TIFF Capsule Reviews (Updated)

The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is coming up soon.  This website provides capsule reviews of quite a number of the screened films.  Updates are posted on a daily bases.  When one post gets too large, a next volume is created.  (5 issues).  This is the first volume, Issue 2.  (To read the latest volume, read the latest volume, latest issue.  To read the complete set of capsule reviews, read all the volumes, issue #5.)

Capsule Reviews:

A L’ORIGINE D’UN CRI (CRYING OUT) (Canada 2010) ***
Directed by Robin Aubert

Already available on DVD in Quebec but just premiering in English Canada, this disturbing and occasionally violent tale is a dysfunctional family’s road trip around the Quebec countryside.  Distraught father (Michel Barrette) takes off with his second wife’s corpse in tow while his son (Patrick Hivon) and father (Jean Lapointe) take off to find him.  The three drink a lot and land in fights, often violent ones. The Quebec countryside, particularly the rivers makes good cinematography, contrasting the ugliness of the three men.  Watchable and director Aubert gives the reasoning behind the men’s odd behaviour.

ANOTHER YEAR (UK 2010) ****
Directed by Mike Leigh

Mike Leigh (HAPPY-GO-LUCKY, SECRETS AND LIES, LIFE IS SWEET) latest humanistic tale tells the story largely of a happily married couple and a friend in the course of a year, told in 4 segments titled spring, summer, autumn and fall.  The couple is Tom and Gerry (Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen), getting on in years.  Their daily chores and interaction with friends show them to be secure, stable and loving.  The film’s best line from Tom: “You are gorgeous and perfect!” to his wife after she complains of her middle age spread shows without doubt his love for his wife.  Their friend, Mary (Lesley Manville), on the other hand, is a little neurotic and everything seems to go wrong with her attempts at bettering her life.  The new car she purchases is a constant headache and when she starts taking an interest in Tom and Gerry’s son, disaster is on its way.  Mary is the exact opposite of the HAPPY-GO-LUCKY Sally Hawkins character, Leigh created in his last film.  Though there is no real story or conclusion to the tale of Leigh’s characters, his keen sense of observation of the raw emotions of his characters is extremely intriguing and moving, resulting in an excellent heart-felt drama aided by the excellent performances of his actors all round. 

BURIED (USA 2010) **
Directed by Rodrigo Cortes

Everyone’s worst nightmare, waking up in a buried coffin is realised in Rodrigo’s Cortes low budget horror thriller BURIED.  Paul (Ryan Reynolds) wakes up in one armed with only a lighter and a blackberry with only three bars of power.  He tries to call whoever possible to get him out but often with disastrous results – wife not home; insurance agent rejects him etc.  It turns out that Paul recalls being ambushed by insurgents in Afghanistan and finds himself to be held at ransom.  All this is find ana dandy but Cortes infuses more and more ridiculous subplots into the story.  Not only that, but he invokes false alarms and unnecessary violence as well - chopping off of fingers and a gun fired off at a head.  Worst still, the lack of a satisfactory ending leaves his audience feeling rather cheated at the entire enterprise.  The cinematography by A SINGLE MAN’S Eduard Grau is however, very impressive.

DES HOMMES ET DES DIEUX (OF GODS AND MEN) (France 2010) **
Directed by Xavier Beauvois

The beginning titles state that men are gods, but fall like princes and die like men.  The true story concerns monks in Algeria kidnapped by terrorists.  Yet they withhold their faith, intending to radiate love as an example to those around them.  Though the topic is an emotional one, it is strange that Beauvois’ film is largely emotionless and dull except when the monks engage in verbal debate.  The actions and incidents portrayed in the film include daily chores and hardly substantiate what the monks believe in.  When the Christian (Lambert Wilson) argues with a terrorist, a Muslim and both quote accurately the scriptures, the audience can hardly help but stare at disbelief.

