Review: The First Grader

I tend to cry during the festival. Movies that might normally get a sniffle or induce a slight redness of the eyes under normal circumstances at TIFF have me bawling uncontrollably. I don’t know if it the energy of the crowd, or just the festival-induced fatigue that lowers my emotional walls to the point where I’m getting weeping along with the battle-scarred directors in Every Little Step watching Jason Tam’s audition.

So I thought I was ready heading in to The First Grader – at least I thought I knew what to expect. The ten-second summary is “an 84 year old man enrolls in primary school after the Kenyan government announces there will be free education for all”. So I figured that I would see some adorable children, a lovable earnest teacher and some flashbacks to the war-torn past that would culminate in an uplifting story of how the human spirit can overcome adversity. We get all of that, but we also get so much more. I can barely write this as some of the images from the film continue to haunt me – as they should. In the film over and over again we hear the argument repeated that children are the future and precious resources should not be wasted on an old man’s education – but the story of the old man is a vital missing piece in the curriculum. In an effort to move past the tribalism and retribution they turned away from learning about the history that shaped what their nation had become.

Two performances stand out – Lwanda Jawar as the young Maruge has almost no dialogue but in the flashbacks he is so intense you don’t need to hear him speak at all. The love for his wife and family, his dedication to his oath and ultimately his pain during his captivity is clearly visible in a gaze that burns through the lens. Oliver Litondo as the older Maruge gives the best performance I have seen in years. I can’t compare it to anything I have seen-I can only say that it was amazing, and in the screening I saw more than half of the crowd got to it’s feet as Litondo came to the stage.

If you have a chance to see this movie, do it. Bring Kleenex, but do it.

Review: Easy Money

Easy Money is a two hour noir / action film from Sweden. Putting this in my schedule at 9 AM on the first Sunday knowing full well it was likely I would be suffering from overindulgence, lack of sleep and the beginnings of festival knee was one of my sketchier moves this year. Luckily this gamble paid off with this fantastic film.

Easy Money follows three main characters, Jorge the recently escaped prisoner, Mrado the Serbian enforcer and JW the taxi driver / student. While Jorge and Mrado are the “real” criminals I find JW the most suspect as he is constantly re-creating himself, layering lies on top of truth to the point where we never really know what kind of person he was, is or could be. We get a pretty decent amount of character development for all three outside of the world of crime. Unlike a movie like Heat where I was screaming inside for a re-edit to cut the detail of the backstory of every, especially once they started in on Dennis Haysbert’s diner cook (seriously just get to a shootout already) Easy Money keeps it moving between the live, the crime and the connection points between the characters. According to the director most of the supporting roles were not played by trained actors, and the realism shows, especially when the Chilean and Serbian cast members are speaking in their mother tongue. The authenticity in the way the untrained actors interact adds another dimension to an already good film, making me very excited to see the sequels that are allegedly scheduled to be filmed and released over the next few years.

Much less excited to see the North American remake that will allegedly start Zac Efron.

Review: Love Crime & Our Day Will Come

Here’s the thing – the first French movie I ever watched at TIFF was Brotherhood of the Wolf and for the entire movie I sat there with my mouth agape thinking that it was the coolest freaking thing I had ever seen. I left convinced that France was some kind of secret stronghold for movie awesomeness and vowed to continue to leverage my late-start French Immersion by choosing as many French movies as I could fit in the schedule. I remember wondering why our teachers only took us to see Jean de Florette and Manon des Source when there was kickassy goodness like this coming from France.

So fast forward to my next two festivals where I select a handful of French movies both years and they all manage to suck. Everything from the story, pacing, performances, even the sound in a couple were just really bad. The lighting was always very good – consistently flattering and appropriate to mood.

So I banned French films from my TIFF schedule going forward, with exceptions only for one Canadian IF it looked interesting, or France-French with Daniel Auteueil.  I did get to enjoy beautiful gems like My Best Friend and C.R.A.Z.Y but most of the time if I saw that the primary language of the film was French I flipped the page and never looked back.

Gradually over the years French movies have wormed their way back into my schedule. This year I have three, the two I’ll talk about in this post, and L’amour fou later in the week.

