagged a few of your picks

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, THE ENIGMA: a couple spend their vacation trying to prove that Colombus was Portugese and not Italian. Oh ya, and the director is 98 years old. AND it meets Kyle's Portugese criteria

DR. PLONK: "a tribute to silent film, filmed on expired black & white film with a hand-cranked camera". I think it would be fun to bring your ipod and create your own soundtrack. Not sure how to remedy the expired film though

DEATH IN THE LAND OF ENCARTOS: 540 minutes long......if I didn't have to wash my hair....

YOU, THE LIVING: "a plot synopsis is impossible..." I'd say a viewing is impossible as well.

MISTER LONELY: a Michael Jackson impersonator, nuns throwing themselves from a plane and the creator of Julien Donkey Boy. Guess I'm getting my Harmony Korine fix after all.

LOVE SONGS: a French musical - I just can't do it

NIGHTWATCHING: a movie based on a Rembrandt painting??!! Wasn't the DaVinci Code bad enough?

FOREVER NEVER ANYWHERE: four men are trapped in a car after an accident. Not recommended for those who like anything to happen in their movies

SURFWISE - a documentary abour a whole family of surfers. Like wow! That's incredible!

DAINIPPONJIN - the protagonist is "transformed into a stocky giant several storeys high, sporting tight purple briefs, tattoos and an Eraserhead-style hairdo". There's a reason this one is playing at midnight

5 queasy pieces

2007-08-31T21:45:00.000-04:00

1. Manoel de Oliveira has a film at the festival. Egads the man is 98. I saw his film "A Talking Picture" a few years back and it was truly awful. Someone has actually let him make 4 films since then. Mandatory retirement anyone?

2. Bad enough they let nonagenarians into the festival but Wayne Wang gets 2 films. I guess his troika of "Maid in Manhattan", "Because of Winn-Dixie" and "Last Holiday" earned him those two coveted spots.

3. Is Gary Burns at the festival?

4. "The Jane Austen Book Club". Perhaps my favourite author. Can we leave her alone now.

5. Speaking of books, "The Stone Angel". Was there a more excruciating fortnight in my life than the 2 weeks in grade 10 we spent with Mr. Thwaites toiling through this novel.

films you don't want to see

2007-08-31T14:49:00.000-04:00

since we're all more or less screwed, with derek obviously taking the crown (prefer to mix rather than extend the metaphor), and face the prospect of picking through the scraps and hoping to find a gem, perhaps a fun blog exercise would be to post the 5 possible worst case scenarios. in other words, to name the 5 films that you'd least want to see.

generally speaking, though i love their cuisine and wine respectively, the films of thailand and portugal tend to suck the big one so those are maybe a good places to start. visions and vanguard should offer some ripe pickings as well. see y'all monday.

2007-08-31T13:30:00.000-04:00

I obviously showed up 15 minutes too early. Box 63 of all things. If I had only waited until my lunch hour I would have aced this thing.

Box 66 of 75

2007-08-31T13:26:00.000-04:00

well, shit. i'm in box 50, which means that they'll be processing 59 boxes before getting to mine (box 50). ah well! wasn't doing anything on monday anyway.

brian, since you're in just as bad/worse shape as me, perhaps we can make plans to meet up early and one of us can get a spot in the resub line. derek, daniel, hope you fared better.

tricky times these fest days be

2007-08-31T09:08:00.000-04:00

seems as though blogger.com prioritizes the blog list based on recent posts so the position of metabeats and the filmfestiblog will change from time to time. while pithy comments on film are always welcome here, posts about music at the filmfest blog may just confuse all the visitors to the site, who may be directed here from either the official tiff site or tiffreviews (essential daily reading) where we are listed. in short, stuart get your head out of your ass.

2007-08-30T23:19:00.000-04:00

Stu, wrong blog.

Kyle et al, HELP! I need a lesson on using the book to fill out my order. Are we supposed to highlight using two colours (one for first and one for second choice) the way we did a few years ago? Please drop me a line at home or post an explanation tomorrow morning if you get this message. Merci.

2007-08-30T17:50:00.000-04:00

well I think the best bet is this fantastic edgy jazz guy Kenny G, he plays a mean flute, and then a close second would be Zamphir....

someone had to do it brian, so why not me....

