Tiff 2013

[Chris Knipp]

http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/3328/v2a0.jpg
Toronto (http://tiff.net/)

Click on the name for their website.

Mike D'Angelo's Tweet reviews (https://twitter.com/gemko) have begun and his tentative viewing schedule (http://www.panix.com/~dangelo/prev/tiff13.html) is up. I'll reprint his tweets. D'Angelo is a pro, he chooses good titles to watch, he will watch plenty (unlike, say, the NY Times erson), and his comments and ratings are often astute. They also are immediate. Later I'll rank them in descending order. Stay tuned. This runs just after Telluride and along with Venice and just before the NYFF. There are a number of Cannes titles and also NyFF overlaps. D'Angelo's most anticipated film of the festival is Kelly Reichart's NIGHT MOVIES with Jesse Eisenberg, Peter Sarsgaard and Dakota Fanning. I count 39 titles in his viewing list. He will wrote several long pieces for THE DISSOLVE, he says.

Closed Curtain (Panahi & Partovi): 60. Starts out intriguingly allegorical, becomes a bona fide Morality Play that verges on whining.

Before this D'Angelo tweeted: Not sure how many more Panahi films about Panahi's inability to make films I can hack. LET THE MAN GO.

The Missing Picture (Panh): 73. Not as rigorous with its conceit as I might have liked, but more proof that abstraction suits such grimness.

Abuse of Weakness (Breillat): ??? Just how autobiographical is this? Did the $ stuff really happen? It makes a huge difference. NYFF

[Later he found out it did happen, but still no rating.]

Trap Street (Qu): W/O. Drab Street. (This was just a random drop-in, last-minute. Bigger gap than I'd thought in schedule.)

\Norte, the End of History\ (Diaz): 32. Longest. Dumont movie. Ever. (If Dumont owned up to being a self-loathing intellectual.) NYFF


D'Angelo's viewing schedule with his comments. This is on his website The Man Who Viewed Too Much. (http://www.panix.com/~dangelo/prev/tiff13.html)

Fri 6
Story of My Death (Albert Serra, France/Spain): TK
The Invisible Woman (Ralph Fiennes, UK): TK
[NYFF.]
Club Sandwich (Fernando Eimbcke, Mexico): TK
InRealLife (Beeban Kidron, UK): TK
Soul (Chung Mong-Hong, Taiwan): TK
[Dead slot. Public screening of Manakamana, 9:45pm @ Lightbox 3]

Sat 7
Parkland (Peter Landesman, USA): TK
Love Is the Perfect Crime (Arnaud Larrieu & Jean-Marie Larrieu, France/Switzerland): TK
[Is it. Is love the perfect crime. Anyway these dudes are nuts, plus Amalric.]
Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón, USA/UK): TK
Celestial Wives of the Meadow Mari (Alexey Fedorchenko, Russia): TK
[I quite liked Silent Souls.]
The Strange Colour of Your Body's Tears (Hélène Cattet & Bruno Forzani, Belgium/France/Luxembourg): TK
[Cattet & Forzani. My second-most-anticipated film of the festival.]

Sun 8
When Evening Falls on Bucharest, or Metabolism (Corneliu Porumboiu, Romania): TK
[NYFF.]
You Are Here (Matthew Weiner, USA): TK
[Dead slot.]
Philomena (Stephen Frears, UK): TK
[Frears, for no very good reason.]
R100 (Hitoshi Matsumoto, Japan): TK
[Haven't truly liked one of his films yet, but they're never dull.]
Moebius (Kim Ki-duk, South Korea): TK
[I remain deluded, possibly.]

Mon 9
Devil's Knot (Atom Egoyan, USA): TK [Due to schedule conflicts and bad buzz on it, he skipped DEVIL'S KNOT.]
[Egoyan, still. Though I can't imagine a dramatic version of this story working.]
The Unknown Known (Errol Morris, USA): TK
[Morris. This is technically impossible, as it begins the same minute that Devil's Knot ends. It's the theater next door, though, so I may break my sit-through-the-credits rule and try for it.]
Night Moves (Kelly Reichardt, USA): TK
[Reichardt. Right now I have this scheduled twice, because it's not conflicting with anything of interest in either slot. Will wait to see which one to ditch. Or maybe I'll want to see it twice; it's my most anticipated film of this year's festival.]
Our Sunhi (Hong Sang-soo, South Korea): TK
[Honger.]
The Major (Yury Bykov, Russia): TK
[Cannes.]

Tue 10
Three Interpretation Exercises (Cristi Puiu, Romania/France): TK
[Puiu.]
Le Week-end (Roger Michell, UK): TK
[NYFF.]
Therese (Charlie Stratton, USA): TK
[Dead slot; Elizabeth Olsen. Public screening of Gloria, 5pm @ Scotiabank 2.]
The Fake (Yeon Sangho, South Korea): TK
[Dead slot. Public screening of Omar, 7:30pm @ Lightbox 1.]
All Cheerleaders Die (Lucky McKee & Chris Sivertson, USA): TK
[Late-night dead slot; not directed by Ben Wheatley.]

Wed 11
Labor Day (Jason Reitman, USA): TK
[Another weirdly dead (for my taste) early-morning slot.]
October November (Götz Spielmann, Austria): TK
[Spielmann.]
We Are the Best! (Lukas Moodysson, Sweden/Denmark): TK
[Moodysson.]
Night Moves (Kelly Reichardt, USA): TK
[See Monday 9.]
Stray Dogs (Tsai Ming-liang, Taiwan/France): TK
[Tsai]

Thu 12
Joe (David Gordon Green, USA): TK
[I remain hopeful, even though I've skipped his last three.]
Child of God (James Franco, USA): TK
[NYFF; the absence of God.]
The Square (Jehane Noujaim, Egypt/USA): TK
[NYFF.]
Blind Dates (Levan Koguashvili, Georgia): TK
[Kind of a dead slot; I liked his Street Days pretty well.]
We Gotta Get out of This Place (Simon Hawkins & Zeke Hawkins, USA): TK
[Dead slot. (I notice that the dead slots are in the same place every year.) Will likely ditch for a public screening.]

Fri 13
The Wind Rises (Hayao Miyazaki, Japan): TK
[Miyazaki, even though I'm not much of a fan; NYFF.]
The Strange Little Cat (Ramon Zürcher, Germany): TK
[Crazy buzz since Berlin.]
At Berkeley (Frederick Wiseman, USA): TK
[Wiseman; NYFF.]
Friends From France (Anne Well & Philippe Kotlarski, France/Germany/Canada/Russia): TK
[This is literally the only film in this slot.]

[Chris Knipp]

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(http://tiff.net/)


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YOUNG & BEAUTIFUL

NORTE: THE END OF HISTORY seems to be D'Angelo's last Tweet-review of the day. He didn't follow his original viewing schedule at all, apparently. He said it was very tentative.

Toronto's opening night film has been Toronto Film Festival: Benedict Cumberbatch's sleazy reincarnation of Wikileaks' Julian Assange in THE FIFTH ESTATE.

