Hi. Art Snob here again on my annual excursion to the Toronto Film Festival. Eleven years and counting! It's going to be an abridged visit this year - just ten films due to an overlapping social commitment -- but I've already seen something that alone makes the whole trip worthwhile. More on this shortly.
I have to say that the vetting process for making your choices has never been easier - this will be the first year where I've spent far less time choosing films than actually watching them. As recently as two years ago, you were pretty much limited to the festival program guide and endless web searches to glean information about the huge lineup of films. The guide is very nice, but it assigns exactly one page of space to every movie - as if they're all equally meritorious. For years, I would laboriously compile a HTML document of the announced titles that linked them to their IMDB pages, so that I could make the most of the 48 hours between when the final schedule is announced and when your choices have to be in.
But no more - last year the immensely useful third party TOfilmfest website came on line, providing links to ALL known information (AICN reviews included) about every film. And this year, Twitchfilm started a "trailer park" of every trailer available for festival entries (all of which, in turn, have been incorporated into TOfilmfest). The difference between typing over 300 film titles (many in a foreign language) into the search box at IMDB versus instant mouse click access to everything known about every film is SIGNIFICANT, let me tell you!
The official TIFF website itself has been improved tremendously as well, especially in the selection tool for compiling an itinerary. And via a valued contact at the fest, I got a sneak preview of excellent software being developed for processing ticket requests online. The $150 courier fee for physically submitting your requests from out-of-town should be a welcome thing of the past by next year.
Something gained/something lost dept.: Unfortunately, there's been a slight devaluation of the standard ticket packages this year. Such packages have never been eligible for the Gala screenings at Roy Thompson Hall, but they have always been eligible for subsequent screenings of Gala films at other festival theaters. Now the ineligibility has been extended to the theater most frequently used for these subsequent screenings (especially the ones with "names") - the Elgin. This is why you won't be seeing any feedback from me on BURN AFTER READING or THE DUCHESS.
On to the movies!
ROCKNROLLA
A home run right off the bat! LS&2SB & SNATCH fans rejoice! Guy Richie has ended his 0-for-Madonna slump with a kickass offering that soars as much as REVOLVER sucked (if that's possible). All the elements you loved in his rookie and sophomore efforts are back in a glorious new mix that doesn't seem derivative or repetitive in the slightest. Among the highlights:
* The best botched robbery sequence I've ever seen
* A star-is-born performance by Toby Kebbell as crack-addled rock star Johnny Quid, probably the closest thing to a central character in the cast. You're going to be seeing more of him, and you won't want to wait.
* An ensemble cast every bit as diverse and colorful as those of his first two films. Standouts include mob boss Tom Wilkinson in a de-campified variant on his BATMAN RETURNS character (with echoes of Bob Hoskins in THE LONG GOOD FRIDAY, a major Richie influence); Thandie Newton, showing new range as a really bitchin' femme fatale; and Gerard Butler as a tough-as-nails streetwise criminal who's got a LOT of things going on.
As for the fun elements: The sex is fairly tame and gender-neutral (if you want to see Butler's buns, knock yourself out), and the drugs are mainly limited to Quid and a junkie duo, but the film really delivers when it comes to in-your-face violence and irreverent black humor.
Yes, the plot is convoluted, and it takes a little while for it to come into focus, but wasn't this also the case with Richie's two previous winners? My only complaint is a minor one: I had a suspicion about the plot's major maguffin the first time I saw it, and this suspicion turned out to be correct. I have a feeling that a lot of people will be having the same suspicion right off the bat - if the words "I'll bet that ... " come into your mind once you understand what the maguffin is, I suggest assuaging your curiosity by assuming that you're correct.
Richie made an on-stage appearance before the film, and just about the whole audience hung around during the ending credits waiting for him to return. (Which didn't happen -- If he HAD returned, I'm sure it would have been to a standing ovation.)
