Filmnerd 4

Ramblings

Wrap up

Posted by: Task, September 19, 2006 12:11 PM

Another TIFF, come and gone. Time to run over the Best-o-the-Fest(tm)!

Honourable mentions go to the following movies:
The Host - For showing us that the modern monster movie can be GREAT.
Black Sheep & Fido - For showing us that there's a lot of room for creativity in the Zombie genre, two fantastic movies that even non-zombie lovers will enjoy.
Starter For Ten - What's with all the good romantic comedies this year?
Exiled - For telling A Tale Of Five Hitmen, wonderfully entertaining.
Princess - For showing us what animation is best at: Doing what can't be done with live action!

Now let's run down the Top 5!

5) Winning the "Romantic Comedy With Superpowers" award: Cashback!

4) Winning the "Full Bodied Kung Fu" award: Jade Warrior!

3) Winning the "Romantic Comedy In Another Country" award: Outsourced!

2) Winning the "Drop-Dead Hilarious" award: Severance!

And our surprise top movie of the TIFF...

1) The Last Winter! If anyone else ever sees this movie, I would be unsurprised if it didn't get rated "one of the top films of all time", just like this one.

With the formalities out of the way, time to reflect a bit...

Sheitan

Contains 200% of your daily recommended allowance of Fucked Up!

Posted by: Task, September 19, 2006 10:42 AM

Saturday, September 16 11:59 PM RYERSON

Want to know what this movie is like? Go re-read the title of this review.

Unfortunately, that's pretty much all there is to it.

Watching this movie was the first time I really wanted EVERYONE to die.
All of them. Horribly. In terrible ways.

If they had, then at least it might have been entertaining.

The best role here is played by the crazy Frenchman groundskeeper. Everyone else is a total 'tard or just a tool.

Geddes! You've let me down! Schedule something better for the last movie of the fest!

Outsourced

I wanna try "Monkey Pulls The Turnip"!

Posted by: Task, September 19, 2006 10:35 AM

Saturday, September 16 7:30 PM VARSITY 8

The concept behind this movie is fantastic, and I don't think anyone was more surprised than the writers that it hadn't been done before. It's basically The Great American Rom-Com In India.

Our hero here is a call center manager (in Order Fulfillment) who's told to tell his team they're fired, all their jobs have been outsourced to India. He's not fired though, they need him to go to India and get things working there.

So most of the movie is a "fish out of water" piece as he tries desperately to grapple with the realities of living in India. There's also the new office and his new team there, another great source of hilarity. Then there's the magnificent and beautiful Ayesha Dharker and the relationship that develops there.

By the end of the movie you've enjoyed a couple good twists and turns, you've laughed uproariously at a couple great bits, and you might even have gotten the happy ending that you were hoping for and despaired of seeing. Much like Amile, this is one of those fantastic date movies that you'll never forget even if you forget whoever it was you saw it with.

This movie would easily be worth a Golden Boot if only I actually cared what India was like. That means it's awesome and you'll love it. Someone will distribute it, and you should take someone to go see it.

Rescue Dawn

Christian Bale proves once again he's the king of weight control

Posted by: Task, September 19, 2006 10:19 AM

Saturday, September 16 4:45 PM VARSITY 8

Another great performance like in The Machinist here. This time however, it's a based-on-actual-experience of a pilot captured during the Viet Nam war.

It's obviously an interesting tale of survival, and I'm still not sure about one facet of the movie. You never find out what happened with anyone who isn't the main character. When you meet them there's a bit of backstory on them but unless the main character is with them you have no idea what they're up to.

Not really surprising since after 2 years in the POW camp they're all more than a little loopy, their actions are nigh-on impossible to predict, you have to assume that they've died or something. So while it does kind of add to the realism that you're never off the main character, I would've liked a screen of text at the end saying "I never saw anyone else from the POW camp again". Something to acknowledge that there was more than one character to the movie, since he was key but far from the only person on the screen.

Fay Grim

Terror-ific

Posted by: ThirteenDamnDollars, September 17, 2006 11:53 AM

So Hal Hartley missed the day at film school where they taught how to write realistic dialog. You can either get past this or you can't. Me, personally, I love the stilted, akward, hilarious Hartley patter.

Fay Grim picks up a few year's after Hartley's Henry Fool. What if Henry's 7 volume Confessions wasn't actually a book of risible poetry, but a secret code. What if Henry wasn't a pathetic misanthrope, but a pathetic misanthrope ex-CIA operative on the run from ever intelligence agency in the world?

The movie is mostly hilarious, but loses the plot about two thirds of the way through when the sympathetic Osama Bin Laden character shows up. (You can go back and read that again, let it sink in, I'll wait here). I mean, on the one hand, why is it ok to laugh at these John Le Carre parodies of grizzled CIA men, telling tales of instigating bloody third-world rebellions for abstract political gains but not those on the other side, but on the other hand, I'm sitting in this theater on the anniversary of Sept 11, 2001 listening to this terrorist appolegia, and having a hard time taking it.

Still I recommend it.

Cheech

Allors

Posted by: ThirteenDamnDollars, September 17, 2006 11:47 AM

Let's get this out of the way first: Cheech features what is possibly the most Canadian murder ever committed to film, when a man is beaten to death, in a snowbank, with one of those metal dealies that you put under your tires to get traction when you're stuck in the snow. I wanted to stand up and sing the national anthem when that happened.

Cheech is a darkly humorous and stylish noir, set in the world of the Montreal escort service industry. But it's really the story of a small business man trying to compete against the big boys, to make good and carve out a slice for himself and those loyal to him.

In classic noir style, the film opens with an image of the hero, dead in a hotel room, gun in hand, his blood mixing with the snow blowing in from a broken window. The movie then goes back in time, and we learn how we got to this point, the way shifting loyalties tragic misunderstandings, and bad decisions made for noble reasons led to this result.

