TIFF 2011 - Capsule Reviews

Will be updated Daily!

Capsule reviews of films that will be screened at TIFF 2011 will be found on this site and updated daily!

Gilbert’s Top 5 TIFF Picks

My top 3 TIFF picks are:

The Skin I Live In
Snowtown
Michael

They have the common theme of paedophilia, not because I am a paedophile but for the reason that these films make the most intriguing and disturbing dramas.

My other 2 picks are:
There is Something Wrong About Kevin (troubled youth/troubled parents)
And
Le Havre (Kaurismaki is my favourite dead pan comedic director)

ACQUA (Canada /Italy 2011) *** (Short Film: 8 minutes)
Directed by Raha Shirazi

As winter borders on spring, a young woman silently walks alone to retrieve water from a natural source. A celebration of traditions, ACQUA presents the quest for water partly as a necessity, partly as a solemn pilgrimage. As she journeys, there is a rainbow, the end of which contains gold or the water that the woman is seeking.  Raha Shirazi’s film is short and sweet at 8 minutes with no dialogue, and one can assume the woman does this track for water out of tradition rather than anything else.  Or it would be wiser if she melted the snow to retrieve the water, which is abundantly lying around as seen during the woman’s first part of the journey.  The last scene of her soothing the legs of an elderly with the healing powers of the water that she has collected explains it all.

A BETTER LIFE (UNEVIE MEILLEURE) (France 2011) **
Directed by Cedric Kahn

There are actually two stories in Cedric Kahn’s (RED LIGHTS, ROBERT SUCCO) latest drama in which a man seeks to land a better life by opening his own restaurant.  All things look bright and rosy at the film’s start when Yann (Guillaume Canet) falls in love with Lebanese waitress, Nadia (Leila Bekhti).  He seeks loans to open what he thinks is a great restaurant and he gets along well with her son Slimane.  But the debts get out of hand and he also ends up looking after the boy when Nadia moves to Canada for a better life, herself.  The two stories involve Yann and his debt problems and the other the relationship between himself and the boy.  The former works better in Kahn’s film whilst the latter does not.  But the part where he freaks out on the boy’s theft of running shoes as he attempts to teach him honesty is a welcome change.  Kahn prevents his film from falling into melodrama but the film fails to engage for the reason that most of what happens in the story is totally predictable, including the sudden success in Yann’s attaining of a chef’s position at the film’s end.  A BETTER LIFE marks one of this brilliant director’s lesser works.

A BURNING MAN (Australia 2011) ***
Directed by Jonathan Teplitzky

A BURNING MAN begins with the protagonist, Tom (Mathew Goode from A SINGLE MAN) masturbating in front of a prostitute.  The scene cuts to him driving off and getting into a nasty accident involving food as his car collides with a food truck.  The film intercuts into many scenes and it takes a while before the non-chronological film begins to make any sense.  All this is stylish enough with a grand musical score and great photography, but what is the point of all the confusion instead of telling a story straight forwardly.  The audience soon leans that Tom is a chef in an upscale restaurant, a womanizer with countless ladies before falling in love with one who develops cancer.  He has a child, Oscar (Jack Heanly) with her and the film then settles on their father/son relationship.  Goode is good and the film is a tearjerker at heart.  If one is patient enough to make head and tale of all the story bits, the film is quite engrossing.

THE CAT VANISHES (Argentina 2011) **
Directed by Carlos Sorin

Sorin’s latest film THE CAT VANISHES features a cat instead of a dog as in his 2004 BOMBON – EL PERRO.  Like his 2004 movie, his latest film is interesting enough but sparse in terms of incident or event.  The story is centred on Beatriz (Beatriz Spelzini) whose university professor husband, Luis (Luis Luque) has just been released from the sanatorium as the doctors claim he has been cured.  Luis had accused her or aiding his colleague.  He had beaten him up for stealing his life’s research work.  Hey, wouldn’t any sane person have done the same?  The premise is that Beatriz suspects Luis o slowly losing it again, with her growing slightly insane in the process.  The cat who has scratched Luis goes missing and she suspects Luis up to no good, even though he has been too good to her.  All this is intriguing fodder and Sorin loves to play with the audience’s thought a lot.  But the pace is extremely slow and Sorin even shows his actors walking from point A to Point B.  In the end, what the audience suspects is true, but nothing much else is achieved in Sorin’s film except a little bit of suspense and anticipation.

DAMSELS IN DISTRESS (USA 2011) ****
Directed by Whit Stillman

Indie writer/director Whit Stillman returns after a 13 year absence with DAMSELS IN DISTRESS, a sort of MEAN GIRLS kind of comedy in which everyone speaks with perfect arguments and knowledge – Stillman style.  I must admit that I am not a Whitman fan.  I disliked METROPOLITAN, BARCELONA and THE LAST DAYS OF DISCO because they were pretentious and everyone spoke as if they knew and they did know everything, and were all so smart and argumentative.  But to my surprise, I loved DAMSELS and only caught this movie because of screening scheduling problems with this film shown in place of another I wanted to see.  This film makes fun of all the other three Stillman films and characters, poking fun at people’s successes and smugness.  The smart, tall and handsome are put down though they can still argue their way out.  The film takes a unique look into the psyche of privileged American youth, this time focus¬ing on a group of undergraduates at a leafy East Coast university that has only recently begun to accept female students. The film stars Greta Gerwig as Violet, a kind of post-modern Jane Austen character. Prim, proper and extremely odd, Violet is the alpha/leader to a trio of attractive girls who’ve vowed to improve anyone they deem in need. When the girls spot a new transfer student named Lily (Analeigh Tipton), they take her under their wing and show her what to wear (think Grace Kelly by way of the 1980 Preppy Handbook), who to date (unattractive and dumb boys are ideal candidates for repair) and how to help prevent campus suicides (solution: tap-dancing, free donuts and good hygiene). However, when Violet is betrayed by her (wildly inferior) beau and begins to pine for Lily’s new flame (Adam Brody), her orderly world starts to crumble.  The girls create their kind of havoc everywhere they go.  If they did nothing, all would have gone on just fine.  Stillman also ends his film with Fred Astaire dance numbers.  The music score is just lovely with hits like Another Night to the oldies.  This film is not only pure delight but exceptionally funny! 

