TIFF Preview 2012 (page 3)

THE TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2012 PREVIEW

page 3

FROM THE DESK of JOHN B. CRIBBS:
pre festivus epitome.

When TIFF rolls around each year I always have the same feeling, which is that I wish I were a more adventurous festival-goer. What we're talking about is a veritable movie buffet where you're given the opportunity to taste an overwhelming array of titles from all around the world, many that will never get theatrical or even home media release in the United States, and due to my own fickleness I feel like I squander the chance every year. There's a part of me that wants to tack the schedule to the wall and throw darts at it, leaving whatever I see up to chance, or to literally just wander from one theater to another with no pre-knowledge of what's playing. Or even, in a less arbitrary approach, pick screenings based on countries I've never seen a movie come out of, by a director whose name I can't pronounce or with a description that doesn't necessarily include the words "award-winning" or "blood and boobs." I might even - god forbid - feel compelled to check out a local non-Cronenbergian/Egoyian Canadian production or two. But it seems like each year I get less daring, the possibility of catching something completely off my radar more unlikely. Maybe it's because I'm so worried about enjoying the festival experience that I tend towards reliability: movies I know I'll like by filmmakers whose work I know fairly well, or at least know what to expect from. Looking at this year's line-up, I haven't really found a potential Stray Girlfriend or Porfirio - a film that's hardly a masterpiece but very enjoyable and one I never would have seen had I not journeyed to the Great North (and I actually took the time to watch some previews online this year, which I've never really done before.) Pretty much everything on my slate is something I'm fairly familiar and comfortable with, or a documentary on subjects I'm already well aware/a big fan of (Iceberg Slim, Tomi Ungerer, Graham Chapman, Angela Davis, Roman Polanski.) The handful of titles I've identified as conceivable "experience" films - wildcards, I guess is how we're tagging them - are up against some big hitters I'm just not going to be able to bring myself to pass up. So the guilt has already set in, leaving me to focus instead on the fact that the films I'm looking forward to this year are ones I am super fucking excited about. That's saying a lot, since last year my preview introduction was based on how depressed I was that no title stuck out in the schedule as being something to get worked up over; by the end of the festival I had seen at least ten movies I'd have no hestitation in declaring "awesome." With so much to actually look forward to this year, there's the potential for even more awesomeness (or I suppose it could go the other way and every movie I see turns out to be a huge letdown, ha ha that's TIFF for you) and that more than makes up for my lack of risk-taking initiative. Maybe someday my sense of adventure will return and I'll see the first film by a director who goes on to become one of the Greats, but this year I'm going to stick to what I know and will hopefully not be disappointed by.

MUST-SEE FILMS:

LOOPER
dir. Rian Johnson

Rian Johnson's new one is the first interesting Opening Night movie since I've been attending the festival, and as fate would have it also happens to be the first must-see movie on the Press & Industry screening schedule (it plays against Jacques Audiard's Rust and Bone, which from the preview looks like Beau Travail meets Free Willy with a little Passion Fish* and Big Blue thrown in for good measure.) I love pretty much anything to do with time travel, and I like this movie's spin on the ol' "witness your own future death" scenario of La jetée and PKD's "The Skull" where the hero has to be the one to pull the trigger on Future Gordon-Levitt a.k.a. Bruce Willis (I don't suppose there's a chance the character's last name is Looper? That would be amazing - Bud Looper.) A potential fun and funky way to enter the festival is the main reason I'm excited for this one - my only compunction about checking this out in Toronto is that, being a Bruce Willis vehicle, it's all set for wide release here in the states, which immediately brings up the concern from my opening statement: shouldn't I see something I won't have access to via my local multiplex in a month, like "paralyzed whale-tender finds love" melodrama from the director of The Beat My Heart Skipped? Oof, way to talk myself out of feeling guilty over that one: Audiard's A Prophet was an inoffensive yet uninspiring viewing experience from TIFF '09, whereas Johnson has a slightly better track record. Brick was a fun and impressive debut, Brothers Bloom was at worst an interesting, perhaps overambitious failure with some really good scenes, and as a filmmaker Johnson has always seemed like a more entertaining and much less irritating version of Richard Kelly. That is to say, a writer-director humble enough to wear his source material on his sleeve but also smart and talented enough to bring a fun and interesting spin to the proceedings. Anyway as Funderburg pointed out recently in his Miyazaki series it's tough for me to get out to see movies these days, and an additional perk of going to Toronto is the chance to see as many fall releases as I am likely to miss in the coming months.