EASY A (USA 2010) ****
Directed by Will Gluck

Olive (Emma Stone from SUPERBAD) is a clean cut high school girl from a very small town who earns the reputation of the most popular girl around for the wrong reasons.  She loses her virginity by lying.  While the rumour spreads, she helps others by lying about sleeping with them, thus enhancing her slag popularity till it becomes uncontrollable.  What is basically a predictable teen romantic comedy is raised several notches higher by an excellent script by Bert V. Royal and good, crisp intelligent direction by Will Gluck (FIRED UP!) who demonstrates a good eye for comedic timing.  The dialogue uttered by the students and their bad acts are topped only by the adults around them.  Olive’s literature teacher (Thomas Haden Church) is a master in comeback lines, the school councillor (Lisa Kudrup) is the ultimate slag while Olive’s parents (Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson) are the personification of the word ‘cool’.  There are only a handful of memorable intelligent teen movies (ELECTION, 10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT HER, SAVED) and EASY A will be one of them.

L’ILLUSIONNISTE (UK 2010) ***** Top 10
Directed by Sylvain Chomet

In animator Sylvain Chomet’s previous feature LES TRIPLETTES DE BELLEVILLE, he made several references to Jacques Tati’s films.  His homage is complete in L’ILLUSIONNISTE, which he shot, based on an original script by the late Tati.  The lead character is an out-o-date magician, Tatischeff (Tati’s real name) who travels anywhere he can find work.  This leads him to Edinburgh, where he Alice tags along, believing the magic to be real.  Alice loses her innocence and comes of age as Tatischeff finally reveals to her that the magic is fake.  Chomet’s animation is amazing, from the films’s muted colours, atmosphere and look, down to the mannerisms of Tatischeff, so similar to the real Tati.  The film’s final moments when Tatischeff happens into a theatre screening MON ONCLE, one of Tati’s films is genius and Chomet brings reality and fantasy together in this timeless tale.  Just as in the Tati films, L’ILLUSIONNISTE is in French and English but requires no subtitles to understand.  And Chomet’s comedy (the biting ferocious rabbit, the drunk Scotsman) is just as funny.

JALOUX (Canada 2010) ***
Directed by Patrick Demers

Though slated as an improvised work during a 16-day shoot, director Demers’ film feels very organized from the music, planning, dialogue and acting.  A psychological thriller, the story concerns a couple trying to mend their relationship while the girl figures out that their apparently friendly neighbor is a murdering psychopath.  Demers blends in the drama and suspense well and is unafraid to display extreme violence when needed.  The climatic scene where the girl (Sophie Cadieux) confronts the killer is particularly a nail-biter.  Demers also makes the audience feel for his characters.

MADE IN DAGENHAM (UK 2010) ****
Directed by Nigel Cole

This extremely feel-good vehicle for Sally Hawkins, playing Rita O’Grady is so saccharine sweet; it would not be surprising if film critics hate it.  But it might well go on to win the TIFF popular audience award for its insistence to cater to want audience want at the movies – escapism. This is like Sally Hawkins doing BILLY ELLIOT.  The theme of MADE IN DAGENHAM is the fight for equal pay for women in the Dagenham Ford factory in the 60’s.  Led by a fiery and no-nonsense Rita (Sally Hawkins from HAPPY-GO-LUCKY), all the difficult if not impossible obstacles are overcome by the last reel, much to the delight of the audience.  Rita fights hard against the unions here who, are male oriented and stagnant in their fight for the women workers.  MADE IN DAGENHAM is more comedy than the familiar NORMA RAE with the breezy, smart talking Sally Hawkins winning most of her arguments, even with her loving husband (Daniel Mays).  The 60’s atmosphere is effectively created from the dances and dresses at the discos and the dialogue. 

MAKE BELIEVE (USA 2010) ***
Directed by J. Clay Tweel

This extreme crowd pleaser follows several teens as they prepare and compete for the top prize as the Teen World Champion in the World Magic Seminar in Las Vegas.  There is Bill from Chicago, Derek from Colorado as well as contestants from Japan and South Africa.  Director Tweel dedicates equal time fairly to each teen but one cannot help but route for the charismatic Bill and Japanese Hiroki Hara who hails from a village.  Hara has no confidence, learns most of his tricks on his won and does not realize how good he is.  Each teen is allowed to perform their routine at length for the audience to see, so that the audience too, can decide who is the best magician.  Though the doc is straight forward, and requires little research with most interviews taking place with the teen’s mother and father, on cannot help but get emotionally attached to this high charged human drama.

