Ok, everyone’s catching up and still doing it, so fuck it, let’s join the herd and give our Toronto Film Festival recap so all our links are in one place. This is kind of shameless and usually a cheap way to drive up traffic, but who knows maybe you actually missed some of our coverage and wouldn’t mind hearing about it brief [ed. “brief” being relative]. Also one sees a lot of great movies at a festival, but when you absorb so many, film’s that might normally stand out on their own sometimes get pushed down the stack simply because you’re judging so many at once and decent films can sometimes feel slightly unremarkable when sat next to toweringly awesome films.
If we had choose one film of the festival as our favorite, we’d likely choose the crowd-pleasing “Slumdog Millionaire.” Yes, this isn’t an original choice as it won the People’s Choice Award. But one, who cares; we’re big Danny Boyle fans and arguably we were excited before people started giving a shit about this film after Telluride. It’s kinetic and full of life. Boyle does a masterful job of creating feel-good films that aren’t cheap or sentimental. If you like this film, we encourage those that missed it to go back and see his kid’s film, “Millions,” which has a similar tone. We also stuck around for the Q&A with the director and got some video footage.
“$5 Dollars A Day” was a total left-field bittersweet surprise that left us completely moved. The film contains super strong performances by Alessandro Nivola and Christopher Walken. We hope this one picks up some buzz, cause it’s an underachiever that needs champions. [A]
Similarly, in the little-buzzed about category, “Gigantic,” was a super-endearing indie film that thankfully bypassed all the loopy tics of an annoyingly quirky indie flick. A super excellent supporting cast helps round out this terrific first-feature debut and shout outs go to not only the leads Zooey Deschanel and Paul Dano, but John Goodman, Ed Asner (so wonderful), Zack Galifinakis, Jane Alexander, Ian Roberts and Clarke Peters from “The Wire.” The film had some great music in it too courtesy of Roddy Bottom, Animal Collective and a few other solid bands. [A]
We also caught the Q&A with director Matt Aselton (and Paul Dano), a nice new find for young cinema and one to watch. His fresh screenwriting in this piece is excellent.
“A Woman In Berlin,” was a moving German film about a little-told atrocity that happened to German women and the movie humanizes both the victims and the perpetrators with a non-judgmental, but still dramatic lens. [A]
While it was filled with good intentions and a nice change of pace to see a 24-year-old director make a film about aging senior citizens, “Lovely, Still,” was clumsy, sometimes embarrassing and included a silly twist that’s usually reserved for nitwits like M. Night Shmalamading-dong. The music, written by Bright Eyes and friends was decent, and regardless that we didn’t like it, we stuck around to hear director Nik Fackler defend his piece/ explain his intentions in the Q&A. [C]
The “Che” films ran a very-close second for our favorite film(s) at TIFF and who knows with further viewings this could change. Unsentimental, literal, matter-of-fact, but still immensely resonant, Steven Soderbergh completed an amazing achievement with these two films. Benicio del Toro’s quiet, but commanding performance was an effortless balance of grace and understated action. It’s nice to see a portrayal that’s incredible, but doesn’t have to resort to shouting or showy gestures. We’re pretty sure, abuela and abuelo would’ve loved it too. [A]
Any other day of the week, when we weren’t bombarded with twenty other films, the Cannes-lauded, “Gomorrah,” would have probably stuck out a little more. But as it was, the Italian crime-family film was deluded by the stronger voices that week. That said, it’s a powerful look at corruption and how it effects society, but we’re not sure it could resonate on an emotional level much deeper than it already did. [B+]
Ranked among the greats of TIFF, “Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist,” has zero chance, but taken on its own, it’s a small little indie, romantic comedy, that’s not terrible, but nowhere near as charming and endearing as we hoped it might be. [B-]
A lot of people can’t seem to believe that we actually liked, Spike Lee’s almost-three hour WWII epic “Miracle At St. Anna.” We haven’t seen that many reviews, but a lot of personal comments about, “you liked that?” have been sent our way. We did enjoy its strange blend of mystery, gritty rawness, fantastical/magical elements and humor, but even in our original review, we’re pretty sure we said, we’d understand if some people didn’t connect with it. We’re not trying to apologize for our thoughts on it, we stand by them, but we’re not sure this film is for everyone and we won’t argue with you or call you an idiot if you dislike it or think some of it is too treacly in the end. [B+]
