Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. Art Snob has seen a ton of films I want to see, so I must hate him. I hope I disagree with him on THE ORPHANAGE because that's one of my bigger anticipated movies. Enjoy the rundown!
Well, it’s ten straight years now that I’ve been attending the Toronto Film Festival. It seems like only yesterday that I was at my first, reporting back to AICN about a cool German movie called RUN LOLA RUN while regrettably having to report that Drew Barrymore’s HOME FRIES had been served with a turkey sandwich. There have been a lot more great discoveries and big disappointments since then, but the holistic festival experience always keeps me coming back for more. An area of town very convenient to the northern cluster of theaters figures to further boost the festival’s continuing attraction for me. That would be the “Yongesterdam” district (Google it), an oasis of laid-back tranquility in a bustling metropolis. I remember being thankful when public web access first became available in the festival in 2001 and having no problem with paying $4 an hour for it. Now I can pay $5 for a day pass to a lounge with comfortable seating, wifi for my laptop, courtesy terminals for when I don’t have one, and other nice amenities. Plus I’m within easy walking distance of the Varsity Theater and the strategic Bloor-Yonge subway station. Knowing that you’ve always got an easy-to-get-to base to relax in within the festival district is very nice; combine it with an $8.50 pass to the transit system, and you’ve got maximum flexibility to make the most of your between-film time. (Time that I’ve been putting to very good use, thanks partly to my familiarity with the area along the subway line just north of the festival district.) Thanks to my festival connections, I got all of my first choices again, saving $120 in courier fees in the process. Plus, I spent far less time on the vetting process than in previous years. It's been an annual ritual of mine to laboriously prepare an HTML table that connects all festival titles to their respective IMDB pages, so as not to be completely at the mercy of the official program guide when decision time comes. (The guide is nicely prepared – I always buy a copy -- but it’s inherently absurd in that ALL movies merit exactly the same half-page picture/half-page description treatment.) This year, somebody took it upon themselves to connect the films not only to IMDB but to ALL available online information (AICN included, see http://www.tofilmfest.com), so I was in information candyland when deciding what to see. It would seem that I’ve chosen pretty well so far. Overall, this may be the strongest batch of films that I’ve taken in during a single leg of my annual two-leg trip. I’ve seen at least four movies that are certain to earn multiple Oscar nominations over the course of three days … not bad! I don’t have time to write a review (or even a synopsis, for that matter) for the films I’ve seen – that stuff is all readily available via the aforementioned website. Instead, I’ll just group them and give you my general impressions – what I’d want to know (sans spoilers) from someone who’d seen an individual film in order to get my expectations properly calibrated Multiple-Oscar Nominations Movies Michael Clayton A “Hollywood” movie done right … Clooney ditches the OCEANS fluff for a taut, intelligent drama of corporate malfeasance. It marks a super-successful transition to directing for screenwriting superstar Tony Gilroy (the Bourne trilogy), who’s written and directed a compelling film that’s very much a spiritual cousin to Paul Newman’s THE VERDICT (but with more action and suspense). Tom Wilkinson and Tilda Swinton are brilliant in support of Clooney. Wilkinson is a trial attorney who’s losing it (to the point of reprising his role in THE FULL MONTY in public), and Swinton is a ruthless control-freak corporate counsel devoid of a personal life. The production values are first-rate, the denouement memorable. It might be just a tad convoluted, but nowhere near as much as Clooney’s SYRIANA. I’ll definitely be seeing it again. Give me more mainstream movies like this … PLEASE. Lust, Caution Ang Lee dons his Taiwanese hat and shows that he can be just as controversial with hetero sex as he was with the homosexual variety in BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN. This is definitely “Last Tango in Shanghai” material. Tony Leung is no longer the hapless, love struck puppy that he was in IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE … this time he’s taking matters into his own hands! The sex scenes almost beg for a sports commentator to call out the action … it’s definitely up there with SEX AND ZEN and IN THE REALM OF THE SENSES as Asian love stories go. Surrounding these scenes is a sweeping, epic story set in the late 30’s and early 40’s about an insurgent terrorist theater troupe rebelling against the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong and Shanghai during the years leading up to WW2 and just after. They plan to kill a powerful Chinese collaborator with a taste for tail by having the beautiful Tang Wei go undercover – and under the covers – to seduce him and give them a chance to move in while his guard’s down. Unfortunately, she’s not quite ready for what success entails. The period sweep and detail are outstanding, with Rodrigo Pietro once again providing outstanding cinematography for Lee. Even at more than 2-1/2 hours, it never drags. I had minor cavils with the theater troupe not being cunning enough and with the American movies Wei goes to not having Chinese subtitles, but on balance, it’s a solid, eye-opening winner that I can’t wait to tell the folks at my favorite Chinese restaurant about. Elizabeth: The Golden Age It’s been a good two years for “Queen Elizabeth” movies. Here, Cate Blanchett re-teams with director Shekhar Kapur for an outstanding follow-up to their successful 1998 movie ELIZABETH, this one centered on the period leading up to and during King Phillip II of Spain’s attempt to overthrow England. It’s definitely going to go down as one of the rare sequels that surpasses the original. A major reason for the improvement: Clive Owen, cast here as Sir Walter Raleigh. He frankly oozes roguish charm in what I would say is his best performance to-date – one that makes me thankful that he turned down the Bond franchise. There’s definitely chemistry between Blanchett’s virgin queen and this intriguing, adventuresome, ever-loyal subject. You know that the film is on the right track early, when the famous coat-over-puddle incident between