TIFF 2011: Part 4

5. ALPS

I was looking forward to ALPS because I enjoyed the director’s last film, Dogtooth, which I saw two years ago at TIFF. Where Dogtooth combined disturbing and uncomfortable content with some bizarre comedy in a stylistic way, ALPS tries to be more realistic and grounded. It still has some oddly funny moments, though; my biggest laugh was the “Prince and Bruce Lee” scene which comes out of nowhere.

I thought the ending of the film had depth. The main character’s actions come together to explain her earlier (often strange) behaviour, revealing something about her past in a subtle way. It’s hard to discuss without spoiling it, so I’ll leave it as a vague as that.

4. A Letter to Momo

Probably the funniest movie I saw this year. The story was like a combination of My Neighbour Totoro, Spirited Away, and Princess Mononoke. I fully acknowledge that it’s derivative and a little sappy, but I’m a sucker for silly anime comedy sometimes. Most of the laughs come from a trio of mythical creatures, who have a pretty cool and unique character design. The main character’s grief and guilt over her father’s death gives it some heart-warming moments between the comedy.

3. Violet & Daisy

I think one of the main hurdles for enjoying this film is accepting that the two title characters could exist. I don’t just mean in a practical sense; obviously, no one would actually hire two teenage girls to be assassins in real life. I think the suspension of disbelief has to go further than what would or wouldn’t happen in the real world; it has to go into the psychology of the characters as well. If you can accept that the girls can go from shooting multiple villains in one moment, and then giggling about getting a pretty new dress in the next, then there’s a lot to enjoy here.

Obviously, since I’m putting it this high on my list, I was able to suspend my disbelief. The biggest factor in my getting absorbed into the film was Saoirse Ronan’s performance. Between this film and Hanna, I’ve become a fan of hers. In both films, she’s a girl killer, but she combines innocence and menace in a different way; in Hanna, it’s almost like she’s autistic and has trouble processing her perception of the world, except when she’s killing people; in Violet & Daisy, she uses dark humour to bring out the conflicting sides of her character.

2. Martha Marcy May Marlene

I read a review of this film where the writer says that he would not want to watch it a second time, because of its unsettling nature. I partially agree with that assessment. It is an unsettling film, but the reason that I wouldn’t want to rewatch it is because it would lose its sense of mystery. Much of the enjoyment of watching this film was due to the suspense of not knowing what would happen next, and what happened before. Now that I know what happens, I don’t think a second viewing would be as satisfying.

What might bring me back is the lead performance by Elizabeth Olsen. She’s very quiet throughout, but there’s a feeling that she could explode and lash out at any moment.

1. Take Shelter

As I was watching, I kept changing my mind about what the theme of the movie was. Is it about a man dealing with mental illness? Is it about a man trying to convince an unbelieving community about an impending danger? The strength of the film is that even the main character doesn’t know any more than the audience does. He reacts to his visions as if they were true, but at the same time being aware that doing so is a sign of schizophrenia. This ambiguity is portrayed very well by Michael Shannon, and makes for a very moving climax.

This film also contained some of the most effective special effects I’ve seen. They’re subtle and come at unexpected moments between quieter scenes. It’s a relief from the heavy special effects that we often see in big blockbusters.

TIFF 2011: Part 3

10. From Up on Poppy Hill

There’s nothing too groundbreaking about this story. Girl meets boy, but something keeps them apart, until it doesn’t anymore. It wraps up a little too neatly, but I don’t mind a happy ending. The best thing about it was the backdrop of the high school clubhouse. It’s a visually interesting setting, filled with some entertaining secondary characters.

9. Take This Waltz

I liked the Toronto-ness of the movie, and the colourful cinematography. It has some funny moments, but ultimately, a story about relationship stuff is not my cup of tea. It was the best Q & A session of the festival for me, with Seth Rogen and Sarah Silverman in attendance. They’re very funny. For example, and I paraphrase:

Question: “How do you comedic actors adjust to more dramatic roles?”

