And the film festival goes on......

The stars are gliding into Toronto....

Reese Witherspoon, Jake Gyllenhaal, Ethan Hawke, Holly Hunter, ...

Capsule reviews for more films:

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE (USA 2007) ****
Directed by Julie Taymor
Director Julie Taymor’s (the excellent TITUS) vision of an original film using 33 Beatles songs is a visual feast for the eyes and heavenly music to the ears.  ACROSS THE UNIVERSE is a love story of two star-crossed lovers, Jude (Jim Sturgess) from Liverpool and (Evan Rachel Wood) from Detroit.  Taymor and writers Dick Clement and Ian Frenais (THE COMMITMENTS) blend in racial riots in the U.S., the killing fields in Vietnam and peace demonstrations in the NYC.  The songs, performed with great zest, are as fresh as they were in the 60’s and Taymor’s passion for her art clearly shows.  Scenes of nude Viet girls lying alongside masks in the river waters, lovers frolicking in the dilapidated buildings by a pier and queues of dockworkers collecting their pay do not all necessarily make sense, but the images are nevertheless unforgettable.  ACROSS THE UNIVERSE is the best Beatles film ever made and sung without the BEATLES, with a fantastic soundtrack.

LES AMOURS D’ASTREE ET DE CELADON (Fr/It/Sp 2007) **
Directed by Eric Rohmer
LES AMOURS returns nouvelle vague director Eric Rohmer to his stagey period costume pieces of PERCIVAL LE GALLOIS and THE LADY AND THE DUKE.  But in spirit and narrative, LES AMOURS is more similar to his talky tales of the four seasons (TALE OF WINTER, TALE OF AUTUMN) series, in which young lovers Celadon (Andy Gillet) and Astrée (Stéphanie Crayencour) quarrel, argue and talk in and out of relationships.  LES AMOURS is a story centred on shepherds that plays like Shakespeare’s romantic comedies involving switched identities like TAMING OF THE SHREW and MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.  Celadon pretends to go with another girl to please his parents during a party.  Astree notices them making out beneath a tree and jealousy leads Celadon to drown himself.  This is all romantic melodrama – 16th century-style.  But Rohmer seems to be in auto-pilot mode here.  Though the story is interesting and the actors spew out prose with ease, LES AMOURS feels laboured and weighed down.  The problem here is that the actors look uncomfortable in their costumes and heavy uttering the older French prose.  It is difficult enough for older TIFF audiences to identify with teens and hardly still to identify with teens in the 16th century.

THE BRAVE ONE (USA 2007) ***
Directed by Neil Jordan
The vigilante theme has been done many times before from Charles Bronson’s DEATH WATCH films to last week’s DEATH SENTENCE with Kevin Bacon.  This new entry THE BRAVE ONE, directed by Irishman Neil Jordan (THE CRYING GAME, BREAKFAST ON PLUTO) updates the genre by having a female heroine (Jodie Foster) and by taking the theme much more seriously.  The script of THE BRAVE ONE (by Roderick and Bruce Taylor) has victimized NYC radio DJ, Erica (Jodie Foster) go through a character change from traumatized victim to confident killer as she uses her vocation to source out the killer. The story is also updated to the modern context – her attack is posted on the internet; another victim has his ipod stolen.  The script is admirably anti-racial.  Erica’s fiancé is African American and so is the investigating detective (Terrence Howard).  So, the film gets away with the attackers being dark (could be Hispanic as well).
THE BRAVE ONE tries hard but ultimately takes the vigilante genre too seriously.  The script contains far too much monologue – uttered as Erica speaks to herself or when she talks over the radio.  The writers also give themselves a pat on their backs by having the radio listeners praise Erica’s radio talk show.  THE BRAVE ONE eventually emerges as a film in which the action scenes are too far in between.

BREAKFAST WITH SCOT (Canada 2007) ***
Directed by Laurie Lynd
Just as the name of the film title is Scot is different and spelt with one ‘t’ so is the couple looking after the boy Scot (Noah Bernett).  The couple, Sam (Tom Cavanaugh) and Ed (Ben Shenkman) is not stereotypical gay couple. A former pro-hockey player, Sam is a straight acting sports broadcaster.  When Ed’s nephew, Scot (Noah Bernett) enters their lives following the death of the boy’s mother, things change.  Scot knits, sings musical numbers, wears make-up and kisses everyone freely.  Director Lynd’s film is intriguing for the main reason that the audience has no idea where the film is leading to – at least till the last half hour.  Charming, tearful and with winning performances, especially by the boy Noah Bernett, BREAKFAST WITH SCOT may be the best gay comedy this year.  The message is a universal one about coming to terms with oneself.  The best line in the film is uttered by Sam: “We are all a little sissy around here!” The film is also full of little surprises such as Scot learning to fight and impressing Sam with figure skating.  Also with cameos by Canadian icons like Sheila McCarthy, Graham Greene and Megan Follows.

