Capsule Reviews (Issue #3)

TIFF Capsule Reviews (Volume 3)

http://www.cinemaeye.com/index/movienews/more/tiff_capsule_reviews_updated/

http://www.cinemaeye.com/index/movienews/more/more_tiff_capsule_reviews/#more

Together with the links above and those below, the complete set of capsule reviews: 

AMIGO (USA 2010) ****
Directed by John Sayles

Indie director John Sayles tackles the topic of American presence in a foreign country and succeeds with a film that is authentic, human and occasionally brilliantly sarcastic.  The film revolves around the occupation of a squad of American soldiers in a Filipino baryo in the 1900’s.  The Philippines is getting rid of the Spanish but the Americans have declared war on Spain and have invaded the Philippines.  The baryo’s headman is a well respected leader but forced into a dilemma when the Americans demand him to reveal the whereabouts of the rebels, whose chief is his brother.  The squad leader slowly gains the villagers’ respect through tolerance and mutual respect but this trust is destroyed by the appearance of his no-nonsense commander (Sayles’ staple Chris Cooper) who threatens and tortures the villagers.  Sayles film comes complete with cockfights, plowing with buffalos in the rice fields and harvesting and planting of the crops.  Irony is plentiful.  The most effective is the soldier who spurns the kindness of the local girl he had initially fallen in love with after the rebels paralyzes half his body.  Sayles’ film moves effortlessly, initially slowly (be patient) but nevertheless effectively from start to finish making it one of the best little epics at TIFF this year.

BEGINNERS (USA 2010) ***
Directed Mike Mills

What would you do if your 70-year old father came out of the closet so that he can live his gay life practically and no more theoretically?  In the case of 38-year old, Oliver (Ewan McGregor), the answer is to go into recluse.  He is unable to accept his father’s (Chirstopher Plummer) new happiness and new boyfriend as he starts having problems with his own newly found girlfriend (Melanie Laurent from INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS).  As the film title implies, both father and son are beginners in their new relationships.  Director Mills tells the twin stories of the two, while infusing lots of sentiment and heartfelt emotions at the same time.  Humour is provided, mainly in the form of Oliver’s Jack Russell who can understand about 150 words of English.  But Mill’s emphasis is how the father’s coming out affects his son’s life.  Mills lays all the cards on the table in he film’s first 10 minutes, talking about the father’s coming out and 4 years of living before dying of cancer, then flashbacks to relate what happens in between, which is the film’s focus.  Plummer is utterly harming in his role while McGregor delivers an understated but effective performance.

BRIGHTON ROCK (UK 2010) ***1/2
Directed by Rowan Joffe

BRIGHTON ROCK comes across as a very intense film, not only because of its subject matter, but also for the fact that director the film’s three principals to smile never smile throughout the film.  During a gang war in which young thug, Pinkie (CONTROL’s Sam Riley) disposes of an enemy with innocent Rose (Andrea Riseborough) as a witness, Pinkie’s only way out is to silence her.  He marries her (a wife’s testimony against her husband will not stand in court).  The big problem that she is totally in love with him but Pinkie cannot stand the sight of Rose.  Step in Rose’s street-smart boss Ida (Helen Mirren) to protect Rose from being murdered by Pinkie.  Joffe captures both the atmosphere of cheesiness of the seaside town of BRIGHTON with its lure for an easy good time and riches as well as the tension present of a Graham Green novel, which this film is loosely based.  Joffe keeps violence at bay only releasing it at the film’s climax for full effect.

THE BUTCHER, THE CHEF AND THE SWORDSMAN (HK, China, USA 2010) **1/2
Directed by Wuershan

If you can sit through this definitely stupidest film of the film festival without having your intelligence insulted, you might get a few laugh-out loud moments from it.  The plot concerns a butcher with a cleaver crafted from the metals of invincible swords.  The bucther’s aim is to woo with Madame Mei, the most beautiful courtesan of the local brothel.  Trouble is that the butcher is as ugly as hell and she already has a handsome lover.  Wuershan’s film is all over the place with hardly any cohesive narrative but who really cares?  One segment has an obese eunuch meet his death by falling into a cesspool while taking a crap.  The special effects are impressive and pace is constantly fast, but nonsense is nonsense no matter how one looks at it!

