Hey folks, Harry here with The Flying Monkey yet again! This time with a film that tore him to shreds... followed by a Ravvy double bill of TWIST and YOUNG ADAM and finishing up with the Meg Ryan bare all IN THE CUT. What a weird group of four films... sounds good, but just a weird day of film...
Hey Harry,
The Flying Monkey here once again, enduring caffeinated publicists and labyrinthine lineups to keep you in the loop on some more Toronto International Film Festival screenings...
IN THIS WORLD
In This World: This film was so good, and so emotionally affecting, that I wanted to I skip out on the rest of the morning so I could have some serious quiet time. For those who don't know, the UK has been mired in controversy recently over illegal immigration and the phenomenon of 'people-smuggling'; this film launches a direct hit at immigration critics who blind themselves to the struggles of those who try to better their lives by risking them to enter the Western world. Powerfully directed (by Michael Winterbottom of 24 Hour Party People and The Claim) and beautifully scored, this is another film that blurs the boundary of documentary and drama to great effect. For people familiar with the issues, there is not a lot of news here, but the film conveys the reality of people-trafficking in a vivid and heartfelt way. Exceptional use of digital video and night photography. Winner of the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival.
TWIST
Twist: I really wanted to blow this one off--I was wiped out by the last film and had no great hope that it would fulfill its eccentric but promising concept: a contemporary retelling of Oliver Twist with Fagin as a pimp for a motley band of young male whores. I've got to say though, I'm glad I went. It was superb. (That said, if you're the kind of person who never wants to see any movie about young male whores, don't go. The film is surprisingly candid, though not explicit, about everything that male prostitution involves.) Nick Stahl puts that haunted look of his to good use as Dodge, this version's Artful Dodger who shoulders the film pretty much from start to finish. It's an amazing and unexpected performance with some surprisingly tough edges. The film's final third enters into some very dark territory that some will find upsetting, but anything else would have been a cop-out. I was glad that the filmmakers maintained the courage of their convictions right through the final moments--the result is a terrific film that should do well on the festival and art-house circuit.
YOUNG ADAM
Young Adam: Ewan MacGregor puts his other lightsabre to use in this moody melodrama--it seems he just can't keep his pants on. He plays Joe, who works on a barge with a husband and wife on the river Clyde in what looks to be the 1950s. Shortly after he and the husband find the body of a young woman floating in the river, Joe and the wife (Tilda Swinton, excellent as always) begin a raw risky affair that leaves little to the viewer's imagination. Joe remains obsessed with the dead girl, even more so when a married plumber is charged with her murder and Joe has reason to believe he's innocent. This film is based on a British novel, something of a bohemian classic, that probably shed more light on Joe's inner workings that what we find here. That said, the film is well made and well acted, and ultimately makes itself into something more than The Bargeman Always Docks Twice.
IN THE CUT
In The Cut: Once more between the sheets, dear friends--this erotic thriller, which is basically 'Cruising' for straight women, has at least half-a-dozen scenes of star Meg Ryan getting very naked and very nasty with co-star Mark Ruffalo in just about every conceivable way, while all around her young women are getting strangled and "disarticulated", their body parts strewn hither, thither and yon. Ruffalo plays the abrasive gutter-mouthed NYPD detective (miles away from his character in You Can Count on Me) who gets involved with Ryan despite his nagging feeling that she has seen something pertinent to the case; but fair's fair--she gets involved with him despite her nagging feeling that he might be the killer. Jane Campion directed, so the whole thing is smothered in a rich red sauce of Freudian symbolism (lighthouses, bridges, tunnels, gardens, flowers and petals), literary allusion, clever camera tricks and blood. And sex. And blood. There are about four suspects, all male (alright, maybe one female--special guest Jennifer Jason Leigh as Ryan's slightly deranged sister), and they are all dangerously wacko, which doesn't say much for Ryan's character and her choice of friends.
The identity of the killer is a surprise, but not that much of a surprise. And the ending is, um, peculiar. This would be a great date movie--if it weren't for the blood, and the body parts, and the men all being dangerously wacko. It's not terrible, but I spent a lot of time wondering why so many talented people signed on to something that should have been made as a direct-to-cable woman-in-jeopardy thingie. Unimaginably, Nicole Kidman (who is one of the producers) was supposed to by the Ryan role before dropping out for scheduling reasons. Hmmm.
More as it happens,
TFM