Cheech keeps the pace taut to the final framem giving us interesting and complex characters with complicated motivations.

Side note: usually subtitles are pretty much transparent to me, after watching a movie, I remember the characters doing and saying things, not reading. But in Cheech, for the first time in a French-Canadian film, a I got a real sense of what it's like to see English as an invading and alien force. Something that's both sneered at and feared, an agent for ambivalent change.

Pan's Labyrinth

Fauns and fairies and guns oh my!

Posted by: ThirteenDamnDollars, September 17, 2006 11:22 AM

Pan's Labyrinth a Guillermo del Toro fairy tale. Set against the backdrop of the bloody, cruel Spanish civil war, featuring graphic torture, amputations, pregnancy complications and terrifying monsters (both fabulist and human), it's a movie certain to permanenty damage any child that accidentally sees it.

Young Ofelia is taken with her very pregnant mother to a chalet in the mountains, where her step father, a brutal captain is waging war against gurellias in the nearby woods. There she discovers an ancient labyrinth, and the faun that dwells at its centre. The faun, claiming that she may be the long lost princess of a magical world, assigns her tasks to prove her worth. Meanwhile, in the profane world, her step father cares more about his potential heir than the woman that's carrying him, rebels work amongst the household staff and Ofelia must balance the demands of pleasing her mother and fufilling the faun's tasks.

The faun's motives are far from unambiguous, and there are hints that he, too is more interested in Ofelia's half brother than her. (Oh noes! Are the pretend monsters and the real ones somehow related? Do the horrors of war somehow becomes fairy tale horrors in a childs mind?!!!)

Jade Warrior

Hammer Time

Posted by: ThirteenDamnDollars, September 17, 2006 11:00 AM

If you tell me "Finnish-Chinese-Estonian martial arts co-production". I'll say "that's a movie for me". Still Jade Warrior left me a bit cold. The fights, such as they are, are pretty great, and it's neat to see the spirit of an ancient fighting demon posess a portly middle aged shop keeper.

Told in two times, modern Finland and ancient China, Jade Warrior is the story of a noble prince sent to destroy a demonic evil, but the prince is waylaid by love and betrayal. The lesson of Jade Warrior is that you can try to bury the past, but you can't escape it, that selfish choices have ramifications we can't imagine, but that sometimes you get a chance to make things right.

Princess

Surprisingly... something.

Posted by: Task, September 16, 2006 01:25 PM

Friday, September 15 11:59 PM RYERSON

A captivating animated vengeance tale that uses live footage for recorded events of the past.

Briefly, Christina and August are orphaned by a car accident and events slowly lead Christina down the path of becoming a world-famous porn star. August condemns her for her descent into depravity and becomes a missionary. She dies before her 30th birthday, leaving behind Mia, a 5 year old girl.

August returns to take guardianship of Mia, who has obviously suffered abuse. This begins his spectacular one-man crusade of vengeance and destruction against the people who continue to profit from his dead sister. "Princess" was her screen name, she's what made the company Paradise Lust what it is. Her boyfriend Charlie is the owner. All three of them lived in the same apartment after the car crash and before they'd all started down the paths that lead each of them to where they are today.

At the end of the story we're left with a huge number of people that were happy to profit from or otherwise enjoy Christinas life, Charlie who seems to regret that he took her down the path, her daughter who alternately misses her and hates her, and her brother who condemned her but ultimately destroyed her "legacy" in an inferno of vengeance. And apparently not a single person who tried to help her to avoid her fate. Which I found to be a stunningly powerful conclusion to what could have otherwise been "merely" an action-filled story.

This is exactly the kind of thing that animation is perfect for, things you just can't do live. An impressive first feature, I'm glad I saw it.

Severance

The Amazing Adventures Of Knife-In-The-Butt Killer!

Posted by: Task, September 15, 2006 08:05 PM

Thursday, September 14 11:59 PM RYERSON

Possibly the most fall-on-your-ass hilarious movie I've seen in a long time, you want to see this if the idea of a high-powered sales crew being slaughtered by crazed survivalists appeals to you in any way at all.

By the time the movie was over, I was hurting from laughing so hard. Partially because of the end credit for Knife-in-the-butt Killer. Oh, and the story requires that two hot blonde women get naked and flail around in a mud pit, too.

I really can't ask for much more from a movie than this kind of an experience.

Exiled

To = (Woo + Takeshi) / 2

Posted by: Task, September 15, 2006 07:31 PM

Thursday, September 14 9:00 PM VISA SCREENING ROOM (ELGIN)

So imagine these 5 guys, closest of friends since childhood, and they're all now the deadliest hit men in Macau. One of them, Wo, has shot his former boss and escaped to live a normal life. To raise a family. Not liking his hidey-hole, he returns to Macau. Only hours after his return, his former boss has sent his best hitman pair to take him down. Yes, that's 3 of the 5 so far. The final two are determined to protect Wo from the other two. So the gang is once again back together! That's where the movie starts.

From here you begin a fantastic ride that is not just a great action movie (where faceless goons can't hit anything and named characters never miss) but also the story of an incredible friendship.

Also, this movie is filled with great scenes and characters. As an example: Without Wo, the group of 4 is incomplete and can't seem to make a decision, the coin they toss to decide for them is the 5th member of their group, a unique running joke.

Eventually they meet up with another skilled gunman and he becomes the 5th member of the group. I imagine it is with him that the story continues, since this is said to be a prequel to some other movie. He's a great character, so if his story is told as well as this one then I should definitely look into getting the next movie in this series.

Abeni

... You're kidding, right? No? Crap.