Another big one, but coming soon to a theater near you, is Cuaron's GRAVITY. His first since CHILDREN OF MEN. With Sandra Bullock, George Clooney.

The closing night film will be Daniel Schechter's LIFE OF CRIME, based on Elmore Leonard's The Switch, starring John Hawkes, Tim Robbins, Jennifer Anniston and Mos Def. Timely in view of Elmore Leonard's very recent demise.

Ron Howard's Seventies car race movie RUSH, with screenplay by Peter Morgan of THE QUEEN, FROST/NIXON and THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND, looks like a classy mainstream wide release. Another is Joseph Gordon-Levitt's directorial debut in which he stars, DON JON.

Keanu Reeves directed and stars in MAN OF TAI CHI, a movie about a martial arts specialist. And Johnnie To, whose DRUG WAR is so great, has another crime/cops movie, BLIND DETECTIVE.

Indiewire has descriptions of all the main titles here. (http://www.indiewire.com/article/tiff-list-2013-a-list-of-all-the-announced-films-at-the-toronto-international-film-festival)

Many other interesting titles.

WOULD LIKE TO SEE:

The Great Beauty (La Grande Bellezza) Paolo Sorrentino, with the great Toni Servillo (a Cannes film). Also maybe the humanistic, neorealiimo-themed L'intrepido by Gianni Amelio, one of Italy's other great but hardly noticed directors.

Francois Ozon's YOUNG & BEAUTIFUL, about a girl from a very well off family who decides to become a call girl, was at Cannes, and D'Angelo listed it in his top ten tweet review ratings there: "Character study of teen hooker inititally seems banal, but banality proves to be its secret weapon." Not in the NYFF.

This is not to mention a considerable number of the NYFF 2013 Main Slate movies. Sidebar series include a kids series, an exchange with Greece, and the Midnight Madness series.

[Chris Knipp]

http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/3328/v2a0.jpg (http://tiff.net/)

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More Mike D'Angelo Toronto 2013 capsule or tweet reviews. Sept 6, TIFF day one. He seems to be switching to Letterboxed rather than Twitter, too bad for relaying his assessments quickly here. Maybe he has too many writing gigs now or has just tired of tweeting? Below is one tweet and several Letteerboxed thumbnail reviews. (http://letterboxd.com/gemko/) Letterboxed instead of tweets are a bit long to copy here but I'll try for now. The Letterbox reviews don't list the director, or runtime. But this gives us a relatively high number of short first look Toronto reviews.

(Not logged: my W/O of PRISONERS, which confirmed my sense, based on a previous INCENDIES W/O, that Villeneuve is an irredeemable hack.)

[This seems an extreme view; the GUARDIAN gives it four out of five stars and calls it "gripping and mysterious". This is a wide release thriller, the first English-language movie by this respected French Canadian director. Trailers have been showing for some time here. It stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Maria Bello, Hugh Jackman, Paul Dano. I can't imagine walking out of it. Photography by Roger Deakins suggests good mainstream stuff. One of D'Angelo's tweet-mates sent this, which seems sensible:
eugenenovikov ‏@eugenenovikov 9h
@gemko This seems wrongheaded w/r/t PRISONERS, which is just a solid, absorbing, old-school studio flick with none of INCENDIES' pretense.

Club Sandwich 2013 (Fernando Eimbcke, Mexico)
★★★½ Watched 06 Sep, 2013
70/100
Sparse and slight even by Eimbcke's standards, but ends on such a lovely, bittersweet note that I was brushing away tears throughout the last few minutes. Coming-of-age stories are so commonplace and formulaic that shifting the perspective to a lonely single parent achieves a seismic force; throwing in an Oedipal undercurrent (it's unclear for a couple of scenes whether she's his mother, his older sister or even his insanely older girlfriend—I'd just seen A Teacher , so who knows?) verges on overkill, but Eimbcke has so much fun with the ensuing jealousy that it's tough to grumble. Mostly, though, that shot of her eating chips on the stairs nearly wrecked me. Saddest bag of vending-machine chips ever.

[I love Eimbcke's LAKE TAHOE (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2473-Film-Comments-Selects-And-New-Directors-New-Films-2009) (FCS 2009)--CK.]

Tom at the Farm 2013 (Xavier Dolon, Canada)
★★½ Watched 06 Sep, 2013
43/100
Weirdly off from the outset, in a way that made it seem like some big psychosexual twist was coming; closing credits revealed that it's adapted from a play, which ohhhhhhh got it. In any case, Gabriel Yared's furious cod-Herrmann score can't disguise the material's fundamental emptiness. Poorly acted, too, especially by the guy playing the dead man's brother. Dolan's first complete misfire, but I mostly blame his bad taste in theater. (See also: Carnage.)

The Invisible Woman (Ralph Fiennes, UK)
★★½ Watched 06 Sep, 2013
43/100
Just what the world needed: Jefferson in Paris II: What the Dickens? Tediously tasteful portrait of the author's affair with a young actress goes nowhere unexpected, exemplifies "uninspired." Exactly the kind of period drama an actor would direct, though even the performances are thoroughly ordinary. Coriolanus at least had some cojones. [NYFF]

Story of My Death 2013 (Albert Serra, Spain-Catalan)
★★½ Watched 06 Sep, 2013
48/100
Went in tabula rasa, as usual, and nobody says "Casanova" for nearly two hours, so I had no clue which historical or literary figure Serra was riffing on this time. (Dracula I got, however.) Doubt it would've made much difference, as this is neither as beautifully austere nor as unexpectedly funny as Birdsong, and functions as little more than a curiosity until it finally goes batshit (kind of literally) in the last half hour or so. "I feel out of touch," Lee Walker said to me as the lights came up. You and me both, brother. [This won the Locarno top prize].--CK.

Norte, the End of History 2013 (Lav Diaz, Philippines)
★★ Watched 05 Sep, 2013
32/100
Felt unpalatably Dumont-ish to me long before somebody levitated in the fourth (freakin') hour. (Ironically, the first 40 minutes, which initially prompted a W/O at Cannes, are now my favorite section of the movie.) Obviously, there are dramatic differences—Dumont goes another route with the self-loathing intellectual bit—but Norte indulges (and indulges) a similarly brutish/facile view of human nature, expressed via a similar visual/aural mastery (shot by shot, anyway). If Fabian and Joaquin are meant to be distinct individuals, the film is "merely" endless and pointless; I very much fear, alas, that Diaz intends them as class representatives, in which case it's insultingly schematic verging on outright stupid. I can't improve on Lee Walker's observation immediately afterward: "At first it just seemed like Crime and Punishment, but after a while I realized, no, he's misunderstood Fassbinder." Was mostly just indifferent for the first three (freakin') hours—Diaz has no feeling for duration, just an apparent knee-jerk notion that longer = artistic—but Fabian's climactic actions pushed me into active dislike, again in part due to how much they reminded me of Dumont and his macho approach to out-of-nowhere violence. Just not for me, I guess. You kids have fun. [NYFF]