Sarah Silverman: “Well, I am capable of just saying words…”

8. The Awakening

This ghost movie has some good scares, especially one creepy scene involving a doll house. The supporting characters are a little one-dimensional, and for some reason, they each have a weird physical quirk; one guy is constantly coughing, one guy wears fake glasses, one guy has a limp and a stutter (Dominic “McNulty” West (man crush?)). I liked the lead character and performance by Rebecca Hall; she’s like a 1920’s version of Scully from The X-Files.

7. Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale

In some ways, it’s a typical war movie, with some spectacular big battle scenes, usually preceded by a dramatic speech. On the other hand, it inverts a common cliché: normally, we’re used to seeing WWII Japanese as fierce and brutal; here, they’re depicted as cold and strategic, and they’re the ones calling their Seediq opponents “savages.”

This was a rare occasion where I wanted a movie to be longer. I had trouble distinguishing between different characters because they’re not given much time to establish their personalities. As it turns out, the film was released in two parts in Taiwan, with a total runtime of four and half hours. They edited it down for the North American release, and I assume they kept more of the action scenes. I think it will be worth re-watching in its entirety.

6. Tahrir 2011: The Good, the Bad, and the Politician

Coincidentally, both documentaries I saw have a variation of “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” as the subtitle. It makes more sense for this film than it does for I’m Carolyn Parker, because it’s actually divided into three segments, made by three directors. My favourite part was the second. “The Bad” refers to the officers who were responsible for policing the crowd during the protests in Egypt. Calling them “bad” is almost ironic, because it doesn’t pass judgement, and the segment ends on a morally ambiguous note.

The middle section is sandwiched by two parts which are polar opposites of each other, stylistically and emotionally. The first part uses raw footage and just shows what happened in the protests. It felt like being there, and it was quite stressful to watch. In contrast, the third part is a satirical portrait of Mubarak, played for laughs. It ends the film on a more “fun” note, and relieves the tension built up by the first two parts.

TIFF 2011: Part 2

15. Ten Year

It had some good laughs and an impressive cast, but the story is quite predictable, and it really strains believability that so many attractive people would be in the same high school class. Especially in a small town. No offense to people who live in small towns.

14. Trishna

The improvised dialogue was a little awkward at times. Also, the title character is too passive; she goes through most of the movie just saying “OK,” and “Yes, sir.” The director said that her passivity was intentional; be that as it may, it’s frustrating to watch. The cinematography is beautiful, and shows India in a very realistic way.

13. I’m Carolyn Parker: The Good, the Mad, and the Beautiful

This documentary really makes you feel the effects of Hurricane Katrina, not just in the immediate aftermath, but for several years afterwards, all the way up to now. It might have made for a depressing film, but Carolyn Parker has a big personality and it’s just fun to watch and listen to her talk.

12. The Sword Identity

The key to enjoying this martial arts movie is suspension of disbelief. In this world, people can easily knocked unconscious by a single blow, and it’s possible to fight off waves of attackers by hiding behind a curtain. It’s not your typical kung fu movie in that it doesn’t focus on the fights and the choreography. The fight scenes are over in a flash and some of them even happen off-screen. It’s really about what the fights mean to the characters; all of them have strong ideals about honour and justice, and that’s what lifts the film above the ridiculousness of the action.

11. Machine Gun Preacher

As a non-religious person, I had a bit of trouble getting excited about the main character’s initial transformation from ex-con to preacher. I can’t fault the film for that if it’s true to the real-life story; it’s just not something I can identify with. It’s not a problem once he starts fighting for African orphans because religion is pretty much out of the picture in those situations. Gerard “Tonight We Dine in Hell” Butler gives an intense performance, but I wish he had done it all in his native Scottish accent, authenticity be damned.

TIFF 2011: Part 1

TIFF is over and I’m only now starting to process all the films I saw. Over the next week or so, I’ll count down the movies that I saw, and give a short review of each one.

