TIFF 2011 preview (page 3)

THE TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2011 PREVIEW

page 3

christopher funderburg, john cribbs & marcus pinn

...shucks, I already screwed up: the whole concept of my comments on this year’s festival was to be positive. I initially had almost the exact same reaction to John when seeing this year’s line-up (i.e. “look at this shit-show.”) More specifically, I didn’t see a single film on the list for which I felt excitement without qualification. Everything interesting film had a major drawback of one kind or another and, unlike any previous festival, there was nothing I fully 100% expected to be fantastic. But then I re-read our 2010 preview and I was struck by how negative I was and how it turned out to be far and away the best TIFF I’ve ever attended with the truly excellent, lovable, interesting films far outnumbering the excruciators. Movies for which I had no expectations like The Illusionist, Insidious and You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger turned out to be hugely enjoyable while films of which I was deeply wary like Super, Submarine, The Town and 13 Assassins ended up being rock solid. I had great success with a bunch of amiable flicks purely selected to fill out my schedule like Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame, Fire of Conscience, Sleeping Beauty, Easy Money and Buried. Throw in a left-field mind-boggler in Confessions and genuine masterpieces Tabloid and Another Year and it all added up to the greatest Toronto Film Festival in the history of this or any another universe. My point being, my attitude last year was “look at this shit-show” but reality gave that negativist attitude a stone-cold stunner and kicked its ass straight back to Sportos.

In honor of being proven conclusively wrong, I’m going to quickly run down this year’s line-up and offer the best possible spin on the films that caught my interest. I’d hate to look as foolish this year as I did last year – 2 years in a row of negativity blown to bits would just be bad form. So, I’m going to do my best to sell myself on these films and go in with an open mind, approaching the festival I would an all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet where everything looks gross but turns out to be delicious even if its chicken’s feet or those little sesame-coated fried strips that I don’t even know what they are.

In honor of how truly crappy this line-up appears to be, I’m going also briefly going to mention why I have reservations. Sorry, when a Lars von Trier movie is the film I feel I have the greatest chance of digging, unwavering positivity simply isn’t an option.

God Bless America
The hook: Bobcat Goldthwait's tubby middle-aged Clyde and nymphette Bonnie for the 21st century!
The positives: That sound awful, right? Well, so do the concepts of Goldthwait's other three manic-depressive masterpieces, Shakes the Clown, The World’s Greatest Dad and Sleeping Dogs Lie. Goldthwait has exclusively made brilliant films from awful-sounding ideas, so there’s zero reason to write this one off.
The negatives: Bobcat Goldthwait's tubby middle-aged Clyde and nymphette Bonnie for the 21st century!

Damsels in Distress
The hook: AmerIndie pioneer Whit Stillman's return to feature filmmaking after a 15 year absence.
The positives: Stillman’s Metropolitan changed the whole history of my life and all three of his previous features are wonderful in their own way.
The negatives: The taint stink of SxSW Brand filmmaking and the presence of that fetid piece of human debris Greta Gerwig.

Restless
The hook: Gus van Sant, beautiful youngsters, what - do you need a roadmap?
The positives: Van Sant’s work with comparable approach/subject matter in Elephant, Paranoid Park and Last Days are my favorite of his films, the ones that forced my opinions of the Portland auteur to do a 180.
The negatives: Jesus Christ, copache, have you seen the trailer?

Crazy Horse
The hook: Legendary documentarian Frederick Wiseman takes on France's most notorious burlesque club.
The positives: A new film from one of the greatest directors who ever lived, a fellow who shows no signs of slowing down even in his old age. Also, pervasive sexiness.
The negatives: Very few, other than that I was under-whelmed by Wiseman's last movie about French dancers and the subject just doesn't seem as rich as in his best work.

From Up On Poppy Hill
The hook: A beautiful hand-drawn water-color animation from the son of the beyond legendary animator Hayao Miyazaki.
The positives: The stills look phenomenal and unique, the pedigree is there, there's no real reason to think it won't rule.
The negatives: The director's first name is Goro, which reminds me of Mortal Kombat. Also, his first movie, Tales from the Earthsea was just "ok." Plus, he and his dad apparently had a big falling out while making Earthsea.

Take This Waltz
The hook: I guess the idea is to sorta make a Canadian Blue Valentine-lite.
The positives: Sarah Polley deserves more respect than to be my celebrity crush because her directorial debut Away from Her had a lot of virtues. I could go either way with a cast that includes Seth Rogen, Michelle Williams and Sarah Silverman. Those guys can be good, I guess.
The negatives: Honestly, if Sarah Polley didn't direct this, I would be 100% sure it fucking blows. As it stands, I am only 97% sure. You know she got her front teeth knocked out by the police at a Socialist demonstration? God, I love her.