Posted by: Task, September 15, 2006 05:40 PM

Thursday, September 14 6:00 PM ROYAL ONTARIO MUSEUM

Direct quote: "Abeni represents the best of Nollywood" - Cameron Bailey

If this is the best they've got, and they're producing 1,000 films a year (that's what the guy there said), then I am absolutely appalled at the waste of film that this represents.

The first thing you'll notice in this film are the sound effects. I recognized them instantly, from 70's era Kung Fu movies. Sound effects that are awesome in a movie like Master Of The Flying Guillotine are equally awful in a romantic comedy.

The next thing you'll notice is the acting, it falls in one of two categories: Flat And Wooden Delivery or Completely Over-The-Top Overacting. I kid you not.

Right after that you'll notice the terrible cinematography. It looks like it was shot by someone with a hand camera and instructions to "stand over there, out of the way, and don't move". Yes, the return of the amazing UNsteady cam. I don't think I saw a single interesting shot in the whole movie.

Overall, you know what it reminded me of? Bad porn. It's like their huge film industry is all porn, and some director decided to try making a more "family-oriented" movie and this is the result. I'm not kidding here, almost every part of the movie is either totally unbelievable or obviously forced. Sometimes both.

The story. It's actually an interesting tale of this guy (who sings and dances, singing and dancing takes up the better part of the first half of the movie. By "dancing" I mean "guys rubbing up against hot girls", and by "singing" I mean "awful music that I didn't like at all") and his childhood sweetheart. Seperated at a young age, they reconnect accidentally in adulthood. He's engaged and you don't really see his fiancee from that point on because he pretends she doesn't exist unless she's right in front of him (apparently messing around on your wife is an honourable tradition, since it's unremarkable here), and she's suddenly got an arranged marriage. So they conspire to overcome all obstacles and get married to each other somehow. This should be an inspiring story, and the brother who just got back from America (the other half of the arranged marriage) is a total running joke that should be hilarious, but I nearly fell asleep.

So I'm hoping that Nollywood is burned to the ground and that something worthwhile might rise from the ashes.

Good god, it was so bad.

The Harder They Come

Remastered directors cut 34 years in the making

Posted by: Task, September 15, 2006 05:13 PM

Thursday, September 14 3:00 PM AL GREEN THEATRE

Before going to this movie I was half-jokingly hoping that there would be subtitles. English subtitles for a movie in English. I was pleasantly surprised that there are! There are many sections of the film where I wouldn't have known what was being said without them. Having them allowed me to hear what they were saying though, so after the halfway point I almost didn't need them anymore. If anything, I wish there had been some more subtitling. Obviously it's not needed for anything simple like "yeah" (and never used for such, an excellent decision) but for any long and involved dialogue it's almost necessary.

This was the first Jamaican movie and is responsible for moving Jamaican music and culture into the global mainstream. Suffice to say, the music is "kicking" and apparently one of the best soundtracks ever.

There's no "cinematography" here to speak of, no special camera shots or angles, it's all just native Jamaica. All the technical skills in this movie are at the "sufficient" level and not significantly higher. So what makes it a good movie, as it most definitely is?

One of the things the director mentioned is that the "church sermon" scene is all natural. He found an actual Jamaican church, asked the actual preacher to do a sermon on Love, and filmed the actual proceedings. And the whole movie is like that. It's just so raw, so "real", so "down-to-earth" and "in-your-face-bare-survival" that it's striking. If there were any special effects in the movie at all, it could shatter that effect, so instead the "bare-bones" filming technique enhances the reality of the movie. The actors in the movie do a great job perhaps not just because they're good actors but likely also because the movie maintains a "true to life" feel throughout for them as well.

Bugmaster

Exploring old Japan

Posted by: Task, September 14, 2006 11:00 AM

Wednesday, September 13 9:30 PM PARAMOUNT 3

Apparently there are these little spirit "forces" known as "bugs" (I imagine that's a translation issue there) that are all over the place. When they infect a person, that person loses something. Sight, hearing, their life, whatever. It takes a bugmaster to remove the bug from them, thereby curing their problem. This movie is about one bugmaster in particular, Ginko, and we get to see the story of his most difficult case: The rare and deadly bugs that infest him, the woman he loves, and his mentor from years ago.

It sounds really exciting, doesn't it? Although this is the director of the excellent Steamboy, he's made a much more, uh, "relaxed" movie this time. Ginko and his pal (an amiable guy who wants to capture a rainbow) travel a lot, so this movie is really more about exploring 100-years ago Japan (and its peoples and places) and varieties of bugs than the "adventure" going on.

Overall, interesting but very slow. If it was cut down to a less than 2 hours instead of being 2.25 that might help a lot. For an anime/manga translation it's surprisingly more into the realm of a "picturesque location movie" than anything else.

Starter For Ten

What's University for?

Posted by: Task, September 14, 2006 10:44 AM

Wednesday, September 13 6:00 PM RYERSON

The director prefaced this screening by telling us that the first question you get on a quiz show is called the "starter", and it's for ten points. Hence, "starter for ten". He was (rightly) afraid nobody would know what it meant. It's never fully explained in the film, but it's mentioned no less than three times, so you've figured it out by the end of the movie. Needless worrying about the title, but it's not the first time we've seen that.

Anyway, this movie is about a small-town kid that goes to University so that he can learn endless facts and star in a quiz show. If it that doesn't make it obvious, I'll spell it out: this movie is hilarious and entertaining.

Along with the main story of him getting on his University quiz team and going to the televised show, there's also a bunch of other things going on. There's his old friends from back home, his new friends at University, and the two girls he gets involved with. There's also his mom and Mr. Whippy! So with all these things going on the movie moves at a great pace.

Along the way, you get to listen to a rocking 80's soundtrack, too! The Cure were a little bit involved in the movie, so if you're into the music you'll enjoy the movie even more. Seeing this movie, I think I'll pick up the book at the library. It should be even better, right? If so, it'll be a fantastic read.