So, let’s start at the bottom of the list. Except for the two worst entries, even this lowest stratum of films held my interest and gave me something to think about. I’m just open-minded that way.

—. The Story of Film: An Odyssey

I’m not including this in the ranking because I didn’t see the whole thing, and it’s not really a movie. It’s a 15-hour documentary, more like a miniseries than a feature. They were showing it in segments, and it was free, so I decided to pop in on the last day. It’s not hard to describe: imagine watching short scenes from many films, while a guy with a cool Irish accent describes what’s interesting about each one, and why it’s significant in the history of cinema. I got so hooked that I skipped another film, and stayed until the end of this one. I might watch the rest of it on DVD one day.

19. The Moth Diaries

Just because the word “Diaries” is in the title, doesn’t mean you can constantly rely on diary voiceovers to advance the plot. At one point, the main character writes in her diary, “That girl is weird, she must be a vampire!” and we’re supposed to go along with it completely. It would have been far more effective to leave some doubt for the audience, and drop some hints along the way instead of telling us outright what the main character is thinking.

18. Mr. Tree

My biggest problem with this film is that the title character’s quirky stupidity is inconsistent. In some moments, he seems to be mentally disabled, and in others, he’s writing extremely poetic text messages. On top of that, the main conflict of the story doesn’t really kick in until 15-20 minutes before the end, so it really drags on in the middle.

17. Among Us

I think this is a film that tries to replace drama with structure. It shows the story three times from the perspective of different characters, and it keeps you guessing because each viewpoint is incomplete. However, while watching it, my mind started to mentally re-edit the film in chronological order. If seen in that order, I think it would be clear that nothing really compelling actually happens.

16. The Loneliest Planet

I liked the idea behind this film, which is basically about how one event can change a relationship. The event occurs near the half-way point, which divides the movie into “before” and “after” halves. The crucial moment is depicted really well. However, the film is two hours long; I think a 90-minute runtime have sufficed to tell the story. Also, Gael Garcia Bernal (man crush?) doesn’t get to do much except for walking and looking sad.

Impressions from TIFF: Wrap-up (part 3)

Girlfriend

The story follows a man with Down's syndrome living in a small town. The actor had good screen presence and was quite funny in many of the scenes; it's not often you see a developmentally challenged person in a lead role in a film, so I appreciated his efforts. Because I'm not used to seeing a character like this, it kept the movie interesting in what would otherwise be a somewhat standard soap opera plot. The ending was controversial because of the actions of the titular girlfriend that our protagonist is romantically pursuing. I know it was controversial because it prompted perhaps the silliest audience question I've ever heard in a director Q&A session: "Why did it end like that?"

3 out of 5

Fire of Conscience

Hong Kong action movie in the vein of John Woo's classics. While not as over the top as Woo's films, it still had some decent shoot-out scenes and an engaging detective story. The highlight was a totally random childbirth sequence in the midst of explosions and fire. The experience was also made more entertaining by the man sitting in our row who would bust out in raucous laughter whenever grenades appeared on screen. Apparently an aficionado of grenade-related humour.

2.5 out of 5

And that's it until next year.

Impressions from TIFF: Wrap-up (part 2)

The Butcher, the Chef, and the Swordsman

Another Chinese martial arts fantasy, but was short on the martial arts. It used a nesting story-in-a-story-in-a-story structure, with each level of the story centering on each of the titular characters, and their involvement with a magical cleaver. Allow me to demonstrate by structuring my review in the same way:

The Butcher: Didn't enjoy this character because he was very cartoonish and annoying. At this point, I was not aware that there would be an embedded story, so I was quite relieved when we were introduced to...

The Chef: Probably my favorite part of the movie. It was told in the style of more traditional folklore and toned down the cartoonishness that in my opinion plagued the first part. Which brings us to...

