TIFF 2010 Preview Page 2

TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2010 PREVIEW

page 2

christopher funderburg & john cribbs

john:

Movies I'm worried will end up filling in the inevitable spaces between screenings: I'm Still Here, the bullshit Joaquin Phoenix-rapper movie (sure enough, that's literally the only thing playing between 2:00 and 7:00 on Day One), Matt Reeves' Let Me In which I'm curious about even though I didn't particularly care for the original movie, Mark Romanek's Never Let Me Go (hey those two titles could go together), such arty farty fop as Vincent Gallo's Promises Written in Water and John Cameron Mitchell's Rabbit Hole. The John Sayles movie, I'm sorry to say, falls into this category for me, as Lone Star was the last movie he made that didn't feel like a generic retread of his "white man obsessed with Central American culture" theme. He feels about as natural and unpretentious in that environment as white trash Jeremy Shockey does on otherwise lovable Saints (a tool you left out of your tool-y roster).

Because it's such a dry year, I hunt the catalog for promising risks. Some of the descriptions are suspect: is Im Sang-soo's movie really "reminiscent of the work of Claude Chabrol," or are they just saying that because the movie is called The Housemaid, which would sound like a Chabrol title even if the French master hadn't made The Bridesmaid? Is Lapland Odyssey truly a "Finnish cousin to Harold and Kumar?" (For that matter, wasn't The Solitude of Prime Numbers the name of Kumar's poem at the end of Guantanemo Bay?) Then you come to a description like "so-and-so's career-launching feature debut dissects the melancholy and repression in bourgeois life in dreary apartment blocks" and just flip to the next one, memories of Parc from two years ago still festering the back of one's head. At the same time, how are you supposed to ignore a synopsis like "equal parts black humor and bloody dementia in this true crime portrait of a Japanese tropical fish dealer responsible for over forty murders?" Or the insistence that Aftershock is the "most successful Chinese movie of all time?" What does that even mean? Is Submarine really about a submarine? (It's not, but it's directed by Richard Ayoade - Dean Learner from Garth Marenghi's Darkplace!) A Horrible Way to Die is a pretty good title. I'll just check out the details of - Arggggh! Joe Swanberg?! The taint rankness of Mumblecore is all over this one, and I'm afraid I'll have to decline.

Let's see, what else we got? (Why are there two whole movies celebrating In the Mood for Love? And is this Heavenhell thing trying to use my love of Kurosawa to trick me into seeing it?) Ooh this one looks interesting...Clive Owen and Catherine Keener play parents whose kid is assaulted by an online sexual predator...has potential...directed by...DAVID SCHWIMMER? That's a pretty heavy subject, Ross - moreso than The Pallbearer, at any rate.

How enticing is this premise? "After serving three years in prison for a bank robbery he did not commit, an amiable but aimless man decides to rob the bank for real." What a great set-up! Let's hope this is Scott Frank's new movie, Henry's Crime starring Michael Shannon and Vera Farmiga. Ah crap - it's starring Keanu Reeves. And James Caan. And Fisher Stevens. And...Vera Farmiga! At least it's got that going for it. Bill Duke is also listed in the cast, but I've recently come up with a theory that Bill Duke is just sitting around in a leather chair with wheels: if you can wheel him to your set, he'll be in your movie. Seriously, have you seen him STAND in any film from the past 15 years??

Notable omissions from this year's festival? Not many. I would have gladly sat through Olivier Assayas' 330 minute Carlos the Jackal movie, but that'll turn up on IFC before too long. I was looking forward to Beat Takeshi's Outrage to fill my Japanese pulp-art entry for the year, but Miike's movie will more than fit the bill - plus it stars Koji Yakusho! Mathieu Amalric's directorial debut was good enough to compete at Cannes, but most likely isn't in the same league as the work he's done for Desplechin. Other than that, I'm sad there won't be a new Akin, Chabrol, Denis, Haneke, Reygadas, Van Sant, Verhoeven or Vinterberg to check out, or even a new curio from a Shinji Aoyama or an Ulrich Seidl or hilarious oddity from Ming-liang. I've been spoiled in the past, and I guess the underwhelming selection of this year was somewhat inevitable...but at least I know we can make ourselves feel better on the ride home harmonizing the songs from Turturro's smashing new musical!

christopher:

Whoa, whoa, whoa let me stop you right there, Johnny: did you read the description for that Jennifer Connelly movie What's Wrong with Virginia? It begins, and I quote, with "Jennifer Connelly stars as Virginia, a charming yet mentally ill mother whose greatest love is her protector and illegitimate son, Emmett." I once felt a similar passion for Elizabeth Shue, but that was until I was introduced to a woman named Molly. Plus, Connelly's movie is directed by the jackass who decided that shamelessly ripping of Rob Epstein's excellent The Times of Harvey Milk counted as writing an actual screenplay. Mentioning Epstein's film also reminds me to agree with you: this year's documentary slate looks unusually good. I've found I don't have similar tastes to doc programmer Thom Powers, but this year he outdid himself: the docs you mentioned easily outshine the rest of the festival and make Real-to-Reel this year's strongest category by a wide margin. There are a few films floating around in Real-to-Reel that we haven't even mentioned, like How to Start Your Own Country and Game of Death, that I could see myself making room to see, especially in light of the weak narrative fiction slate.