First the good – Love Crime with Kristin Scott Thomas and Ludivine Sagnier, directed by (sadly recently deceased) Alain Corneau. I saw Thomas in Partir last year, and I pretty much picked Love Crime because it was French – but with her in it. The story of the two leads battling it out for dominance in the workplace was paced well, and all of the supporting roles were well cast with good performances throughout the film. While I think we are supposed to empathize more with the up-and-comer Isabelle portrayed by the lovely Ludivine (at times she resembled Blake Lively a bit too much, especially with her hair down) I found myself perversely rooting for Christine the mentally abusive boss. But that’s probably a personal bit of baggage I was bringing in with me.

Moving on.

So heading into Our Day Will Come this afternoon I was cautiously optimistic even though my other festival friends kept giving me the WTF (what, THAT film?) face when I showed them my schedule. After all it had Vincent Cassel – he of the Brotherhood so how could I go wrong?

I was wrong. Others enjoyed it – the woman in front of me in the theatre seemed to really get it – however I did not. At all. What I learned today is that I need to go back to my default method of evaluation by looking for hints in the programme book (see the archives here,  here, and here) for all movies, whether they are French or not. My challenge with the film wasn’t the violence, the seemingly gratuitous sex scene (actually watching M. Cassel roll around with a handful of half-clad nubile young things was pretty entertaining) or anything else – and once again the lighting work was competent. I just wasn’t able to connect with the story or the characters in the slightest. I found the direction a bit disjointed at times, but now knowing that Romain Gavras used to direct music videos I can understand the style – just not the movie.

Review: The Pipe

The story of the town of Rossport vs Shell E&P Ireland is an all too familiar one. A big company wants to extract resources from an area and they use small cash incentives, a loose interpretation of the law, and a lot of brute force to move in, despite the objections of the inhabitants.

The documentary was directed by Risteard Ó Domhnaill. In the Q&A he told the attendees that as he lived in the area the protesters and police all knew him and you can feel the way he managed to blend into the background as you get to observe fairly unfiltered conversations throughout the film. I personally enjoy this style of documentary much more – where you get to observe the action as it happens, as opposed to the talking head interview format. The risk with the second is always that your subjects won’t be as entertaining or comfortable in front of the camera, and you are always aware that you are hearing their best recollection of events. With The Pipe you get to suffer and rejoice with the inhabitants of Rossport as they are fighting the construction of the pipe on land and at sea.

The intimacy the director/cinematographer has is reflected (at times uncomfortably and also hilariously) in the relationship the local authorities. The protesters and the enforcers of Shell’s debated right to build an inland pipe were previously close friends and neighbours, now forced to be on opposite sides of a divisive issue. Watching them fight is like watching the crumbling of a family – and we do get to see first hand that the fighting also extends to the different groups of protesters in Rossport. The battle between Shell and Rossport continues…I hope Risteard Ó Domhnaill still has his camera handy.

Review: Wasted on the Young

Another great pick from Jane Schoettle, Wasted on the Young opens with a moment of stillness from the emotionally bankrupt and perpetually charismatic Zack. From the very beginning you are asking yourself what happened to these kids. The chilling and depressing answer is that at every decision point popular opinion is what drives the outcome of the story, not what is right, wrong, true or false.

The very talented cast brings a realistic portrayal of self-involved teens at an exclusive private school to life in a surreal and over-saturated canvas. The school, the pools, the parties are just the green-screen environment for the kids-their “reality” is defined by what happens on their computers and cell phones. Who you are and what you may or may not have done is decided by popular vote via text message and wall postings. If the wisdom of the crowds decides you are a trusted source, you can get away with anything.
Great casting for every role (although they aren’t all entirely believable as teenagers, but the average age gap is no worse than that for the cast of original and new 90210). Great editing, chilling story, and overall an amazing film.

Review: Legend of the Fist

Donnie Yen is absolutely at the top of his game in this period piece directed by Andrew Lau. It’s a continuation of the story of Chen Zhen previously portrayed by Bruce Lee on the big screen and Donnie Yen on the small screen.
You don’t need to know any of the background going in-I didn’t even read the full summary in the programme book. I picked it because of the title and the flying kick picture in the book. The movie was amazing-especially the first 15 minutes. The final showdown *spoiler alert* had one of the best Inigo Montoya moments since Mandy himself picked up his bloody sword and kept fighting. The second act was a bit slow, but the art direction, costumes and camera work was so good I was more than happy to have such a visually pleasing break between fight scenes.

So what movies did you like?