them is handled with class. Newcomers Samantha Morton as Mary, Queen of Scotts and Abbie Cornish as Elizabeth’s maid (also named Elizabeth) are outstanding, also. And Geoffrey Rush, reprising his role as Sir Francis Walsingham, once again makes excellence look easy. The production values are uniformly first-rate -- the film should definitely garner Oscar nominations in all of the technical categories. Add in a touching ending, and you’ve got an awards season powerhouse. Atonement This second teaming of Keira Knightley with director Joseph Wright (after PRIDE AND PREJUDICE) frankly starts off as Keira-does-Brideshead only to quickly morph into an ingeniously-structured morality play about the repercussions of bearing false witness. It begins in 1935, jumps to the war years, and then ahead to a distant epilogue. It’s VERY powerful, exquisitely filmed and with bravura performances. I haven’t read the Ian McEwan book, but people who have say that it’s faithful, in which case Christopher Hampton is a LOCK for an adaptation nomination. I have to say that my respect for the acting talents of Keira Knightley and James McAvoy has increased significantly. (McAvoy in particular -- I saw him here last year in THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND and considered him to Forest Whitaker what Chris O’Donnell was to Al Pacino.) And the acting trio of Saoirse Ronan, Romola Garai, and Vanessa Redgrave playing the third main character at different ages is just uncannily right. There’s a continuous sweep shot of the madness of Dunkirk that may very well be the most spectacular that I’ve ever seen … and I’ve seen Fellini, Welles and Altman. They don’t show a key trial in the film, and I have trouble picturing certain testimony holding up under reasonable cross-examination, but this is a minor quibble. (I know, I know … read the book.) The sweep shot alone merits a second viewing and there’s a LOT more than that to appreciate about it. Disappointments The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford I’m sorry, but all the rumors about this being a rambling, overlong mess are true. I remember how the same rumors spread for LEGENDS OF THE FALL years ago, and how some judicious editing was able to salvage a decent film that did OK at the box office. And I was really impressed with Andrew Dominik’s debut feature, CHOPPER, about a notorious contemporary Australian criminal when I saw it at the 2000 festival. So I was willing to give the film the benefit of the doubt … that’s the way you make decisions when fashioning an itinerary from a list of nearly 350 films. The movie seems more interested in dispensing Jesse James trivia and psychoanalyzing him and assassin Bob Ford than in maintaining a discernable narrative. I was hoping for at least an improved version of THE LONG RIDERS, but I didn’t get it. It just rambles from one episode to the next with a lot of talk punctuated by the occasional gunshot. Brad is OK as Jesse, but Casey Affleck seems in over his head in the co-starring role. There’s an amusing cameo by political strategist James Carville, but this is more than negated by the disappointment of seeing Mary Louise Parker so thoroughly wasted in the role of Jesse’s wife; she has next to nothing to do … it’s little more than a wallpaper role. I think Carville has more lines in his one scene than she does in the whole movie. There are merits to the film, and it may be nominated for Oscars in some technical categories (cinematography, set design, costumes), but be forewarned that an enthusiastic audience at its world premier with most of the cast (Brad and Affleck included) present provided only muted, country club applause at the end. The Orphanage Distributor Picturehouse Films is attempting to milk the name of producer Guillermo Del Toro for all it’s worth with this film, suggesting that it’s the completion of a horror trilogy. If they’ve succeeded in getting you to look forward to it with Devil’s Backbone/Pan’s Labyrinth expectations, I suggest that you dial these expectations down considerably. The festival guide uses expressions like “rather chilling,” “frequently quite scary” and “not for the faint of heart” to describe it, but in truth it’s WAY lighter than the two del Toro-directed movies. The production values are OK, but it’s strictly for the PG-13 “BOO!” horror crowd. Towards the end, it even evoked the movie adjective I most loathe: “Disney-esque.” Midnight Madness Stuck No trip to the festival is complete without the Midnight Madness experience. I’ve had very good luck with my MM choices in recent years and the first of my two choices for this year was no exception. It’s easily the best work that director Stuart Gordon has done since REANIMATOR – maybe his best ever. This is a jet-black suspense-horror-comedy chock full of situations that make you laugh and groan at the same time (there’s a scene with a dog that’s every bit the equal of the bear trap scene in SEVERANCE last year) and it was well received by the audience. The opening – where you hear hip hop music being played over scenes in a nursing home followed by an opening scene where nurse’s aide Mena Suvari performs a regular duty certainly meets programming director Colin Geddes’ requirement that a MM movie has to grab your attention within the first 15 minutes. The story is based on the bizarre true life tale of a woman who hit a homeless man with her car and let him slowly bleed to death while stuck in her windshield. Gordon calls this “the way the story should have turned out.” The homeless man in this case is played by the reliable Steven Rea, whose sad eyes give him a head start on eliciting sympathy. He’s newly homeless, and his fall to the bottom is cleverly punctuated by him hearing exactly the same clichéd expression repeatedly. It’s very impressive the bang for the buck that Gordon gets with this film, which never drags for a minute. He also makes an amusing Hitchcock-style cameo in the film. There was enthusiastic applause when the movie ended and the cast (except for Rea) came on for a lively Q & A. (Russell Hornsby – who plays Suvari’s scum drug-dealing boyfriend – was particularly animated and candid. It would seem that he’s even more a Yongesterdam enthusiast than I am!) * * * I saw some other stuff – mostly art-house -- but it’s going to have to wait until my second report. I’m in Rochester now, and I have to get some sleep for the second leg of my trip tomorrow. The stuff toward the end of the festival is generally less high-profile than the stuff towards the beginning, but you can still come across a gem. We’ll see how it goes this year.