In the end, our hero learns that knowing the correct answer isn't as important as being able to ask the right question. Lessons are learned, and everyone grows up a little bit. Very satisfying ending to this hilarious romping tale.

Renaissance

The noirest noir is a blanche & noir.

Posted by: Task, September 13, 2006 01:57 PM

Tuesday, September 12 7:00 PM PARAMOUNT 2

Bold visual style.

That's the best way to describe the whole movie, really.

It reminds me a lot of Metropolis, Blade Runner, and Casablanca, except that it suffers from a story that is not good enough to stand out from the way it's presented.

Totally unique, superbly well crafted, a seven-year labour of love. I imagine it could become a classic like Tron: remembered only for doing something in a very different way.

Cashback

Tits, Ass, and Full Frontal. It's _art_ NOT porn!

Posted by: Task, September 13, 2006 01:46 PM

Tuesday, September 12 2:00 PM PARAMOUNT 4

A short done as a side project to fill some time between movie shoots becomes more popular than either of the movies so they make it into a movie. No, really!

An aspiring artist breaks up with his girlfriend and becomes terribly afflicted with insommnia. For me, any movie with insommnia as a major plot device is a fantastic movie. This is just the first 10 minutes, though. From here the story really starts to roll. He gets a night shift job (since he has too much time and not enough money he's trading his time for money, he's getting "cashback") and meets the wacky night shift crew at the local Sainsbury's. Hilarity ensues! Once you've had enough of their hijinks and antics (it takes almost half an hour before you want to see anything else) the main story gets rolling again as he finds a new romantic interest and the courtship begins.

Along the way, the movie is literally paved with beautiful women in various states of undress. He's an artist, remember? That's what he likes to draw. So we see a lot of it. All his subjects are totally unmoving and in the midst of mundane tasks, so the sexuality of it is at a remarkable minimum and, like our hero, you can contemplate the pure beauty of what you're seeing. See the world through the eyes of an artist, and you almost feel like you are the artist. An impressive effect, truly.

The end of the movie has a fantastic scene with non-falling snow that I'll never forget and always wonder how they managed it. It looks too good to be CGI, but I can't imagine how else they would have done it...

The director said that he wanted to stay far away from "the matrix effect" since it was being ripped off even in Cheerios commercials, and that he managed his effect by picking up a can of Freeze-spray(tm) at Sainsbury's.

Definitely looking forward to more from this director. An impressive first feature film!

The Abandoned

Inconsistencies are bad

Posted by: Task, September 13, 2006 01:25 PM

Monday, September 11 11:59 PM RYERSON

This movie is based on some nifty ideas that are well-reworked old ideas combined together and made to look new. Which is usually a winning formula. This time I was kind of disappointed though. I think the first time I've been disappointed by a Midnight Madness movie.

It's all about the past and the future haunting the present, and that part of the movie is well presented. The two main characters quite quickly decide that the doppelgangers that they keep running into are the future deaths of both of them, so the majority of the movie is them trying to figure out why this is happening and trying to escape or avoid it.

And now I'll have to give a bit of it away to tell you why something that could have been pretty good ended up being... just okay.

The Last Winter

You'll never guess who survives!

Posted by: Task, September 12, 2006 11:14 AM

Monday, September 11 6:15 PM PARAMOUNT 3

Remember how great The Abyss was? That great sci-fi survival flick where they were cut off from the rest of the world and there was... something else out there with them? That's exactly how awesome this movie is, for all the same reasons, except that (get this) this movie has an even better ending!

Set in the near future, the Americans have opened up northern Alaska for oil drilling in the search for "energy independance". Ron Perlman (always fantastic) plays The Industrialist, his enormous screen prescence makes him great as "the guy who's in charge". James LeGros plays The Treehugger, an environmentalist brought on board so they can say they've got an independant watching over the whole process. In reality, although he can see all kinds of things going wrong there's almost nothing he can do about it. He really channels a good David Suzuki and you know without being told that he's got a lot going on that he doesn't let on about.

So this team is up in the far northern reaches of Alaska, trying to get an ice road built to the important sites where they plan on drilling test wells. They're falling behind due to... problems. It's too warm, you see. You get to know everyone on the team as they attempt to deal with all sorts of difficulties, from mechanical to inter-personal. This all set in the beautifully stark landscape of the far north. Actually Iceland, but it works great for the purposes of the film.

Slowly their links to the rest of the world disintegrate and everyone starts wondering: Just what exactly is out there?

Brilliantly done from beginning to end, the only criticism I could possible come up with for this movie is that the CGI snowstorm in the tent was of the "obviously CGI" variety. Fix that and I'd have to say we've got a perfect movie here.

Black Sheep

Mutant sheep!

Posted by: Task, September 12, 2006 10:40 AM

Sunday, September 10 11:59 PM RYERSON

The triumphant return of modern farming industry gone terribly wrong, as previously evidenced by Isolation.

One of those great movies where you get what you're expecting and more. Evil scientists doing genetic manipulation, hilarous sheep action sequences, blood & gore by the bucket, and sheep-based humor at every possible point. What you get that you're likely not expecting is brilliantly written dialogue.

It's surprising how threatening a sheep can be!

Cheech

French-Canadian Noir!

Posted by: Task, September 12, 2006 10:19 AM

Sunday, September 10 8:30 PM PARAMOUNT 4

A modern film with all the elements of a classic noir, only Canadian.
Instead of constantly raining, it's constantly snowing.
Instead of everyone having a big gun in their pocket, everyone has one in a locked box in the locked drawer of their desk back at the office.
Anyway, there are a couple good little mysteries in the movie, but they're not really the highlights, they're all there so that the film fits solidly in the noir genre. There's a murder, and it's kind of the main mystery, but it's not really the main point of the movie.