A DANGEROUS METHOD (Canada/Germany 2011) **
Directed by David Cronenberg

Director Croneberg’s latest historic period drama, based on real-life events on Carl Jung (Michale Fassbender), Sigmund Freud (Viggo Moretensen) and a Russian mental patient, Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightley) just skims the surface of psycho analysis and spends more emphasis on the over dramatic interactions of the three.  Sabina arrives at the start of the film, and carried into a Zurich institution suffering from a mental fit, while treated by Jung under scrutiny by Freud.  The two argue at length over the treatment though it is the play of words that make more sense than the medical arguments.  It is of no surprise that the script was penned by Oscar winner Christopher Hampton, based on his equally serious play ‘The Talking Cure’, based on John Kerr’s book.  The film is gorgeously shot with top notch costumes and sets and the actors all spur out perfect prose.  But the film fails to engage the audience into the real drama that is at hand.  No one really cares whose arguments are right, whether Sabina will survive or how psycho analysis will takes its course.  When the end credits roll, revealing what has happened to each character after the film ends, the audience realises that Cronenberg has basically told them nothing.  There is a sadomasochistic sex scene but the actors keep their clothes on.  Now that is crazy!

THE DAY (USA 2011) **
Directed by Doug Arniokoski

In this post-apocalyptic tale entitled THE DAY, director Doug Arniokoski presents the audience with a world destroyed, though nothing is ever said of the cause.  Of course this would have little to do with the events that occur in the script, but it would be less self-assuming if some hint be given.  Also, one might understand how then a possible escape survival plan might take place.  Instead his group of ‘travellers’ (played by a cast of unknowns) now down to the number of five, travel the bleak landscape in search for food and water.  They are armed with shotguns, axes and machetes moving along the back roads of a ravaged landscape where the natural cycle of life has long been stunted. One member is ill, though nothing, again more is explained.  The film has a look of the HIGHLANDER films as Arniokoski directed the last of the film series HIGHLANDER ENDGAME.  If the audience’s intelligence is not already insulted, another group is introduced that has two cute children as its members.  Focus shift to the other group with sympathy going to the children.  Without much plot or focus, the film is all over the place.  Though watchable as the fight scenes are intense, the entire exercise is a complete waste of time, and by this I mean watching this movie!

DEATH OF A SUPERHERO (Ireland/Germany 2011) ***
Directed by Ian Fitzgibbon

Like the other film 50/50 at TIFF, DEATH OF A SUPERHERO is about the survival of a young cancer patient.  While 50/50 treated the subject with more humour than not, this one treats the subject matter with dead seriousness.  One could argue that the former trivializes the tragedy, but one thing is for sure is that Ian Fitzgibbon’s film surely does not, at any point.  The threat of death is everywhere from the film’s start to finish even in the protagonist’s cartoon drawings.  Even after a little hope with the cancer in remission, the cancer re-appears soon enough to bring the story to its climatic finish.  In all this the patient, fourteen-year-old Donald (Thomas Brodie-Sangster) needs to get laid.  His girlfriend is out of the question so those close around him try to help.  This is the only thing pinning the film down as most films dealing with growing up (like the recent SUBMARINE) all had their protagonists make it their tired aim to lose their virginity.  Apart from that, Fitzgibbon’s film is original enough, aided with animation generated by Donald’s drawings.  Ftizgibbon loves to use colour (the red cigarette and green smoke of the nurse in the drawings; the shiny coloured fish in the aquarium tank etc) which brightens an otherwise depressing film.  He addresses most of the relevant issues of cancer and dying providing sufficient insight to move the film at a comfortable and entertaining pace.

DEATH FOR SALE (MORT A SALLE) (Belg/Fr/Morocco 2011) **
Directed by Faouzi Bensaidi

The famous saying goes that one cannot learn to be cool – one is either born cool or is not.  The same can be said for director Faouzi Nensaidi’s DEATH FOR SALE set in
Tetouan, the Atlantic port city in the north of Morocco. Three young men decide to rob a jewellery store.  They are among the hopelessly unemployed street population of Morocco’s provincial cities, common thugs nicknamed chicken thieves by many but bound by solidar¬ity and friendship. They see the heist as a means to break out of a cycle of poverty that weighs on their destiny like a life sentence.  A subplot involves Malik, a dashing 26-year-old man, is in love with Dounia, a cabaret dancer. Allal, the toughest of the three, wants fast cash to stake a solid entry into the business of drug-smuggling. Impish high-school dropout Soufiane, the young¬est of the group, has his own motives for wanting to kill the jewellery store owner. But the plan goes awry and the men’s destinies splinter.  The film looks good but Bensaidi tries too hard.  His camera angles try to make the actors look good having them placed symmetrically in a circle (see photo) or the lovers kissing upside down.  But he cares less for his characters.  They act too smart for their own good with the result that the audience can hardly care less what happens to them.  The result is a thriller that the audience just sits back to watch whatever happens.

DRIVE (USA 2011) ****
Directed by Nicholas Winding Refn

DRIVE, based on the novel of the same name by James Sallis is a sexy, stylish, ultra-violent action pic that won its director, Danish Nicholas Winding Refn the Best Director award at Cannes this year.  DRIVE follows Ryan Gosling, looking his sexiest as a stunt car driver coerced into working as a getaway car driver for a robbery that ends up totally botched.  Observing a second car, Driver realises a set-up by mobsters played with menacing aplomb by Ron Perlman and Albert Brooks.  His calm and cool nature gives way to uncontrolled violence (kicking the head of an assailant to a mashed pulp in an elevator) as he tries to protect the neighbour (Carey Mulligan) he is falling in love with.  Despite the film being an action flick, Refn (the PUSHER trilogy; BRONSON) dishes out credible romance that works better than most Hollywood romantic comedies.  Effective, fast-paced, credible and entertaining, DRIVE marks an exciting outing at TIFF for a change!  The car chases and stunts, needless to say are more than impressive.

THE EYE OF THE STORM (Australia 2011)
Directed by Fred Schepisi

Acting honours go to the three lead actors who do really well in a very bad film in which a dying mother (Charlotte Rampling) summons her two children (Judy Davis and Geoffrey Rush) to her side for the main purpose of giving them a last hard time before she dies.  The children are not the best reared either.  Daughter is a failed French princess from a marriage and son is a London west-end actor looking for good material.  She speaks French whenever it suits her, which annnoys the hell of those around her including the audience.  Son is busy bedding the ladies including mummy’s nurse.  It can hardly be called entertaining the way the three go at each other’s throats as well as bring up past horrid secrets.  As it turns out, all this presents good fodder for son’s new successful play!  And the plot about the honest and faithful barrister who sacrifices his share of the estate for the undeserving children just does not cut it.  Rampling alternates between looking sorely old and weary and young in white during storms.  These three leads have done better separately in separate films.