Abuse of Weakness 2013 (Catherine Breillat, France)
★★★½ Watched 05 Sep, 2013
61/100
A strange experience, in that I knew all about Breillat's stroke but had somehow never heard that she'd given nearly €1 million to a known (to her) con man. So it wasn't clear to me, while the film was in progress, whether it was pure fiction with one autobiographical element or (as it turns out) a sort of quasi-fictional anti-confession. Knowing it's the latter makes the final scene, which functions not unlike the ending of Puiu's Aurora, considerably more powerful, and also mitigates what would otherwise seem like a flimsy conflation of physical and emotional weakness. Either way, the body of the film is a bit exasperating—more compelling as a portrait of slow recovery and unwilling need than as a character study of an apparent nincompoop. [NYFF]

The Missing Picture 2013 (Rithy Panh, Cambodia)
★★★★ Watched 05 Sep, 2013
73/100
Exactly the sort of grim memoir that I find oppressive when it's done conventionally; the layer of abstraction imposed by the clay figures makes all the difference. Wish Panh had been a bit more rigorous in his use of the conceit—I detected little rhyme or reason, apart from strict utility, in the way he jumps around between modes, or in e.g. the occasional superimposition of figurines onto archival footage (which is quite effective)—but overall it's an uncannily moving experience, enhanced by beautifully written and performed (in French, by an actor standing in for Panh) voiceover narration. A valuable companion piece to S21. [NYFF.

Closed Curtain 2013 (Jaafar Panahi, Iran)
★★★ Watched 05 Sep, 2013
60/100
Intriguingly allegorical first half falls prey to one of Panahi's patented reflexive mid-film switcheroos, which (I'm sorry to say) primarily makes the second half seem kinda whiny. Granted, Panahi has justifiable cause to whine, but I was more into this before he showed up in the flesh and turned it into a full-bore Morality Play, with characters who might as well be called Creativity and Suicide. Please release the man so he can make films about something more compelling than his inability to make films. But keep the dog.

___________________________

The Fifth Estate (Bill Condon: Wikileaks/Julian Assange docudrama): Dennis Harvey of VARIETY (http://variety.com/2013/film/reviews/the-fifth-estate-review-toronto-1200601032/) calls it "stimulating but overly frenetic."
Results can’t help but stimulate, but they’re also cluttered and overly frenetic, resulting in a narrative less informative, cogent and even emotionally engaging than Alex Gibney’s recent docu “We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks.” Initial interest should be high, though likely mixed critical and word of mouth response may dampen B.O. staying power. The GUARDIAN'S (http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/sep/06/fifth-estate-review)Catherine Shoard gives it 3/5 stars. Both reviews link it to Sorkin/Fincher's THE SOCIAL NETWORK as a "template."

[Chris Knipp]

http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/3328/v2a0.jpg (http://tiff.net/)
A couple more Letterboxed (http://letterboxd.com/gemko/film/parkland/) reviews from Toronto from Mike D'Angelo. Sept. 7, TIFF 2013 day two.

Parkland 2013 ★★★ (Peter Landesman, USA, 93 mins.)
Watched Sep 07, 2013
Mike D'Angelo’s review:
53/100
A.V. Club review forthcoming. Not nearly as glib or useless as the early buzz suggested, though it takes a nosedive after the 22nd and expends too much energy on Robert Oswald. Best with small details you'd never thought about, e.g. men grabbing tools to remove seats from Air Force One so JFK's coffin won't have to be stored below with the baggage.
"With Zac Efron, Tom Welling, Paul Giamatti, Marcia Gay Harden. A recounting of the chaotic events that occurred at Dallas' Parkland Hospital on the day U.S. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated."--IMDb.

Gravity 2013 ★★★½ (Alfonso Cuarón, 90 mins., USA, UK)
Watched Sep 07, 2013
Mike D'Angelo’s review:
63/100
The Dissolve review forthcomin (http://thedissolve.com/features/postcards-from-tiff/140-day-3-far-out-feeling/)g (in tomorrow's rundown, which I'm writing). One of the most amazing F/X showcases ever made; pity about the parts where people talk, and most of the last third. Call this one All Is Won.
"A medical engineer and an astronaut work together to survive after an accident leaves them adrift in space."--IMDb summary.

AV CLUB (http://www.avclub.com/articles/toronto-2013-day-two-prisoners-provides-american-g,102580/) has coverage of the past two days by two writers, maybe three, with reviews of PRISONERS (B+), MANAKAMANA (B), CLOSED CURTAIN (B-), 12 YEARS A SLAVE (B+), RUSH (B-), REAL (C), and TIM'S VERMEER (B-). Obviously those letter grades don't add up to much; the actual remarks are more interesting. I'll be seeing these shortly and feel more prepared now with things to look for.

[Johann]

I live in Toronto now, and I have zero interest in TIFF this year.
But I did see Nicole Kidman in the flesh...(from a distance, but hey, she's a Goddess..)

D'Angelo's schedule is not what I would have scheduled for myself, and I'm certain it's nearly impossible to keep a chosen schedule on track.
I went through the TIFF guides and listings and there are only a handful of films that I am jazzed about seeing.
Such as:

Blue is the Warmest Color (Palme D'or winner this year).

Jim Jarmusch's Only Lovers Left Alive- it's getting raves for it's "heroin chic" vibe- I wish I could've seen Jim in the flesh- that guy is Awesome.

Mike Myers' directorial debut: Supermensch.

Claude (Shoah) Lanzmann's latest film- a film about a rabbi who was aligned with Nazis.

Denis Villeneuve's new movie with Jake Gyllenhaal & Hugh Jackman- looks fantastic.

The opening night film about Julian Assange looks interesting. In addition to Benedict, it has Daniel Bruhl (an actor I really like- he was in Inglourious Basterds.

Roger Ebert got a warm tribute on opening night too, and his widow Chaz was given a plaque and she was extremely emotional on the red carpet, as she remembered (and reminded everyone) that Roger was at TIFF many times- his ghost haunts Toronto, and that's a GREAT thing.


I'll let you know what else has significant buzz as the festival goes along. I'm just a little non-plussed this year.
Brad Pitt was here to promote a great-looking (true story) film about slavery, in which he plays a Canadian named Bass who helped a slave gain his freedom after 12 years. Brad mentioned in an interview that we need to mine this subject more, get more awareness out, that we can't leave our cinematic statements about slavery at Roots and Amistad.

The cast of 1983's THE BIG CHILL were here also (Meg Tilly, Glenn Close, Kevin Kline, Tom Berenger) to celebrate 30 years as a boomer classic.

[Chris Knipp]

Those are good choices, a bit more mainstream than I might have expected (since most of them will be in theaters shortly), but there's a lot of good stuff, from Cannes, Locarno, and Venice. D'Angelo tends to focus on items that will NOT be sure of being seen otherwise any time soon. A lot of his running 2013 Top Ten are from Cannes and in that category, their US release still iffy. He seems also to try to watch what he can that's on the NYFF Main Slate, apparently valuing those choices and not making it to NY.

Brad Pitt appears in the latter part of Steve (HUNGER, SHAME) McQueen's 12 YEARS A SLAVE, which I'll give D'Angelo's and did give AV Cub's ratings of above. It's been given major "Oscar buzz," which AV Club's critic disparaged as not the point at all. Anyway Brad is producer of this movie.