So all the important elements are there, and they're all acted upon, but the movie is really about the people in it. It's about the pimp and his problems, both personal and business. It's about the pimps aide and how his personal life overflows and effects everything else. It's about the girls and their clients, and what's driving each of them.

Overall, a great movie filled with a number of good elements. Well crafted and well executed. Another solid example of good Canadian cinema! If, at the end, you are not struck down by the incredible and terrible irony of it all, I would say that there is probably something wrong with you. 8 )

Shorts Program 1

Great grab bag!

Posted by: Task, September 11, 2006 04:04 PM

Sunday, September 10 5:45 PM CUMBERLAND 3

Once again, the short I was looking forward to wasn't the one I enjoyed the most. This collection of shorts is probably the best one I've seen so far, since most of them were really good. There wasn't a serious stunner in the set, but there wasn't anything horribly bad either. Well, except the French one. But you have to expect that. 8 )

And now for a closer look at each one...

Citizen Duane

Take one idea and run with it!

Posted by: Task, September 11, 2006 03:29 PM

Sunday, September 10 3:30 PM PARAMOUNT 3

The main character here is Duane, who appears to have genetically inherited:
1) An incredible amount of energy, determination, ability, and smarts
2) A need to get behind a cause and crusade against injustice
3) Absolutely no luck whatsoever

He wages a one-man (two-man if you include his younger brother that he ropes along with him on all his crusades) war against the local "ruling family". This culminates in his fantastic construction: The Cycle Of Violence. When this, like everything else he does, falls apart at the last minute, the main part of the story picks up as he decides to run for mayor. There's always something new with him, and most everyone else in the movie simply can't keep up with his energy and determination. This really keeps the movie moving at a quick pace.

In the end, all the story elements have come together quite nicely (always a good thing) but the end resolution of the movie? Well, it's about the best you can expect for our luckless hero Citizen Duane.

A great movie, once again one enjoyable by all ages.
Why do I keep seeing movies and giving them a G rating? Is my internal rating system broken, or is this the current trend in filmmaking? I do wonder.

True Love

Great idea, strange ending

Posted by: Task, September 11, 2006 03:18 PM

Sunday, September 10 3:30 PM PARAMOUNT 3

This 6 minute piece screened before Citizen Duane and explored a fantastic idea. An armed gunman takes two people hostage and forces them to date and get married. And live in suburbia. And raise a kid. And balance the chequebook. And I think you get the idea. The whole thing I watched in stunned disbelief, and by the time it was over I was left with "well, that was kind of nifty"...

The ending could've been better. I could have ended on any note, and it chose the weird note. Whoever was behind this has great creative potential, but should watch old movies like The Italian Job until they learn that the ending of the movie is important.

Shorts Program 4

Blah, blah, blah, WOW!

Posted by: Task, September 11, 2006 03:09 PM

Sunday, September 10 11:45 AM CUMBERLAND 3

In this collection I expected Cloudbreaker to be interesting and Christ In Wood to be hilarious. In the end, I was glad I went, but only because I never would've known how awesome Brian Stockton and his Saskatchewan are if I hadn't.

That's what happens with shorts, you get bad movies, but they're only 15 minutes long at most. The really good ones that you'll find are worth going through everything to get to them.

This set was mostly "blah" until the final one, which had me singing the theme song all the way to my next movie.

I'll now do a brief review of each piece...

Black Sheep

Baaaaaaaastard!

Posted by: ThirteenDamnDollars, September 11, 2006 12:24 PM

Last year's Isolation was a movie about genetically modified (and therefore evil) cows getting lose on a farm and the happless farmers and city-folk that have to fight them. Black Sheep is essentially the same movie, but with sheep (which is automatically much funnier), but played for laughs, camp and gross-out.

After a traumatic sheep-related scare at the hands of his brother, a young New Zelander boy leaves the farm for city life. As an adult he returns to the farm just long enough (he has the taxi leave the meter running) to collect a cheque from his brother, selling out his share. Wouldn't you know it, it's the one day the evil brother is unvieling his new genetically modified sheep breed, and the one day animal rights activists invade the farm, trying to get evidence of unwholesome science, but accidentally releasing unwholesome science in to the general flock. WHAT ARE THE ODDS?!

After that, it's your basic zombie movie, but with sheep instead of the undead. It's hilarious, gross, and a perfect Midnight Maddness movie.

All the Boys Love Mandy Lane

Colin picks yet another winner!

Posted by: LyttleOne, September 10, 2006 06:38 PM

This was not your typical teenie bopper slasher flick. It actually had a story, some history (without being a ridiculously serialized gore-fest), and a great plot twist. I was pleasantly surprised, sufficiently scared for my buck and also able to laugh without that hysterical I'm-only-laughing-cause-I'm-scared laugh. I'm really finding myself amazed with the young film talent this year, both directorially and in the acting.

End of the Line

Religious Zealots as Knife Wielding Crazies!!!

Posted by: LyttleOne, September 10, 2006 06:32 PM

Stop-motion, chilling techniques, babbling crazy people and pictures drawn of scenes that turn into deadly attacks almost made me walk out of this film in the first few minutes. Only by telling myself 1) It's only a movie, and 2) Someone always survives a horror film, did I manage to stay in my seat. I'm not sure what it was that I read of the description in the guide this year that made me think that this was my kind of film, but I managed to make it all the way through without screaming out loud once, and I managed to get onto the subway to get to my next film without feeling unduly afraid.....unlike what Creep did to me a few years back, where I had to take the bus home that night and was grateful for it, and was reluctant to get onto the subway the next morning in the light of day with dozens of other people. The film did it's job of a good scare while I watched, but it didn't terrify me after I left the theatre....it seemed to be missing a little of the mental aspect to it's terror.