50/50 (USA 2010) ****
Directed by Jonathan Levine

50/50 is a comedy about cancer.  So, expect to both shed a tear or laugh during the movie, though not necessarily at the same time.  Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a 27-year old too nice a guy who’s been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer.  Luckily, he doesn’t have to face this dark journey alone: by his side are his annoying best friend (Seth Rogen), his doctor (Philip Baker Hall), a therapist-in-training (Anna Kendrick) and a smothering mother (Anjelica Huston).  Surprisingly, the film’s funniest scene has Rogen outing Adam’s girlfriend as unfaithful, irritating the hell out of her. The story in Will Resier’s script is nothing out of the ordinary but a series of set pieces that lead the plot to a climax in which Adam is to undergo a risky operation.  These set pieces include the doctor telling Adam of his cancer (funny); Adam then telling his parents (sad); Adam’s therapy sessions (sad); the waiting room scene where friends and family await the results (very funny).  But Levine’s film works well as moving entertainment because despite the humour, the sincerity is what makes the whole exercise worthwhile.  The script is based on Reisner’s memoirs about his own personal health struggles.  Huston delivers an Oscar winning performance aided by the fact that she is given the best lines.

FOOTNOTE (Israel 2011) ***
Directed by Joseph Cedar

Israeli films are known for their dead seriousness.  Israelis often make films about their past, religion and politics.  Writer/director Joseph Cedar’s (known for his lighter work such as CAMPFIRE and BEAUFORT) latest entry is full of anger, fury and tension.  The film tells the story of a father-son rivalry; Eliezer (stage comedian Shlomo Bar Aba) and his son Uriel (Lior Ashkenazi) are both eccentric professors in Talmudic Studies at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University.  Eliezer specializes in minutiae, his only claim to fame a footnote in an obscure tome.  Uriel takes a broader approach that brings him accolades.  Then suddenly Eliezer learns that he is to be awarded the prestigious Israel Prize.  But in a darkly strange turn, Uriel is forced to choose between the advancement of his own career and his father’s.  But in his choice his fury is unleashed, to both his lazy son and his long suffering wife both of which just take the abuse.  It would be interesting to see what would happen in an American film as wives and sons would definitely give more than s*** back.  Acting is good, story is well paced out and the music (sounding like a Bernard Hermann score from a Hitchcock thriller) heightens the tension.  The film won Cedar the Best Screenplay Award at Cannes this year.  There is really nothing wrong with this film except that festival audiences might find the film too intense after attending several screenings a day.

FROM UP ON POPPY HILL (Japan 2011) ****
Directed by Goro Miyazaki

This animated feature from Japan’s Ghibli Studios is one to watch as it is the first directed by Goro Miyazaki, the son of the famous legendary Master, Hayao Miyazaki.  POPPY HILL is written by the father and the animation directed by the son.  Unlike most of the father’s films, this one has no mythical theme, no fairies or spirits or folklore.  The film follows Umi, a shy teenaged girl, who manages a boarding house on the Yokohama seaside. Her father was killed in the war and her mother travels constantly, so in addition to attending high school, Umi must also run the family business. Her classmate Shun, an orphan unsure of his lineage, lives with a few other students in the old high-school clubhouse, a French-style, mansion that’s set to be demolished as part of the current modernization project.  The two meet and it is love at first sight.  The story is not all that important but the setting and atmosphere are.  The post-war pre-Olympics era is effectively evoked.  POPPY HILL will win audiences on pure charm alone.  Sentiment is overdone occasionally.  Miyazaki also evokes the old famous tune SUKIYAKI from the early animated feature ALAKAZAN THE GREAT, a song not heard for a long time.  It would be good to see this film in original Japanese with English subtitles before the Disney studios dub the dialogue in English with stars like Dakota Fanning and Freddie Highmore.

LE GAMIN AU VELO (THE KID WITH A BIKE) (Belg/France/It 2011) *****
Directed by Jean- Pierre and Luc Dardenne

The Belgium Dardenne Brothers have proved themselves masters of the simple but realistic gut emotion wrenching dramas.  With LA PROMESSE and L’ENFANT behind them, their latest THE KID WITH A BIKE is an equally harrowing tale of a boy o one one wants.  Escaping from a foster home, 11-year old Cyril (the excellent Thomas Doret) comes to the awful truth that his father (Jérémie Renier) does not want him around.  But a good angel in the form of the local hairdresser Samantha (Cécile de France) is willing to take him in as his guardian.  But Cyril runs into bad company committing and getting caught in a robbery.  The camera again follows behind the subject as he moves in the scenes as in the other Dardennes films.  The film has two of the most moving down-to-earth scenes that will rock the audience into tears.  One has Cyril hitting and wanting to hurt himself after discovering his father has abandoned him.  The other is a scene at the police station where Cyril begs forgiveness from the one he hit and robbed.  Real life drama does come as effective as this Dardennes Brothers’ film.  And the grand message is that there is still love in human beings and that love that conquers all!

THE GOOD SON (Finland 2011) ***1/2
Directed by Zaida Bergroth

Following a very public squabble with the director of her most recent movie, Leila (Elina Knihtilä) a veteran actress promises her two boys a relaxing weekend, just the three of them, during which they can quietly enjoy each other’s company in the countryside.  But Leila invites a group of friends and starts an affair with one of them, Aimo (Eero Aho), a screenwriter.  This unleashes the full fury of the elder 17 year old son, Ilmari (Samuli Niittymäki) who spends most of his life administering to his mother’s needs.  This is the story of a son with a twisted sense of responsibility and a mother, who is immature and more concerned about herself and her appearance.  The film feels a bit like Michael Hanejke’s FUNNY GAMES because of the youth’s violence and the cottage setting.  But Bergroth’s film is full of suspense and audience anticipation.  The audience is constantly waiting for Ilmari to explode and completely lose it, which he does in the end.  The problem with Berggroth’s film is that the audience should not be on the side of the son but on the side of Aimo, who in reality is the only sane character in the film.  But it is the other way round.  The film also includes the feelings and reactions of the younger son, Into (Eeti Julin) to all the mess who retreats into his own little world of dragonflies.  A wickedly pleasurable little film!