I'vee seen Nicole a two or three times at Lincoln Center for NYFF Q&A's; she always looks great.

Good commentary on 12 YEARS A SLAVE and other films, including RUSH and TIM'S VERMEER by Ben Kenigsberg of AV Club here. (http://www.avclub.com/articles/toronto-2013-day-two-prisoners-provides-american-g,102580/)

It can be fun just to be in the area of a big film fest; I"ve enjoyed the two times recently when I was in Paris in May when Cannes was going on and some of the films -- MIDNIGHT IN PARIS, RUST AND BONE, MOONRISE KINGDOM -- opened in Paris the same night they premiered at Cannes.

[Chris Knipp]

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Toronto Sept 8, Day 3. More D'Angelo ratings, from the avant garde section of TIFF

The following with a for him astronomical 83 scored, is his highlight of the festival so far. He also obvioulsly liked ABUSE OF WEAKNESS, GRAVITY, THE MISSING PICTURE, CLOSED CURTAIN and Eimbecke's "adorable" (it sounds pretty sad) CLUB SANDWICH a lot. The highly praised Steve McQueen 12 YEARS A SLAVE he doesn't seem to have on his viewing schedule but clearly it has gotten raves (see the AV Club or GUARDIAN reviews).

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CELESTIAN WIVES

Celestial Wives of the Meadow Mari 2012 ★★★★½ (Aleksey Fedorchenko, Italy, 106 mins.)
Watched Sep 07, 2013
Mike D'Angelo’s review:
83/100
The Dissolve review forthcoming (possibly by the time you see this; if not, in a few hours). Tickled me no end. 23 Short Films About Weird-Ass Sex Rituals.
Many of the bits don’t make any rational sense, or even necessarily “go anywhere,” but that’s part of the movie’s overall goofy charm; like 69 Love Songs, it’s more enjoyable as a bravura stunt, experienced in its entirety, than “track” by “track.”

The Strange Colour of Your Body’s Tears 2013 ★★★ ( Hélène Cattet, Bruno Forzani, Switzerland, 102 mins.)
Watched Sep 07, 2013
Mike D'Angelo’s review:
58/100
Delectably Amer-ican for the first half hour or so, in part because every new person the protagonist meets launches into a story, depicted in crazily stylized digressive interludes. (The one with the elderly couple and the hole in the ceiling is all kinds of dementedly virtuosic.) Alas, Forzani and Cattet eventually commit to their meaningless narrative, at which point the movie becomes a really bad case of diminishing returns, feeling much longer than it is. Clearly they can't do a sustained story, so unless they can devise a bunch of ways to build features from vignettes, that may be it.

D'Angelo's promised Sept 8 TIFF roundup in THE DISSOLVE here. (http://thedissolve.com/features/postcards-from-tiff/140-day-3-far-out-feeling/)

He calls it "A far-out feeling," and says " Even the big-budget spectacles flirt with the avant-garde" (at this year's Toronto festival). In this up-to-now roundup piece, he mostly spells out thumbnail reviews already listed and links them together. This and other Dissove coverage works well with the AV Club's linked to above, as well as the GUARDIAN's generally well-written reviews. The GUARDIAN's Film Blog (http://www.theguardian.com/film) is one big newspaper venue that covers the TIFF hour-by-hour and day-by-day like an important news event -- as they do Cannes. The GUARDIAN has reviewed THE FIFTH ESTATE, (http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/sep/06/fifth-estate-review) the Wikipeaks/Julian Assange film, which D'Angelo and AV Club have overlooked.

[Chris Knipp]

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D'Angelo tweets again. Sept. 8, TIFF day three.

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MOEBIUS

Moebius (Kim): 68. If Troma films were this funny I'd be such a Troma fan. Demerits for not having the balls to call it DICKLESS.
[Kim Ki-duk, Korea, 89 mins.]

The F Word (Dowse): 57. So heavily indebted to WHEN HARRY MET SALLY it felt obligated to include an homage. Commensurate banter level.

The Last of the Unjust (Lanzmann): 50. Just ignore me, I'm allergic to interview docs not by Errol Morris. Enjoyed present-day exteriors.

When Evening Falls on Bucharest, or Metabolism (Porumboiu): 62. Odd mix of deliberate withholding + self-conscious theme-spewing. But fun?

The Unknown Known (Morris): 54. What did we learn, Palmer?

Night Moves (Reichardt): 49. Gonna have to ponder a while on why this rang so completely false to me, right from the jump.

[That was his most anticipated film, but I felt dowbtful given the theme and cast.]

Our Sunhi (Hong): 55. Practically a remake of OKI'S MOVIE, minus the multiple-film conceit and with the trajectory reversed. Familiar.


PLUS The GUARDIAN

THE DOUBLE 5/5 stars. (Jesse Eisenberg stars alongside himself in Richard Ayoade's adaptation of a Dostoyevsky story about a meek office worker who is confronted by his confident, aggressive doppelgänger. It's a brilliant copy of a great original, says Henry Barnes [Ayoade directed the great period coming-of-age film SUBMARINE.]
RUSH 4/5 stars. Ron Howard's 70s-set formula one thriller about the rivalry between drivers James Hunt and Niki Lauda is supercharged fun, even if it may not depict the era with total accuracy
FADING GIGOLO 4/5 stars. Woody Allen shines as the pimp who hires out John Turturro - who also directs - in this strangely successful religious sex comedy
MANDELA - LONG WALK TO FREEDOM 2/5 stars. Idris Elba delivers a respectful take on the South African icon in Justin Chadwick's authorised biopic, but the film itself sags beneath the weight of responsibility
MAN OF TAI CHI 2/5 STARS Keanu Reeves' directorial debut plays out as an astounding martial arts showcase and a lousy Hong Kong cop thriller, says Henry Barnes
YOU ARE HERE 2/5 stars. The directorial debut of Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner is sporadically funny, but its mix of comedy and emotion make for awkward bedfellows

[Johann]

There isn't any particular excitement for me with the festival going on right now.
Opening night had people all excited over Brad Pitt being here, and last night Julia Roberts generated the same excitement. (YAWN)

I've heard from a couple people that getting into screenings is hard, with lots of scrambling to get into another movie when one is sold-out.
One thing that really pisses me off is when Festival CEO Piers Handling said that TIFF is an "Audience" festival.
What an outright lie. What a crock of horseshit.
This is an absolute, 100% film industry event. With GIANT corporate sponsors.

[Chris Knipp]

It's both. It's audience and industry. There is big attendance, hence audience. It features high profile upcoming wide releases, and that is both audience and industry. It features many other cool films from other fests, and that's for cinephiles on both sides. Industry has cinephiles, ya' know.
The "giant" corporate sponsors (redundant phrase?) are necessary to put on the event.

That said, Toronto is more mainstream and commercial than Canner or Telluride or the NYFF or SFIFF. Is that such a bad thing? The money also makes it possible to show avant garde stuff.