You mention several notable films that I just can't get excited for, but that I would see if they were screening at the right time: Im Sang-Soon's well-reviewed The Housemaid (which is just not going to be like Chabrol. It's just not.) and the remake of Let the Right One In. I'm glad they ditched the Morrissey-inspired* original title, but Let Me In just reminds me of a De la Soul song that's annoyingly catchy and repetitive. Tell me John: did you feel the floor shake? Did you hear the bed break? Let Me In stars the charmless little wang-ette from Kick-Ass, so if it stinks for the first 10 minutes, I'm bolting. Brighton Rock and Machete Maidens Unleashed could be fine, but they don't seem like movies I should be wasting my time with at a festival – I'll let you tell me if they're good and catch them later. I guess with the slim pickings this year I could easily end up in either one, but they both just feel inessential. Plus, I'm tired of "crazy new cinema junk!" being discovered, especially when so many of the films highlighted by a doc like Not Quite Hollywood actually blow. You might have fooled the others, but you don't fool me: The Man from Hong Kong is cheesy, Wake in Fright is boring, The Last Drive-In is cheesy and boring, The Howling 3 is boring, cheesy and brutally unfunny. Sure, I'm curious as anyone to know what powers a man should possess to challenge the Prince of Darkness, but let's be real: in a year, Ain't It Cool film nerds are going to be crowing about a bunch of Philippines-set grade-Z nothings that don't deserve the level of interest which they're suddenly getting.

Also, I had assumed that David Schwimmer's movie Trust was just a remake of Hal Hartley's classic. With Clive Owen as the "19 year-old" math genius/hand-grenade enthusiast.

As always, there are a lot of big movies that find it hard to believe anyone is excited for: Woody Allen's new terrible-looking movie, Aronofsky's defiant return to super-pretentious ultra-stylized garbage, the persistent and talentless Manuel de Oliveira making another film of absolutely no distinction, Danny Boyle's completely annoying-looking 127 Hours (if this is a sequel, where are Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy? I guess Franco just plays Nolte's nephew or something), the like totally serious and meaningful romantic drama Blue Valentine, the played-out Joaquin Phoenix rapper hoax I'm Still Here (really, my man, we all wish you weren't), Kelley Reicherdt's Oregon Trail film which apparently almost killed everyone on set and anything with the taint stink of SxSW** upon it. I guess I've probably just listed bunch of films which many folks are considering the highlights of the festival, but I just can't believe people like this crap. I don't even want to lump Uncle Boonmee in there because I can understand if people respond to his singular mythic style (I guess), but it baffles me that these other movies actually could generate enthusiasm. I'm sure I'll see a chunk of them (well, not the SxSW-ies) but it's hard to deny that I feel increasingly out of touch with any audience. What kind of sociopath isn't excited for Oliveira or Machete Maidens? Anyway, TIFF is always good because I get forced into seeing a bunch of movies I'd probably otherwise avoid. That's never a bad thing for me – I highly doubt I would've seen (and liked) The Wrestler if it hadn't been at last year's festival. Let alone encountered striking minor films like Mall Girls or The Stray Girlfriend. Maybe Franco or Affleck the younger will surprise me. If only one of their films had the word "girl" in the title

It seems like a quick run-down is in order, let’s take stock of where we stand:

Incautious enthusiasm: Another Year, John Carpenter's The Ward, Tabloid

A good bit of enthusiasm: 13 Assassins, I Saw the Devil, Love Crime, The Sleeping Beauty, The Town

Tempered enthusiasm: Amigo, The Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Cold Fish, In a Better World, Potiche, Submarine, SUPER

Schedule permitting: Buried, The Butcher the Chef and the Swordsman, Confessions, Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame, The Erotic Man, Game of Death, Home for Christmas, How to Start Your Own Country, Inside Job, The Illusionist, Insidious, Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen, Let Me In, Machete Maidens Unleashed, Tamara Drewe, Womb

If the schedule permits no escape: 127 Hours, Biutiful, Black Swan, Blue Valentine, Bunraku, Film Socialism, Henry’s Crime, I Wish I Knew, I’m Still Here, Of Gods and Men, Oki’s Movie, Promises Written in Water, Rabbit Hole, Uncle Bonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, Way, West is West

Death Defying Selections: Atlantiques, Client 9, Trust (what? Train wrecks aren’t interesting?)