A HAPPY EVENT (UN HEUREUX EVENEMENT) (France 2011) ***
Directed by Rémi Bezançon’s

Rémi Bezançon’s A HAPPY EVENT refers to the birth of a first born child.  The experience is told from the points of view of both the mother, Barbara (Louise Bourgoin) and father, Nic (Pio Marmai).  The film begins happily with Louise recounting when the two first fell in love.  Was it their first meeting?  Or date? Or first kiss?  Bezançon takes his audience through every single step involving the birth from the couple’s first meeting in a video rental store to their break up after having the baby.  Most of the events are treated humorously (like their first meeting, communicating through film titles) to the more serious such as real-life problems regarding loss of lovemaking, neglect and support for each other.  The transformation of the couple’s realization of the ideal dream of having a baby to the stark reality of the responsibility and work required to bringing up a baby is effectively portrayed.  In fact this is where the main problem of the film lies.  Bezançon covers every possible outcome including mother-in-law problems; friends’ interactions so much so that the film tends to drag on till no stone is left unturned.  Bezançon aims very much at authenticity. The love-making scenes are erotically charged enough.  But the child delivery segment is treated in a lighter vein.  But the message that it is all worth it, bringing life into the world may not seem to have come across so well.

THE HUNTER (Australia 2011) ***
Directed by Daniel Nettheim

Adapted from Julia Leigh’s novel of the same name, the story centres on Martin (Willem Dafoe), a mercenary hired by Red Leaf, an international biotech com¬pany to track and kill an animal long thought extinct to extract its paralyzing poison. The Tasmanian tiger — has recently become the subject of rumoured sightings around the remote community. Martin arrives cloaked in a false identity and heads for the hills. Trudging through the spectacular, almost impenetra¬ble landscape, he sets traps and lays in wait for days at a time.  But Martin is distracted by the woman he rents his room from, and her 2 children.  Her deceased husband apparently was also hired by Red Leaf to do the same job.  More distractions in the plot involve loggers fighting environmentalists and his guilt for hunting an endangered species.  Nettheim’s film captures both the ruggedness and beauty (Cinematographer Robert Humphreys) of Tasmania.  Dafoe looks particularly rugged and dishevelled as the hunter.  But Nettheim’s film takes too long to settle down to its business at hand, which is the Martin’s internal struggle of man vs. environment.  The ending act might be a spectacular feat on Martin’s part (won’t be mentioned in the review) but it makes no sense at all.

I IWSH (Japan 2011) ***
Directed by Hirokazu Kore-Eda

Director Hirokazu Kore-Eda’s (AFTER LIFE, NOBODY KNOWS) latest drama on the contemplation of life looks at the points of view of the world from children.  The children are two brothers, 12-year old Koichi (Koki Maeda) and younger brother Ryunosuke (Ohshirô Maeda) Hirokazu Kore-Eda who used to live together before their parents split up.  Now each live separately with the different parent.  The highlight o the film is Koichi’s visit with friends by the new bullet trip.  A kid’s road trip, the children skip school, humorously, to make their day trip.  Kore-Eda’s film is full of simple charm, like his other films, with no message or incident pounded into the audience’s heads.  The simple story allows the film to flow easily but suffers from the lack of a strong narrative.  This is no Hollywood film where the kids bring their parents back together again.  It is one where the world is observed from the simple eyes of children.  They make their wishes and the events come true.

i am a good person/i am a bad person (Canada 2011) ***
Directed by Ingrid Veninger

Like her two other films ONLY and MODRA, Torontonian based Bratislava born filmmaker Ingrid Veninger makes small quirky personal films often starring her family members.  It is of no surprise that her film company is called Punk Films.  One wonders how much truth there is in her films.  Those will be good questions to ask during the Q &A sessions after her screenings.  While touring festivals for her last film MODRA, Veninger shoots herself and her daughter Hallie Swizter with a script of an identical story of a mother and daughter touring film festivals in Europe.  They part ways, and must confront life-changing choices alone, before returning home.  Daughter Sarah (Switzer) has a secret and so does mother.  For a film with the description above, do not expect a boring detached drama.  Veninger’s film, for one contains lots of frontal nudity, a segment involving a blow job and lots of surprises (or shocks) on the way.  The scenic atmosphere of Berlin and Paris also explains the reason these cities are loved.  Veninger also teases with the start of scenes with the audience trying to guess whether it is one in which the mother or the daughter is in.  i am a good person/i am a bad person is an entertaining little film from director Veninger who consistently continues to impress with her ingenuity and humanity.

THE IDES OF MARCH (USA 2011) ****
Directed by George Clooney

THE IDES OF MARCH puts George Clooney back in the director’s chair for this edgy political drama set in the days leading up to a fictional presidential primary. Clooney also stars as a Democratic candidate, Mike Morris who schools his idealistic campaign press secretary, Stephen Myers (Ryan Gosling) in the dubious machinations of modern politics.  Myers becomes too good at his work forcing Morris to come to terms with his past mistakes and reckon with his prodigy.  Clooney’s film plays like a thriller and once the foundation is set in the first 30 minutes, the film is pure edge-of-your-seat drama and thriller.  IDES OF MARCH is everything one would expect in a political drama – wickedly biting humour, great dialogue with lots and lots of sarcasm and nastiness.  Clooney is excellent as the dubious governor but it is Ryan Gosling who combines sexiness with a controlled smart performance that steals the show.  And it is difficult to tell whether it is Paul Giamatti or Phillip Seymour Hoffman who is giving the better supporting performance.  The film is based on the play Farragut North by Beau Willimon (loosely modelled on Howard Dean’s 2004 Democratic primary campaign).

IN DARKNESS (Canada/Gemany/Poland 2011) ***
Directed by Agnieszka Holland

Agnieszka Holland’s (EUROPA, EUROPA, THE SECRET GARDEN, WASHINGTON SQUARE) latest film takes a moralistic look at a Polish Catholic working the sewers in Lvov, Poland during WWII.  Jews often hid in the sewers to escape capture from the Germans.  Leopold Socha (Robert Wieckiewicz) works the sewers and aids the Jews hiding there when he comes accidentally comes across a group of them during his rounds.  If not, he is robbing the rich homes of the Jews now occupied by the Germans.  His morals are questionable, but his wife is the one that puts him in his place.  But he learns what is right soon enough when he sympathizes with the plight of the Jews.  Holland has created a claustrophobic atmosphere so authentic that the audience could even imagine the stench of the rubbish and rodents running around the filthy waters.  The lighting is impressive and the night or ‘lightless’ cinematography close to perfect.  The only problem is that Holland trivializes the film a few times for example in the segments where Socha is piggy-backing the Jewish kids or finding lost children or over dramatizing as in the child birth segment in which the mother is not allowed to scream as they are all hiding underneath a church where the sounds travel easily through.  Still, all this is powerful stuff especially watching Socha transform from unsympathizing Catholic to dauntless hero.