* The killer whale angle makes me citing Passion Fish even more funny (although whales are mammals.)

POST TENBRAS LUX
dir. Carlos Reygadas

There's a lot riding on this one for me. I feel like this could very well be the make-or-break point for Carlos Reygadas. In my 2011 Year in Review, I included a few minor thoughts about my growing cynicism towards extreme visual style in cinema (specifically regarding Tree of Life and Drive), and to leave Silent Light - one of the best films of the last decade - off the stand of my personal trial against style over substance seems like Rob Morrow trying to keep Ralph Fiennes out of the Twenty One show scandal when he was only the most blatant and visible offender. Honestly though, I would go to bat for Silent Light, a film that has weight and emotion that justifies its excessive and insistent aesthetism; his command of light (a word that even pops up in the title of his last two films) feels closer to the expressive mastery of Victor Erice than the often tedious, art installation abstract floundering of, say, Tsai Ming-liang.* Still, why cut slack to the opening "dawn" sequence when it's arguably no less restrained (albeit shorter) than Malick's extended "pre-dawn" interlude in Tree of Life? Silent Light, with its framable frames, always feels like it's one slip away from falling over the fence into the kind of unacceptable self-indulgence that's gotten me so uptight lately to the point where I still love it but despite being super-excited about it I've got my guard up with this new one. The Cannes reviews have been pretty harsh, a far cry from the hype heaped upon Silent Light when it ran the festival circuit. The director's description of the project as "an expressionist painting where you try to express what you're feeling through the painting rather than depict what something looks like" sounds suspiciously like the sort of stylist's apologia that makes me cringe. The ghosting effect that blurs the edges of the frame (not sure if it will be constant throughout the film or just turn up in certain scenes) could go either way: it could be transfixing, or turn out to be his version of Altman's much-derided "vasoline iris" approach to Quintet. This all may seem pretty ungrateful on my part considering the guy's already established himself as a consistent auteur and major talent with one solid masterpiece and two other pretty great ones under his belt - I'm just more aware than ever of not giving out free passes to films with nice-looking images. But I'm going to try and do what Reygadas recommended audiences should in a recent interview: feel before I judge. I'm convinced that Post Tenebras Lux is a movie that will let me relax a little on some of these conflicted emotions I've had towards visual-oriented filmmakers of late, or make me crazier and more tediously self-questioning than ever. No less than my feelings on the work of Bresson, Tarkovsky, Dreyer and Lucretia Martel are on the line here. So no pressure, Reygadas.

* I don't hate Tsai, but he seems like the best go-to "leisurely paced, richly visual light pornographer" for all intents and purposes.

PARADISE: LOVE
dir. Ulrich Seidl

I'm up for a little "sex tourism in the sun-kissed paradise of Kenya" from Ulrich Seidl, whose Import/Export was a highlight of 2007 fest. I've see three of his films now, and can reflect that Seidl is a rarity for me: his cynical brand of confrontational storytelling doesn't turn me off the way the same kind of approach does when applied by a large amount of directors I dislike in general (Cristi Puiu, Roy Andersson, Von Trier, Harmony Korine, Alexander Payne, etc.)