Into the Abyss
The hook: The notorious Werner Herzog's documentary exploring the mind of a man-child on death-row in Texas for capriciously committing a triple homicide.
The positives: In the past 3 decades, Herzog's documentaries are uniformly superior to his narrative films. Interesting to see him stepping outside of his traditional subject matter.
The negatives: Herzog is on an astounding 6 year losing streak that includes 4 of his 5 worst films - his style is verging on devolving into a tedious shtick.

A Dangerous Method
The hook: Cronenberg takes on Freud and Jung and sex.
The positives: If Cronenberg weren't directing this, there would be exactly zero nice things to say about it other than Keira Knightly remains super-hot.
The negatives: Stupid concept lacking almost entirely in factual veracity. A lame biopic featuring ridiculous mustaches and a trio of actors that would be better off as models.

Headshot
The hook: A hitman wakes up from a violence-induced coma seeing the world upside-down.
The positives: Agreeably weird concept, the director's Last Life in the Universe was pretty amazing.
The negatives: Potentially irritating, gimmicky concept, the director's last film Nymph sucked so very much.

Killer Joe
The hook: William Friedkin where he's most comfortable: in a seedy story that combines violence, corruption and sleazy sexual appetites.
The positives: You know, I don't even hate Friedkin's absolute worst pieces of shit like Jailbreakers, so chances are I’ll be ok with this. Plus, super-dreamboat Matthew McConaughey playing a scumbag. Hot!
The negatives: A loathsome cast that includes not only McConaughey but human bedbug Emile Hirsch and t.v.'s Lowell, Thomas Hayden Church. Whatever, they're both better than Antonio Sabato Jr. or Ashley Judd – plus, Out for Justice's Gina Gershon is in there, so I actually see very few negatives.

We Need to Talk about Kevin
The hook: Stunned parents of a teenage school shooter come to grips with their family in the aftermath of his rampage.
The positives: Lynne Ramsey rules, even if I don’t really love Garbage Strike or A Most Melancholy Spring Break in Ibiza. John C. Reilly rules, even if I don't like him as a serious actor. Tilda Swinton rules, even if I don't particularly care too much about any movie she's ever done.
The negatives: Ramsey's first two movies are pretty deeply flawed, John C. Reilly is not likable in serious mode and Tilda Swinton is always better than the material she chooses.

Melancholia
The hook: A wedding at the end of the world.
The positives: Even Lars von Trier's usual detractors seem to like this one, it was neck and neck with Tree of Life for the Palme D'Or and I actually like Kirsten Dunst. I genuinely enjoyed the aggressively silly Anti-Christ ("there’s no such constellation!") and find von Trier's provocateur shtick to be adorable. His movies all look really good.
The negatives: It's not that I really like Lars von Trier's movies, I'm just sort of charmed by their dogged will to assault their audience.

Sleeping Beauty
The hook: The sordid world of ultra-perverted sex work starring the young woman from Machine Gun Robot Samurai Dance-Hallucination Fighters.
The positives: One of the more controversial festival hits this year, it will supposedly shatter my preconceived notions of heterosexuality and sleazy nudity-centric art cinema.
The negatives: Sounds pretty pretentious.

The Lady
The hook: The true story of a Burmese pro-democracy activist starring Michelle Yeoh and David Thewlis.
The positives: I literally couldn't adore Yeoh more than I do, she's the embodiment of the ideal woman in my fucking opinion: beautiful, intelligent, strong, able to kick giant spears out of stone walls. How awesome is it that in a time when the Chinese government is cracking down on artists and forcing Hong Kong stalwarts like Zhang Yimou and Donnie Yen to insert ham-fisted Fascist propaganda into their work that she takes a stand and rides the proverbial "motorcycle on top of a train" in support of democracy? It is very awesome. Additionally, I have one metric ton of love for Thewlis for playing Johnny in Naked.
The negatives: It's directed by action schlock-meister and noted pompous Frenchie Luc Besson. Nothing about this mish-mash of director, actors and concept comes together.

The Killer Elite
The hook: An ex-Navy SEAL is forced out of retirement to save his one-time mentor from a vengeful oil magnate.
The positives: Statham!
The negatives: DeNiro!