MANDOO (EXHAUSTION) (Iraq 2010) **
Directed by Ebrahim Saeedi

EXHAUSTION traces the travails of the Kurdish, displaced in countries like Iran and Iraq.  The fall of Saddam Hussein is the catalyst for Shaho (Shahab Fazili) taking his family across dangerous territory in order to have his father buried in his place of birth.  Standing in the way comically is Sheelan (Rojan Mahamad) who insists on following despite the fact she is a foreigner and thus in a more dangerous predicament.  That is as much of a story there is.  Saeedi’s tale is devoid of drama, comedy or much incident so that the road trip undertaken is a rather uneventful and boring one.  It does not help that Saeedi loves to have his camera close to his characters.  He should pull back the camera back, way back more often.  He also often has his characters speak and react to the camera posing as Shaho’s father, culminating in a neat trick when a mirror is placed in front of the camera at the end.

A MARRIED COUPLE (Canada 1969) ****
Directed Allan King

The poster for this movie featuring the man, woman and son totally naked is appropriate in that director Allan King strips this family naked in depicting their daily lives.  A sort of documentary cinema-verite, this unforgettable film was chosen as the Canadian open vault film and rightly so, following the recent death of director King.  The camera follows the husband and wife, Billy and Antoinette Edwards as they quarrel, love and live out the daily routine with their 3-year old son and dog Bogart.  Their dialogue is real and covers anything from the lack of love to the purchase of a new harpsichord.  As the audience experience what the married couple goes through, it would be a sure thing that audience will themselves reflect on both what is missing from their own and this couple’s relationship.  This is no Hollywood romantic drama or comedy. This is the real thing!  The weirdest thing about his movie is the obvious lack of love between this couple as they never go their way out to do something special for each other or to tell each other they love each other.  Shot in 1969, the film has the complete 60’s feel and atmosphere.

MODRA (Canada 2010) ***
Directed Ingrid Veninger

Ingrid Veninger (born in Slovakia and raised in Canada) made a name for herself by directing her son in the minimalist budget ONLY a few years back.  In the more ambitious MODRA, writer/director/producer Veninger takes her daughter as a subject as she examines adolescent love while travelling to visit relatives in the small town of MODRA, in Slovakia.  Lina (Hallie Switzer) has just been dumped by her boyfriend and takes Leca (Alexander Gammal) instead on a week’s trip to Modra.  Leca falls for Lina but Lina only invited Leca as a replacement.  Worse is that all the relatives assume the two to be a couple.  MODRA is an extremely moving, honest and heartfelt film about self discovery set in the quaint yet incredibly beautiful Modra.  The two learn from experience as well as from the words of Lina’s experienced grandmother who only speaks Czech.  What this film has is oodles and oodles of charm!  Impossible to dislike!

MONSTERS (UK 2010) **
Directed by Gareth Edwards

Except for a short glimpse of the monster during the pre-credits, the squid-like gigantic alien is never shown until the first half of the film is done.  Hitchcock used that trick to create intense anticipation in THE BIRDS, mirrored by Spielberg in JAWS, but in MONSTERS, what happens in the second half is more than a let-down.  The plot for MONSTERS concerns an unlikely couple, journalist photographer Andrew Kaulder (Scoot McNairy) assigned to take care of magazine heiress, Sam (Whitney Able), looking very much like Paris Hilton, as they have to take a journey across the contaminated zone to reach back safe territory in the U.S.  The firstt half of the film show the couple overcoming obstacles in getting a passage through land and water and the second half has them falling love while dodging one monster attack.  The monster attack sequence is rather lame with director Edwards deciding to film tow squids mating.  What the f***?  The result is a different, no doubt, monster movie but one that makes little sense or generates much excitement.  The special effects are impressive though!