LA FILLE COUPEE EN DEUX (France 2007) ****
Directed by Claude Chabrol
TIFF boasts three French novella vague (new wave) directors.  Claude Chabrol is one of my most admired film directors with Hitchcock like suspense murder mysteries as LE CRI DE HIBOU, POULET ET VINAIGRE and INSPECTEUR LAVARDIN.  THE GIRL CUT IN TWO contains the classic Chabrol characters – the suave super efficient attorney, the over-protective wealthy mother, the rejected spoilt son, flirting sisters and the innocent heroine caught in between.  Set in the countryside around Lyon, a pretty young fille, Gabrielle (Ludivine Sagnier) falls for a much older lover, the famous writer, Charles Saint-Denis (Francois Berléand) who happens to be married.  Though a flirt, Charles ditches Gabrielle to return to his wife (Valeria Cavalli).  Gabrielle ends up marrying a rich spoilt brat, Paul Geudens (Benoît Magimel also in L’ENNEMI INTIME screened at TIFF).  Jealousy leading to murder (Chabrol is best at this) ultimately follows.  LA FILLE is shot with all the elegant stylishness of Chabrol’s best works and is reminiscent mostly of LE CRI DE HIBOU and the CHAMPAGNE MURDERS.  Wickedly entertaining!

FUGITIVE PIECES (Canada/Greece 2007) **
Directed by Jeremy Podeswa
Based on the novel by Anne Michaels, FUGITIVE PIECES, the opening night gala for TIFF, is a lyrical sometimes moving film about loss, love and redemption.  Directed by Jeremy Podeswa (he last made the Cannes hit, THE FIVE SENSES in 1999), the film is beautifully shot, slow paced and full of flashbacks and inter-cut stories.  After young Jakob Beer witnesses his parents murdered and sister abducted, he is rescued and moved to Greece by archaeologist, Athos (Rade Sherbedgia).  When Jakob (Stephen Dillane) grows up, he and Attos emigrate to Canada, where Jakob comes to terms with his loss and falls in love.  All this is fine, but the flashbacks are at times too many with flashback inter-cuts sometimes causing some confusion.  The narrative contains too many conveniences - the job Attos has at the University of Toronto; the girl Jacob meets to rekindle his feeling; the new neighbours being Jewish and also musically inclined etc.  If one is to complain that too many films have already been made on the holocaust, Podeswa’s film has the answer to that in a line of dialogue that insists that all those who have lived through those times have to, as human beings.

LUST, CAUTION (Taiwan 2007) ***
Directed by Ang Lee
Director Ang Lee’s (BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN) latest excursion into Chinese period piece has all the elements of a classic spy scenario.  Young, impressionable Wang (Tang Wei) joins a college acting troupe and soon finds herself working with young resistance fighters against Chinese traitors during the Japanese Occupation.  The target is the sinister and ruthless Yee (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) with whom she is coerced into a torrid sex affair in order to flush him out into the open.  Lee’s sex scenes are long, erotic and graphically effective in showing how Wang falls for the villain.  LUST, CAUTION is stunning to look at, photographed by Rodriego Prieto and together with the costumes, props and music, the film creates a gorgeous atmosphere of a beautiful but dangerous era.  The old film posters of SUSPICON and DESTRY RIDES AGAIN seen in the background emphasis the importance of the girl’s mission.  But Lee’s film, based on a short story is a lengthy, almost 160 minutes in length and could have be shortened and made more exciting.  A few pieces of the narrative are left hanging, such as mahjong playing Mrs. Yee’s (Joan Chen) involvement in all this.  The action scenes are elaborate and illustrate how difficult it is to kill a man.

THE MOTHER OF TEARS (Italy/USA 2007) **
Directed by Dario Argento
The huge amounts of blood, gore and excesses in Italian horror master Dario Argento’s MOTHER OF TEARS do not necessarily mean a better movie.  Once again, there is the damsel in distress – his daughter Asia Argento – stuck in loads of ***censored*** (literally), compared to his heroine rained upon by live maggots in SUSPIRA.  Spikes digging out nipples, limbs chopped off and eyeballs plucked out become standard fare in an Argento horror movie.  Asia plays Sarah, a student in art restoration.  She discovers an ancient urn, setting in motion some witch ritual that will bring chaos to Rome and the world.  The climax when Sarah is stuck in a load of ***censored*** is analogous of what Argento himself is stuck with.  He is bound to re-cycle his old stuff, with no new ideas popping up.  Argento fans will not doubt be satisfied with his usual dosage of graphic horror.  MOTHER OF TEARS is the last of Argento’s trilogy of mother movies the first two being SUSPIRA and INFERNO.  Unfortunately, this one comes no where close to the other two.