Horrible things happen to the not-exactly-likable people in Seidl's movies, but he doesn't exercise the same contemptuous detachment as those other dudes (I guess I'd include Reygadas in this category...Gaspar Noe is somewhere in the middle.) With his films there's a sense of indignation over global injustice and just how tough it is to resemble an actual human being in this world, which overshadows any "look at the fat non-actors who can't speak properly with their sagging flesh on full display!" freak show mentality. Paradise: Love, the first part of a trilogy (that's already in the can, or-?) seems to pick up a lot of Import/Export's button-pushing topics: tourism/geographical dislocation, boredom/promiscuity, a fractured relationship between parent and child, an umambitious heroine who works as a caregiver for the disabled (and I'm just going to assume that pets are somehow involved in the proceedings.) I suppose it's just as possible that this film will completely turn me against Seidl as Post Tenebras Lux could with Reygadas...but that doesn't mean I'm not looking forward to a little evenly-portioned compassion and debauchery.

JOHN DIES AT THE END
dir. Don Coscarelli

Don Coscarelli at his most reliable: telling tales of unassuming American men getting in over their heads going up against some kind of unfathomable alien or supernatural invader. In the Phantasm films and Bubba Ho-Tep, the characters' diffidence in taking on a threat that's not only outside their comfortable world but pretty much unheard of in their wildest fantasies is connected to some form of masculine malfunction. For Bruce Campbell's Elvis, it's problems with his pecker. For Phantasm's pudgy bald Reggie, it's his numerous failed sexual conquests (all presented as humiliating cock teases from the virile Tall Man.) And certainly dying, which the title of Coscarelli's new film predicts for at least one of its protagonist, is the ultimate loss of bodily control that preoccupies his heroes. I mention this because it's these types of recurring character traits that have made Coscarelli's work (with the obvious exception of The Beastmaster) so remarkably grounded in real life fears and conflicts, so that the astonishing events of the movies become even more insane than they already are (and he's come up with some pretty far out there concepts.) His characters create enduring bonds and strong survial skills when they come together to take on the threat, and hopefully John Dies at the End will have that kind of cheer-worthy moment where Jody looks into the box with the moving severed finger and announces to his little brother "All right, I believe you" and they gear up to end the alien invasion. Obviously Funderburg's tentative yet firm thumbs up from the Sundance screening - I've avoided any previews or write-ups of John besides that one - has me on a high not to pass this one up, even though it will mean missing Darezhan Omirbayev's interesting-looking Dostoevsky update Student. (I'll add that last year, I only saw 3 of the 10 Midnight Madness movies and one was a huge clunker. This year there are four I'd like to check out: John Dies, Seven Psychopaths, Ryuhei Kitamura's No One Lives and Rob Zombie's new one - curse you, shockingly moving Halloween II.2! Of the four, this is the one my hopes are hung on.)

AMOUR
dir. Michael Haneke

Mortality is a theme that could be pretty terrifying in the hands of Michael Haneke. I have a feeling I'm going to start getting immensely timid walking into the theater to catch Amour, the movie that I (and probably Chris and Marcus) have been most looking forward to this year. We've seen his past characters faced with the horrible possibility of violence against themselves and their loved ones, but the idea of Haneke helming the story of a man watching the woman he's known and loved for years slipping away from him? This could be his hardest film to watch, which is certainly saying something. In contrast to Post Tenebras Lux, reviews for Amour have been more or less universally stellar, which could be good or bad news I suppose but maybe Haneke can at least finally convince dismissive critics that he's not just the one-sided provocateur they've pegged him as. It had to be something special to bring Jean-Louis Trintignant out of apparent retirement; pairing him with Emmanuelle Riva just makes the movie seem so essential to French cinephiles (that is, cinephiles who love French cinema...they don't necessarily have to be French, although they could be why not.) If it really is a film about love, I'd love to know Haneke thinks of that too: I guess this is one of the few of his George & Anne couples who've made it to old age together, so that's something. I'm completely throwing caution to the wind on this one: I expect as amazing a filmgoing experience as when I saw The White Ribbon* at TIFF in '09. Just like that year, this time I had to decide between Haneke and another premium film - last time it was Alain Resnais' Wild Grass, this year it's Vinterberg's The Hunt (Resnais' new one You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet didn't make the lineup.) Amour also has a set release date, but asking me to wait for this is like expecting Paul Cooney to pass up a quip after learning a hot young Asian porn star is dating a conservative Jewish celebrity. Now that it seems I might be the only one of the three of us to see it at the festival, there's no way I'm missing it.