Avoid like Molly: Conspirator, Conviction, Debt, Heartbeats, Horrible Way to Die, Jack Goes Boating, L.A. Zombie, Meek’s Cutoff, Miral, Trip, What’s Wrong with Virginia

I Seen It (that is to say, I saw it): Boxing Gym, It’s Kind of a Funny Story, Never Let Me Go

john:

It's true: Mark Hartley has become the documentarian version of Quentin Tarantino, pointing out the kooky moments from largely useless exploitation movies rather than ripping them off in his own "trashy art" films. Still, Not Quite Hollywood managed to highlight worthy genre directors like Richard Franklin and Russell Mulcahy along with worthless ones like Brian Trenchard-Smith. I'm not sure there are any genuinely interesting Filipino directors, but I wouldn't mind sitting through an hour and a half of the weirdest scenes from their bizarre B-movies. But as I said, it's not a festival "must" for me, and as such will almost certainly be missed in favor of watching Andy Reid look from Brandon Jackson beating our defense for a touchdown, look down at his clipboard, and look back up at the field without changing his expression. Or in favor of watching Brandon T Jackson in Lottery Ticket in the hotel pool (from what I understand the place we'll be staying in is so swank they have TVs on floaties you can view in the middle of the pool). That would certainly be more entertaining than hearing what the Filipino midgets have to say about making For Your Height Only...

I pretty much agree with your list, although I would move The Illusionist and Womb up to "tempered enthusiasm" as well as Bad Faith, the Swedish serial killer thriller by...well, no one famous but the plot sounds interesting enough. Deep in the Woods is also a possibility, although "descent into nightmare of carnal sex, mixed with moments of tenderness, violence and abuse" sounds like I'd be reliving the murky whirlpool of depressing "real sex" movies from last year's festival. To "schedule permitting" I'd add Wasted on the Young, Outside the Law, Red Nights, Balade Triste ("a parody about the Spanish Civil War in which two clowns attack and disfigure one another in jealous rages over a beautiful dance" - clowns are funny!), At Ellen's Age, Daydream Nation, Julia's Eyes, Blessed Events, How I Ended This Summer and Tom Twyker's Three. If it weren't competing against both Submarine and Insidious, I'd consider going to Brad Anderson's Vanishing on 7th Street for shits 'n giggles: I enjoyed sitting through the undeniably stupid Session 9, The Machinist and Transsiberian then instantly forgetting about them: he's like some kind of fast food chain version of Polanski. Personally I think the Midnight Madness movies should each make up a separate night slot in the P & I screenings each night of the festival...they're always fun to check out, even when they're not particularly memorable. I'd be more inclined to return to the theater at 8pm to see flying stars and zombies than a protracted Godardian film essay. Whereas during the day something like Stake Land just ain't gonna win against anything even slightly more legitimate. Consider that, TIFF programmers!

I think I'd find any escape possible to avoid Biutiful like Molly. I'm done with that "deep down we are all just a deaf promiscuous Japanese girl" international sensitivity, although Arriaga is arguably more to blame for those atrocities against cinema. Also Inarritu is ugly...then again, Bardem isn't. He married Penelope Cruz, the bastard. Besides that I'm pretty open minded, and the "probably terrible" movie I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt is Gregg Araki's Kaboom, which sounds like it could be a delightful combination of MTV's Undressed and something like Wassup Rockers. Aronofsky's latest will hopefully at least be such a colossal ripoff of Suspiria that it will deter David Gordon Green from releasing his actual remake. I'll see it if there's time, but no promises America.

Looks like 127 Hours Later won't even get a curiosity look thanks to the tight schedule...whatever, some foreign director will just make a better sequel, 127 Weeks Later. I like Franco tho, good old Danny Desario, and think his foray into soap opera acting is a much funnier and more interesting gimmick than Joaquin Phoenix's dumb hijinx. I was going to mention Game of Death - it does sound interesting for a non-Bruce Lee movie. Amigo, In a Better World and the Herzog would probably get knocked down to "schedule permitting" on my list. But I would prefer the schedule permitted for me to see as many goddamn movies as possible - I really do!

Onto the frozen tundra, Mr. Funderberg! Hopefully our schedules will give us time to provide updates on the site, so that everybody can find out what is wrong with Virginia!

* You know, that fruitcake that used to sing in the Smiths?

** There is a word commonly used for these films which have a tendency to flourish at the South by Southwest film festival, but I refuse to even let the moronic, music-critic-aping word come out of my keyboard.

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