NE TOUCHEZ PAS LA HACHE (France 2007) ***
Directed by Jacques Rivette
Novelle Vague director Jacques Rivette’s NE TOCHEZ PAS LA HACHE (or Don’t touch the Axe), based on the Balzac short story LA DUCHESSE DE LANGEAIS is a subtle romance, part comedy part tragedy kept in its original form.  The story evolves around the pair, the Duchess, Antoinette (Jeanne Balibar) and General Armand de Montriveau (Guillaume Depardieu) set in 1820’s Paris.  Antoinette seduces the general in a series of mind games.  When Montriveau finally seeks revenge, Antoinette relents, but it might be too late.  Rivette’s film is solid on period details from the props, costumes and music.  Though the film looks a bit dated in its setting, the game of love is still as relevant then as it is today.  LA HACHE takes a while before getting a solid footing – it feels at times that Rivette is trying too hard to keep to Balzac’s original text - but the wait is well worth it.  Rivette’s staple Michel Piccoli has a respectable cameo as Antoinette’s uncle who gives her advice.

NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (USA 2007) ****
Directed by Ethan and Noel Cohen
The Coen Brothers here return to gory BLOOD SIMPLE and comedic RAISING ARIZONA territory in an odd piece of Americana based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy.  The Brothers imprint is clearly stamped all over NO COUNTRY.  The film begins when Llewlyn Moss (James Brolin) finds drugs and cash in a pick up truck with a dozen dead men.  When Moss steals the money, a mysterious stranger known to those familiar to him as pure evil, Anton (Julio BARDEM) chases in pursuit, leaving a bloody trail of killings.  Bad haircut is the devil!  Sheriff Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) intervenes.  NO COUNTRY is odd, hilarious, edgy, thrilling though sometimes confusing.  But it never lacks a surprise around every corner.

ONE HUNDRED NAILS (Italy 2007) ***
Directed by Ermanno Olmi
ONE HUNDRED NAILS bear a bit of resemblance to director Ermanno Olmi’s greatest work, THE TREE OF WOODEN CLOGS. Again using unknown actors and filmed in simplistic colours emphasizing the natural landscape, the story centres around a Christ-like figure, a professor (Raz Degan) who abandons his work in philosophy to embrace the simple lifestyle. Watching the stars, fishing in the Po River and re-building a hut while bonding with the simple villagers, the professor is content. Though bits of the narrative do not make sense – the over dramatization of the destruction of the books or the massacre of the innocent – Olmi’s film is still gorgeous to look at and interesting in its theme on humanity.

RENDITION (USA 2007) ***1/2
Directed by Gavid Hood
Gavin Hood’s follow up to the Oscar winning TSOTSI is a moving drama of a wife’s (Reese Witherspoon) search for her missing Egyptian born husband (Omar Metwally) suspected for terrorist activities.  The narrative splits into different though still captivating paths that involve a rookie CIA agent (Jake Gyllenhaal) who is the protagonist that holds all the ‘correctness’ together and the Middle-East investigator’s family caught in-between.  Director Hood plays both the Middle East/U.S. and terrorist sides so that the audience sees the two sides of the coin.  The title RENDITION refers to the U.S. policy by which alleged terrorists can be extradited to foreign prisons and tortured without restraint.  RENDITION gets my vote for the film with best confrontation scene (between Meryl Streep and Peter Sarsgaard).  The star cast performing the supporting roles are powerhouse from Streep and Sarsgaard to Alan Arkin.  Director Hood’s TSOTSI won the Best Foreign Film Oscar and more notably TIFF’s People’s Choice Award in 2004.  This artistically stylish crowd pleaser may very well be the first film to win the director the People’s Choice Award twice in a row.  Streep delivers the film’s best line (to Sarsgaard) with THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA glee: “The U.S. does not torture!” - followed by a condescending, “Honey!  This is nasty business!” The only problem with RENDITION is that the message is lightened by the script’s choice lines.

THE SUBSTITUTE (Denmark 2007) ***
Directed by Ole Bornedal
Dane Ole Bornedal’s (I AM DINA, NIGHTWATCH) family thriller pushes the boundaries of the family film genre by encompassing a bit of violence, gothic horror and dead-pan cynicism.  The story centres on young Carl (Jonas Wandschneider), who is till mourning the death of his mother.  He has to prove his worth and save his class from an evil villain.  This villain is Ulla (Paprika Steen), the new substitute teacher, full of cynical menace and evil. The segment on her first day of class - giving the kids the pep talk from hell - is priceless.  She is also from another planet, sent to earth to retrieve human specimens back.  If all this sounds a bit childish, Bornedal’s film is actually quite interesting.  By understanding kids and adults alike, THE SUBSTITUTE is a fine formed thriller.  The beginning scene with a white chicken in the background of a blackened sky sets the tone of a film full of surprises.  Also stunningly shot, the film is both seductive and clever.