* Somehow I completely forgot that White Ribbon won the Palme d'or that year - Haneke's become a regular awards whore.

WILDCARDS:

MOTORWAY
dir. Pou-Soi Cheang

Sigh...another festival, another year with no Miike movie. In fact, a notable absence of films by reputed Eastern directors in general: sure, there's a new Kitano, yet another film by the ultra-prolific Shion Sono, the aforementioned Kitamura and a 4 1/2 hour marathon from Kiyoshi Kurosawa (the less said about Kim Ki-duk's new dumb-sounding movie the better.) But considering that the last couple years the festival has hosted North American premieres of new work by Shinji Aoyama, Shinya Tsukamoto, Hirokazu Koreeda, Tetsuya Nakashima, Katsuhito Ishii, Pen-Ek Ratanaruang, Bong Joon-ho, Lee Chang-dong, Kim Ji-woon, Hong Sang-soo, He Ping, Lou Ye and Johnnie To. Thanks to To's* Life Without Principle from last year - which was not only a dynamite movie but a reinvigorating experience after a bunch of duds near the end of the festival - I'm going to be expecting a lot from this year's most prominent HK genre film. That film would appear to be Motorway, produced by To and directed by Pou-Soi Cheang, the same team behind Accident 2 years ago (I still haven't seen it, but hopefully I'll get the chance to watch it on Netflix Instant prior to this film's screening.) It seems to have a winning formula - wet-behind-the-ears rookie teams with grizzled veteran to take down infamous getaway driver - that will be spirit-boosting at best and forgettable at worst, which is honestly the best forecast for any random "inbetween" movie at TIFF. The trailer makes it look like a slightly grittier, less-flashy Tokyo Drift (it even includes Drift's infamous wheely-around-the-girl move) and while I'd prefer flashy to gritty there doesn't seem to be any reason not to grab a seat for this one.

* "To To's?" That looks so queer.

THREE KIDS or I DECLARE WAR
dir. Jason D'Adesky or Jason Lapeyre & Robert Wilson

One of the best movies of this year, Hirokazu Koreeda's I Wish (which I missed at last year's festival) was a charming and thoughtful kid-centric yarn. Possibly because of that, I've been actively seeking out interesting titles on this year's roster featuring an underaged cast (hm, I wonder why Paul just sat forward in his seat?) The mall girls of Katarzyna Roslaniec's Mall Girls seem have aged a bit in Baby Blues, so instead I look to two very different sounding movies. Three Kids follows some runaway Haitan kids (not sure how many) who roam the ruined streets of Port-au-Prince after one of its devastating earthquakes, eventually squatting in a giant abandoned, quake-damaged house. It's the director's first movie (the TIFF guide lists it as his first "documentary feature?") and I may be expecting it to be a little too much like I Wish, a simultaneously whimsical and realistic story of children setting off alone and relying on each other, but it could be worth a look. The other, I Declare War, has a weird premise: kids playing "war" in the forest whose fake violence against one another is depicted realistically, with squibs and everything like an actual action movie. I have to say I'm intrigued, although that's clearly a gimmick that could get old fast if the movie has nothing else to offer, and I've never heard of the two clowns who directed it. Both movies have pretty stiff competition for their respective time slots (Kids is up against the new Mungiu and Kiarostami, War is at war with Martin McDonagh's Seven Psychopaths) but I'm not ruling either one out.

AVOID IT:

REALITY
dir. Matteo Garrone

There are a couple directors whose movies I've seen for the first time at TIFF and been instantly disenchanted with who have new films this year, from twentysomething Xavier Dolan to 100+ year old Manoel de Oliveira. I have less than no interest in their work, but will actively cross the street to avoid mob collaborator Matteo Garrone's followup to his overhyped Gomorrah, which I sat squirming through back at the '08 festival. Now he turns his critical lens on...reality TV! What unique insights might he have into this as yet unscathed paragon of popular culture? Seriously, if all this movie's got to say is that people will do anything to get famous I'm already done with it. The fact that it apparently stars an alleged murderer just makes it that much more unappealing.