The Swordsman: Took on an even more gritty tone, which kind of made it boring. Thankfully, it didn't last too long before we returned to...

The Chef: After having seen each of the three segments, I realized that the Chef portions struck the right balance between humor and seriousness. This storyline wrapped up nicely, but then we had to go back to...

The Butcher: Did I mention he was annoying?

2 out of 5

Janie Jones

A good example of how having the writer-director present at the screening and Q&A session can affect one's enjoyment of the movie. The movie itself was a pleasant, if clichéd, tale of a musician in a band who discovers that he has a teenage daughter who he has never met. Their relationship grows and he learns valuable lessons about life, blah blah blah. I might have liked it less if the director hadn't introduced it and mentioned that he met his daughter as a teenager, and based the movie on that. This gave it a more personal context which changed the way I viewed the film.

2.5 out of 5

There will be one more post.

Impressions from TIFF: Wrap-up (part 1)

I don't have the energy to write in-depth reviews of all the films I saw at TIFF, so I'll keep the rest short.

Black Ocean

A Belgian movie about a French naval ship and its crew. Very character-focussed and tried to depict the relationships, friendly and otherwise, between the sailors on the ship. It works up to a point, but after a while, you realize that nothing is happening in the movie except for a bunch of guys hanging out on a boat. It really went downhill for me when they tried to put in an antiwar message near the end by having one of the characters go through an arbitrary and dramatic emotional change. One positive note: the crew has a dog for a pet and he is cute.

1.5 out of 5

Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame

My friend told me that this Chinese martial arts fantasy was originally meant to be in 3D. It definitely showed up in many of the more spectacular special effects shots as they used camera angles and moves that you wouldn't normally see in conventional cinema. Beyond the visuals, however, this film didn't offer much else. The plot's central mystery started off interestingly enough in an Indiana Jones supernatural kind of way, but soon got way too convoluted for its own good. Spoiler: the real villain is the guy you least expect, which means it was actually the most obvious guy to begin with.

2 out of 5

ANPO

This documentary might have been interesting had I been able to keep up with the subtitles. Watching a documentary with subtitles is like reading a textbook, and it didn't help that I was watching my fifth consecutive subtitled film. The subject of the documentary--American military presence in Japan as visualized by various Japanese artists--still sounds fascinating to me, but honestly, guys, I was very tired. Nevertheless, there were some powerful images that have stuck with me, e.g. a photograph of an accident involving an American military truck hitting a Japanese girl. The expressions on the soldiers' faces spoke volumes.

(I don't know) out of 5

More to come...

Impressions from TIFF 2010: Confessions

Confessions kicks off with an extended monologue given by a schoolteacher whose daughter has drowned in a swimming pool. She gradually and coldly reveals that students in her class are responsible for her child’s death. The students act like typical apathetic teenagers, laughing and texting through the whole thing. As I was watching this, I wondered where the film was going to lead. Would it keep the structure of the opening sequence and have the teacher tell the story in flashback? Or would it switch to a more conventional route and show the consequences of the girl’s death? As it turns out, I could never have guessed where it was going to go.

If serialized TV series can be likened to novels, and movies are analogous to short stories, then Confessions is like poetry. It never adheres to a linear narrative, instead jumping between chapters that play like psychological profiles of the various characters in the film. At the same time, the plot reveals itself one fragments at a time, until a clear picture forms of the twisted schemes of the teacher and her students. There are no innocent characters in this film; everyone is motivated by some dark internal forces.

I admit that during the more abstract sections of Confessions, I tuned out slightly; being accustomed to more structured narratives, I found it hard to pay attention when it didn’t feel like the plot was being advanced in some way. However, I realized afterwards that those scenes would pop back into my memory, and it was because the visuals that they present would draw parallels to more significant scenes in other parts of the movie. For example, there is an image that sticks in my head of the students splashing through rain puddles in slow-motion. On its own, you might call it pointless, but later on, the schoolteacher character experiences a cathartic moment in a scene that has a similar visual palette.