It would be fun to see Brad and Julia. To my knowledge neither of them has been at the NYFF. Denzel was last year, Nicole has been repeatedly, and Tom Hanks will be this year. All part of the fun of a big film festival. Claire Denis will also be there, and people you haven't even heard of -- yet. Interest in filmmaking personalities might seem promotional crap, but helps generate curiosity about new movies and filmmakers.

[Chris Knipp]

http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/3328/v2a0.jpg (http://tiff.net/)
D'Angelo tweet reviews Sept 10, day five. In descending order of his ratings.

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SCARLETT JOHANSSON IN UNDER THE SKIN

Under the Skin (Glazer): 79. Second time this year I thought I was seeing one of my favorite films of all time, until a narrative appeared./First hour is mind-blowing. Then it goes exactly where I didn't want it to, albeit still pretty expertly. You got story in my mood piece! [Jonathan Glazer, USA, 108 mins., "An alien in human form is on a journey through Scotland." Paul Branigan, Scarlett Johansson.]

Gloria (Lelio): 66. Finely wrought character study initially looks overstated, deepens over time. Deserving Best Actress winner (Berlin).

The Major (Bykov): 59. Super-intense, heavy-handed Russian police corruption drama. Concludes with a genuinely disturbing "moral."

Omar (Abu-Assad): 45. Why are people taking this guy seriously. (I mean, I know why, but why?) He's the epitome of politi-crass.
NYFF

Cristo Rey (Tonos Paniagua): W/O. Ethnocentric festival filler. You'll never hear a word about this film again.

Sarah Prefers to Run (Robichaud): W/O. Exactly the same film as Ursula Meier's STRONG SHOULDERS, but lacks Meier's brio, adds an idiot plot.

Stop the Pounding Heart (Minervini): W/O. Thought this was a superior attempt at Matt Porterfield's style until the bad improv kicked in.

WHAT THE GUARDIAN REVIEWED THIS DAY

McCanick
3 out of 5
Paul MacInnes: Cory Monteith's final onscreen performance has grabbed all the attention, but this solid cop thriller has its own impressive lead in David Morse
(Josh C. Waller USA 96 mins.)

One Chance
3 our of 5
James Corden is Paul Potts in this story of the Britain's Got Talent winner, which wins applause despite some false notes
(David Frankel, UK, 103 mins.)

The F Word
2 out of 5
Daniel Radcliffe and Zoe Kazan are screwy hipsters flirting round the sweet spots of Toronto in this rom-com that thinks it isn't a rom-com but actually, like, totally is
(Michael Dowse, UK, 99 mins.)

August: Osage County
2 out of 5
Meryl Streep claws the walls well, but the trappings of theatre hobble this movie version of Tracy Letts' award-winning play
(John Wells, USA, 99 mins. adaptation of Tracy Letts' 3-hour Broadway play)

Devil's Knot
1 out of 5
Colin Firth and Reese Witherspoon might like to consider dropping Atom Egoyan's take on the West Memphis Three from their résumés
(USA 114 mns.)

[B]ALSO FIND AV CLUB DAY THREE COVERAGE HERE. (http://www.avclub.com/articles/toronto-2013-day-three-gravity-drops,102584/)

[Chris Knipp]

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Sept. 11, day six.

MORE GUARDIAN (http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/sep/11/lance-armstrong-alex-gibney-armstrong-lie-review-toronto) REVIEWS. Click on the titles for individual GUARDIAN reviews.

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Lance Armstrong

The Armstrong Lie: (http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/sep/11/lance-armstrong-alex-gibney-armstrong-lie-review-toronto)
4 out of 5 (Alex Gibney, USA, 122-min. doc about Lance Armstrong)
What started out as a puff piece has transformed into a comprehensive demolition of disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong.[ Lengthy positive review by Chris Michael. ]

Felony: (www.theguardian.com/film/2013/sep/11/felony-joel-edgerton-review-toronto-2013)
4 out of 5
This Australian-made crime thriller, with Joel Edgerton as both star and writer, is smart enough to send us – and the film – in unexpected directions
[Dir. Matthew Saville, UK, 1055 mins : Joel Edgerton (The Great Gatsby) scripts and stars in this thriller about a decorated cop whose attempt to hide his complicity in a traffic accident makes him the target of a dogged investigator (Jai Courtney).]

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André Benujamin as Jimi Hendrix

All Is By My Side: (http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/sep/12/all-is-by-my-side-hendrix-review-toronto)
4 out of 5
John Ridley's unpredictable film delivers a Jimi Hendrix experience somehow the richer for sidelining the man himself, writes Henry Barnes
(http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/sep/12/all-is-by-my-side-hendrix-review-toronto)
Belle: (http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/sep/11/belle-review-toronto-film-festival)
3 out of 5 (UK 105 mins.)
The second film from Amma Asante is Toronto's second slavery tale: the extraordinary story of a black society woman in 18th century England

How I Live Now: (http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/sep/11/how-i-live-now-review-toronto)
3 out of 5
Kevin Macdonald has teenagers in the crosshairs with this post-nuclear puppy love story [Director of THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND; UK, 109 mins.; Todd McCarthy and Henry Barnes of GUARDIAN reviews not favorable; stars Saorse Ronan]

Hateship Loveship: (http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/sep/12/hateship-loveship-toronto-2013-review)
2 out of 5
The new Kristen Wiig film suggests all men need is a woman to help them scrub up their act, and all women need is a man to let them, says Chris Michael (http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/sep/12/hateship-loveship-toronto-2013-review)

Third Person (http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/sep/11/third-person-review-toronto)
1 out of 5 (Paul Haggis, USA, 144 mins)
Liam Neeson, Mila Kunis, Olivia Wilde, Adrien Brody and James Franco are all linked in Paul Haggis's doomy drama. But how? And why? Why?

Mike D'Angelo tweets of the day:

We Are the Best! (Moodysson): 64. Are you. Are you the best. Or are you an adorable trifle.

Dom Hemingway (Shepard): 58. Big ol' tonal mess, w/Jude Law veering from cartoon to human as required by the script. Sporadically hilarious. [Richard Shepard (TV director), USA, 93 mins., cime story with Damian Bishir]

October November (Spielmann): 56. Spielmann almost certainly lost a parent in the past few years. Individual scenes fine, add up to little. [Götz Spielmann, Austria, 114 mins; he made the excellent 2008 REVANCHE]

A Story of Children and Film (Cousins): W/O. No disrespect intended to @alsolikelife when I say this is one of his video essays writ long. [Doc by Mark Cousins; @alsolikelife is Kevin B. Lee, who does short illustrated film lectures/analyses in videos.]

[Chris Knipp]

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(http://tiff.net/)
September 12, day seven.

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Nicolas Cage in JOE

D'Angelo:

Joe (Green): 72. Superb until it suddenly isn't anymore, practically out of nowhere in the last 10-15 mins. Still, welcome back DGG.
[David Gordon Green, USA, 117 mins., with Nicolas Cage]

Blind Dates (Koguashvili): 57. Georgian director of STREET DAYS still has something, but his focus here is too diffuse. (Oxymoron?)

Child of God (Franco): 29. Based on the evidence here, Franco might accomplish something if he ever stops trying to film unfilmable novels.

