Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
I was bummed that I couldn't make it to Toronto this year for the festival because of various pitch meetings and other projects here at the Labs, but that was before Tuesday. I can't imagine having been able to focus after what happened. These braves souls did, though, and this batch of reviews hits quite a few titles we haven't seen mentioned before.
First up is a spy who saw a film that sounds quite good... and the idea that Keifer Sutherland might actually be mounting a comeback between this and the Fox series 24 is welcome news, indeed.
Hi Harry,
I have been attending the Toronto Film Festival this week (I go over after work and pick up a ticket for whatever film has some left - I hate rush lines) and had planned not to go back after Friday night (at which time I saw the very well done French film Inch'Allah Dimanche), but my friend hadn't had the opportunity to attend yet, so I said we could go Saturday morning. We picked up tickets for To End All Wars (the title certainly appealed to me this week), and I am so very glad that we did.
The film tells the true story of Ernest Gordon, a Scots POW in a Japanese prison camp in WWII, who with the rest of the internees was forced to build the "death railway" through the jungles of Thailand and Burma. Under the violence and degradation the prisoners faced at the hands of the Japanese guards, the internees find hope and civilization, and the ability (even necessity) to forgive. Ernie starts a "university" with some smuggled books such as Plato's Republic, another prisoner teaches Shakespeare, another the Bible, in the "death house" where hopeless cases are left without food to die of disease and starvation.
Keifer Sutherland plays a selfish American soldier (they call him "Yanker" because he's both a Yank and a wanker), who shows unexpected self sacrifice. Robert Carlyle is a Scots officer who is lead by anger and the need for revenge, and who seeks to undermine the "university" because it is inhibiting his planned escape attempt.
All the performances are first rate (I've never seen Kiefer better), but the lead actor, Ciarán McMenamin, is outstanding. At the risk of hyperbole, he is luminous.
The film was so moving, and touched such a cord because of the events of the past week, that my friend and I were moved to sobs (beyond tears). I do not think the director, David L. Cunningham, can be accused of emotional manipulation, because this is a true story.
It was disappointing that Cunningham, Sutherland and Gordon were unable to attend the festival as planned (for obvious transportation reasons) because I think that everyone there would have liked to have thanked them for the film. I saw many people rush out to fill in "People's Choice" ballots for best film of the festival. I was one of them.
There were two producers attending, and I told one that I didn't think
there could be a more significant film at the festival. The message of not responding in anger to degradation, violence and cruelty is needed today more than ever. "What price mercy?"
Wow. Sounds like it's about 180 degrees away from the new one by Takashi Miike, who I have recently fallen under the spell of. This guy is a lunatic, and his movies are impossible to describe. VISITOR Q is about as fucked up as anything I've seen in recent memory, but it's got a power to it that's undeniable. Let's see what this spy thought of ICHI THE KILLER.
Directed by Takashi Miike and based on a Japanese comic called ³Koroshiya 1" by Hideo Yamamoto, Ichi The Killer is an unspeakably dark and violent film and is so violent, it is in fact the most graphic film to ever play the Toronto Festival (previous years included films such as Sick).
The convoluted story is a tale of betrayals within betrayals as two rival gangs within the Yakuza are set against each other by a trio of criminals and the titular Ichi. After the gruesome death of one gang's leader at the hands (and feet) of Ichi, Kakihara (Gojoe and Gohatto¹s Tadanobu Asano) the boss's right hand man, takes over and starts looking for revenge. An extreme S & M freak, he takes great delight in the pain and suffering of others, especially at his hands. He is marked by crisscrossing facial scars, including open slashes which extend out from the corners of his mouth. Kakihara is clearly the star of the film and Asano creates a charismatic performance out of an utterly irredeemable character.
Because of the delight virtually all the characters take in violence, the director does too. Nothing, absolutely nothing is lead to the imagination and every moment, every make-up effect, every squirming gag-inducing shot is stretched to the breaking point. This film is truly vile for unlike many other films which feature violence this graphic, the audience is unable to take any vicarious joy from it. This is a grueling experience, made doubly so by the amateurish makeup and digital effects. Unlike a troma picture which revels in its cheesiness thus allowing the audience in on the joke and giving us an opportunity to laugh at and with the picture, Ichi The Killer resolutely steamrolls on.
There are moments of the blackest humor after scenes of unbearable violence, such as when Kakihara, after torturing the wrong man, offers his own tongue as an apology and then proceeds the cut it off, in the slowest, most excrutiating way possible. And then he answers his cell-phone. The humor is sorely needed and because there is not enough of it, the film eventually bogs down into darker and darker despair, for both the characters and the audience. In "Sleepy Hollow" decapitating someone is shown to only be effective and startling the first time, then it is tired. Ichi the Killer features not one, not two but three people having the side of the throats chopped open, releasing a champagne bottle spray of blood that would be at home in an Evil Dead movie, but without the fun.