So I go back to work tomorrow and will have to answer the inevitable question “so what was the best movie you saw?”

Here’s the thing about TIFF – while you do get your fair share of mainstream picks, you also get a lot of pedophilia, incest and tears. Not necessarily the types of movies that you would rec to the boss. So this posting is mostly to help remind me at a glance what I watched and liked – and also to help me when I am building my schedule during TIFF10.

When thinking about my approach for next year, I did have a moment of – why not just make it an all Jane/Thom/Colin festival – but then I wouldn’t have seen the totally awesome Cell 211.

So for now to help me remember what (and who) I liked, I’m going to list the movies I saw, separated by programmer with the ones I would watch again/recommend in bold.

Cameron Bailey

Fish Tank

Good Hair

Triage

Noah Cowan

The Informant!

Colin Geddes

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans

Bitch Slap

Vengeance

Steve Gravestock

Year of the Carnivore

Valhalla Rising

Piers Handling

Nr. Nobody

Michèle Maheux

Cracks

Partir

Raymond Phathanavirangoon

Accident

Thom Powers

Waking Sleeping Beauty

Schmatta: Rags to Riches to Rags

Cleanflix

Diana Sanchez

Cell 211

Jane Schoettle

Beautiful Kate

Balibo

Tanner Hall

My Year Without Sex

Bunny & the Bull

The Vintner’s Luck

Jesse Wente

Defendor

Review: Waking Sleeping Beauty

No talking heads and no old men reminiscing was the mission statement behind the approach to using all archival footage for Waking Sleepimg Beauty. In doing so they totally achieve their goal of taking us back in time to the animation building on the Disney lot in the dark days before the rebirth and record-breaking revenue ushered in by Who Framed Roger Rabbit and The Little Mermaid.

The story of the fall and rise of animation at Disney, along with great details about the corporate tug-of-war between of Michael D. Eisner, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Roy Disney provides a dramatic story to keep you engaged throughout the film. That would have been more than enough for a good doc, but this one has the added magic of meeting the younger versions of legends like Don Bluth, John Lasseter and Tim Burton and getting more insight into how some of the upheaval may have influenced their career choices.

Add to all of that the music (I couldn’t stop myself from lip-synching along with everything) and you get the perfect combination of entertainment and education that you would expect from the best documentaries.

PN grade: A+

Review: Defendor

This one takes a while to get going, I think I was expecting more in the way of ‘funny ha ha’ and not a sweet and charming character study of a man who lets his only guide be his moral compass. Don’t get me wrong, there are a few laughs, but they are surpised out of you while you are slowly falling in love with Arthur (Woody Harrelson).

This is not your normal David vs Goliath story-actually this is not your normal anything story. All I can say is give it time. It takes until halfway into the final act for us to totally understand Defendor, as it does Kat Dennings’ hooker and Sandra Oh’s doctor. But once we do, it’s a lot like Arthur-simple and perfect.

PN grade: B

Review: Cracks

After hearing about an alleged swarming/assault involving a group of boys from my old high school, I realized when questioning the friend that told me about it that I fully expected there to be a reason. Partially beacuse they were boys, and most of the gentlemen I know of from high school-like most I know now try to avoid drama. And usually if they start somthing, there is usually a cause (not that anything justifies violence) that is common knowledge to those involved.

I think if I had heard that it was a group of girls, I would not have expected the reason to be known already. Whether it’s a high school in Scarborough or a boarding school half a century ago in the UK, I think the common factor amongst all girls of a certain age is the propensity to hold on to grudges and secrets with equal ferocity.

Cracks takes us deeper into girl world than Mean Girls. Compared to present day the unofficial hierarchy in relationships is more strictly enforced based on rank within the school. The same factors can increase or decrease the power one might wield within the group, attractiveness, talent, personal wealth, and of course the most important, the desire for leadership.

In the film when a new girl arrives with an abundance of gifts in all areas except without the thirst for status and power, she throws the equilibrium of the entire group out of balance. Their diving coach, Miss G, played as a slightly left-of-sane Pygmalion by Eva Green is equal parts seductive, childlike and nuts.

However the most disturbing character to me when watching the film was the
mob. No one girl will ever be as powerful or potentially destructive as a group hell-bent on destruction.

A good effort by first-time director Jordan Scott, although the pacing was a bit slow in the first act, and a bit rushed in the end.

PN grade: B-