The Immoral (Jacobsen): W/O. Couldn't get an advance ticket for STRANGE LITTLE CAT so took a flyer on a Norwegian comedy. Unbearable.

GUARDIAN:

Xian Brooks' review (http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/sep/02/venice-2013-child-of-god-review)of James Franco's film for the GUARDIAN written Sept. 2 at Venice rates it considerably higher than D'Angelo did:
Child of God:
4 out of 5
Multi-hyphenate renaissance man James Franco has finally delivered the goods with this great, grisly Cormac McCarthy adaptation Sunshine on Leith:
4 out of 5
Brace yourself for Peter Mullan as you've never heard him before in Dexter Fletcher's rousing musical romance set in Edinburgh

Hateship Loveship:
2 out of 5
The new Kristen Wiig film suggests all men need is a woman to help them scrub up their act, and all women need is a man to let them, says Chris Michael

Closing film is Daniel Sheckter's LIFE OF CRIME based on Elmore Leonard's The Switch, starring John Hawkes, Tim Robbins, Jennifer Anniston and Mos Def. VARIETY'S (Catherine Shoard)Dennis Harvey had good things to say about it, and so did the GUARDIAN'S Catherine Shoard in a brief closing video. But while GUARDIAN coverage was good, they seem to have pulled out early, missing the last day, maybe to get read for the LFF.

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LIFE OF CRIME

[Johann]

Great stuff Chris.

Of course the industry has cinephiles- what a travesty it would be if there wasn't!
The line ups for some films are insane here in Toronto. (right around the block in some cases).
I think NYFF would be more exciting to me. Toronto is trying to be Canada's New York, and it succeeds in some ways.
I'm still bitter about TIFF from 2009. I apologize. It is what it is.
This festival is a boon for Canada and Toronto, so I can't knock it too severely.
I just don't feel a part of it- I've wrestled all year with whether or not to cover it.
It's $500 for a festival pass (to see any film you want, anytime) and I don't want to feel like I wasted 500 bucks.

If the films in the lineup were off the map exciting, with evidence that the medium is moving forward in directions that Stanley Kubrick would approve of, I wouldn't hestitate.

The fact is there isn't one groundbreaking film in the lineup. And if there is, where's the evidence?

[Chris Knipp]

Obviously I prefer the NYFF too, but of course the TIFF has more stuff. Toronto maybe has gotten too large. It's more like Tribeca than like the NYFF, but I have the impression Tribeca has more of a focus on small indie films and NYC-related stuff. Still we can't discount Toronto. It seems like for D'Angelo it has been less valuable than Cannes and also he seems to have fared less well in getting into the films he wanted to see. For press & industry, you get to watch all the NYFF Main Slate at separate screenings under pretty ideal conditions. No rushing around and standing in line.

[Johann]

Cool.
I think you're 100% right.

[Chris Knipp]

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Toronto (http://tiff.net/)
September 13, day eight

Today some of the other films you could see in the TIFF are: Jonathan Teplitzky's THE RAILWAY MAN with Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman, Fred Schepisi's WORDS AND PICTURES, with Clive Own and Juliette Binoche, Jia Zhang-ke's A TOUCH OF SIN (Cannes; NYFF), Jonothan Sobol's THE ART OF THE STEAL, with Matt Dillon, Terrence Stamp, Kurt Russell; THE MISSING PICTURE (Rithy Panh-NYFF); Hong Sang-so's OUR SUNHI (NYFF); Gianni Ameliio's L'INTREPIDO (Venice); Callin Peter Netzer's CHILD'S POSE, Golden Bear winner at the Berlinale this year; and Fernando Coimba's A WOLF AT THE DOOR (Brazil).; and of course the Closing Night Film, Daniel Schechter's reportedly unusually faithful adaptation of the late Elmore Leonard's THE SWITCH, LIFE OF CRIME. Some of these are not the kind of true festival fare D'Angelo focuses on. A TOUCH OF SIN he saw at Cannes (his tweet rating: 59)

D'Angelo tweet ratings :

Yesterday wasn't a very good day for him. He couldn't get into the artful Swiss STRANGE LITTLE CAT (see my review o (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3470-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2013&p=30069#post30069)f it in SFIFF coverage) -- and a series of random walk-ins turned into walk-outs. D'Angelo tweeted at the end of yesterday: Tomorrow will at least be more promising, with Miyazaki, Wiseman, Puiu (though his looks deadly) and STRANGE LITTLE CAT for sure this time.

The Strange Little Cat (Zürcher): 70. Another stunning beginning, melding the organic & the mechanical. Then it seemed to kinda stall.
+Also maybe I missed something but the mom's dolour seemed inexplicable to me, like a failed attempt to inject some raw emotion. [Switzerland, 70 mins. SFIFF]

At Berkeley (Wiseman): 55. Large chunks of this veer perilously close to being TED TALKS: THE MOVIE. Stronger behind the scenes. [Frederick Wiseman documentary about UC Berkeley and environs, USA, 244 mins.; NYFF]

The Wind Rises (Miyazaki): 48. Not the film for someone more interested in aeronautical design than in a Japanese LOVE STORY.
VARIETY's (http://variety.com/2013/film/reviews/the-wind-rises-review-venice-toronto-1200592219/) Scott Foundas (their chief critic now) is understandably more favorable; he's on the selection committee of the NYFF, which put this film in its Main Slate. He summarizes:
Hayao Miyazaki's hauntingly beautiful historical epic draws a sober portrait of Japan between the two World Wars. More grownup in its appeal than PONYO, he says. [Animation, Japan, 126 mins (NYFF)]

After seeing THE STRANGE LITTLE CAT, AT BERKELEY, AND THE WIND RISES, D'angelo tweeted: "Sorry, Cristi Puiu, I've been sitting in theaters continuously for the last 7.5 hours and I can't handle 2.5 more right now."
[He's choosing not to sit through the 157 min. THREE INTERPRETATION EXERCISES by Romanian Christi (The Death of Mr. Lazarescu, Aurora) Puiu. Not the NYFF Romanian film as I was thinking: that's Corneliu Porumboiu's WHEN EVENING FALLS ON BUCHAREST OR METABOLISM, which sound pretty dry, but happily is 80 mins.]

[Chris Knipp]

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Toronto (http://tiff.net/)
September 14, day nine
Anothera (final TIFF?) tweet by D'Angelo:


Hadn't realized Micachu is responsible for UNDER THE SKIN's amazing score. (Credited as Mica Levi.) Crucial element in its otherworldliness.

UNDER THE SKIN is his second highest-rated film of the TIFF (79). Also the one we're most likely to be able to see. Jonathan Glazer is previously responsible for SEXY BEAST (with Ben Kingsley), and BIRTH (NIcole Kidman). Scarlett Johansson, who stars this time, I've just learned, is working on her first directorial project, (http://www.vanityfair.com/online/oscars/2013/05/scarlett-johansson-direct-capote) a film of Truman Capote's recently rediscovered abandoned first novel, Summer Crossing.

[Chris Knipp]

http://img836.imageshack.us/img836/7443/4hie.jpg
Toronto (http://tiff.net/)
September 14, day nine, continued

TIFF 2013 ROUNDUPS.