Generally, I subscribe to the idea that the more you remember and contemplate a movie after watching it, the better it is. In that sense, Confessions was the best movie I saw at TIFF this year, because it was with me for days, and I’m really looking forward to seeing it again.

4.5 out of 5

N.B. I don’t automatically like a movie just because it has a Radiohead song in it. To avoid accusations of same, I hereby relegate to a footnote the brilliant use of the song “Last Flowers” in a couple of key scenes of this movie. That is all.

Impressions from TIFF 2010: Even the Rain

In Even the Rain, a Spanish film crew, lead by the director Sebastian (Gael Garcia Bernal), travels to Bolivia to shoot a movie about Christopher Columbus' discovery of the New World. Structurally, it brings to mind some of Larry David’s more self-referential moments, but in a dramatic, instead of comedic, context. (Think the fourth season of Seinfeld, where Jerry and George create a show within a show, or the seventh season of Curb Your Enthusiasm, where at one point, Larry David plays himself playing himself.) There are extended scenes of Even the Rain that essentially show the finished product of what the Columbus film would look like. It's a credit to the filmmaking that these scenes carry an emotional impact even though that we know that, as a movie within a movie, it’s two levels removed from reality and requires double suspension of disbelief.

Of course, if the movie relied on an interesting structure alone, it would devolve into gimmick. Thankfully, Even the Rain effectively uses the layered structure to reflect the different attitudes of the characters and the ethical issues of the situation they find themselves in. It's clear that Sebastian's goal for his Columbus film is to denounce the mistreatment and exploitation of the Native Americans while lionizing the Spanish priests who defended the Natives' rights. At the same time, the film crew hires local Bolivians of Native descent as extras, and brag to their producers about having cheap labour. In other words, the themes of the film they're making reflect and contrast against the themes of the film that we, the audience, are watching.

In particular, the character of the actor who plays Christopher Columbus in the inner film is very complex and multidimensional. As Columbus, he is completely inconsiderate towards the Natives, which is what the role requires. In his interactions with the other actors who play the heroic priests, he is callously skeptical of their idealism and doubts if they truly believe the same things that their characters believe. However, as the conflict with the Natives escalates, he shows yet another side to himself that was previously unexpected.

All in all, Even the Rain was entertaining and thought-provoking. It becomes a bit generic towards the climax, but I enjoyed the first act so much that it earns its melodramatic ending.

4 out of 5

Impressions from TIFF 2010: The Hunter

The promotional materials for The Hunter emphasize the events that occur in the latter half of the film. Without going into spoilers, I can say that this is a reasonable decision from the marketers because the second half does sound pretty exciting. However, I think to focus on the thriller-esque plot points is slightly misleading and sets up some undue expectations. After reading the official synopsis, and especially after the hard guitar rock accompaniment of the opening credit sequence, I was ready for an energetic crime film, and that’s not what The Hunter delivers.

I know it’s unfair to judge a movie by its promotional materials, and I don’t intend to do so. In fact, after I had settled into the slower-than-expected pacing, I found a lot to like about the film. The cinematography stands out the most; there were many well-composed shots that you could take a still frame and hang on a wall. The camera effectively captures both the grays of the urban environment of Tehran and the greens of the forest that is the setting for the latter parts of the film.

The director and writer, Rafi Pitts, also stars in the lead role. His performance, on the surface, is very stoic; you might even say stone-faced or boring. But I think he does a good job of conveying a quiet rage and sadness beneath the surface, especially in the scene where he is first notified of his wife’s death. He plays it as if he’s almost about to break down in an emotional outburst, and sustains it throughout the lengthy scene.

The main flaw I found with The Hunter was with the plotting in the second half. For long stretches, we lose sight of the main character and the story shifts to the police officers who are pursuing him. Many political themes are brought up at this point, but I didn’t think the moralizing fit in with the mood of the first half so I found it more distracting than thought-provoking. In the end, style won over substance, but in a good way.