This film boldly steps away from alluding to a link between sex and violence and demands that the two are in fact, two sides of the same coin. Blood and semen spurt equally across walls as Ichi, weeping all the while, slices and dices himself to orgasm. Women are brutally abused, raped, murdered and tortured in the most profane ways possible.
I cannot stress enough how unrelentingly terrible this movie is. This is a compendium of horrendous acts of torture and mutiliation with NO REDEEMING VALUE what-so-ever. This is the kind of movie that laws are passed against.
Had this movie approached the subject matter with less zealousness and a lot more humor, it would thought-provoking.
It is, however, too much of a bad thing.
Darvin
Strong words, Darvin. Definitely sounds like a black, black ride. Our next spy saw BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF (love it but will wait to review it until near release, since we've had sooooo much on the site already), and speaks favorably about MAELSTROM, a pretentious piece of twaddle I saw at Sundance this year. Both Robie and I were stunned by how bad that film was, so forgive me if I am skeptical of anyone who ladles praise on it...
Hi Harry,
Noah here, checking in with a few of reviews from screenings at the Toronto Festival.
I woke up early on Friday for a noon screening of Brotherhood of the Wolf. Now, I had read a lot about the movie and clearly knew what to expect, but I have to say, I was a bit disappointed.
Let me start by saying that if you find reading french subtitles for 2 1/2 hours trying, skip this film. You couldn't follow the story to save your life.
But I can, and I thought the story was fantastic. A small village is troubled by a beast that kills all the women and children. The king wants the mess cleared up and sends in a naturalist to track the beast. Aided by his native strong-arm, the naturalist begins to uncover a conspiracy that goes all the way to the monarchy. Of course, there's plenty of fighting and sex along the way to keep things entertaining.
Director Christopher Gans uses the length of the film to flesh out both his characters, and the complex storyline.
First the good: The fight scenes are indeed, brilliantly choreographed and beautifully photographed. Some of the acting is great. It's great to see something made overseas with a Hollywood budget (I'm still trying to figure that one out).
The bad: Far too long. Like big-budget American films, VERY mellodramatic. Many characters' motives and storylines are not really consistent with the characters we are introduced to at the beginning.
Overall, I like Brotherhood of the Wolf, but just wished I liked it more. It's worth the hype, because for a period drama, there's a lot of kicking. Everybody likes kicking.
Saturday morning was the rescheduled screening of Waking Life.
We were informed before the film that Linklater had just left the country and could not attend. Oh well. This is no typical festival year, and I wasn't counting on an appearance.
The film was worth rolling out of bed for at an ungodly time on a Saturday morning.
In fact, I'd say it ranks as highly as Ghost World or Sexy Beast as one of the best films of the year.
Wiley Wiggins plays a narrator lost in a dream. He encounters a bunch of modern day philosophers who are extolling the virtues of the dreamlife and the, uh, awake life. Included in the group are Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, who reprise their characters from Before Sunrise, Adam Goldberg and Nicky Katt, Bill Wise, who does a hilarious turn as a guy who drives a boat car (whatthe?), and Linklater himself.
Forget the absolutely astonishing animation for a second. The script, which meaders a bit at the start, turns drop-dead funny about 30 minutes in and gets better and better. I began wishing the endless series of vignettes would just play to the crowd for the whole day.
Waking Life isn't for everyone. If you get seasick when the shot jerks around, stay away. If you find films full of people sitting around and discussing conciousness very boring, don't go. Or do. This one is better than all those other ones.
This is a stunning achievement for Linklater. Better than Before Sunrise and Dazed and Confused, combined. See it, see it, see it. This film deserves more than a $6 million box-office total.
On another note, I recently discovered that one of last year's features, Gary Burn's Waydowntown, will finally get a release in the US this year (the film's star, Fabrizio Filippo, was at Waking Life this morning).
I'll use this chance to say that Waydowntown is perhaps one of the finest films ever to come out of Canada. Like Maelstrom and New Waterford Girl, it defies typical Canadian cinematic norms.
Waydowntown follows four office workers who live in the Calgary Alberta downtown core, where all of the buildings are attached. The four have a bet to see who can stay indoors the longest. The film takes place on day 28 of the competition, when things finally start to get tense.
This is the funniest Canadian movie I've ever had the pleasure of watching. Canadian films are getting better and better. Movies like Waydowntown and the two aforementioned films are showing up to prove that we don't just make movies about people who are depressed and caught in strange relationships with their neighbours and family members.
If you see it in your local listings, don't miss it.
Noah
Hmmm... I liked BROTHERHOOD more than him, I agree about WAKING LIFE, and I haven't seen WAYDOWNTOWN but hated MAELSTROM. I guess it's these differences that make the world of the film geek go round and round, eh? Thanks to everyone for their fine reports...
"Moriarty" out.