The real winner of the Parker Posey Award is....

2007-08-30T14:29:00.000-04:00

Joan Chen, who apparently is in like, 10 films, including a documentary, which is pretty impressive. Kudos to Sarah for pointing that out.

Here's the longlist, with first pic/second pic:

Young People Fucking/Jar City - Thursday night
The Man From London/need to find a second pick - Friday night 6ish
Control/Secret Sunshine - Friday 9ish
The Edge of Heaven/need to find a second pick - Saturday 4ish
Nothing is Private/King of the Hill - evening, possibly taking my parents to it
Nightwatching/La Zona or The World Unseen - Sunday late aft
M/The Voyeurs - Monday evening

Unsure of:
Deficit
Margot at the Wedding

Open to suggestions/comments of the "What the *#$%& are you thinking?" or "I highly recommend you choose...." variety.

Harmony Korine

2007-08-30T12:45:00.000-04:00

So, will I see the Harmony Korine film this year? Probably - I AM a masochist. Plus, the Q&A with an obviously high Korine (drinking a slurpee, no less) was well worth sitting through the movie.

I continue to be amazed that the festival directors are actually able to write coherent synopses of his films.

question

2007-08-29T09:02:00.000-04:00

My 1st question after my brief look at the book last night and after reading Kyle's post yesterday is.......will Kyle and Daniel give in again and see the Harmony Korine movie?

2007 Film Festival/Festiblog Underway

2007-08-28T13:38:00.000-04:00

The programme books are here! The programme books are here!

After a relatively rapidfire 45-minute skimming of its contents, some initial thoughts and questions:

-The cover is pretty boring (expect similarly breathtaking analyses here in days to come).

-Best film title has to be "Young People Fucking", with an honourable mention going to "Run Fat Boy Run". Still don't think that either holds a torch to the Best Film Fest title of all time: "Virgin Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors"

-Most contradictory or just pretentious film title goes to "A Jihad for Love" and "My Brother is an Only Child"

-Most incongruous French/English title translation: Ne Touchez Pas La Hache/The Dutchess of Langeais. Runner-up: Dans La Vie/Two Ladies

-Looks like it's Ellen Page vs. Evan Rachel Wood for the coveted Parker Posey Award, awarded each year to the young female actress who seemingly appears in every other film at the fest

-Do I see the documentary "Joy Division" or the biopic "Control", based on the Deborah Curtis book "Touching From a Distance", which I enjoyed reading a few years back? Or should I just re-rent "24 Hour Party People" and skip to the part where the drummer sits on the roof of his apartment and bangs out the opening to 'She's Lost Control'?

-How is it possible that Renee Harlin is still allowed to make films? I realize I ask this question almost every year (sometimes substituting the name "Abel Ferrara") but man....

Overall, the quality of films seem really strong. It's going to be difficult to narrowing down my choices to 10.

Hoping to get a solid hour or two with the book tonight. Think I've already identified a handful that look interesting including "M", "The Man from London", "My Kid Could Paint That", "Nightwatching", and "Deficit". If there are any flaws in these choices, I invite you to unleash your sardonnic wrath upon me.

Similarly, please do share/post your long lists as I won't be able to attend the usual Thursday evening last minute picking party, due to an unforeseen change to my schedule. Happy reading!

L'intouchable

2006-09-18T12:02:00.000-04:00

I had my last two films on Friday. First up was L'intouchable, Benoit Jacquot's latest film, about identity and belonging as seen through the eyes of Jeanne, a young actress in Paris. It is shot in an energetic verite style, with much of the action expressed in a determinedly verasimilitude fashion. The plot concerns Jeanne's search for her father, whom we discover in the first few scenes was an Indian, living near the Ganges, with whom Jeanne's faded bohemian mom had a one-night stand.

The film is shot, loosely, half in Paris and half in Delhi. For me, and I'm pretty sure this was Jacquot's intention, it really came to life when we hit the streets of Delhi. There was a "Sun Also Rises"-like existenstialism to this; whereby the search for Jeanne's identity drove a more profound and meaningful experience. The filming in India felt intensely real; the arrival at the airport, the subseqent street and public transit scenes, and the Ganges itself (particularly the footage of the burial rituals) were fantastic.