The Eyes of Edward James

15 minutes that chills

Posted by: LyttleOne, September 10, 2006 06:21 PM

I'm sorry to say it, but I saw End of the Line last night & the Midnight Madness, All the Boys Love Mandy Lane, and the thing that freaked me out the most was this short! This director is a master of suspense and has an amazing gift for theatrical timing. The staging was beautiful, the spooky factor high, and the hypnotherapy type of narrative was incredibly well utilized. This kind of creepy film is the far and away scarier then the standard slasher flick. I don't normally like horror or thriller type films (don't ask what drew me to End of the Line & Mandy Lane, I honestly don't know!) but I could definitely appreciate the crafting of this short.

Cages

I think I know why not to see Visions now

Posted by: LyttleOne, September 10, 2006 10:51 AM

A beautifully shot and acted film, I don't think I am the sort that can properly appreciate a Visions film. In this story of two people drifting apart within a marriage when something tragic has happened to one of them, there is a very human, very real message. But something about the 'competition' that is held towards the end of the movie just seemed incredibly bizarre. I'm almost positive it was intended as a metaphor of some sort, and once I'm not so tired and have some time to go back and really anazlyze it in context of the larger story being told, I'll likely have a better grasp of what the director was shooting for by having people imitating wild animals and a prize for the best one.....

King and The Clown

Amazing Historical Korean Movie

Posted by: LyttleOne, September 10, 2006 10:42 AM

This movie was based on a legend/historical account from Korea in the 1500's, and they brought it beautifully to life. Tender at times, funny, with brilliant colours, sounds that took you there and political satire at a time when it could as easily get you killed as lauded; this film was truly one of the most rounded films I've seen in a great while. The acting was wonderful, the characters so 3 dimensional that they almost seem to leap off the screen at you. The relationships between characters are very true to life and you feel sorry when court intrigue comes between people just trying to live and love each other.

The Pervert's Guide To Cinema

Brain and bladder, both full to bursting

Posted by: ThirteenDamnDollars, September 9, 2006 10:45 PM

If you were lucky enough to catch last year's Zizek! then you have a pretty good idea what you're in for with Perverts. In three 50 minute episodes (yes, that's right, this movie is nearly two and a half hours long! That's good value for your movie-ticket dollar!) Slovenian Marxist-Lacanian philosopher and cultural theorist super-star Slavoj Zizek gives a sweeping reading of desire, fantasy and nightmare in cinema, with emphasis on Hitchcock, Chaplin, Kieslowski, Tarkovsky and Lynch, but not forgetting to visit The Matrix and Fight Club along the way.

The film gives the subject the proper amount of respect, neither too dour nor too reverent. Zizek is laugh out-loud funny at times, and clever staging is used to insert him in to the scenes he's currently discussing to hilarious effect. Words cannot describe my glee at seeing Neo suddenly replaced in the red pill / blue pill scene by this great bearded teddy-bear of bombast.

The ideas come fast and furious, and it's impossible to keep up. The highest recommendation that I can give this film is that I'm going to buy it as soon as it comes out on DVD and watch it over and over again, and probably rent most of the movies it references too. (But this time with scheduled bathroom breaks)

Palimpsest

Tension!

Posted by: ThirteenDamnDollars, September 9, 2006 10:29 PM

When critics describe a movie as "challenging", it's usually code for "bad". Not so with the Polish noir, Palimpsest. Make no mistake, this is a hard film. It demands that you pay attention, and it demands that you think. It doesn't wrap everything up in a neat little bow at the end, but it is emotionally and narratively satisfying.

The one word that best describes this movie is "tense". Excelent sound design and score back up uncomfortably cramped scenes, sparse dialouge and stilted characters to keep the audience unnerved for the entire film.

A detective is assigned a murder case, his friend, another cop, has jumped or been thrown out of a window. He's also assigned a new partner who doesn't seem that interested in solving the case. And what's the history with the cop, his friend and the girl? Why does the dead cop keep appearing in his dreams and waking visions? What's with the weird neighbour and his impossible photographs?

At the end of the film, the murder is solved, but by that point, that's not the most interesting question left.

During the Q&A after the film the director espoused: "I don't want to hear actors saying things that the audience should be thinking". This philosophy, of assuming your audience is thinking, shines through in Palimpsest, it's challenging, and rewarding.

The Fall

Is it a childrens movie?

Posted by: Task, September 9, 2006 09:36 PM

Saturday, September 09 3:00 PM VISA SCREENING ROOM (ELGIN)

Classified by Noah Cowan as "unclassifiable", this is the director that brought us The Nine Inch Nails Movie (The Cell) in the six years back TIFF. Luckily it was also mentioned that this movie features 5 heroes against an evil aristocrat in stunning colour and locations, or I might've given it a miss altogether.

Kind of like 1,001 Arabian Nights, the story is about a story being told. Since it's a movie directed by a music video creator, everything's always changing. The story itself is a bit of a moving target, with hilarious results. It is certainly a fantastic tale (along the lines of Baron Munchausen), but a lot of the movie is also about the stuntman telling the story and the little girl who's captivated by it. Since the stuntman is confined to bed (broken legs and he'll never walk again) that means that the bulk of this side of the story is propped up by the little girl.

In my opinion, it's a bad thing when a movie depends on the performance of a young child. Of course, sometimes it works really well. If I'd had less trouble making out exactly what she was saying, I think I'd say that this would be one of the fortunate cases where we've got a movie that is excellent in all respects. Sadly, her great performance is slightly lessened by the fact that she can't quite get her lines out clearly.

Of course, in the visual splendor of this magnificent fable, does the exact wording of the script really matter? Maybe, maybe not. In then end, enjoyable for all ages.