Films whose potential virtues and flaws should be readily apparent:
Miss Bala (high concept thriller with strong festival buzzzzzzz),
Livid (another X-Treme horror movie from the directors of Inside)
Take Shelter (Michael Shannon with some director people say is good, but has never made a good movie)
Jeff, Who Lives at Home (Duplass Bros., Jason Siegel and Mr. Woodcock’s own Susan Sarandon)
Almayer’s Folly (Chantal Ackerman movie based on a Joseph Conrad novel)
Pina (3-D Wim Wenders documentary on the esteemed dancer)
Peace, Love and Misunderstanding (Mr. Black Robe & Breaker Morant himself, plus Jane Fonda, idiotic title)
You’re Next (From Beyond/Re-Animator’s Barbara Crampton slathered in the taint stink of SxSW)
That Summer (Monica Bellucci in a sexy role but directed by the terminally dull Philippe Garrel)

I’d be curious to see, but will probably opt out when forced to actually do so:
Twixt (unless, of course, it features me in a Halloween mask running around in my underwear)
Tyrannosaur (love Paddy, have no interest in traditional UK-style miserablism)

I seen it already; that is to say, I saw it:
Drive
Carolyn Parker: the Good, The Mad, and the Beautiful

No fucking thanks:
New films from Steve McQueen (Hunger remains the most insanely over-rated film of the past 28 years), Bruno Dumont, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Aki Kuirsmaki, Dardenne Bros., Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Jafa Panahi movies. I’ll also be skipping the quirky new Lasse Halstrom joint and some shit from tragic jackass Jeffrey Q. Sideways. Plus, somebody needs to stop Michael Winterbottom before it’s too late and he’s made so many movies that film historians decide the sheer volume of his output means he’s important. Almodovar’s smirking sitcom sensibility and talent-free directing deserve, as always, to have the used tampon of a rancid whore splattered across them. They should also step in vomit.

On that positive note, I’m psyched!

- chris

(P.S. I know Ermanno Olmi has new film and I secretly am sure I will love it as Il Posto, I Fidanzati and The Tree of Wooden Clogs are some of my favorite movies ever made. Just don’t tell anyone. I’d like to keep up the façade of being a negative jerk-ass who shits all over the hard work of respected artists and world-renowned filmmakers.)

marcus pinn:

Whoa! I knew our tastes differed, but GOD DAMN! you guys are making me almost not want to go. I hope there wont be too much talk like this on the drive up. I'll keep my hatred for Whit Stillman to myself (which is really just all about Metropolitan. I guess I don't HATE last days of disco or barcelona) if you guys try not to trash all the movies I'm looking forward to seeing and all the directors I like. But you can say whatever you want about Lars Von Trier. I love him, but it's impossible to defend him.

I understand not liking Bruno Dumont (although L'humanite was GREAT as far as Im concerned), but no love for McQueen, Kaurismaki, The Dardenne Bros? Or Weerasethakul (well...he's understandable, too. I love him, but at the same time that's understandable) [I was once raped by a giant catfish monster, so I just can't romanticize his work the way you do - christopher]

I know you shouldnt judge a movie by just a 2 minute trailer, but I'm amazed you found ONE thing in the trailer for restless that actually made you possibly want to see it. It feels like a big joke. In fact I remember watching the trailer a while back and texting John: "have you seen the trailer for Gus Van Sant's new movie? is this shit a joke?" and his reply back, after watching it, was something along the lines of "I think I just threw up in my mouth." It looks like Van Sant has gone back to being awful for a while. He gets in these phases where he's great (gerry - last days), then he does a block of annoying movies like good will hunting & finding forrester. Anyway, you'll have to let me know how that one turns out. Same with Killshot and the upside down viewing hitman movie (I rolled my eyes half way through the description of that one on the TIFF site).

It's funny that you say that about Tyrannosaur because I was thinking the SAME thing today while watching the trailer. As much as I love Paddy Considine, I kept saying to myself "do I want to see this? It just seems like its going to be depressing and dark just for the sake of it. I get it, living in parts of England can be tough. Got it." But it's either that or Money Ball so i dunno...

I'm going to watch Twixt, but I'm worried. When you explained the whole concept of what Coppola was doing with the score it just sounded odd and a little convoluted. But its nice to see Kilmer on a big screen instead of on every other direct to video box cover in blockbuster which is where he's been for the last 10+ years.

I'm seriously considering watching Drive 2 more times (I'm hoping to get a ticket to the 9:00 a.m. show) and not watching a dangerous method at all. And you dont have to answer this because it may sidetrack the conversation but what flaws were in Ratcatcher and Morvern Callar?