3 out of 5

Impressions from TIFF 2010

Coming soon...

Impressions from TIFF: City of Life and Death

Links: TIFF site, IMDB

When I think about this movie, two scenes stand out in my mind. In the first scene, the camera follows a Japanese soldier as he walks up a hill and looks down. The camera continues to move upward to show what the soldier sees on the field below: the bodies of Chinese POWs that the Japanese troops have just killed in a mass execution. The second stand-out scene shows a firing squad execution of a Chinese man, softly focused in the background, while a Japanese soldier's face is shown in the foreground. The composition of the frame is phenomenal.

Both scenes depict horrible events in a visually stylish way, which pretty much sums up the movie for me. The film is about the Nanking Massacre, an event that took place just before WWII. The Japanese Army invaded the city in China and committed many atrocities there. For a movie like this, it's hard to separate the heavy subject matter from the artistry of the filmmaking. I don't really want to tackle what the film is about. Many words have been written about the topic and I don't think I have anything to add to that discussion.

What I want to focus on is how the movie addresses the subject matter. First of all, the black and white cinematography is simply stunning. The set design is very realistic, and it really makes you feel like you're there.

So what does it feel like to be there? For the first third or half of the movie, I had a very uneasy feeling because I was anticipating what horrors were going to happen next. Being familiar with the history, I went into the movie expecting to see shocking images. Sure enough, it is very uncomfortable to watch, but actually not as graphic as I expected. The emotional impact comes more from the suggestion of what's going on rather than showing it, and in that way, it's very effective. For example, one scene shows a mass shooting of Chinese POWs, but only in brief glimpses. The film spends much more time showing the reactions of the other inhabitants of the city to the sound of guns they hear in the distance.

For the latter parts of the movie, my sense of uneasiness died down and was replaced by numbness. The movie is so unrelenting in portraying one unpleasant situation after another that after a while you just have to block it out and stop thinking about it. The performances of the characters in the movie seem to become increasingly hopeless and lifeless. Basically, the only thing I felt was lack of feeling, which is what I think the film is going for in depicting the stress and trauma of war.

This is one of those movies that's difficult to watch, but I would like to see it again. I feel like I should have deeper opinions about it, but as I said, all I felt was numb in the end. Maybe on a second viewing, I'll be more able to absorb it. All in all, it was a powerful experience.

4 out of 5

Impressions from TIFF: The Sunshine Boy

Links: TIFF site, IMDB

When I first looked at the schedule for TIFF (seems like so long ago), The Sunshine Boy was one of the first movies that caught my eye. I've always been interested by the subject of autism. I think it's because I like to learn about how different people experience the world in different ways. It's hard to imagine how someone with autism perceives their environment, which is exactly why I find it fascinating.

The film is a documentary which follows the mother (Margrét Dagmar Ericsdóttir) of an autistic boy, as she interviews experts and other parents of autistic children, while trying to find some way of improving her son Keli's life. The film does a good job of mixing educational material with more personal stories so that it doesn't devolve into information overload. It's shot beautifully, especially the scenes showing the family exploring various Icelandic landscapes. As an added bonus, the film uses songs by Sigur Rós as background music throughout; they're one of my favourite bands and I thought the music suited the movie well.

To me, the driving force of the film is Margrét's desire to get to know her son. Keli's autism is quite severe and he is non-verbal, so I believe that the family saw him, understandably, in terms of his disorder, rather than who he was as a person. As she meets other families who have been able to learn to communicate with their autistic kids, she starts to hope for the same thing with Keli, and this hope transfers to the viewer.

Margrét eventually chooses to explore a teaching and communication technique called Rapid Prompting Method (RPM). The method was developed by a woman named Soma Mukhopadhyay to communicate with her own autistic son, and involves the child spelling out words by pointing at a board with letters on it. (It's more complicated than that, but that is the ultimate goal that they work towards.)