The Host

Big monster, big laughs, big movie

Posted by: Task, September 9, 2006 08:17 PM

Friday, September 08 11:59 PM RYERSON

If this is the first in a series of Korean monster movies, then I'm anxiously awaiting more.

The star of this movie is definitely the monster, it's a totally new monster with moves you ain't never seen before. Just a hairsbreadth underneath the monster in importance is the family that are the focus of the movie and provide all the comedic relief.

The young daughter is taken by the monster (which has recently developed A Taste For Human Flesh!) and the rest of the family are determined to retrieve her at all costs. Unfortunately, she was the most capable of them all.

Against all opposition (local police, emergency military forces, sterilzation teams, and of course the monster itself) they determine the location of the creatures hidey-hole and everything leads up to a dramatic final confrontation where the family finally comes together in an inspiring and impressive (and hilarious!) action scene.

It's only at the end where the creature effects are anything less than fully believable. When it catches on fire, it just doesn't look... quite right. I certainly don't know what a monster looks like on fire, so maybe they nailed it exactly, but it wasn't until then that I felt I'd been whacked over the head with CGI. Which is a good testament to how well done it was. It looked totally awesome till the last 5 minutes, at which point it merely looked really good.

We have the technology, we can make the monsters. Faster, stronger, better. Bigger.

Jade Warrior

Justifying the Vanguard section!

Posted by: Task, September 9, 2006 07:51 PM

Friday, September 08 9:30 PM PARAMOUNT 2

Did you know that the Finns and the Chinese share some mythology? I certainly didn't! Wow, am I ever glad they do, though!

Taking place in two seperate times and locations, yet at the same time, with reincarnation being a central theme, and ancient artifacts of incredible power, immortal foes, fighting monks, powerful warriors, and obviously great kung-fu action, this is definitely my kind of show.

With a fantastic epic storyline that ends where it began and solid performance of the cast, this movie does everything right and doesn't make any slip-ups.

Oh, and there's a fantastic hammer fight near the end. When was the last time you saw that? Go. Enjoy.

Palimpsest

When is a murder-mystery not a murder mystery?

Posted by: Task, September 9, 2006 07:39 PM

Friday, September 08 6:00 PM CUMBERLAND 1

The poster for this movie is awful. The director was obviously not responsible for it. Finally, a good Polish movie! I've been waiting _years_ to see this happen!

I like detective stories, and murder mysteries are likely the best of those. Obviously, I had to catch this.

There are several stories being told at the same time here, and while it all comes together in the last 30 seconds (really, no joke, I went from "still trying to piece everything together" to "near-total comprehension" in that final 30 seconds, an impressive achievement in and of itself!) you're going to have to be fully paying attention to catch the majority of the pieces on your first viewing. So if you've got that annoying friend that figures out the whole plot halfway into the movie while you're still working at it, you can be sure that this one will have them guessing till the credits roll. On the other hand, if you're not into movies where you have to decide what the story was, then you're not going to like this one at all.

I definitely enjoyed the movie, but I came away feeling unsatisfied. Somewhat cheated, even. I'll have to spoil it a bit for you if you want to know why...

Requiem

When The Wrong Choice Is Made...

Posted by: Task, September 9, 2006 07:24 PM

Friday, September 08 11:45 AM PARAMOUNT 1

When I noticed that there was a large movie-shaped hole in Friday morning (any time before noon is morning to me, okay?) I conspired to fill it. This was the only movie that looked even halfway interesting that fit in the hole.

That being said, why wouldn't I jump at a chance to watch an award-winning German exorcism movie? Why relagate it to the pile of "watch if there's nothing better on" movies? Going in, I was hoping I'd picked a hidden winner, a movie far better than it sounded. Hey, it had happened before!

The first thing you see in the movie is the "this is a fictional movie based on actual events" warning. There are no special effects, no "shocking scenes", this is not a Hollywood exorcism movie. Instead, every moment of the movie seems crafted to make you _believe_ in what you're seeing. To make you disregard the notice that started the film, and believe that this is as close to an actual account of events as they happened. And it most definitely achieves that. It's a very realistic portrayal of a first-year university student, so normal and unremarkable that it goes right into ho-hum boring. I have no doubt at all that this is more-or-less what happened, because why would anyone tell such a simple and mostly unremarkable tale if it weren't true?

It does slowly transmute into an 'exorcism' movie from a 'day in the life of' movie as it goes along, and by the end of the movie you've definitely decided for yourself whether it was an actual case of posession or 'merely' mental illness (and each to their own on this one, there's no beating you over the head with what the director or scriptwriter has decided is the truth, not at all!), and it's well made and acted, so why isn't this a really great movie in my opinion? Why is it, IMO, not worth any awards?

Because it falls into the chasm between two good locations. It could have been a really good documentary on what actually happened. Most definitely, the story is there. As a documentary, I would have rated it highly. Or, it could have been a great fictional account of possession and exorcism. Most certainly, I would have enjoyed that and rated it highly. At the end of the day, it is obviously not a documentary (any resemblance to persons living or dead being purely co-incidental, this is not a documentary) and contains no definite fictionalized material, so it falls into the chasm of "why bother?" and "what was the point here?".

It might be just me. This could be a fantastic example of modern German cinema. Theoretically. I doubt it, though.

Fido

Zombie Comedy With A Heart Of Gold

Posted by: Task, September 9, 2006 10:52 AM

Thursday, September 07 9:15 PM RYERSON

A fantastic movie that shows us what happens when the zombies in the movie give the best performances. Hilariously set in the 1950's (with all that that entails), the ZomCon company has invented a device that turns a ravenous flesh-hungry zombie into an obedient (if extremely dull-witted) slave. This is all explained in the first 5 minutes via a great classically-styled "training video". This has created a new slave-labour-based economy and a corresponding "keeping up with the Joneses" mentality. The laughs keep coming as we follow young Timmy through a week of school and getting his first zombie. 1st graders having regual shooting range practice with uproarious "Don't aim for the chest, head shots are best!" schoolyard sing-song is just one fine example of how well crafted this movie is from beginning to end. The plot develops as we find out that the zombie control collar isn't as sturdy or reliable a piece of technology as one would hope. In the end, people who should be dead are dead, people who should survive have survived, and everyone else staggers around and groans.