The problem I found was that the plot, which relied on the motivation of Jeanne to understand her life better, didn't feel believable. I never really got why going to the Ganges to meet the man who unknowingly impregnated her mother would make everything fall into place for her. And ultimately, she comes to the same empty realization - the meeting of the father never really occurs, she has spent all of her energy on a confused search (mistaken identity - she meets his brother), and basically no longer needs to understand more. The film ends abruptly and anti-climatically, and while this is no doubt the message that Jacquot wanted to convey - like, life is complex and its journey can change us in different ways than we expect - it makes for an unsatisfying, and what feels like an under-written (certainly underfilmed, as it all resolves in about three minutes) conclusion.

TIFF Awards

2006-09-17T13:29:00.000-04:00

Here's a biased summary from the Torontoist. Glad to see Reprise get some love from the credits but I'm not familiar with the other winners.

rotten tomatoes

2006-09-16T21:34:00.000-04:00

Rotten Tomatoes has a whole scetion dedicated to their reviews from TIFF. Thought I would share.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/features/special/2006/toronto_film_festival/

The volunteer love gets quieter with each screening...

2006-09-15T12:33:00.000-04:00

...which tells you that the festival will soon be over. Hoping to post some mini reviews this afternoon of Paris Je T'aime, Beauty in Trouble, 7 ans, Woman on the Beach (a footnote to Brian's excellent review), Il Caimano, and this morning's film L'intouchable, which I liked quite a bit (hint of what's to come).

If you've done your films, perhaps you can rank the ones you've seen, in whatever order you see fit, with any comments about the festival this year in general.

2 more to go tomorrow and then sadly, it's done.

Nue Propriete (Private Property)

2006-09-14T10:19:00.000-04:00

Let me start off by saying that I am biased - I generally don't like French films - they don't interest me (a French film with John Tuturro??!! - now that interests me). Maybe it has something to do with falling asleep during French class - I don't know. I do like other French things.....wine, cheese, kissing, bread, pencil thin moustaches, Napoleon complexes, mimes...so I'm not a total Francophobe.

The movie follows the divorced mother of twin boys. She wants to sell their house so she can open a B&B with her new lover. The twins, of course, oppose. We are subjected to various scenes of conflict - mainly involving boring conversations around the dinner table. The director later stated that he relied heavily on the dinner table to illustrate the mother feeding the "monsters" she has created. MONSTERS??!!! This guy should come to dinner at my house. If he saw the twins as monsters he'd see my family as the direct descendents of Satan. The movie comes to a predictable violent climax that really is not so violent.

You may be reaching the conclusion that I just can't appreciate subtlety. You might have a point. Unfortunately for you, this is about my opinion. My opinion is that this was a plodding movie that never really went anywhere. The Festival program GROSSLY oversold this movie by describing it as the film "with some of the best acting in the festival" (Noah Cowan - you would have LOVED my performance as Pony Boy in high school). I never felt like I got to know any of the characters in any depth. I felt the twins were horribly miscast and were far too old to be playing the age you were supposed to believe they were (they bathed together, their mother bathed in front of them, they double-rided (rode?) through the fields on their motorbike, they talked about girls while playing ping pong, they played video games). I suppose Isabelle Huppert's turn as the keeper of the monsters was OK - but one performance does not a movie make.

You'd have more fun spending 2 hours French kissing.

The Hottest State

2006-09-14T08:58:00.000-04:00

William is a man-boy actor who can't get himself together. He goes through women like water and seems to have flashbacks about his absent father on a daily basis. William meets an aspiring singer named Sarah (excellent choice of name) in a bar. Unlike other girls, Sarah does not quickly fall for William. William persues Sarah and finally wins her over but not for long. The Hottest State is a movie that details one mans journey through longing, love, and rejection. It felt accurate and genuine to me. Mark Webber and Catalina Sandino Moreno were terrific as William and Sarah.

There are two things I would change. I think the movie should be half an hour shorter. At two hours it was a little long and some scenes could be lost without harming the story line or the feel of the movie.

