TIFF 2012 Preview (page 2)

THE TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2012 PREVIEW

christopher funderburg, marcus pinn & john cribbs
page 2

MARCUS PINN:

I can’t express how excited I am to head back to Toronto so I can watch a bunch of movies before they come out and just NOT be in New York City for a week. Due to poor planning and negligence on my part (along with very few vacation days left at my new job until next year), I'll be with John & Chris in spirit for the first two days of the festival then joining them on Saturday (that is if I don’t go crazy from the ten hour bus ride to Toronto on Friday night.) Although I had a GREAT time at the festival last year, I ended up either not liking or being slightly disappointed by movies of directors I really like (We Need To Talk About Kevin & Dark Horse) and liking movies by directors I don’t really like (Damsels In Distress). This year there’s quite a few movies debuting by filmmakers I love (Harmony Korine, Takashi Kitano, Terrence Malick, Olivier Assayas, P.T. Anderson, etc) so I hope we don’t have a repeat of last year.

I’ll also be keeping the number of impulse watches down to a minimum (those didn’t turn out so well last year either.)

I'm hoping the Toronto Film Fest will get me excited about movies as I don’t even have a top 5 of 2012 so far (this year I’ve enjoyed 21 Jump Street and Magic Mike more than Prometheus and Dark Knight Rises.)

There are a nice handful of movies I look forward to seeing this year. Below are the movies that take top priority over anything…

MUST-SEE FILMS:

OUTRAGE BEYOND
dir: Takashi Kitano
Besides my love of Takashi Kitano's deadpan face, unique comedic timing and his mixture of brutal violence with dry humor, I'm just curious to see how he's going to pull off a sequel when damn near EVERYONE was killed off (in some amazingly violent way) in the first movie. As a director Kitano is kind of hit or miss but he never fails when it comes to the Yakuza genre. Outrage Beyond is also a priority because its prequel; Outrage (a movie that made the drill scene in Marathon Man seem G-rated), only got a short theatrical run. If I don't see Outrage Beyond at Toronto there's a good chance I won't get to see it until it comes out on DVD next year.

SPRING BREAKERS
dir. Harmony Korine
Harmony Korine is one of my current favorite directors and he has yet to disappoint me. In fact, he seems to be maturing as a filmmaker with each movie. Now… judging from the plot of Spring Breakers - a group of teenage girls rob a convenience store to get money to go on spring break but end up getting involved with a drug dealer instead, I don't see much maturity. But it looks very entertaining and sounds hilarious. Plus James Franco and Harmony Korine seem like a match made in heaven for some reason. [Look at that still! Look at Franco! How could this not be everyone's must-see film of the year?! Somebody get me Paul cooney for further comment. - christopher]

THE MASTER
dir. Paul Thomas Anderson
I've waited years to see this. Anyone who's able to pull off a movie about Scientology in Hollywood gets my respect as I'm sure Anderson must have gone through a lot of legal red tape and constant setbacks given that a good chunk of the bigwigs in Hollywood belong to the church of scientology and probably tried their best to stop this movie from being made. Taking a cue from Gus Vant Sant's Last Days (a movie about Kurt Cobain that's actually NOT about Kurt Cobain, but really IS about Kurt Cobain) The Master will bring the life of L. Ron Hubbard and his church of scientology to the big screen (although it's not really about L. Ron Hubbard & Scientology... except it is). I truly believe this is the role that Philip Seymour Hoffman was born to play (he bears a striking psychical resemblance to L. Ron Hubbard) and I'm also curious to see the return of Joaquin Phoenix.

TO THE WONDER
dir. Terrence Malick
I'm a Terrence Malick fan and now that he's got this sudden jolt of inspiration and isn't taking a two decade break between projects I'm curious to see anything he does.

ONCE UPON A TIME WAS I, VERONICA
dir. Marcelo Gomes
I'm probably not going to get a chance to see Amour and my chances of seeing both The Hunt and Laurence Anyways aren't guaranteed, so Once Upon A Time Was I, Veronica is taking the last spot on my top 5. Like Outrage, I Travel Because I Have To... (Marcelo Gomes' last feature) was one of the best movies of last year that no one saw. It was a breath of fresh air in today's oversaturated road movie genre. A film for brooding men who either miss their girlfriends while on the road or went through a tough break-up and don't know how to move on. It looks like Once Upon A Time Was I, Veronica has some of the same elements as I Travel Because I Have To... so count me in. I'm sure this will see the same fate as his last film and it'll probably only get a 5 day run at Anthology Film Archives then disappear forever so I'm not going to miss this TIFF screening.

WILDCARDS:

THE ICEMAN
dir. Ariel Vromen
This movie has the potential to be either very good or really really bad. But it seems like the perfect role for Michael Shannon (possibly Oscar-worthy) so count me in.

9.79
dir. Daniel "Most Generic Canadian Name Ever" Gordon
I know this seems like a random selection but I'm a big Track & Field fan going back to the '88 Olympics (the time period this documentary focuses on). This was a time when the sport was really popular and more than just one track athlete could be considered a household name (Carl Lewis, Ben Johnson, Flo Jo, Jackie Joyner Kersey etc). I could honestly care less about the steroid angle of this documentary. There just aren't too many respectable/known docs on this sport and I'm interested to see how this one will turn out. Plus it focuses on a Canadian track athlete (Ben Johnson) so watching this movie feels like killing two birds with one stone (getting a documentary and a Canadian film out of the way in one shot).

AVOIDING IT:

ANY MIDNIGHT MADNESS MOVIE
dir. any of those dudes
Last year wasn't just my first time at the festival, but it was my first time in Toronto. Not only did I want to stay out as much as possible but I wanted to get my money's worth for my sales & industry pass and see as many movies as I could. Unfortunately the only late night movies to see at the festival are really bad, mindlessly angry, low/no budget horror movies made by young directors who seem to have only watched May and Ginger Snaps. I learned my lesson. I'm staying away from these movies this year (with the exception of Seven Psychopaths.)

THE CLOUD ATLAS
dir. Wachowskis/Twyker
This just looks like a big mess. I have nothing else to say.

THE PUSHER
dir. Luis Prieto
I love Nicolas Winding Refn but I was never a fan of the Pusher movies (although part 2 was ok) so a remake just sounds like a bad idea. A remake of Pusher feels like a remake of a remake because the original Pusher was just a copycat of a bunch of American and British gangster movies. I'll pass...

END OF WATCH
dir. the writer of Training Day, director of Harsh Times and filmmaker on several other recent L.A. cop movies
This feels like Training Day, Harsh Times or any other recent L.A. Cop movie mixed with the "found footage" genre (Blair Witch, Paranormal Activity, [Rec], etc). I will be passing on this one as well.

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