MANOHLA DARGIS OF THE NY TIMES

She has a roundup in today's NY Times (9/14) "JOLT OF FILMS AND CROWDS IN TORONTO" (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/14/movies/jolt-of-films-and-crowds-in-toronto.html?ref=arts&_r=0), and she mentions a couple of films not yet noted here, particularly Martin Provost's Violette, about Violette Leduc, a sort of intellectual biopic-relationship pic with Emmanuelle Devos as Violette and Sandrine Kiberlain as Simone de Beauvoir, also with Olivier Gourmet, Jacques Bonnaffé. She notes the chance to "admire Matthew McConaughey’s continuing career rehabilitation in “Dallas Buyers Club”. She did not dislike Kelly Reichardt 's NIGHT MOVIES (Jesse Eisenberg as an eco-terrorist) as D'Angelo die. She enjoyed Alfredo Arvelo's THE LIBERATOR with Édgar Ramírez (of CARLOS) as Simon Bolivar, liberating and romancing. Like everybody, she was impressed by Steve McQueen's 12 YEARS A SLAVE; loved the spectacle side of Cuarón's GRAVITY; hopes lots of people will see Lukas Moodysson's "joyous, heart-swelling story of youthful rebellion set in the 1980s" WE ARE THE BEST.

Dargis liked Gia Coppola (Francis's grandchild)'s PALO ALTO with Emma Roberts and Jack Kilmer ("Val's son!"). She also liked the "more radical" sidebar series of the fest "Wavelengths," or at least the Harvard Ethonographic thingy, MANAKAMANA (NYFF).

And that's about all she wrote. The rest is mostly about the multitude of logistical and admission and scheduling problems of this year's TIFF, which made her flash on a soccer riot coming out of GRAVITY and seemed to her maybe worse than any such issues in her 20 years of attending Toronto. But she also noted the fest's considerable importance as the major fall North American festival, the big marketplace and a place where out of 288 features 146 were world premieres (which is pretty impressive). Too bad some of the "hottest" titles where scheduled in conflict with each other.

It puzzles me a bit when the Times is pretty diligent in reviewing all the new movies that open in NYC each Friday and has three regular critics and a number of stringers, their coverage of the TIFF is so lightweight compared to the London GUARDIAN, which had at least three people in Toronto with "First Look" reviews every day and video clips with a running festival blog. THE DISSOLVE and AV CLUB not to mention of course VARIETY and HOLLYWOOR REPORTER have more thorough coverage of the festival.

MIKE D'ANGELO

HE tweeted of
Burnout + the need to write my final report prevailed last night, so I've got just one more film (REAL) before heading home. But Kiyoshi Kurosawa's reportedly disappointing REAL (a late addition to the upcoming 2013 NYFF program) got no mention from him other than his quoting someone else's devastating "REAL: INEPTION."

We know what he liked, but he sums it up in a string of tweets:


Liked a lot this year. In order: Celestial Wives of the Meadow Mari, Under the Skin, The Missing Picture, Joe, Club Sandwich. (cont'd)

The Strange Little Cat, Stray Dogs, Moebius, Gloria, We Are the Best!, Love Is the Perfect Crime, Gravity, When Evening Falls on Bucharest.


AV CLUB

You can find some further short reviews at AV Club, though those seem to arrive much after the fact. In their Day Six report (http://www.avclub.com/articles/toronto-2013-day-six-tiff-golden-boy-jason-reitman,102755/) they say Jason Reitman's LABOR DAY is a "turkey," but like D'Angelo (they are on the same wavelength) they loved UNDER THE SKIN, despite its oddities. They were less enthusiastic about Ayoade's THE DOUBLE than the GUARDIAN (B-).

Well, I'm in New York now and Press & Industry screenings for the 50th New York Film Festival begin on Monday, Sept. 16.

[Chris Knipp]

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(http://tiff.net/)
September 14, day nine, continued

MANOHLA DARGIS of the NY TIMES

SHE has a roundup in today's NY Times (9/14) "JOLT OF FILMS AND CROWDS IN TORONTO" (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/14/movies/jolt-of-films-and-crowds-in-toronto.html?ref=arts&_r=0), and she mentions a couple of films not yet noted here, particularly Martin Provost's Violette, about Violette Leduc, a sort of intellectual biopic-relationship pic with Emmanuelle Devos as Violette and Sandrine Kiberlain as Simone de Beauvoir, also with Olivier Gourmet, Jacques Bonnaffé. She notes they chance to "admire Matthew McConaughey’s continuing career rehabilitation in “Dallas Buyers Club”. She did not dislike Kelly Reichardt 's NIGHT MOVIES (Jesse Eisenberg as an eco-terrorist) as D'Angelo die. She enjoyed Alfredo Arvelo's THE LIBERATOR with Édgar Ramírez (of CARLOS) as Simon Bolivar, liberating and romancing. Like everybody, she was impressed by Steve McQueen's 12 YEARS A SLAVE; loved the spectacle side of Cuarón's GRAVITY; hopes lots of people will see Lukas Moodysson's "joyous, heart-swelling story of youthful rebellion set in the 1980s" WE ARE THE BEST.

She liked Gia Coppola (Francis's grandchild)'s PALO ALTO with Emma Roberts and Jack Kilmer ("Val's son!"). She also liked the "more radical" sidebar series of the fest "Wavelengths," or at least the Harvard Ethonographic thingy, MANAKAMANA (NYFF).

And that's about all she wrote. The rest is mostly about the multitude of logistical and admission and scheduling problems of this year's TIFF, which made her flash on a soccer riot coming out of GRAVITY and seemed to her maybe worse than any such issues in her 20 years of attending Toronto. But she also noted the fest's considerable importance as the major fall North American festival, the big marketplace and a place where out of 288 features 146 were world premieres (which is pretty impressive). Too bad some of the "hottest" titles where scheduled in conflict with each other. They are not as enthusiastic about Ayode's second feature THE DOUBLE as the GUARDIAN but they like it (B-). They're not as hard on Hany Abu-Assad's OMAR as D'Angelo but they think it inferior to his PARADISE NOW (C+).

MIKE D'ANGELO

He tweeted of
Burnout + the need to write my final report prevailed last night, so I've got just one more film (REAL) before heading home. But Kiyoshi Kurosawa's reportedly disappointing REAL (a NYFF late addition) got no mention from him other than his quoting someone else's devastating "REAL: INEPTION."

We know what he liked, but he sums it up in a string of tweets:


Liked a lot this year. In order: Celestial Wives of the Meadow Mari, Under the Skin, The Missing Picture, Joe, Club Sandwich. (cont'd)

The Strange Little Cat, Stray Dogs, Moebius, Gloria, We Are the Best!, Love Is the Perfect Crime, Gravity, When Evening Falls on Bucharest.