This is where my feelings got a little ambiguous. I'm a skeptic at heart, and I began to doubt the authenticity of RPM and the letter board technique. In all the scenes where they showed the kids "speaking" with the letter board, Soma is holding the board. It almost seems as if she is moving the board as much as the kids are pointing to it. How much is Soma leading it or at least anticipating what the kids are going to say? Is she using the film to sell her method by making it look more effective than it really is?

My ambivalence and doubt reached its peak in one scene which could be considered the climax of the movie. We see Keli talking with Soma through the letter board while Margrét watches. The scene is either one of the most moving scenes I've seen in a while, or a somewhat exploitative fabrication, depending on whether I believe that RPM is what it claims to be.

I have been swinging back and forth between these two positions since I saw the film. When I was sitting, watching in the theatre, I had on my skeptical hat and was dismissive of the scene. However, when I got home and lay in bed trying to fall asleep, I thought back to it and changed my mind a little. There certainly is a lot of power in the words that Keli says, which, when coupled with the Sigur Rós song (Ára bátur) playing in the background, brought me close to tears just from thinking about it. (I won't reveal what he says because I think it needs to be experienced by watching the film.)

In the end, though, I don't believe that there's any black and white way of judging a teaching system or technique, and I'm sure that it works better for some people than others. My skepticism doesn't take away from what I think is the main message of the film: that autistic kids are capable of more than their condition would seem to allow on the surface, and that there is hope for reaching them through various techniques. Whether or not I fully buy into RPM in particular, the film is very informative and thought-provoking.

3.5 out of 5

Impressions from TIFF: The Warrior and the Wolf

Links: TIFF site, IMDB

This was a Chinese historical drama. The titular warrior hides out in a village during a break in the battle and meets a woman in the village and they develop a relationship. "The wolf" could metaphorically refer to any number of things and is open to interpretation, so I won't give anything away by discussing it.

I'm not quite sure what to make of this one. While I found the basic plot satisfying, and the visuals nice to look at (especially one special effects shot of a desert sandstorm), there were some issues with the film that prevented me from really getting into it. First, I had a problem with the introduction in the first 20 minutes or so. It attempts to give the background of the war and the warrior's involvement in said wair in a non-linear way. It jumps back and forth in time and I had a hard time following what the current storyline was. I don't have a problem with non-linear storytelling, but to use it to establish the foundation for the rest of the film didn't work, and it affected the experience for the remainder.

The other big problem I had was with the relationship between the warrior and the village woman. It reminded me of the flashback sequence in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (which was my least favourite part of that film). Boy meets girl, boy holds girl captive, boy rapes girl, girl inexplicably comes to love boy. Obviously within that culture and in that historical time period, gender roles were different, but I just couldn't believe in that relationship.

At the end of the film, there was a Q & A session with the director and main cast. Someone asked a question regarding how the two stars of the film (Maggie Q and Joe Odagiri) and the director (Tian Zhuang Zhuang), who all speak a different native language, dealt with the communication barrier on set. The gist of their answers was that it wasn't a barrier, and that the energy and the emotion of the film was understood by all, regardless of language. A nice sentiment, but unfortunately, I don't think this energy translated to the screen. In the end, I think the movie felt like a series of well-done scenes, but didn't come together into a coherent whole.

2.5 out of 5

Impressions from TIFF: The Disappearance of Alice Creed

Links: TIFF site, IMDB

Two men kidnap a girl. That's pretty much all I can say about the plot without giving away the various twists. What I found interesting about this film was that the three main characters are the only people in the whole movie. Also, almost the entire story takes place within 2 rooms
in an apartment, and everything develops from the dialogue and interaction between the characters and the performances, which were great. In that sense, it's kind of like a play. On the other hand, it's shot with some stylish cinematography, which gives it sufficient "movie-ness" that you might not even notice how small the scope is. (Some people in the audience actually chuckled when the credits rolled and they realized that there were only 3 people in it.)