THE KILLER ELITE (USA 2011) ****
Directed by Gary McKendry

Director Gary McKendry’s first feature is Jason Statham’s first thinking man’s action film.  The film is smart, action-packed with a fairy tale look with characters that are not black and white bad or good.  Danny Bryce (Statham) is forced out of retirement of Britain’s Elite Special Air Service (Jason Statham) to help his mentor (Robert De Niro) taken captive.  Because it is the right thing to do!  The impossible mission is to kill three assassins of the SAS dispatched by their cunning leader (Clive Owen) years back for a killing.  Statham is once again an efficient killing machine but his dream is to retire in a farm with his girlfriend.  The audience feels for the man since he is taking no money for the job and when his private life is threatened.  Owen plays an ambiguous nasty and Robert De Niro as the ‘voice of experience’ has the film’s best lines.

KILLER JOE (USA 2011) ****
Directed by William Friedkin

William Friedkin’s (THE EXORCIST, THE FRENCH CONNECTION) totally demented hit-man drama has all the sex, mayhem, violence and outrageousness that makes it such a guilty joy to watch.  Chris (Emile Hirsch) broke, desperate and not very bright barges into his equally dumb father’s (Thomas Haden Church) trailer with the only plan he can think of: murder.  If they kill his mother, they can collect enough insurance money to settle his drug-dealing debts and escape their squalid little life.  But he hires KILLER JOE (Matthew McConaughey) with no money to pay till they collect the insurance money.  Joe takes Chris’ younger sister as a retainer.  Things of this nature never turn out as planned.  After the murder is committed, a double cross is revealed with things getting bloodier and bloodier.  Every actor is exceptionally good in this movie with Gina Gershon stealing the show as Chris’ stepmother.  The only flaw is the over eventful climax, the sort that is normally seen in a play about murder, which comes as no surprise as this film was based on the Pulitzer Prize winner by Tracy Letts.  William Friedkin is in top form!

LEAVE IT ON THE FLOOR (Canada 2011) **
Directed by Sheldon Larry

LEAVE IT ON THE FLOOR is described as a gracious and bold musical about a boy finding his true self, his family and his place in the world; set in the voguing and underground ball-culture of Los Angeles.  The part of the boy (Ephraim Sykes) finding himself in the world is pure clichéd rubbish, the kind audiences have seen time and again in gay or straight movies.  Gay boy gets kicked out of home by un-accepting parent, finds true love in a house of dancers.  He is caught cheating but true love prevails.  In the straight film world, it is the hooker that is kept in a house who learns the ways of the world under the kind Madame. It is the same thing here, but under an affectionate matron by the name of Queen Latina (Miss Barbie-Q).  But the world here – underground ballroom dance culture in L.A. is what makes Larry’s different – at least to the straight audience.  Out gays who attend circuit parties with extravagant glam shows have seen what is presented on screen before.  Yet the first 10 minutes of Larry’s film is pure bliss.  The choreography, timing and editing is top-notch and the music mixing is phenomenal.  Too bad the rest of his film transcends to gay melodrama with songs like “Black Love’ containing embarrassing lyrics.  But the film contains quite the number of laugh-out loud one-liners.

LENA (Germany 2011) ***
Directed by Christophe Van Rompaey

LENA is a coming-of-age film about an overweight girl who transcends from innocence to maturity with a cost – the cost of her freedom, though it is possible that she could get it back if she fought for it.  One can see the reason many critics might not like this film because Romapaey’s film is daring and he is not afraid of going to the route of a non-happy commercial ending.  Teenaged Lena (Emma Levie) lives in Rotterdam with her mother Danka (Agata Buzek), who puts a flag in the window whenever she has a man in the apartment so that Lena doesn’t interrupt.  Danka constantly reminds Lena that she’s overweight and in the way: a burden in every sense. Lena doesn’t want to be defined by her size, but it seems she’s only free of it while dancing or having sex. All this changes when she meets Daan (Niels Gomperts). She spots him one night while she’s riding her moped and he’s running from the cops. Daan is very handsome and steals thus living wealthily. He doesn’t mind Lena’s size. He buys her expensive gifts and asks her to move in. Lena is happy to flee her miserable home life.  She leaves mother till she finds out about Daan’s unscrupulous activities.  And if that is not enough, Daan’s father makes advances towards here.  Rompaey’s film is like a scary fairy tale with a message.  The heroine is not pure and just as guilty as her oppressors.  Actress Emma Levie is excellent as the troubled teen and she is quite pretty if one can overlook her slight weight problem.

LIVIDE (LIVID) (France 2011) *
Directed by Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo

Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo who made the excellent L’INTERIORS (INSIDE) a few year’s back have returned with a gore-fest disappointment of a narrative mess. While their INSIDE was carefully thought-of and plotted with a super unpredictable twist at the end, LIVID, by contrast makes no sense whatsoever.  And the directors do not attempt to try either.  The story involves a medical trainee, Lucie (Chloé Coulloud) and her two friends breaking into a comatose’s Madame Jessel (Marie-Claude Pietragalla) mansion in order to steal her fortune which they believe is hidden somewhere in the house.  She comes to life – don’t ask how – and with her mute daughter commit bloody murder and mayhem all around.  Nothing makes sense and who really cares about these three thieves anyway.  Their sorry excuse for the break and entry gets zero point for sympathy from the audience as does this film on the rating scale.

THE LONELIEST PLANET (USA/Germany 2011) *
Directed by Julia Loktev

THE LONELIEST PLANET, Julia Loktev’s third feature follows a young couple, Alex (Gael García Bernal) and Nica (Hani Furstenberg) in the gorgeous Caucasus Mountains in Georgia.  They hire a local guide, Dato (Bidzina Gujabidze) and trek into the wilderness. The vast landscape has a craggy beauty, as well as an odd sense of foreboding to which the young couple initially seems immune.  But Loktev’s story gets the better of them and their love is put to the test when Nica falls to the advances of the local guide.  They walk and talk and do stupid things (like falling down) for hours which get really testy for audiences waiting for something to happen.  Nica falls while crossing a river, they play volleyball with an unseen opponent and sings silly songs, all of which seems cool only to director Loktev.  No doubt the scenery is stunning and it is always a pleasure to watch Garcia Bernal, but this is basically a film about three stupid people who go hiking.