Oh, do the prostitutes at least look good??

christopher funderburg:

Oh, jeez! I'm being positive! I talked myself into half those movies and genuinely achieved a positive mental state and maximal excitement for the festival. Maybe it's just that I finally received confirmation that noted gentleman of lesiure and Mark L. Lester super-fan Paul Cooney would be joining us once again in Toronto, but my "psyched up" meter is off the charts. I'm sure Up From Poppy Hill and Killer Joe are going to be so 100% in my wheelhouse and honestly, what could possibly be not great about Crazy Horse? Anyway, I'm sure I'll see something from the Dardennes or Almodovar or somebody like that and love the movie - I always do, last year I loved the latest Woodsy Allen movie and I'm always being surprised at TIFF by directors I don't like. Don't bet on me altogether eschewing and pissing on the guys you like - I'm old enough to know that I'm generally wrong about everything. (John, remember when we saw the preview for Shrek, turned to each other and said "That movie's not gonna make any money!")

Anyhoo, the prostitutes are not good looking as far as I've seen, but that's really a question for Cooney. The one who pelted with a used feminine hygiene device closely resembled a toothless Vicki Lewis. I'm sorta joking about Toronto's complexion because we really do have a blast up there - even if that just means going to eat chicken wings and street vendor veggie dogs in our spare time twixt (thanks Coppola!) gorging on le cinema.

Final thoughts, John? I'm actually really excited to have Marcus up there with us to counter-balance our taste and suggest we are crazy for skipping Thai-flavored mysticism in favor of Statham kicking people in the head. The more I talk and think about the trip, the happier I get. I just hope our road trip rituals don't drive you insane, Marcus. You will learn the meaning of "strato-nimbus zacket" whether you want to or not.

Cordially,
Jason Kelce

Post-script:
Don't get me wrong, I really do love Lynne Ramsey, even if there are elements of her first two movies that cause me to withhold embracing them without compunction. Also, I just now see that Shinya Tsukamoto has a new movie... playing opposite Damsels in Distress and the Eagles game. Goddammit.

john cribbs:

Don't worry Pinn, we're not going to badmouth Apichatpong Weerasethakul the entire eight hour car trip. For one thing, it probably takes that long to say his name... or sit through one of his movies. Ba-zinnnng! Nah, just kidding. Recently I've been working on broadening my film horizon, I really have. I'm trying to adjust the way I watch movies by filmmakers I don't revere beyond compunction, and as such I'm open to watching some of their films again with a different perspective as to what I'm looking for (I haven't exactly fleshed this thing out, as you can tell, but I intend to start with a Lars Von Trier Second Chances.)

But yeah I'm with Chris, all this talk may seem slanderous but it's getting me seriously pumped. It's refreshing to get a third perspective on the line-up from someone whose opinion I hold in high regard despite a few diverging viewpoints on certain directors (personally, I would have to nominate Morvern Collar as the most overrated film of the last 28 years; Kaurismaki I plead ignorance, the Dardennes just leave me cold.) I'm looking forward to the three of us meeting up at screenings and comparing notes on what we've seen. Although I wish there was that one movie to get me super-excited, I don't actively hate any of the directors at this year's festival with the exception of Payne and Winterbottom (and maybe Bruno Dumont.) I'm open to seeing pretty much anything.

Also Pinn, don't take Funderburg's portrait of Toronto as a cesspool of tampon-hurling hookers to heart. It's actually a real nice city; it's worth mentioning too that the tampon incident occurred in the area where the festival used to be held. The new area around the Lightbox which they started using last year is much nicer - the nights are full of young people out on the town, vomiting on the streets etc.

And make no mistake: I intend to see Drive. Just maybe not in Toronto. I dunno, we'll see. Its time slot is unfortunate. I wish it was playing against Restless, which just seems less appealing every time I think about it. It was written by Bryce Dallas Howard's college roommate, for christ's sake.

It's funny the Headshot premise didn't wow you, Pinn. Jordie felt the same way. I explain it to her and she said "Yeah, coma patients see upside down, it's this well-documented scientific oddity. What, is that supposed to be some kind of stupid twist?" Whatever, I just read that set-up and thought it clicked real well with the better aspects of Pen-Ek Ratanaruang's style. It could be a total wash out, but I'm willing to give it a shot. [Have neither of you really never seen Last Life in the Universe with Tadanobu Asano? It's great! - christopher]

I understand what you're saying about Wiseman, Chris. I also prefer his "blue collar" docs to the arty ones about ballet companies and fancy burlesques. But I'm on such a Wiseman high after Boxing Gym (and Essene at 24 Hour Movie Marathon) that Crazy Horse is my one absolute Must See of the festival.

You find Keira Knightley "super-hot?" This is something I never knew about you.

I don't think skipping the Statham movie is a snub on my part...for one thing, it's coming out in wide release like two weeks later. Not that I'm planning on seeing it then - fuckin' De Niro.

Guys, it's gonna be a great goddamn time!

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