The Draft

People always ask me how I make my picks. Then they regret it because the process ends up taking so long to explain their eyes glaze over before I’m finished explaining.
So to keep it (somewhat) brief.
Directors – ones I liked before get on the maybe list for sure.

Actors – not just the talented and lovely like Ryan Gosling and Juno Temple but also frequent festival favourites. My list includes Mads Mikkelsen , Viggo Mortensen, Aaron Eckhart, and Kristen Scott Thomas.

Release Date – the Entertainment Weekly fall movie preview comes out around the same time my drop off coupons arrive in the mail. It lists the known release dates for many films between September and December and I occasionally drop an early pick if the movie is coming out very soon after the festival.

Distribution – if the film does not have a North American distributor listed in the Programme book it may or may not be released anywhere you can see it anytime soon. I tend to go for UK picks that may only end up airing on BBC but are actually awesome films, like The Trip, Mr. In-Between and The Last Hangman.

Programmer - year over year you will find that you may love films that were selected by the same programmer. If your sensibilities align with one or two it makes the elimination process easier. I tend to love the picks of Jane Schoettle and end up with at least 25% of her films in my final list.

And finally the schedule – when the actual times and dates come out inevitably I have many of my first picks in the same time slot. I have to go through all of the filter/narrowing options listed above to make my final selections. One must also consider the likelihood of waking up for a 9 AM film when building a schedule. Many bars are serving until 4 AM during TIFF – jus’ sayin’.  And even if you can wake up, you need to pick something that can keep you awake. Previous early morning picks include Easy Money, Dave Chappelle’s Block Party and No Country for Old Men. Gunshots or music are good for keeping you up in the morning.

Review: Dirty Girl

I’ve seen Juno Temple in Atonement, Cracks, Mr. Nobody, Kaboom and now Dirty Girl-and this may be her best performance that I’ve seen. We first see her character Danielle climb out of the backseat of her Mustang and glide across the parking lot in broad daylight. According to the director, Abe Sylvia that was an homage to the “dirty” girl in his high school in Oklahoma who streaked the school and looked so happy and free while everyone else around her seemed repressed and miserable.
The movies starts with Clarke (played by the charming and adorable Jeremy Dozier) watching Danielle rock the backseat from across the lot. The two are paired up in a school project and the we see the contrast between Danielle’s openness with her body and sexuality and the way Clarke hides behind his layers of clothing. Her status as the school bike and his as a dude who likes dudes are known by all, but while Danielle can embrace her otherness, Clarke only lets loose safely behind his closed bedroom door.
Their relationship helps both characters deal with their Daddy issues and their self-image and along the way we are rewarded a great supporting cast. Dwight Yoakam, Tim McGraw, Mary Steenburgen and Milla Jovovich all put in solid, authentic performances.

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.

It might get weird

I will talk to Jane Schoettle this year and it won’t get weird. I will merely thank her for all her great programming work. And that I love that she wears comfy shoes for Q&A after dressing up for an intro. Ok, it might get weird.

2009 Reading Lessons

Last year I started to go through some of the common terms that you may see on the TIFF site in the summaries for the films as a way to help others learn from my past mistakes. I know one of the festivals former talented trained corporate communicators, an entertaining young man who in addition to his Masters in English took additional courses in learning how to use his words to seduce on behalf of The Man. This guy has the making of an old-tymey raconteur, and as such I know better than most that you can’t go by the summary no matter how good they make it sound. A great summary for a less than awesome film brings to mind the beautiful menu at the restaurant that gave me campylobacter jejuni. Once you’ve been fooled you have to just sit there and take it.

Today’s reading lesson:

Coming-of-age – These movies can go either way. You really need to look at the other details in the summary to find out if this is just another self-indulgent tale composed by someone trying to work out their adolescent issues with their parents/ex-lust object/high school bully/confused sexuality or is this something that is going to speak to you on a deeper level because the acting, story telling and set pieces come together to to transcend the genre. I know that if my cynical self were to read ‘the coming-of-age story of a young boy in a mining town who just wants to dance’ I would probably have some serious doubts, and end up missing out on Billy Elliot. For these films I can only suggest that you look at the other attributes to help make the decision. If I were to see that the coming-of-age story hailed from somewhere outside of the continental United States and was selected by Jane Schoettle then I would highlight that baby in the drop off selection book faster than you could say Persepolis.