LUCKY (South Africa 2011) **
Directed by Avie Luthra

LUCKY (Sohle Dlamini), as is the boy is called, is not really a fortunate kid.  He has AIDs; his mother has passed on, and no one wants him.  He runs around the city of Durban with no shelter and in another stroke of bad luck, gets arrested when a group of thugs force him to come along when they break into a house.  Director Luthra’s film piles affliction upon affliction on poor LUCKY so that whatever ending the film comes up with, there is a glimmer of hope.  His film is also depressing from scene one and if there is any humour, it is the way luck falls out and the situation gets from bad to worse for Lucky.  Luthra develops a wield relationship between an elderly Indian woman and the boy, she initially stealing the boy’s government grant.  When the boy’s uncle finds out and kidnaps him and puts him to an unimaginable worse life she comes to the rescue.  It is hard to believe the change of heart coming from this old thief.  The film is watchable but one feels that Luthra is trying too hard to show the demise of the suffering in third world countries.

MELANCHOLIA (Den/Swe/Fr/Germ 2010) ***
Directed by Lars Von Trier

Lars Von Trier’s end of the world epic is told from the point of view of a wedding of a couple very much in love.  The focus is on Justine (Kirsten Dunst), an ad executive who’s just married her colleague Michael (Alexander Skarsgård). They show up hours late for the reception, infuriating Justine’s sister Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and her rich husband John (Kiefer Sutherland), who are paying for the event and hosting it on their obscenely lavish estate. But the dysfunctional wedding has over anxious sister an always upset John creating constant tension.  If not, mother (Charlotte Rampling in another of her super ***censored*** roles) is creating dissention with her against marriage speeches.  And while the wedding ceremonies take place, the planet Melancholia is about to collide with the Planet Earth.  The end of the world could also be looked upon metaphorically.  Von Trier treats the material with utter seriousness, coupled with a classical music score to emphasize his commitment.  But the film works in an odd way and the audience is kept fully compelled with whatever tale Von Trier wishes to tell.

MICHAEL (Austria 2011) ***
Directed by Markus Schleinzer

Michael (Michael Fuith) is a mousy insurance agent who lives alone — or so everyone thinks.  He is a child molester who has imprisoned a 10-year old boy (David Rauchenberger) locked in his basement.  But director Schleinzer gives Michael a loving mother (Christine Kain) and a sister (Ursula Strauss) who doesn’t want him to spend the holidays alone.  Nothing is explained how Michael kidnapped the boy or how the circumstances came to be.  The film shows two things.  One is the daily routines of Michael and the boy.  The boy is taken out to play in the park for walks but is also forced to play with Michael’s ***censored***.  The other part plays on whether Michael is eventually going to get caught.  His co-worker pays an unexpected visit and enters his house through an open garage door.  But MICHAEL is an extremely disturbing film for the fact that such incidents are happening daily and the suspect is often an ordinary looking and behaving person. 

MONSIEUR LAZHAR (Canada 2011) ****
Directed by Philippe Falardeau

Philippe Falardeau’s (CONGORAMA) latest drama is a well thought of drama that bears the message of tolerance amidst multiple issues dealing with death, the school system and growing up.  It starts off with a young student’s discovery of his teacher’s suicide by hanging in a classroom.  A past incident in which he had accused her of kissing him renders him guilty with a classmate blaming him as well for her death.  Into the picture comes an immigrant teacher seeking refugee status, a MONSIEUR LAZHAR from Algiers.  He is all heart though he is set in the old ways of teaching that allows him to hit students as well as hug them if necessary to comfort them.  This, of course lands him trouble with the school system though the principal is quite open-minded.  It takes a while before the audience realizes where the film is heading.  Falardeau offers differing points of view on many subject matters without passing judgement on any one of the film’s characters.  The result is a heart felt down to earth drama that is both timely and moving.  This is one of the best Quebec films screened at TIFF.

MONSTERS CLUB (Japan 2011) *
Directed by Toshiaki Toyoda

Director Toshiaki Toyoda first conceived the film when he read “Industrial Society and Its Future,” the manifesto written by the infamous mathematician and murderer Ted Kaczynski — a.k.a. the Unabomber. Toyoda was unsettled by the realization that the sort of social system Kaczynski warns against bore a striking resemblance to what was already taking place in Japan.  Toyoda’s repulsion and fascination by Kaczynski’s doomy diagnosis is clearly evident in his movie.  He spends quite a bit of screen time narrating a manifesto as if to preach to his audience without fully convincing them.  His lead character is Ryoichi Kakiuchi (Eita) who has given up on civilization. Abandoning his unremarkable existence in the city, he starts a new life of isolation and self-sufficiency, residing alone in a secluded cabin on a snow-capped mountain, where his outrage with the mod¬ern world manifests itself violently in the mail bombs he sends to the CEOs of vari¬ous corporations and television networks. Morally confused and socially aberrant, Ryoichi has transformed himself into a kind of monster. But up in his rugged hideaway, he is about to have an encounter with a monster of an altogether different sort.  The monster forces him to question his ideals and Royoda begins preaching again. All this makes little sense which renders the film a total bore even at 72 minutes.  What the film basically consists of is a series of letter bombings and preachings.

OMAR M’A TUER (OMAR KILLED ME) (France 2011) ***
Directed by Roschdy Zem

Director Zem’s (DAYS OF GLORY, OUTSIDE THE LAW) latest drama once again is power punch that incites the anger of his audience on the injustice of his people.  OMAR KILLED ME tells the story of a gardener, Omar Raddad (Sami Bouajila) tried and convicted of the murder of his employee in the Cote d’Azur where he emigrated.  Before the old woman died, she wrote in blood the name ‘Omar’ with a grammatical error.  The argument for Omar’s innocence is that the woman, who was far from illiterate, was gushing blood from multiple wounds, is unlikely to ungrammatically point out her killer in her last moments.  Thus is the account of a true incident with Zem adding in a f0

THE ORANGES (USA 2011) ****
Directed by Julian Farino

This is the story of two dysfunctional families the Wallings and the Ostroffs who live in a boring New Kersey suburb with the street name ‘Orange’.  The film is a story of The Oranges, with equal screen time given to each family.  The two fathers are the best of friends, who since the beginning of time, jog together without fail every morning.  But things take a turn when one, David Paige (Hugh Laurie who has totally lost his Brit accent) falls in love with his best friend David’s (Oliver Pratt) young daughter, Nina (Leighton Meester), much to the chagrin of all, especially his own daughter Vanessa (Alia Shawkat) who is best friends with Vanessa.  The story is narrated by Vanessa’s character and offers good arguments on each side whether the couple should stay together.  The argument of David is: “I am Happy!”, but that does not hold for Vanessa who in one of the film’s funniest scenes (the revelation confrontation scene) threatens to go to the back to make out with the other dad as revenge.  The story does not appear much but director Farino milks the best as well as the most hilarious jokes from the situation.  All the performances are top notch especially Catherine Keener as David’s long suffering wife.  Yet, Farino has transformed the story in the feel-good film of the year, the typical small indie film that Fox Searchlight loves to distribute.