MOTHERS (Macedonia/France/Bulgaria 2010) ***
Directed by Milcho Manchevski

Three stories about mothers are told in Manchevski’s (BEFORE THE RAIN) set in the three cities of Skopje, Mariovo and Ljubica in Macedonia.  Where each city is located are shown on the map before each story unfolds.  Each story is disturbing in its different way with some revelation at the end while reflecting the present state of the people in Manchevski’s country.  The first of the trilogy is the shortest, but by no means less interesting.  In fact, it is the most interesting (girl tells lie to the police causing an innocent man to be arrested as a flasher) because of its simplicity.  Manchevski does not judge his characters and lets the events unfold, justifiable or not.  For this reason, his film might be less satisfying to some more feel more realistic to others.

NORBERTO’S DEADLINE (Uruguay/Argentina 2010) ***
Directed by Daniel Hendler

Director Daniel Hendler’s tale is that of a lovable loser making good after taking acting classes which ends up giving him confidence and a permanent job in the theatrical profession.  Norberto works in a real estate firm.  He is not that good and as a result is bullied by his boss.  His wife can only take too much of him, especially when he suddenly announces his intention of going into acting.  But, and many a person should heed this message, Norbeto believes in himself and excels as the lead performance of Chekhov’s play The Seagull.  Hendler directs with an easy going, effortless style and Norberto’s transition from loser to confident winner is an admiral feat, achieved with no cheap tricks, laugh or clichés.  It also helps that Fernando Amaral is totally believable as the Norberto.

PINOY SUNDAY (Taiwan 2010) **
Directed by Hi Wi Ding

PINOY SUNDAY would be more appropriately entitled TWO MEN AND A RED COUCH for that is what the film is about.  Two Filipino immigrant workers in Taiwan find an abandoned red couch and spend the Sunday carrying it home.  The couch is of course, the symbol for the comfort and luxury they long for.  The adventures and people they encounter make the rest of the film.  They encounter a suicide attempt, an accident with a bike landing them in a police station and a ride down the river crooning songs.  There is nothing really wrong with this film and the audience gets the gist of what life is like in Taiwan, from the workers’ point of view.  But $16 is a bit too much to pay for this kind of movie, which is only mildly satisfying and entrtaining.

SMALL TOWN MURDER SONGS (Canada 2010) **
Directed by Ed Gass-Donnelly

Police Officer Walter (Peter Stormare) has a questionable past history o violence, not really revealed in the film.  Living in a Mennonite farming town, he tries his best to remove the past and be a gentle being.  But he is put to the test when he believes the new boyfriend (Stephen Eric McIntre) of his old fling, Rita (Jill Hennessy) is responsible for a murder.  The trouble with this film is that the audience find t difficult to root for a hero with no balls, and worst that writer/director Donnelly refuses to endow him with positive character traits.  A story like this has been done before, most memorably in David Cronenberg’s A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE. It would be more satisfying to see Walter pushed to the limit and exhibit his violent nature again.  Instead he is beaten up and the audience forced to listen to hymns all the way throughout the film.

SOUL OF SAND (India 2010) ***1/2
Directed by Sidharth Srinivasan

This horror tale of societal classes, duty, honour and marriage is as intriguing as the director’s view on life on the outskirts of Delhi.  A watchman (Dibyendu Bhattacharya) guards an abandoned mine, but only to serve and please his master, who in reality turns out to be quite the beast, raping his wife and causing his own daughter to commit suicide.  A hired assassin stalks the characters as well with scenes reminiscent of the Dario Argento films – the assassin’s bike suddenly appearing from the horizon on a hill to capture his prey.  Though there are a few laughable parts, like the blood squirting from a victim’s neck, Srinivasan’s film works as it is a curiosity piece blending caste culture and other originalities into the story.  He also makes his audience feels for each character of his film – both the bad and the good, not an easy feat!

SPECIAL TREATMENT (SANS QUEUE NI TETE) (Fr/Lux/Belg 2010) **
Directed by Jeanne Labrune

SPECIAL TREATMENT will be seen by many because of its star, the always intriguing Isabelle Huppert who is always willing to take on a diversity of roles.  In SPECIAL TREATMENT, she takes on the complex character of Alice, a high class prostitute who knows as much about the arts as her work among high society clients.  She survives on referrals and is good at what she does.  But she starts to question herself when he confidence is shattered after is rejected, as she is usually the one who accepts or rejects her clients.  For a hot topic, Labrune’s film is rather tame and superficial as is Huppert’s performance.  The sex scenes are minimal and non erotic, though one would not imagine audiences for this film would go for this kind of thing.  In one scene, Alice describes herself to be a numb body with a brain that still works.  Labrune’s film feels as numb as Alice’s body with not much happening in the upstairs department either.