Also, Ethan Hawk seemed too young to play William's dad in the Texas scene of the movie. If the writter/ director felt he absolutley must have a role in his own movie he should have had the makeup people age him a little more than they did. Perhaps he is old enough to be the father of a man in his early 20's but he doesn't look it. Ethan Hawk is a solid actor it was just his apperance that didn't fit.

I would recommend this movie.

adaptations.....

2006-09-13T22:40:00.000-04:00

I'm sensing some pent-up interest in my TIFF-week discussion question on favourite adaptations from novels....ahem...OK, more as a thank you to Stuart, I will say that I was thinking of this as from novels you have read (but didn't necessarily like).

A few of my faves are "The Last Tycoon", Elia Kazan's 1975 movie of Fitzgerald's last, unfinished novel, starring DeNiro in a very unusual performance for him (a movie which, incidentally, I am somewhat unique in appreciating). Two more mainstream faves of mine are Apocalypse Now and The French Liuetenant's Woman, in both cases great and seemingly unfilmable books turned upside down and successfully re-invented as movies.

Reprise

2006-09-13T22:35:00.000-04:00

Probably my favourite film of the year, and eloquently covered off by Kyle, so I have little to add. Except to say that, overall, the film was an incredible mix of film-making ideas - and experimentation in conveying thoughts, hopes, and emotions - and a spot-on human drama, losing nothing in translation depite its surfeit of style. Unbelievably good.

And while I didn't recognize the JD song Kyle, never having been as big a fan, the Independence Day scene in question is imprinted on my brain as well.

Yours, not over-selling.....

Woman on the Beach

2006-09-13T22:02:00.000-04:00

Kyle, first off, thanks for reviewing Reprise - a stunner - and not quite getting around to Woman on the Beach, the other film we saw together on Monday.

This is, I believe, my first Korean feature (though I'm getting old and I sometimes forget things), so as I watched I found myself wondering about the the current evolutionary state of the film industry in Korea. Why? Well, Woman on the Beach is almost impossibly naive in a number of ways (I'm thinking cinematography, acting, dialogue), and so the two options that began to form in my mind were that (1) this was all done very deliberately, and referentially in some really cool way - I don't know, to mimic the renewed simplicity of the 1960's French New Wave directors? - or (2) they just make films that look and feel like this in S. Korea.

Particularly after Director Hong Sang-soo was intro'd at the start as perhaps the pre-eminent director in South Korea, I couldn't (and can't) be sure. Taken at face value, Woman on the Beach, which deals in a mix of comedy and drama with a 40-something film director's (I kid you not, Cesc Gay) obsession with his buddy's girflriend, and in a (Hitchcockian?) twist in his conviction that a quite different-looking woman bears a striking resemblance, qualifies as mild and quirky entertainment. It took me ten minutes to get over the fact that it felt like it was made by high school students, and then I bought into it (due I suppose to a plot thread that worked, and a strong performance by the lead woman - Ko Hyeon-geong), until the third act, which dragged on and on (WOTB clocked in at a mind-numbing 128 minutes) and ended needlessly enigmatically. Needless, because at that point the fate of the central relationship was known (sorry, it didn't work out), and frankly, we all just wanted to go for a beer. Or a coffee. Or a walk.

Interestingly, Giovanni Fulvi, in his review in the TIFF guide, described the script as "air-tight". Giovanni, I'll be watching out for you.

Fiction

2006-09-13T21:41:00.000-04:00

I chose to see Fiction because I had thoroughly enjoyed Spanish director Cesc Gay's previous feature "In the City" in 2003. In the City was a very stylish telling of multiple relationships in Madrid, unremarkable on paper but well executed and hence memorable, and I believe I will ultimately feel similarly about this year's film.

I won't bother with much in the way of plot descriptions, other than to say that principally this film is about falling in love unexpectedly (between a 40-something film director and a violinist) , and later in life, and of understanding the conflict between passion and intellect, and action and consequences. It's very evocatively filmed in the Pyrenees, and stylistically has a mature grasp on the filmic power of silences and spaces, particularly in the portrayal of the unspoken thought, and the internal struggles of characters we relate to and understand.