ZAYTOUN
dir. Eran Riklis

From the producer of The King's Speech comes this timely Hell in the Pacific rip-off about the slow-forming bond between an Israeli fighter pilot and a Palestinian refugee as they try to make their way home across hostile Lebanese territory. The description alone prompts me to remove Zaytoun from my potential viewing schedule faster than Terrence Malick can cut notable stars from his latest movie (zing!) Stephen Dorff, who already did the whole "trying to escape hostile territory for home" thing 20 years ago in a little movie called Judgment Night, is just someone I'm never going to be able to take seriously no matter how many years removed from his appearance in the "Dateless Amigo" episode of Married...With Children.

DISCONNECT
dir. Henry Alex Rubin

Ooooh a timely parable about the internet, with real world allusions! Lord knows I love those interconnected, parallel storylines in the tradition of Crash (2005), Babel and Breaking and Entering, but I doubt the director of Murderball has it in him to introduce subtlety to this super-obvious structure - I mean, just look at the fucking title. Even though the directors of infamous festival flop Uncertainty are back with a new movie this year, at least their previous effort only had four or five scenes of characters on their computer...this one seems like every other scene will be centered on the aesthetically appalling act of people facebooking and tweeting and blogging and (since Jason Bateman's in this) undoubtedly jerkin' it to their wicked laptops. [Holy christ, I over-looked this one - everybody get your votes ready for the clear favorite for "the worst of the festival." - christopher]

NOT GOING TO BE ABLE TO RESIST:

THE PAPERBOY
dir. Lee Daniels

How could I resist? Even without all the urinating, this adaptation of a book from the author of Paris Trout has the potential to go way off the rails and be a new precious guilty pleasure. My self-assigned pre-festival weekend homework is to re-watch Bubba Ho-Tep, see A Taste of Cherry for the first time (to see if I can get myself excited for Kiarostami's Like Someone in Love) and to watch Shadowboxer on Netflix Instant. I fully expect them to be a new set of trashy classics from Oscar-nominated king of high-class camp Lee Daniels. Also I fully intend to be a Matthew McConaughey completist this year - I'll even get around to seeing Mud, although Take Shelter was the most overrated piece of shit from last year's festival. Also I wonder if Kidman is happy that she finally got to work with John Cusack (her well-publicized reason for joining the cast of The Stepford Wives: she was reportedly aghast to learn Cusack had been replaced by Matthew Broderick.)

FINAL NOTES:

I should mention that I actually considered adding The Company You Keep to my schedule when I saw it was written by Lem Dobbs... then I remembered Dobbs had a hand in writing The Score, S.W.A.T. and Hider in the House (which I've never seen, but looks so friggin' goofy.) Also have you guys noticed all the remakes this year? New versions of Refn's Pusher, Franju's Therese Desqueyroux, Jeffrey Lurie's Foxfire [It's about girl gangs! - christopher] - did YOU know the French remade Humpday?

AN EVEN MORE FINAL NOTE from christopher funderburg

I couldn't let it go out with that whimper, but I don't have so much to add. I just think it would have been an odd note to end on a mention of the French remake of Humpday that none of us are going to see. I've been talking with Marcus and John about heading on up there, To the Wonder's icy reception at Venice and the possibility that John and I will have to take cabs everywhere because we're staying in a new hotel far from the Press & Industry screening homebase at the Scotiabank theater. The consensus is that we're not just excited, but really truly pretty freakin' excited. But that's always the case. I think the main thing that any of us have taken away from writing this preview and thinking about the upcoming festival is that the French wiener who played a cop in Rush Hour 3 remade Humpday. With Asia Argento and Charlotte Gainsbourg.

christopher funderburg, john cribbs & marcus pinn
- 9/4/2012

what's this? a late-breaking assortment of thoughts
on Canada from Mr. Paul Cooney himself?

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