“Not Quite Hollywood,” was a documentary about Australian B-Movies, splatter flicks and exploitation movies because apparently Oz exported a lot of the trash cinema that Quentin Tarantino grew up with. If you’re not already a connoisseur of these kinds of films, you might find it a “rockumentary” vulgarness obnoxious, but it is informative, we’ll give it that. We also gave some thoughts of it on video. [B-]
We were greatly anticipating Rian Johnson’s “Brick” follow-up, but “The Brothers Bloom,” was whimsically overwrought and wound so expertly tight it had little room to breathe. It was as if Wes Anderson had decided to make a diorama-like con-man lover story. Despite all that, it did have some charms. We didn’t love it, but we stuck around for the Q&A with Johnson, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel Weisz and Adrien Brody, regardless. [B-]
While it boast a strong performance by Christian Mckay who did a good job of impersonating the films titular character (not Oscar worthy, sorry people), Richard Linklater’s “Me & Orson Welles,” was uninteresting, flat and moved with zero emotional impact. A movie of the week at best. [C+]
Walter Salles’ “Linha De Passe” was strong and visually interesting, but at the end of the week, it didn’t leave a huge mark on us and it’s certainly not his best work compared to films like “Central Station” and “The Motorcycle Diaries.” Not bad though and it did have strengths. A Playlist buddy and us also gave some video thoughts on the film. [B]
Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden’s follow-up to the amazing “Half Nelson,” was decent, but overall, “Sugar,” the story of a Dominican Republican baseball player trying to make it in the States was a disappointment because we had really high hopes. We stuck around for the Q&A and took some musical notes too. [B]
“Happy Go Lucky,” was everything you’ve heard, vibrant, effervescent and – in the beginning at least – kind of pathologically chipper and therefore annoying, but it quickly found its footing to become another pretty excellent Mike Leigh film. We won’t argue if Sally Hawkins gets a nomination either. [A]
Featuring The White Stripe’s Jack White, Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page and U2’s The Edge, the guitar god documentary, “It Might Get Loud,” isn’t necessarily essential viewing, but if you’re into these artists and bands, you could do a whole lot worse. Enjoyable, while not mandatory. [B]
The mindbender “Synecdoche, New York,” by Charlie Kaufman can be split into two sides: the amusing beginning and the dark difficult end. It’s hard to wrap your head around and it’s easily his most audience-challenging film. Not his best, but still worth having your head scrambled for cause it’s an experience. [B]
Without Alejandro González Iñárritu, writer turned director Guillermo Arriaga proves he can still make a everything’s-interconnected story on his own with, “The Burning Plain.” However, by the end of the week, the film doesn’t really stand out so much, but it’s decent and accomplished if taken on its own we suppose. And Charlize Theron is pretty respectable in it. [B]
Driven by a moving performance by Mickey Rourke, “The Wrestler,” is a raw, intimate, scaled-down and modest picture (for ambitious director Darren Aronofsky anyhow), but still is pretty winning. Though we probably love it a little less than most salivating reviews though. Evan Rachel Wood was great too and we normally dislike her. [A]
“Burn After Reading,” wasn’t genius, but it was fun and a wickedly wry farce from the Coen Brothers. One could do a lot worse. And J.K. Simmons was hilarious. [B+]
A classic, but stock drama, “What Doesn’t Kill You,” is turning out to be one of the more unmemorable films of TIFF. About two-brothers trying to choose between crime and family, Mark Ruffalo does put in an impressive performance in the last act (which is inof itself pretty great), but it’s almost a little too late. We would have loved a post-prison drama instead, as the emotional strengths lied in those moments. We did stick around for the Q&A with Ruffalo, director Brian Goodman and Ethan Hawke though.[B]
Guy Ritchie’s “Rock N Rolla,” was tired, been-done and underwhelming. It also seems like it was made in service of a sequel? The ending was aggravatingly cheap and undramatic. [B-]
We liked “Nothing But The Truth,” at the time; the drama that uses the real-life Valerie Plame, ousted CIA-agent story as a jumping point. And Kate Beckinsale and Vera Farmiga, put in some solid thespian-ing on screen, but in retrospect, it’s not the best thing we saw. Still, it did have some emotional moments and Alan Alda’s Supreme Court speech was seriously moving. [B+]
In Conclusion
At this point, the only film we truly regret we missed is “The Hurt Locker.” Everything else we’ll see soon enough and or doesn’t sound indispensible. Other odds and ends include running into Paris Hilton (sorta), and unfortunately missing a New York Post writer beat on poor defenseless Roger Ebert. We don’t love Ebert, but we loathe the Post, so it would have been a good opportunity to throttle someone. Oh, and Dodic says hello.