Excellent acting, great script, great style, and some very cool and unexpected twists. My favourite of the festival so far.

4 out of 5

Impressions from TIFF: Harry Brown

Links: TIFF site, IMDB

Michael Caine plays Harry Brown, a retired widower living in a bad neighbourhood overrun by drug gangs. And then his friend gets hurt. And then he starts killing gang members. And then the cops get involved. That's what I felt like when I was watching this movie... it was just a sequence of plot events. I never got a sense of the characters' motivations and justifications for their actions. The characters were only there to move the plot along, and I didn't care about them at all.

For example, there's one scene where the police detective (played by Emily Mortimer) suddenly goes from being confused about the situation to being completely convinced that she's solved the case, all based on what I think was a very vague piece of evidence. Up to that point, she was portrayed as a fair and thoughtful detective, but then abruptly jumps to a conclusion, only because that's what was needed for the movie to set up its climax.

Overall, it was a disappointment. That being said, there are some moments of suspense that did work well, e.g., the scene where Harry goes to buy a gun from some nasty people. And Michael Caine delivers my favourite one-liner from the festival so far. After a shootout with a bad guy, he stands victoriously over his injured opponent and says: "You failed to maintain your weapon, son." Brilliant.

2 out of 5

Impressions from TIFF: The Most Dangerous Man in America

Links: TIFF site, IMDB

I attended a press & industry screening of this documentary. (My volunteer reward vouchers give access to these insider screenings that are not available to the public--a very nice perk. As an aside, P&I screenings are a completely different experience compared to public screenings. Everybody is there to work, not necessarily to "enjoy" the film, so it's totally lacking in energy. For example, Suck was also a press screening, and I heard maybe two people laughing. I'm
sure that there would have been a much bigger reaction at a public show.)

The film is about Daniel Ellsberg, a government official who, during the Vietnam War, leaked some top secret Pentagon documents (the "Pentagon Papers") that proved that the war was based on government lies. Americans probably know the history of the event, but ignorant Canadian that I am, I was not familiar with it. So on one level, I enjoyed the movie as a history lesson. But what really drove the film for me was Ellsberg's personality. (He narrates the film and is seen throughout in the typical talking head interviews.) When he speaks, you can tell that
he's absolutely committed to doing the right thing. More than that, he followed his words with actions--actions that put his own freedom at risk. I have great respect for this, and I think that he is a true hero.

On the negative side, I thought they overdid the portrayal of Nixon as a bad, bad man. The repeated use of sound clips of Nixon saying vulgar and awful things almost came off as unintentionally funny because it was so on the nose. (E.g. someone in an interview would say something like, "Surely, the government would not do XYZ." Then it would cut to a tape of Nixon saying "By God, we better goddamn do XYZ to those sons of bitches.") I would have preferred a little more subtlety. Minor criticisms aside, this was a very fascinating doc.

3.5 out of 5

Impressions from TIFF: Suck

Links: TIFF site, IMDB

I didn't watch this with 100% attentiveness because I was working as an usher/anti-piracy cop for the screening. (It really sucks watching a movie standing up and facing sideways.) But I did get enough of it to form an opinion. The movie is a comedy about a rock band where one of the members becomes a vampire.

I liked some parts, and I would have been laughing out loud had I not been wearing my professional volunteer mask. There is a scene--a flashback sequence involving Malcolm McDowell's character, which incorporates footage of a young McDowell from some old movie--that was really well done. Ultimately though, the jokes were hit and miss, because it was kind of cheesy, goofy humour which doesn't always work for me. But I can see this becoming a "cult favourite" type of film with a good fanbase. Oh, and it's Canadian.

2.5 out of 5

Impressions from TIFF

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to work as a volunteer for the Toronto International Film Festival. I'm going to be posting some impressions of the films that I've seen so far, with more to come.