I can't imagine any LS&2SB/SNATCH fan not digging this new concoction. Feel free to await it with elevated expectations - no fear of another REVOLVER misfire necessary.
C'est pas moi, je le jure! (It's Not Me, I Swear!)
Most of my favorite Canadian movies are French language ones from Quebec (C.R.A.Z.Y. from the 2005 festival is a particular favorite), so I decided to give this heavily hyped entry a try. It's about a 10-year -old kid in 1968 who's living in a broken household (his mother has left for Greece to start a new life) who becomes an enfant terrible, breaking into neighbors homes when they're away, wrecking stuff at will and stealing money in hopes of pursuing an oedipal quest to be reunited with this mother. Along the way, he experiences first love with a neighbor girl - similarly from a broken home, but able to better deal with it.
I wanted to like it, but I really can't recommend it. The child actor Antoine L'Écuyer is very impressive (he got a standing ovation when he came on stage after the movie), but his character just isn't sympathetic. (I know I'D kill any kid who broke into my home and did what he does, unhappy childhood be damned!) The movie is based on an eleven-year-old book, and I suspect that too much of the story is internalized to be successfully adapted for the screen. The film could also have benefited from some more 60's nostalgia and fewer musical interludes.
Not a bad movie by any means -very good production values -- but it pales in comparison to "troubled youth" French movies like LE GRANDE CHEMIN, MURMUR OF THE HEART, THE 400 BLOWS, and FORBIDDEN GAMES. It may play well in Quebec, but I can't see it traveling. A noble effort that just doesn't quite cut it.
APPALOOSA
Ed Harris' second directorial effort (following POLLOCK) definitely shows an increasingly skillful hand behind the camera (and the usual solid acting effort in front of it). Too many times, I've seen an actor try this transition without sufficient training, with the result being a mess riddled with poor scene blocking, awkward transitions, and erratic pacing. (Check out Adam Goldberg's I LOVE YOUR WORK if you want to see a textbook example.) Not so with Harris' tale of two lawmen (Harris and Viggo Mortensen) in 1882 New Mexico defending a town headed by spineless wimps against a vicious gang. His work has the polish of a veteran director, and the influence of John Ford is evident. This is particularly impressive given the amount of mindset toggling he must have gone through when changing which side of the camera he was on.
Unfortunately, despite many positives, I can't tell anyone but big-time western fans (especially of the old school) to see this film. It just didn't give me anything I haven't seen before. Plus it seems a bit PG-13-ish for my tastes. Particularly wanting: Jeremy Irons as the head of the gang. Sorry Jeremy ... you've done some fine work in your career, but as a vicious western gang boss, you're no Henry Fonda. He just doesn't have the right kind of panache and hissibility to elevate the conflict at the core of the story. I don't want a scoundrel ... I want a full blown sociopath who I can enjoy seeing go down. (If the character HAS to be cultured, at least give me Alan Rickman.)
An Achilles heel may doom this film at the box office: no youth appeal. Sure, it's a rock-solid cast - despite the one miscasting - but Rene Zelwegger is the youngest of the members at 39.
So another film with many merits that just doesn't quite score enough originality or flair points to pass Snob muster. C'est la vie. It's still the best Viggo Mortensen western (by far) and the second best Harris/Mortensen movie -- which isn't a bad thing at all.
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That's it for my first day and a half. There's no question that seeing ROCKNROLLA right off the bat set a very high bar for me to judge the rest of my lineup by. Tonight I get to see my #1 choice going into the fest - Bill Maher's RELIGULOUS, which I saw a "workshop" session on (which included a great 20-minute sampler film) with Maher and director Larry Charles last year. I had a fun time watching his show from the patio of a café in the Yongsterdam district last night via Slingbox, and was delighted to hear him sign off on the "overtime" segment by saying to his guests, "I have to get to Toronto to destroy religion." I hope I have good news to report on this in my next post - as always with a comedic film, the acid test will be the number of reflexive laughs.