WASTED ON THE YOUNG (Australia 2010) ****
Directed by Ben C. Lucas

The beginning 10 minute sequence of Lucas’ debut feature shows great promise maintained throughout his tale of MEAN BOYS.  A visual stunning, well choreographed swimming sequence of beautiful bodies is offered a jolt to the audience in a following scene where extreme bullying is revealed in the locker room.  But great distress is encountered by budding swimmer, Darren (Oliver Ackland) when his star swimmer step-brother Zack (Alex Russell) allows Darren’s girlfriend, Xandrie (Adelaide Clemens) to be raped at a house party.  Darren and Xandrie learn that Zack is virtually untouchable because of his popularity, but the bullying (both physical and emotional) pushes them to take drastic measures resulting in several shootings at the school.  First time director Lucas has created an extremely violent but credible tale told with great cinematic flair.  The film’s tension never lets up and Lucas has always a surprise (nasty or otherwise) around every corner.  WASTED ON THE YOUNG is also one of the rare horror movies that is totally up-to-date with the latest technology (Lucas has done his homework) of robotics, cams, electronic music and computer security.

WOMEN ART REVOLUTION – A SECRET HISTORY (USA 2010) ***
Directed by Lynn Hershman Leeson

At the start of this documentary, various members of the public visiting a museum were asked to name 3 female artists.  None could name three.  Director Leeson makes her valid point early and then goes on to provide the secret history of how women fought and protested to make their work equally accessible as their male counterparts.  Leeson has assembled a very impressive, exhaustive and what seems an endless list of female interviewees voicing their point of view while displaying a solid sample of their works.  The story begins in the 60’s and concentrates on the art of the 70’s. Her doc misses the situation in Europe and other countries.  She ends her film poignantly by listing all her interviewees that have recently passed on.

YOU ARE HERE (Canada 2010) **
Directed by Daniel Cockburn

Supposedly a brainy, inventive and playful series of vignettes, YOU ARE HERE, the amateurish looking debut feature from accomplished video artist Daniel Cockburn is more talk than bite.  Though the film hints at the cerebral surrealism of Charlie Kaufman, the cool absurdism of Samuel Beckett and the playfulness of Dr. Seuss, Cockburn’s film comes across as rather plain like a staged play performed by non-professionals.  The narratives look too smug and clever and when Cockburn pulls a few tricks, like the kids questioning fundamental questions on an experiment, the audience feels the same way as the kids, that all this is nothing but an empty show in which his characters are all trapped by their own devices.

YOU WILL MEET A TALL DARK STRANGER (UK/USA/Spain 2010) ***1/2
Directed by Woody Allen

Woody Allen leaves his mark in his latest romantic comedy of manners concerning marriage breakdowns and broken dreams.  The main couple is Helena (Gemma Jones) taken to see a fortune teller (Pauline Collins) after her husband of 40 years (Anthony Hopkins) leaves her to wed a former prostitute (Lucy Punch).  Daughter Sally (Naomi Watts) has to take care of her while her own husband (Josh Brolin) eyes the neighbour next door (Freida Pinto).  The audience watches the couples bicker and crack Allen type jokes in one of his less funny though more insightful films.  There are lots here that are drawn from previous Allen movies like magic (PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO), romance in the rain (ANNIE HALL) and fate (MATCH POINT) affecting the life of an unscrupulous character.  But all this is fluff as the voiceover at the end of the film describes this tale (as noise and sound of no significance) just as Shakespeare described his play A MIDSUMMER’S NIGHT DREAM as a forgetful dream.  But YOU WLL MEET A TALL DARK STRANGER also reveals Allen’s thoughts on growing old and finding (or not finding) romance again.