CIRKUS COLUMBIA (Bosnia/Herzegovina 2010) ****
Directed by Danis Tanovic

Danis Tanvovic’s (The Oscar winning NO MAN’S LAND) latest film is a domestic drama set in the politically troubled Herzegovina.  After years of communist rule, things seem to have settled down in the small town in southern Herzegovina where Lucija and her son Martin live a quiet life. That is until Divko, Lucija’s estranged husband of twenty years, rolls into town with a slick Mercedes, a sexy young girlfriend, loads of cash.  Divki moves into Lucija’s house and kicks her out while Martin settles in between the two houses.  But trouble ensues when Martin starts making advances with his father’s new girlfriend.  Tanovic’s tale of this dysfunctional family is full of emotions and spirit with the story incident driven.  Though the politics is in the background, the ugly war rears its head towards the end forcing each member of the family to family to make choices.  The film is told from the point of view of the protagonist Martin as he comes of age learning the important lessons of life.  CIRKUS COMUBIA is a quiet marvel of a film in what Tanovic accomplishes with seeming effortless ease.

HENRY’S CRIME (USA 2010) **
Directed by Malcolm Venville

Caught and jailed for a robbery he did not commit, Henry (Keanu Reeves) decides to commit that particular robbery as he ahs already served time for it.  He teams up with cellmate Max (James Caan), his mentor, sort-of, on the ways of life.  Director Venville’s film is not really a crime caper but goes along with that intriguing premise and the film has a trick or two more up its sleeve as well.  It also works as a romantic comedy and drama of comradeship.  Venville puts in Chekov’s play THE CHERRY TREE into the tociture as the bank lob involved digging a tunnel in the theatre where the play is to take place.  So, naturally, Venville uses the play to work into the story which works quite well – Henry spewing out dialogue in the play to his romantic interest (VeraFarminga) that also works in the current lovers’ situation.  But audience have seen this before in other films and HENRY’S CRIME turns out entertaining so far as the novelties go.  And there are not that many.

I AM SLAVE (UK 2010) **
Directed by Gabriel Range

I AM SLAVE tackles the domestic slave trade in the U.K. and the rest of the world.  The idea is to make a statement and people aware of this vast undesirable state of affairs and thus hopefully put a halt to the slave trade.  Director Range (DEATH OF A PRESIDENT) achieves the purpose by telling the story safely.  The film begins with a wrestling match in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan.  The daughter of the champion, Malia is the one beaten and sold to slavery downing her status from princess to slave.  The majority of the film is set in London where she is forced to work.  She cannot escape as she has no passport, no money and nobody to help her.  Range shows Malia in different difficult situations – being scolded by the mistress; touched by a man; seeking help out the gate to a stranger.  But the film would have worked better if Range told his story with a stronger narrative.  The bits seem strung together hastily.  The lack of a strong climatic ending is thus expected when the end credits suddenly roll up.

KABOOM (USA/France 2010) ***
Directed by Greg Araki

A blend between his last serious MYSTERIOUS SKIN and his absurdist less disciplined earlier works (THE DOOM GENERATION and TOTALLY F***ED UP), KABOOM shows Araki at his playful best while showing off his talent as an excellent filmmaker.  Protagonist is an 18-year old college boy (Thomas Dekker) who refuses to be labeled, though he clearly enjoys gay sex while indulging occasionally with the opposite sex as well.  He suffers from nightmares and hallucinations or are these real events occurring?  A girl is slaughtered on campus by figures wearing animal heads. But he still finds time to watch porn, fantasize over his roommate, internet date and have sex with an assorted group of newcomers.  Araki’s film is very funny, fresh and full of life.  So who cares what the plot is about anyway?  Why is this film entitled KABOOM?  See the film to find out why with the reason supplied at the very last reel.