OSLO, AUGUST 31ST (Norway 2011) ***
Directed by Joachim Trier

The film traces the daily routine and musings of a recovered drug addict, Anders (Anders Danielsen Lie) as he wanders around the city of Oslo.  Director Joachim Trier (REPRISE) captures the resident’s Oslo on film, with the trams, restaurants, streets and pubs, leaving out the tourist spots like Vogel Park.  The film has a very ordinary look that suits the purpose of the film.  Nothing much happens (except for his botched interview and his confrontation of the guy that slept with his girl) with Anders in terms of action or incidents.  But watching him trying to sort himself out, often with adverse results is still quite watchable and entertaining.  The film is based on the Pierre Drieu la Rochelle novel that served as the inspiration for Louis Malle’s clas¬sic LE FEU FOLLET.

PATCH TOWN (Canada 2011) ** [Short Film 27 min]
Directed by Will Goodwin

Ambitious musical satire on Russian oppression that unfortunately leads nowhere (yes, there is that message of love) that at least looks good (has a Kafka-ish look) cinematically on the screen.  At Patch Town Enterprises somewhere in Russia, cabbage patch babies are grown and harvested.  They are delivered by storks to mothers all over the wolrd.  Rejected babies when they grow up are reenlist by the Enterprise and forced to work the factory under a merciless villain.  For a short film on the message of love, PATCH TOWN contain violent scenes like graphic beatings and killing of babies.  Though no blood is splattered, the effect is just as disturbing.  The songs are none too lacklustre (sounding like something failed out of Sweeney Todd).  The story concerns a worker Jon (Julian Richings) in search of his mother (Lisa Ray) and escapes the system to a point.  Do we really care?

PATHWAYS (Canada 2011) *** Short: 12 minutes
Directed by Dusty Mancinelli

For a 12-minte short, director Mancinelli has provided the audience with quite the punch and food-for thought.  Last year, his suspense SOAP is clearly matched with this trickier PATHWAYS.  The story centres on a boy, Marco from an Italian family.  When Marco is bullied at school, he chooses not to confide in his parents, dealing instead with the constant assaults alone. While cutting through the woods one day after class, he stumbles upon what appears to be a dying man with gun and briefcase. Curious, Marco approaches him.  But the violence he has encountered both at school and at home (his gather slaps him) results in a violent reaction when he discovers the man to be still alive.
Mancinelli’s disturbing short is not without fun moments, for example when Marco’s pulls his head back to reveal his buck teeth, but PATHWAYS is a serious meditation on the confusion that comes with violence and the desperation that prompts and follows unspeakable acts.

PRESUME COULPABLE (GUILTY) (France 2011) ****
Directed by Vincent Gareng

Film based on the true story of France’s biggest judicial scandal in history in which a number of innocent people spent as many as 20 years in prison on crimes they did not commit.  Director Vincent Gareng’s film is a very depressing piece from start to end and gets more pessimistic towards the end, but he hits the point home, no doubt about that.  The film centres on Alain (Philippe Torreton) arrested with his wife on charges of paedophilia.  Imprisoned with no chance of making bail, Alain goes into deep depression, and finally breaks down when he hears his mother has died as a result of hearing the news.  He now goes on a hunger strike causing him to lose the use of his legs and feelings of taste and smell.  Actor Torreton sheds the pounds for this film looking just as scary as Michael Fassbender did in Steve McQueen’s prison drama HUNGER.  There are no winners in this story and the audience can only hope that the catastrophe will never be repeated.  The film should be seen for the injustices resulting in government officials (not only in France) not doing their work.

THE SKIN I LIVE IN (LA PIEL QUE HABITO)(Spain 2011) *****
Directed by Pedro Almodovar

The latest from Almodovar finds the Master in top form.  THE SKIN I LIVE IN is classic camp Hammer horror but Almodovar gives it his touch.  Based on Thierry Jonquet’s novel Tarantula, the plot follows Dr. Robert Ledgard (Antonio Banderas), a hand¬some and wealthy plastic surgeon with a tragic past. His nefarious obsession with transgenic therapy — a way of strengthen¬ing human skin through the use of animal genes — incites contention among his col¬leagues and prompts his withdrawal from the community.  After his wife is burnt terribly in a car crash and his mentally ill daughter is raped, he kidnaps her rapist and performs his skin experiments on him transforming him into the beautiful young Vera (Elena Anaya).  Garbed in a body stocking and kept captive in a room where she’s monitored day and night. Dr. Ledgard’s only confidant is his house¬keeper Marilia (Marisa Paredes), who ensures that the macabre surgeries per¬formed in the private operating theatre adjoining his home remain secret.  But when the house is broken into, events lead to Robert having sex and falling for Vera (a touch of paedophilia) and lots more of sexual excesses and ambiguities.  Though the plot requires a bit of a struggle to follow owing to the excess of flashbacks, the trouble is well worth it.  Camera angles, flashy colour, melodrama, camp, references to old movies and other Almodovar movies, sex and more sex, THE SKIN I LIVE IN is pure Almodovar delight!

SNOWTOWN (Australia 2011) ***
Directed by Justin Kurzel

SNOWTOWN, the film is also the name of the town in which the film is based.  It tells of one of Australia’s most horrific crimes was discovered in May of 1999, when police found rotting and dismembered bodies in barrels in the country town of Snowtown, north of Adelaide. Justin Kurzel’s directo¬rial debut is not a tabloid retelling of these shocking murders, but a stark journey into a feral subculture of welfare dependence, addiction, domestic violence, brutality and sexual abuse.  His film focuses on the Harvey family – how a mother, Elizabeth Harvey (Louise Harris) tries to keep everything sane and normal the best she can.  Sometimes, it does not work out for the best – as this story implies.  When her boyfriend displays pedophilic tendencies, she takes up with a new man, hoping for security but instead welcoming an even more vicious kind of predator into her home.  But this new man John Bunting (Daniel Henshall) is more evil than evil itself.  Fuelled by cigarettes and beer, they cast judgment on those who live among them. Bunting enlists his crew in acts of sadistic vigilantism including Elizabeth’s eldest son, Jamie (Lucas Pittaway), under his wing.  The result is as devastating as it is or this film to watch.  Though there is no message here, Kurzel reveals the ugly side that exists in every human being.