AV CLUB

In their Day Six report (http://www.avclub.com/articles/toronto-2013-day-six-tiff-golden-boy-jason-reitman,102755/)the call Jason Reitman's new one, LABOR DAY, a "turkey" (C-). Like D'Angelo they love UNDER THE SKIN (A-), though noting its difficulty. They like Ayoade's second feature THE DOUBLE (B+) but not as much as the GUARDIAN did. They're not as hard on Hany Abu-Assad's OMAR as D'Angelo was (C+) but they don't think it's as good as his PARADISE NOW. They loved Tsing-ming Liang's STRAY DOGS (A-), and though they think sometimes a conventional American movie can be refreshing next to "punishing" festival fare, found that Joe Gordon-Levitt's directorial debut starring himself as a sex addict, DON JON (C+) suffered next to Tsing-ming Liang. And they liked Claire Denis's BASTARDS (a NYFF item) but found it a tad too hard to follow (B).

* * * *

And now, on to the NYFF!

[oscar jubis]

I attended Toronto '95. You say that Toronto "has gotten too big" but there were more than 300 features showing that year. And it was already a logistical nightmare, even though I had made reservations and purchased a pass before I left Miami. There were all kinds of cancellations, re-schedulings, delays, etc. Smaller film festivals that are more audience friendly are better.

[Chris Knipp]

I don't believe I said TIFF has "gotten too big"(how would I know?) though all things considered I'd be willing to bet it's bigger in terms of industry involvement than in was in '95, regardless of the features-count being high back then. Otherwise I was summarizing Dargis' NYTimes TIFF roundup article of today (Sat. Sept. 14, 2013) cited above about the fuckups in scheduling and logistics this time. She found them notable and she said she's gone for 20 years. Take it up with her. Toronto is the most important and biggest film festival in North America though of course "smaller" ones may be "better" for the comfort of the attendee but they have to be pretty darn small to be really comfortable. The SFIFF is pretty much of a hassle (if on a smaller scale) even for journalists. Lincoln Center makes the NYFF much more comfortable for journalists, perhaps in part because New York is where lot of the reviewers people read are located to begin with.

I agree with Johann that if I had to choose, I'd prefer to attend New York. But the reason why I'm following Toronto is that doing so yields such a wealth of information about the new films coming out from all over, and like the NYFF Toronto also is a compendium of best-ofs from recent major festivals, especially Cannes, Locarno, and Venice, only there are more of them than in the NYFF. Only the NYFF is more selective, and for instance in his DISSOLVE article D'Angelo notes that Kelly Reichart's NIGHT MOVES, which was his biggest disappointment, was NOT selected for the NYFF, even though New York has notably promoted Reichart in the past. New York isn't infallible but its choices tend to be a touchstone. Toronto is more a source of information and things to watch for that look like fun -- like THE DOUBLE, or DOM HEMINGWAY.

You can now read Mike D'Angelo's three detailed commentaries in THE DISSOLVE that bring together and enlarge upon his tweet ratings and comments on the individual films.

MIKE D'ANGELO IN THE DISSOLVE: "POSTCARDS FROM TIFF"

DAY 3: FAR OUT FEELING (http://thedissolve.com/features/postcards-from-tiff/140-day-3-far-out-feeling/)

DAY 6: CONSTERNATION AND CASTRATION (http://thedissolve.com/features/postcards-from-tiff/148-day-6-consternation-and-castration/)

DAY 9: CATS, COLLEGE AND FAREWELLS (http://thedissolve.com/features/postcards-from-tiff/157-day-9-cats-college-and-farewells/)

[Johann]

TIFF is over, and the Audience Award went to Steve McQueen's 12 Years A Slave, so look for it to garner Oscar noms.

Nicole Kidman was knocked down on the sidewalk by an idiot kid papparazzo riding a bike at full-tilt (?!)
Apparently this kid is a known nuisance, stalking Lady Gaga and others... I mean, come on...Lady Goofball??
Nicole rightfully pressed charges. Maybe that kid will check his swing from now on.

I think TIFF may be too big and cumbersome. They don't make it easy to get into a movie.
I remember VIFF and how easy it was to see everything you wanted- with press screenings leaving your schedule open for the good stuff.
TIFF just seems too much work to cover. And if it's on my dime, I hestitate to go full bore.
And with scant few films knocking peoples' socks off, it's not paramount for a cinephile to attend.
You'd do better with a home festival with your DVD collection. Is that sad? NOTE FOR NEXT YEAR TIFF!:
Bring the goods or I'll sit on my hands again.

seriously- there is next to NO BUZZ on films that played here. Jim Jarmusch always delivers in my humble opinion, so he doesn't count.
He always gives us gold. The Julian Assange film looks promising, and 12 Years A Slave also looks like a must-see.
Other than that, what else is there?
Francois Ozon, Claude Lanzmann and Jason Reitman are the only names that I've heard who're doing something interesting.


I guess 2013 is a lean year.

[Chris Knipp]

I don't think that's true at all, Johann. Plenty of buzz. Look over this thread. And too cumbersome to cover? According to Oscar it was just as big back in '95. I wouldn't know, but I didn't have any trouble covering it -- by proxy! Note D'Angelo's faves, Celestial Wives of the Meadow Mari, Under the Skin, The Missing Picture, Joe, Club Sandwich, plus The Strange Little Cat, Stray Dogs, Moebius, Gloria, We Are the Best!, Love Is the Perfect Crime, Gravity, When Evening Falls on Bucharest. I'm in NYC now and the press & industry screenings have begun, so I'm on to that. And we will see The Missing PIcture, Club Sandwich, Stray Dogs, Gloria, and When Evening Falls on Buchares. Looking forward to some of the others, such as Claire Denis', and Blue Is the Warmest Color.

[Johann]

Plenty of buzz? I don't see it.

It has to be a bigger festival than 1995. Has to be.
I wasn't in Toronto back then, but I'm quite sure the population has doubled in the last 20years. And tourist traffic is large here. Year-round too.
Your coverage (by proxy) is great. Many thanks to you and Mike D'Angelo. You've done it better than I could, I think.

In case you're a cinephile interested in movie posters, I would suggest shopping at Bloor and Bathurst- in the alleyway next to Honest Ed's there's a vintage movie poster shop.
They have vintage books, lobby cards and one-sheets- from all the decades!
They have an original (small) poster of Kubrick's Lolita ($450), they have originals of Eyes Wide Shut, Full Metal Jacket (2 types-folded) , A Clockwork Orange (1971-folded), an autographed (by Kirk Douglas) Spartacus, with a deluxe frame ($300) and they used to have a French subway-style Barry Lyndon. (It's now mine and I only paid $50). Plus they had a 1980 re-issue poster of 2001, also for $50, also now mine. :)

[Chris Knipp]

Thanks for the kind words for me and D'Angelo.

Love movie posters.

I was being rather unspecific about "buzz" for this year's TIFF. I simply mean they showed plenty of films that are interesting, particularly the ones from Cannes, Loczrno, and Venice. Some of them are at the NYFF for me to see. I'd like to see Asghar Farhadi's THE PAST, but that may be coming out here. We are getting some key Cannes films at the NYFF and some Venice and Locarno ones too. I could live without their high profile ones like SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY, CAPTAIN PHILIPS, or Roger Mitchell's LE WEEKEND. Or Spike Jonze's whatever.