THE NEDS (UK/France/Italy 2010) ***
Directed by Peter Mullan

THE NEDS (non-educated delinquents) is a companion piece to director Peter Mullan’s THE MAGDALENE SISTERS about bullying and escape in a convent.  The focus is on boys in a high school in Glasgow in the early 70’s.  Mullan’s new film tells of the downfall (or rise in the violent state) of John Magill.  The cause is associated from a variety of courses as depicted in the film – from extensive school bullying; his abusive alcoholic father; and strict unsympathetic teachers.  Mullan himself plays a headmaster who has his fun tormenting his pupils be inventing new tricks.  THE NEDS is well shot, directed especially the dramatic and fight sequences.  Mullan’s sense of humour is seen from the outside at how these violent acts can be portrayed with some wicked twist.  Unlike THE MAGDALENE SISTERS, no escape route is offered to John with the result of him going completely mad at the end of the film- expectedly.

POTICHE (France 2010) *****
Directed by Francois Ozon

Trust gay director Francois Ozon to make a French farce that is so delightful and charming that it ends with Catherine Deneuve performing a musical number.  The family in question is the dysfunctional Pujol family.  Father runs the umbrella factory with an iron fist so that a strike is under way.  When he suffers a heart attack, the trophy housewife (Deneuve) takes over and is so successful at it, calming the working and making record profits at the same time.  She employs artistic son Jeremie Renier and daughter as well.  But when hubby (Fabrice Luchini) returns to take back control, Mrs Pujol decides to hold her ground.  Ozon’s feel-good film has a gay ring to it all around from the totally winning 70’s atmosphere and look (the wardrobe, talk, cars, everything) to the musical numbers and fabulousness.  Gerard Depardieu plays Mr’s Pujol’s old fling, the mayor but it is Deneuve who steals the show from start to finish. Whether wearing her furs, work outfit or blur or red track suits, she has never looked so radiant!

RABBIT HOLE (USA 2010) ***
Directed by John Cameron Mitchell

Director John Cameron Mitchell of SHORT BUS and HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH tackles more disciplined territory with the adjustment of a couple to the hit-and-run death of their young son.  Husband Howie (Aaron Eckhart) attends group therapy while wife Becca (Nicole Kidman who also produced this piece) copes with her own way.  Unfortunately, her own way means talking it out with the boy responsible for the death.  Mitchell keeps the facts from his audience and it is only a third through the movie that it is revealed that the son was killed in a hit and run.  This death is paralleled by the death of Becca’s brother from a heroine overdose.  RABBIT HOLE contains no real message, cinematic feats or special effects but some excellent dramatic sequences.  The best involve the husband and wife shouting it out.  To the director’s credit, Mitchell allows his audience to see both different points of view so that if a side is taken, it is out of the audience’s own personality.  The film is also supported by excellent performances by Oscar winner Dianne Wiest as Becca’s mum and Sandra Oh as one of the therapy group members.

SANDCASTLE (Singapore 2010) ****
Directed by Bong Junfeng

A quietly brilliant coming-of-age story of 18-year old En (Joshua Tan) forced to have his grandmother suffering from Alzheimer’s move into his room under his care.  The family is typical of a poorer Singaporean family, leaving in a small flat with one or two bedrooms.  En slowly learns of his father’s past of trying to find a utopia while banished from the country to Malaysia where he passes away from cancer.  Director Bong captures subtly the discomfort of the people under what seems to be a happy Singapore (a choir practices ‘Stand Up for Singapore’ and Bong includes old newsreel footage of a joyous Singapore celebrating National Day).  Irony abounds in the film – En watching porn while a Christian cross dangles in the car; the mother wanting the best for her mother-in-law getting her baptized though the mother-in-law is Buddhist; the mother comes up as the one hiding the biggest secret – which layers the film with more issues.  And Joshua Tan is a real find as the brooding En.  At the press/industry screening, there were less than a dozen people present, which is a real shame as SANDCASTLE is one of the real gems of this year’s TIFF.

SARAH’S KEY (ELLE S’APPELAIT SARAH) (France 2010) ****
Directed by Gilles Paquet-Brenner

When her mother, herself and father are rounded up as Jews during the July of 1942, Sarah locks her little brother in the closet making him promise only to let her unlock him out.  Locked up in a temporary roundup camp, Sarah escapes to unlock her brother only to find her old apartment occupied by another French family.  It turns out that the family that of the husband of Julia Jarmond (Kristin Scott Thomas), assigned to write a tory of his Vel’d’Hiv roundup.  She discovers the truth and hunts down Sarah’s family and whereabouts causing friction between herself and her husband (Frederic Pieerot).  These are two stories.  Director Brenner intercuts both but it is clear that the Sarah’s story is the more interesting one compared to Julia’s.  It is on when the two stories meet when Julia finds Sarah’s family that the film gains momentum.  Last year’s Cesar winner for Best Supporting Actor (for UN PROPHETE) Neils Arestrup is cast as a sympathetic farmer who risks his and his wife’s lives to aid Sarah in her escape.  The suspenseful train sequence when he, his wife and Sarah travel without documents is something right out of a Hitchcock movie.  SARAH’S KEY contains many sentimental moments especially when Sarah’s son is confronted with the truth and he realizes that he has lived for 50 years under a lie with his life meaning nothing.  Compelling, entertaining and emotional wrenching, SARAH’S KEY makes one of the best films at TIFF.

STAKELAND (USA 2010) **1/2
Directed by Jim Mickle

America is a lost nation. When an epidemic of vampirism strikes, humans find themselves on the run from vicious, feral beasts. Cities are tombs and survivors cling together in rural pockets, fearful of nightfall. When his family is slaughtered, young Martin (Connor Paolo) is taken under the wing of a grizzled, wayward hunter (Nick Damici) whose new prey are the undead.  STAKELAND has nothing one has not seen before in a zombie film of the past, so much so that Mickle’s film gets monotonous pretty fast, despite all the gory violence.  But one thing Mickel’s film has is stunning framing.  Edited and visualized by him, every scene seems like something from a postcard.  The characters are always perfectly shot in every frame from start to finish.  Unfortunately, there is more than that makes a good zombie movie.

SUBMARINE (UK 2010) ***
Directed by Richard Ayoade

British comic’s writing/directorial debut SUBMARINE based on the novel by Joe Dunthorne is a fairly quirky coming-of-age tale of 17year old Welsh lad, Oliver Tate (Craig Roberts).  He has two current aims in life – to bed his current girlfriend Jordana (Yasmine Paige) and to save his parents’ marriage by fouling up her mum’s (Sally Hawkins) affair with ‘light’ guru Graham Paddy Considine).  Ayoade’s camera follows his subject around with voiceover like a running commentary.  The result is a film that looks too smug for its own good, especially when Ayoade cheats a few times.  He has a false scene occurring with voiceover only to have a similar scene with a different result (eg. the ending scene).  SUBMARINE turns out entertaining enough with the Tate character learning a thing or two about life.  The best sequences involved the mother and son talks.

SUPER (USA 2010) **
Directed by James Gunn

Loser to Super!  Geeks or losers donning a costume to become a super hero to fight crime in films like DEFENDOR and KICK-***censored*** once again form the tired theme in James Gunn’s SUPER.  This time around, sad sack Frank S’Arbo (Rainn Wilson) is transformed into the Crimson Bolt aided by side-kick Boltie (Ellen Page) to save the world or rather his wife (Liv Tyler) who leaves him for a drug dealer (Kevin Bacon).  Gunn’s film is funny at times and obviously tries too hard with too much unnecessary swearing and gratuitous violence.  Ellen Page, so good in JUNO and her other films plays against type here as a loud, cursing and violent side-kick that does not work that well.  As for the plot, there is not much more to it or is there any twist at the end.  The action sequences are silly than exciting with the result of a movie that cannot be rescued once half way through.

THE TOWN (USA 2010) ***1/2
Directed by Ben Affleck

Ben Affleck directs himself as the main lead in a film where he plays a hapless robber who finally makes good and becomes a hero in the audience’s eyes. If this sounds too smug for Affleck, it really does not matter as THE TOWN turns out to be a pretty good film.  Affleck balances drama and action almost equally throughout the film.  The action scenes are impressively executed, particularly the car chases and the robbery at the film’s start.  Obvious too, is Affleck’s use of contrast between silence and sound to create tension and variation in a scene.  THE TOWN under scrutiny here is Charleston which holds the largest number of bank and armoured car heists in the U.S.  Like in other films about small towns such as INDEPENDENCE DAY (the one with Dianne Wiest and David Keith, not the disaster film), the characters are trapped either emotionally or physically from leaving.  Here, Doug MacRay (Affleck) cannot leave as he is blackmailed by Jem (Jeremy Renner from THE HURT LOCKER) and his father (Pete Postlethwaite).  But he falls for the employee (Rebecca Hall) of the bank that he robbed.  Doug hopes his next heist will be his last and it will be, only if he makes the right moves.
Affleck writes good scripts (GOOD WILL HUNTING) and he often gives himself the best lines.  (The best sequence in the film involves a rebuttal between himself and an FBI agent (Jon Hamm).  The bad guys in this film are the ones that prevent Doug from spending the rest of his life with Jem.  But the script also shows the other (bad) side of Doug as well – the one which has ditched his previous woman and his daughter.  THE TOWN works well as both drama and action flick.

TRACKER (New Zealand 2010) ****
Directed by Ian Sharp

TRACKER is in 1903 after the Boer wars when Australians and New Zealanders were sent to help the British fight the Boers in South Africa.  Arjan (Ray Winstone), one such Boer flees South Africa to New Zealand after fighting against the British who burnt down his farm and indirectly killed his entire family. An experienced tracker, he takes a job of tracking Kereama, who is accused of killing a British soldier.  But new affinities are forged between the most unlikely of characters, Arjan and Kereama. Shot on location in New Zealand and featuring magnificent vistas, the film’s wild, striking landscapes offer a stark contrast to the violence of colonialism present throughout the film. Winstone, one of the best actors today makes the movie.  He finally exorcises his inner demons with the help of his prey, but not without a heart wrenching journey of self discovery.  Well acted, well shot, TRACKER works for the fact that the story is universal posing the question of how far one would go to regain honour and respect against all odds.  Winstone is plain terrific in this very tense film from start to finish.

THE TRIP (UK 2010) ****
Directed by Michael Winterbottom

What happens when you have first two class comedians playing themselves embark on a 3-day road trip?  The funniest film at TIFF!  Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon travel the North of England through the Lake District and Yorkshire on an assignment for The Observer.  They dine the best gourmet restaurants while driving each other mad by constantly competing with each other.  They do impressions of celebs like Woody Allen, Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman and countless Michael Caine’s, compete who can sing the greater number of octaves and make side comments when each gourmet dish is served at the various restaurants.  Coogan and Bryd are gifted comics as evident in their comedic timing.  The best part of the film is the 10-minute segment when they compete doing Michael Caine impressions.  But that is not all!  Winterbottom has a message snugly delivered that family and loved ones are more important than any amount of fame.

WHAT’S WRONG WITH VIRGINIA (USA 2010) **
Directed by Dustin Lance Black

Oscar winning scriptwriter for MILK, Dustin Lance Black’s directorial debut is a bit of a let-down considering how meticulously he wrote and imagined each and every scene in MILK.  His film WHAT’S WRONG WITH VIRGINIA contains many excellent set-ups as well but they lack the punch during delivery.  The story concerns a mentally troubled Virginia (Jennifer Connolly) and her teen son, Emmett (Harrison Gilbertson) surviving in small town Virginia Beach.  Virginia has an ongoing affair with the town sheriff (Ed Harris) and feigns pregnancy while Emmett woos his daughter.  Black brings in the small town mentality he grew up with into the film, as well as some Mormon experiences of his own.  But his film’s incidents don’t blend well to make a credible whole, especially the tagged on happy ending.