STARBUCK (Canada 2011) **
Directed by Ken Scott

STARBUCK tells the story inspired by the true events of the legendary bull who fathered hundreds of thousands of off¬spring through artificial insemination. David Wozniak (Patrick Huard) is a train wreck of a middle-aged man, deep in a $80,000 debt. When he’s not disappointing his brothers at his family-owned butcher shop or flaking out on his too-good-for-him girlfriend Valérie (Julie Le Breton), he’s getting his head dunked into a bathtub full of water by thugs to whom he owes the money.  David’s loser-ish existence is upended when a lawyer informs him that he’s fathered no less than 533 children via his one and only talent: donating sperm.  The rest of the film is whether he can claim a countersuit that will enable to pay his debt or own up and become a human being by accepting responsibility of being a real father.  Director Scott taps the sentimentality to no end.  Though this is a Quebec movie, it feels so much like a commercial Hollywood no-brainer.  Though the premise of the sperm donor might be different, STARBUCK ends up just as boring and uninventive as a typical Hollywood romantic comedy. 

388 ARLETTA AVENUE (Canada 2011) *
Directed by Randall Cole

Things go terribly wrong for couple James (Nick Stahl) and Amy (Mia Kirshner).  They live in a comfortable Toronto neighbourhood at the address of 388 ARLETTA AVENUE.  But the cat disappears and its head is found in the freezer.  Then Amy disappears after a domestic quarrel.  James is all nerves and suspects foul play.  He figures the house is under surveillance 24/7 by unknown person and calls the cops.  Of course, the cops and no one else like his best friend or sister-in-law (Krista Bridges) believe him.  Director Cole (REAL TIME) shoots his film entirely from the vantage point of surveillance and handheld cameras.  This means the audience knows that all this is actually happening – which is the case! The trouble with this film is that all this has been done so much better in Michael Haneke’s recent CACHE (HIDDEN), so that Cole’s film looks like an idiot’s version.  Comparison is inevitable and the suspense is lacking, the plot sillier with a climax that is less satisfying.  Stahl’s performance is good – one would expect the lead actor to be at least of a certain standard in a film like this but the entire exercise is a complete waste of money, energy and mostly the audience’s time.  The least Cole could have done is plagiarize from Haneke’s film.

TRISHNA (UK 2011) **
Directed by Michael Wintrbottom

Director Michael Winterbottom already filmed one Thomas Hardy novel JUDE and his second TESS OF THE D’UBERVILLES is adapted and set in India.  Tess transforms to TRISHNA (Freida Pinto), a poor lass living with her family in a village in Rajasthan, India’s largest state.  She meets a rich tourist Jay (Riz Ahmed), the wealthy son of a property developer. When he takes up managing a resort at his father’s request, he meets Trishna at a dance and their fates cross. Jay finds every opportunity to win Trishna’s affection and hires her at the hotel and very soon a steamy sex affair ensues.  The two make good chemistry together and their sexual attraction is believable.  But most of the drama of the class differences and family issues is lacking compared to reading the novel or to Roman Polanski’s version TESS.  In the novel Tess takes an instant dislike to the new suitor, but it is no such thing here.  Trishna finds Jay a good catch from the very start.  Shot in Jaipur and Mumbai, the film looks great and the new setting makes a difference to a familiar story.  But the ending killing and suicide does not come across too convincing.

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN (UK 2011) *****
Directed by Lynne Ramsay

Controversial film based on a teen killing (Kevin kills several schoolmates in a locked gym) that received both boo’s at Cannes and rave reviews finds director Lynne Ramsay (RATCATCHER) in top form with a female’s point of view on a family disaster.  WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN, but husband (John C. Reilly) and wife Eva (Tilda Swinton) never do.  Kevin is a problem boy from baby to teen.  Crying at the top of his lungs most of the time, refusing to be toilet trained or cooperative in learning or eating, Kevin grows up too smart tormenting mother and baby sister.  Ramsay hints at the likely causes for Kevin’s odd behaviour such as Eva engaging in a bright Italian festival red tomato fight while pregnant or hitting the kid or failing to show patience or love.  Or is it just giving birth to this demon child.  Ramsay shoots her film in bright red colours in a non-chronological order which renders her film ever more disturbing.  Swinton is superb as is Ezra Miller as the boy who not only bears an uncanny resemblance to Swinton in looks but also looks angelically innocent despite the devilish deeds.  The film feels at time like an art film, like a grown up ROSEMARY’S BABY or a horror film.  Though cinematically artistic looking, Ramsay keeps the suspense and audience anticipation up several notches.  The film will not be difficult to like because of its subject matter but it is without doubt that Ramsay has delivered quite a masterwork.  When Eva asks her son why, when visiting him in prison, his answer only serves to shake the audience up even more.

WUTHERING HEIGHTS (UK 2011) ***
Directed by Andrea Arnold

Those who have seen director Andrea Arnold’s previous films RED ROAD, FISH TANK and especially hr award winning disturbing shot WASP, knows that this director specializes in down to earth nitty-gritty no-nonsense drama.  She is unafraid of showing sperm in a used condom (RED ROAD), under-aged sex (FISH TANK) or mothers trying to get lucky when their children are starving (WASP).  It is of no surprise then that Emily Bronte’s classic novel WUTHERING HEIGHTS is stripped down to its bare minimum in her new adaptation to the screen.  No sweeping musical score or stunning scenery or gorgeous sets here.  In fact this version contains no music at all except for the last 5 minutes or so.  Most of the scenery is mud with shots of insects and dead animals and the film looks as if it was based on a cheap paperback than a literary classic. The story remains the same with Heathcliff courting the unattainable Catherine with disastrous results.  Arnold sure leaves her mark in this film with necrophilia at the end where the dead Cathy gets it from the distraught Heathcliff.  Love or hate this WUTHERING HEIGHTS, but one cannot complain that this version is well made and thought through – Andrea Arnold style.  You might want to leave the school children home for this one.

YOU’RE NEXT (USA 2011) **
Directed by Adam Wingard

The film begins with a man getting slain after having sex with the words YOU’RE NEXT written in blood.  The film moves to a family reunion organised in a big mansion to celebrate the wedding anniversary of a father and mother (Rob Moran and Barbara Crampton).  Arriving first on the scene are Crispian Davison (A.J. Bowen) brings his new girlfriend Erin (Sharni Vinson) followed by other siblings.  Other siblings arrive and then one by one, they are killed without apparent reason till the cause is revealed later on in the film.  Somehow the survivor is Erin who discovers the real truth about her boyfriend.  All the killings are executed with the excessive violence demanded in a slasher movie of this sort, but there is nothing really inventive or remarkable about the whole entrprise.