Canadian cinema continues to impress, you could call Fido a Canadian Mary Poppins for the 21st century.

The Pervert's Guide To Cinema

Zizek Overload!

Posted by: Task, September 9, 2006 09:56 AM

Thursday, September 07 5:00 PM ROYAL ONTARIO MUSEUM

What a great way to start this years TIFF, a movie about movies featuring the famous "rock-star philosopher" Slavoj Zizek.
If you've seen Zizek! then you already know the man, but what you didn't know is that he's a serious movie fan.
It starts with The Matrix and The Birds and among many other things Zizek explains how movies tell us how to desire. At this point, you've got the whole "I just watched a seriously intellectual movie and it's something I now must think about" thing going. Then Part 2 starts. Here we move into Psycho and The Marx Brothers and (again, among many other things) Zizek explains how it's all based on the the psychological concepts of Id, Ego, Superego. By now, you're probably reeling like a punch-drunk boxer. Now Part 3 starts, and Zizek gets into David Lynch and Stalinist Russian Musicals and goes _really_ abstract!

Seriously, it could make your head 'splode all over the place.

This movie was divided up into 3 sections for very good reason.

You should probably watch Part 1, take a half hour break, watch Part 2, another break, then Part 3, then go to bed and sleep it off. As it was, I found it to be much more Zizek then one man can possibly take in in a single sitting.

Or perhaps I'm just not hardcore enough. 8 )

2:37

Posted by: LyttleOne, September 8, 2006 09:43 PM

A powerful and poignant first-time directorial debut. Powerful, heart-wrenching and personal; this story illuminates the darkness of suicide. This was a potent tribute to a lost friend of the director's and a labour of personal salvation on his part.
I'm often pleased with the films I see from Australia, and this one is no exception. The people of that tiny country have an insight into what makes film great, from acting, to shooting film, to directing and writing.
This film used the camera as almost another character. The grittyness and rawness of the techniques used throughout this film draw you in to the lives of the characters in a way that few seasoned directors manage. This was a hard film to watch for the content and the immediacy that you felt regarding the issues, but I think this film speaks profoundly to the confusion and disassociation that the teenage years can cause.

Fido

You're not supposed to have a hangun until your 12

Posted by: ThirteenDamnDollars, September 8, 2006 10:30 AM

So what happens after a zombie attack? Sometimes all the zobmies are cured or die of starvation or are killed, but sometimes they're still around at the end of the movie. What then? Until Fido, no one had really examined the long term social and economic impact of a zombified workforce (actually there was a chapter in the first edition of The Wealth Of Nations, but it was later redacted).

It's 1950's small town America. After The Zombie Wars, mega-corporation Zomboco has made America safe from the zombie menace, by enclosing towns with a zombie proof fence, and providing industry with a workforce of trainable tame zombies, controlled by calming collars. But it's not a perfect world. Anyone that dies immediately rises again, and sometimes the collars malfunction. Then the insatiable zombie hunger for human flesh is once again unleashed upon suburbia.

Young Timmy's grown up with an emotionally absent and oblivious father, and a denial prone mother, so it's little wonder that he bonds with the family's new house-zombie, Fido. But what happens when Fido's control collar malfunctions. Are zombies truly uncontrollable eating machines, or are the capable of more?

Fido is frequently hilarious and often displays a wonderfully casual disregard for human life. Highly recommended.

Fido

Pleasantville Meets the Zombies

Posted by: LyttleOne, September 8, 2006 12:39 AM

Cute, campy, hilarious, riotously amusing romp through the relationships that make up a family, and what it means to be family. As one of my fellow bloggers will likely classify this film it's a 'rom-zom-com' that explores zombies through the sensibilities of 1950's "Leave it to Beaver" kind of filter. I was initially a little surprised to look through the guide and *not* see a good zombie comedy in the Midnight Madness stable of offerings....and then I was pleasantly surprised to see that we didn't have to go abroad to get such a great example of the genre. A particular treat to have the main stars show up for a funny Q & A, Billy Connolly gave a insightful look into the hardships of playing a character that only grunts and groans! If this is indicative of the quality of work we can expect at this year's fest we are in for a wonderful year.

Ramblings

If you're lost and you look then you will find me

Posted by: ThirteenDamnDollars, September 7, 2006 05:53 PM

Here's Me:

Thursday 9:15 Fido
Friday 6:00 Palimpsest
Friday 9:30 Jade Warrior
Saturday 12:15 The Pervert's Guide To Cinema
Sunday 3:00 Pan's Labyrinth
Sunday 8:30 Cheech
Sunday 11:59 Black Sheep
Monday 6:00 Fay Grim
Monday 9:45 Sleeping Dogs Lie
Tuesday 7:00 Renaissance(?)
Wednesday 9:30 Bugmaster
Thursday 8:15 The Wake
Friday 9:00 Made In Jamica
Saturday 6:00 Paris je t'aime
Saturday 9:00 Lights In The Dark

Ramblings

On your marks, get set... FEST!

Posted by: Task, September 7, 2006 11:15 AM

With an astounding 48/48 tickets to our our chosen movies, this years TIFF is off to a great start. More movies, more screens, more showings, better organization... and fewer people! Few films had gone rush by the time tickets went on sale to the general populace, and lines have been very short. Or so I've been told.

Anyway, here's the list of 27 flims that I'm seeing at this years festival: