Toronto International Film Festival 2014

[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/eddie.jpg
Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones in Theory of Everything


tiff.

The Toronto film festival begins today; it runs 4-14 September 2014. (The NYFF is 26 September-12 October.)

Find the main lineup of films at Toronto this year HERE. (http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/jul/22/toronto-film-festival-2014-full-line-up) Many of the fall and winter Oscar-worthy hits will be here. Earlier Catherine Shoard of the GUARDIAN commented that Toronto has "the edge on buzzy titles this year" over Telluride, which has been more and more competitive with it lately, or Venice, which comes a little before it. The NYFF comes just after Toronto every year. I highlighted the titles I've spotted of films also showing at the NYFF. In the Toronto list you'll find many of the big movies that you'll be excited to see in the fall and winter pre-Oscar season. Being a fan of Eddie Redmayne I'm excited to see his potentially career-making star turn in the Stephen Hawking biopic, THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING, directed by the great documentarian, James Marsh (still a biopic though). MY OLD LADY is coming soon to Landmark; it's an acting feast with Kevin Kline, Kristen Scott Thomas, and Maggie Smith duking it out in Paris. MISS JULIE with LIv Ullman would be an art house don't-miss. Fuqua's THE EQUALIZER and Dobkin's THE JUDGE are going to attract a huge amount of attention Stateside. Lone Sherfig is finally back with THE RIOT CLUB. Her AN EDUCATION attracted a lot of attention and put Carey Mulligan on the map. A new one from Laurent Cantet, RETURN TO ITHACA, might bear watching, though Guy Lodge (VARIETY) at Venice called it a "thoughtful but lethargic...talkfest." New ones form Kevin Smith, Jason Reitman, Noah Baumbach, Frederick Wiseman, Ramin Bahrani, Françcois Ozon, Christian Petzold, David Gordon Green, Takashi Miike, Johnnie To; Zvyagintsev's LEVIATHON, called "a stunning, surprisingly funny satire" by VARIETY'S Peter Debruge at Cannes; I might have liked to to see in the NYFF, still hoping to duplicate the magic THE RETURN had for me. (The Belvauz and Sciamma, scheduled to watch by D'Angelo, are not listed below, so these are not complete lists of the festival films.) NYFF overlaps are in red.

World premieres

The Good Lie, Philippe Falardeau, USA
The Theory of Everything, James Marsh, United Kingdom/USA
The Last Five Years, Richard LaGravenese, USA
Time Out of Mind, Oren Moverman, USA
Top Five, Chris Rock, USA
While We're Young, Noah Baumbach, USA
Still Alice, Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland, USA
A Second Chance (En Chance Til), Susanne Bier, Denmark
The Reach, Jean-Baptiste Leonetti, USA
Phoenix, Christian Petzold, Germany
Nightcrawler, Dan Gilroy, USA
Ned Rifle, Hal Hartley, USA
My Old Lady, Israel Horovitz, USA
Miss Julie, Liv Ullmann, Norway/United Kingdom/Ireland
Men, Women and Children, Jason Reitman, USA
Mary Kom, Omung Kumar, India
Love & Mercy, Bill Pohlad, USA
Learning to Drive, Isabel Coixet, USA
Black and White, Mike Binder, USA
The Equalizer, Antoine Fuqua, USA
The Judge, David Dobkin, USA
A Little Chaos, Alan Rickman, United Kingdom
The New Girlfriend (Une Nouvelle Amie), François Ozon, France
The Riot Club, Lone Scherfig, United Kingdom
Samba, Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano, France
This Is Where I Leave You, Shawn Levy, USA
Pawn Sacrifice, Ed Zwick, USA
American Heist, Sarik Andreasyan, USA
Before We Go, Chris Evans, USA
Breakup Buddies, Ning Hao, China
Cake, Daniel Barnz, USA
The Dead Lands (Hautoa), Toa Fraser, New Zealand/United Kingdom
The Drop, Michael R. Roskam, USA
Eden, Mia Hansen-Løve, France
The Gate, Régis Wargnier, France
The Keeping Room, Daniel Barber, USA
Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet, Canada/France/Lebanon/Qatar/USA
Beats of the Antonov, Hajooj Kuka, Sudan/South Africa
Iraqi Odyssey, Samir, Iraq/Switzerland/Germany/United Arab Emirates
Sunshine Superman, Marah Strauch, USA/Norway/United Kingdom
Tales of the Grim Sleeper, Nick Broomfield USA/United Kingdom
This Is My Land, Tamara Erde, France
The Yes Men Are Revolting, Laura Nix and the Yes Men, USA
1001 Grams, Bent Hamer, Norway/Germany/France
The Face of an Angel, Michael Winterbottom, United Kingdom
[REC] 4: Apocalypse, Jaume Balagueró, Spain
Big Game, Jalmari Heleander, Finland/United Kingdom/Germany
Cub, Jonas Govaerts, Belgium
Tusk, Kevin Smith, USA
The Duke of Burgundy, Peter Strickland, United Kingdom
Luna, Dave McKean, United Kingdom
Shrew's Nest, Juanfer Andrés and Esteban Roel, Spain
Spring, Justin Benson/Aaron Moorhead, USA
Waste Land, Pieter Van Hees, Belgium

International premieres

Haemoo, Shim Sung-bo, South Korea
Wild, Jean-Marc Vallée, USA
Hungry Hearts, Saverio Costanzo, Italy
I Am Here, Fan Lixin, China
Seymour: An Introduction, Ethan Hawke, USA
Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films, Mark Hartley, Australia
Tokyo Tribe, Sion Sono, Japan
Hyena, Gerard Johnson, United Kingdom
Over Your Dead Body, Takashi Miike, Japan
The World of Kanako, Tetsuya Nakashima, Japan

North American premieres

Return to Ithaca, Laurent Cantet, France
Red Amnesia (Chuangru Zhe), Wang Xiaoshuai, China
Pasolini, Abel Ferrara, France/Italy/Belgium
Manglehorn, David Gordon Green, USA
The Humbling, Barry Levinson, USA
Hector and the Search for Happiness, Peter Chelsom, Germany/Canada
Force Majeure, Ruben Östlund, Sweden/Norway/Denmark/France
Good Kill, Andrew Niccol, USA
Far from Men (Loin des Hommes), David Oelhoffen, France
Dearest, Peter Ho-Sun Chan, China/Hong Kong
Coming Home, Zhang Yimou, China
Maps to the Stars, David Cronenberg, Canada/Germany
National Diploma, Dieudo Hamadi France/Congo
National Gallery, Frederick Wiseman, France/USA
Natural Resistance, Jonathan Nossiter, Italy/France
Silvered Water, Syria Self-Portrait (Ma'a al Fidda) Ossama Mohammed and Wiam Simav Bedirxan, Syria/France
A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence, Roy Andersson, Sweden/Norway/France/Germany
The Golden Era, Ann Hui, China/Hong Kong
Goodbye to Language 3D, Jean-Luc Godard, France
Hill of Freedom, Hong Sang-soo, South Korea
Revivre, Im Kwon-taek, South Korea
Timbuktu, Abderrahmane Sissako, France/Mauritania/Mali
It Follows, David Robert Mitchell, USA
Alleluia, Fabrice Du Welz, France/Belgium
Goodnight Mommy, Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, Austria
They Have Escaped, JP Valkeapää, Finland

Canadian premieres

Whiplash, Damien Chazelle, USA
The Imitation Game, Morten Tyldum, United Kingdom/USA
Wild Tales (Relatos Salvajes), Damian Szifron, Argentina/Spain
Rosewater, Jon Stewart, USA
Mr Turner, Mike Leigh, United Kingdom
9 Homes, Ramin Bahrani, USA
Foxcatcher, Bennett Miller, USA
Merchants of Doubt, Robert Kenner, USA
Red Army, Gabe Polsky, USA/Russia
The Look of Silence, Joshua Oppenheimer, Denmark/Indonesia/Norway/Finland/United Kingdom
Leviathan, Andrey Zvyagintsev, Russia
The Guest, Adam Wingard, USA
What We Do in the Shadows, Taika Waititi, Jemaine Clement, New Zealand/USA

[Chris Knipp]

tiff.

Some Toronto early mainstream media reviews: Dobkin's THE JUDGE and James Franco's THE SOUND AND THE FURY (didn't he do that already?) both 3/5 stars from the GUARDIAN; Abel Ferrara's PASOLINI (hopeful for NYFF attendees) 4/5 stars. A bewitching walk on the wild side: "Willem Dafoe is superb as the celebrated Italian director who died in mysterious circumstances in 1975, in a film that could be Ferrara’s best yet," says GUARDIAN's Xian Brooks.

Mike D'Angelo has been hard at work and with his usual demonic energy pouring out tweet reviews. Two days, and he has observed all or parts of ten films and provided evaluations and comments. See below. (First one is a NYFF preview)


Hill of Freedom (Hong): 65. One of his enjoyable trifles, which is too bad because the scrambled-letters conceit merits something more.


The Lesson (Grozeva & Valchanov): W/O. Bulgarian attempt at a Dardennes film duplicates the words, whiffs the melody. The usual, basically.


Not My Type [Pas son genre] (Belvaux): 69. Admirably complex treatment of what seems like a simplistic scenario. Perhaps the 2 best perfs I've seen in '14.

Again, promising for NYFF, another Main Slate title:


'71 (Demange): 67. Well that was intense. Piles on the cynicism a bit thick in the home stretch, but as a pure action movie it's aces.


Alléluia (Du Welz): 52. Still haven't seen THE HONEYMOON KILLERS, shamefully, but I prefer DEEP CRIMSON to this overly repetitive take.


Also did some channel-surfing yesterday, with W/Os for RUN (Lacôte) and A DREAM OF IRON (Park). Nothing much to say about either.


Far From Men (Oelhoffen): 64. Sturdy neo-Western set at the start of the Algerian War. Stunning vistas, strong perfs, solidly conventional.


(Andersson): 54. Light on tours de force, surprisingly preachy. Some sublime bits, but feels like he's exhausted this particular mode.

This one is hilarious, but also disgusting:


Over Your Dead Body (Miike): 56. Apparently he saw CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA and thought "Not bad, but it needs a woman eating her own fetus."

[Chris Knipp]

tiff.

Toronto third day. More pungent tweet reviews from Mike D'Angelo.


Return to Ithaca (Cantet): 40. Cuban BIG CHILL starts off Farley-insufferable ("Remember that time we...?"), improves to mediocre.

This one is NYFF 2014 Main Slate and sounds disappointing. (I didn't see MAGIC GLOVES.)


Two Shots Fired (Rejtman): 49. Really liked MAGIC GLOVES, but I don't get what's he's aiming for w/this one. Drollery for drollery's sake.


The Drop (Roskam): 68. Really enjoy exploring Lehane's seedy little worlds (w/o Eastwood as a guide). The Golden Age of Hardy continues.

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/james.jpg

THE DROP. Belgian (Flemish) filmmaker Michaël R. Roskam previously directed BULLHEAD, with the powerful performance by Matthias Schoenaerts (later in Audiard's RUST AND BONE). THE DROP (opening soon in US theaters) is in English and set in New York (though in this Dennis Lehane adaptation done -- for the first time -- by Lehand himself, relocated from Boston) and has another posthumous performance by James Gandolfini. "Hardy" refers to Tom Hardy, of whom D'Angelo adds, "The last few years of Hardy remind me strongly of watching Gary Oldman ca. 1986–1992. Same protean ambition." Justin Chang (VARIETY) notes "Hardy's terrific perf here is the main reason for seeing this workmanlike but familiar noirish crime tale which boasts "a succession of ham-fisted plot turns and goombah stereotypes" though "not without its low-keyed pleasures.." D'Angelo's rating (in his terms) seems a bit high though judging by reviews and the trailer I've been forced to watch in theaters more than once.

GUARDIAN reviews give Reitman's MAN, WILLIAM, AND CHILDREN (with Adam Sandler) 3/5 stars; but D'Angleo skerwers it totally in his DISSOLVE review. Mia Hansen-Løve's EDEN (NYFF) gets 4/5 -- promising for NYFF where it's coming in the P&I screenings Sept. 23rd sandwiched between Resnais's LIFE OF RILEY and the Dardenne's new film.

Final D'Angelo rating for this TIFF day:


Goodnight Mommy (Franz & Fiala*): 57. More like AUDITION than like Seidl. Expertly disturbing/grueling, not sure to what subtextual purpose.

*Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, who have worked with Seidl; this is more an arty horror movie, which Debruge of VARIETY calls "a fairy tale for DOGTOOTH enthusiasts." The mother returned from hospital with face covered in bandages seems the evil one, till her young twin boys turn the tables. This actually debuted at Venice. German title of this Austrian film is ICH SEH, ICH SEH ("I see, I see").

[Chris Knipp]

tiff. Day Four.

D'Angelo Sunday tweet reviews.


This Is Where I Leave You (Levy): 47. Dismal when trying to be funny/farcical, surprisingly tolerable when more serious/thoughtful.


(Today is mostly devoted to seeing films I've been assigned to review, coming out in the next week or two. TUSK is next. It's a living.)


Tusk (Smith*): 28. This movie's stupid.

*Kevin Smith. "A man is captured by a maniac and tortured, physically and mentally, into becoming a walrus." (IMDb)

GUARDIAN reviews (These ratings seem soft and uninformative next to D'Angelo's precise ones, but they do cover a lot of movies including mainstream releases he won't be bothering with.)

From yesterday:

THE RIOT CLUB: 4/5 stars. "The PM should love it."
MADAME BOVERY 3/4 Stars. "Swooningly grim."
NIGHTCRAWLER 4/5 stars. "Gyllenhaal gets his hands dirty in brilliant news thriller."
EDEN (already mentionned) 4/5 stars. "Heaven is midnight in Paris, dancing to electronica."
THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY 4/5 stars. "Filthy and fraught with genuine emotion."

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/strickland.jpg
Duke of Burgundy

From today:

MEN, WOMEN, AND CHILDREN (Reitman) 4/5. They liked Adam Sandler, and Emma Thompson's "frisky" voiceover.
THE DROP 3/5 stars. "Gamey...procedural."
WHILE WE'RE YOUNG (Noah Baumbach) 5/5 (!) "While We're Young: Ben Stiller has a hipster replacement in brilliant comedy." (Catherine Shoard.)
ST. VINCENT 3/5 stars. "This hymn of love to Bill Murray is a symphony of slapstick with some discordant quavers – and a lot of bars."
THIS IS WHERE I LEAVE YOUY 2/5 stars. "Fey and Bateman in tale of sibling ribaldry." *(This surely is junk; so anything not junk GUARDIAN gives 3/5?)
THE REACH 2/5 stars. "The pulpy conceit of Jean-Baptiste Leonetti's cartoonish desert thriller runs dry as Michael Douglas hunts Jeremy Irvine across the Mojave, says Henry Barnes."

[Chris Knipp]

tiff. Still Day Four.

Don't know exactly who these guys are but am pleased at the positive response in these tweets below. Redmayne has won prizes before (RED, on state) but this might be a film that brings him fame (after a strong showing in LES MIZ):


Joe Williams ‏@joethecritic 1h
The Stephen Hawking bio "The Theory of Everything" is the best thing I've seen at #tiff14. By a light year.


Kyle Buchanan ‏@kylebuchanan 1h
Eddie Redmayne is pretty major in THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING (and so is Felicity Jones). My take: http://bit.ly/1rVSYuC

D'Angelo's, Scott Tobias's and Noel Murray's TIFF 2014 day-by-day reports in THE DISSOLVE can be found here. http://thedissolve.com/features/postcards-from-tiff/ Some of these overlap with reviews D'Angelo wrote at Cannes four months ago. But the link is to D'Angelo's fresh and new review of Reitman's MAN, WOMEN, & CHILDREN. His review is damning. Excerpt:

Individually, each of these mini-narratives is at best egregiously tone-deaf. Intercut to form an alarmist state of the union address (complete with a pretentious framing device involving Voyager 1’s journey beyond our solar system), they collectively cross the line into outright laughable. Reitman has never exactly been renowned for his subtlety, but between this ghastly misfire and Labor Day, he seems to have completely lost touch with any notion of how human beings actually behave. . .

[D'Angelo, "Day 3: Men, Women, Children," THE DISSOLVE]

I had not given D'Angelo's tweet on MEN, WOMEN CHILDREN, because it was wordless and numberless, consisting only of a flatline sort of emoticon.
Mike D'Angelo @gemko · Sep 6
�� (Reitman): :cry: The exact emoticon from Twitter I can't find but here's an approximation:

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/100x75q90/908/BLd1mo.jpg. Plus a symbol of a pistol pointed at the grimacing face.


NY TIMES has a sort of blog. (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/t/toronto_international_film_festival/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier)

[Chris Knipp]

tiff. Still Day Four.

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/redmayne.jpg
Felicity Jones & Eddie Redmayne in The Theory of Everything

More positive feedback on James Marsh's Stephen Hawking biopic starring Eddie Redmayne, THEORY OF EVERYTHING: https://twitter.com/hashtag/EddieRedmayne?src=hash


Josh Lincoln Dickey ‏@NotoriousJLD 4m
THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING is as close to a perfect biopic as I have ever seen, with a love story for the ages. I am in tears. What a thing.

I totally see this. The trailer made me cry.


Peter Knegt ‏@peterknegt 1m
THEORY OF EVERYTHING is better than it needed to be. Some standard biopic elements but v affecting and Redmayne is remarkable. #TIFF14


Alex Billington ‏@firstshowing 3m
Won't be surprised if Theory of Everything wins Audience Award at #TIFF14. Really connects, powerful. "While there is life, there is hope."


Dave Karger ‏@davekarger 13m
The Theory of Everything is a beautiful & singular love story. Sure bet for lead acting nods for Eddie Redmayne & Felicity Jones.

Th is turns out to be a tremendous story: the heroic struggle of a great man: the most brilliant scientific mind of the century: one whose body totally betrayed him, yet he soldiered on and led a life of unprecedented intellectual accomplishment. Not expected to live beyond his mid-twenties, he is still working at 72. There was the documentary account in A SHORT HISTORY OF TIME, but a dramatized version can be immensely moving. What an opportunity for Redmayne! The only danger is that he may never be so remembered for anything else.

The Twitter buzz just keeps on coming:


Barbara Chai ‏@barbarachai 21m
That was so, so beautiful. Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones, man. #TIFF14 #TheTheoryofEverything


elisabeth sereda ‏@elisabethsereda 8m
'MyLeftFoot' can go home. #EddieRedmayne is heartbreaking, flawless and inspiring as #StephenHawking in #TheTheoryofEverything #TIFF14

I know Redmayne could do this. There is a purity about him, and a fluidity, suppleness and humility.


Richard Lawson ‏@rilaws 27m
I'm normally biopic averse, but I thought The Theory of Everything was wonderful. Redmayne really is extraordinary, as is F. Jones #TIFF



Steve Pond ‏@stevepond 15m
Theory of Everything got the biggest reaction of anything I've seen in Toronto. Hard to imagine it won't get a bunch of nominations.

I guess you get the idea. It may be a Hallmark card, it may be boilerplate, but it grabs you, but in his cinematography Benoît Delhomme gives it all he's got, and Jones and Redmayne deliver. In Indiewire, Nicola Grozdanovic outlines t (http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/tiff-review-james-marshs-the-theory-of-everything-starring-eddie-redmayne-felicity-jones-20140907)he pluses and minuses. GUARDIAN gives THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING 4/5 stars.

[Chris Knipp]

tiff. Day five.

GUARDIAN reviews.

THIS IS WHERE I LEAVE YOU 2/5 stars. With Tiny Fey and Adam Driver playing offspring of Jane Fonda . "The performers excel, but the schmaltz can send a shiva down the spine." Metacritic rating of this movie is 57%.

MADAME BOVARY (Sophie Barthes) 3/5 stars (Catherine Shoard). "Madame Bovary review: just go with the Flaubert - Toronto film festival
This swooningly grim adaptation is inessential but interesting viewing, not least for Mia Wasikowska’s fish-out-of-water heroine; a crabby valley girl in rural Normandy." Barthes previously did COLD SOULS (with Paul Giamatti). This one has Mia Wasikowska, Giamatti, and Ezra Miller.

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/waters.jpg

More D'Angelo tweet reviews:


Mike D'Angelo @gemko · 2h
Tales of the Grim Sleeper (Broomfield): 51. Starts out in exoneration mode, but that goes nowhere, so "racist LAPD" it is. Not revelatory? This one is NYFF. He adds: "Personalities involved are fascinating, but amassing evidence of official malfeasance from decades ago seems like an exercise in duh." Not sure why history is "duh," which in this case might devalue all the oeuvre of James Ellroy. D'Angelo rewatched L.A. CONFIDENTIAL IN 2012 and gave it 4 1/2 stars on 'Letterboxed.'


Mike D'Angelo @gemko · 2h
Don't Go Breaking My Heart 2 (To): 35. Sadly, a typical sequel: jettisons everything that made the original special, rehashes the crap.


While We're Young (LaBute): 42. I don't understand how he keeps getting $ to make these films. COMPANY OF MEN was 17 years ago. Wait, what?

Catherine Shoard gives WHILE WE'RE YOUNG a 5/5 stars, but the film is directed by Noah Baumbach. This is D'Angelo's somewhat perverse way of saying he thinks the topic was dealt with already by LaBute, 17 years ago. He thinks LaBute isn't much of a filmmaker, and so he thinks WHLE WE'RE YOUNG is like bad LaBute. These the two extremes on this movie, Shoard ecstatic, D'Angelo sarcastic and dismissive. Opinion is mixed.

[Chris Knipp]

tiff. Day five.

[D'Angelo:]


Mike D'Angelo @gemko · 2h
The 50 Year Argument (Scorsese & Tedeschi): 50. "How can we make the NYRB visually compelling?" "Eh, let's not even bother." "Cool." This is a NYFF doc sidebar item. Also shown and praised at Telluride. D'Angelo adds in a folllow-up tweet: "(Seriously, large hunks of this movie consist of someone standing at a lectern reading aloud a piece (s)he wrote years earlier.)" He does not like talking heads. And in cinematic terms, he is right. But I often like what talking heads have to say. Still, the NYRB sounds like dull material for a movie.


Mike D'Angelo @gemko · 2h
Ned Rifle (Hartley): 55. Title character of zero interest, but Thomas Jay Ryan as Henry Fool remains an endless source of amusement.

"NED RIFLE is the final installment in Hartley’s dysfunctional family trilogy which started with HENRY FOOL and FAY GRIM.” It sees a son emerge from the witness protection program with the sole aim of killing his father." Gee, sounds like "Weeds." I do not know these movies.

GUARDIAN reviews.

LOVE AND MERCY 3/5 stars. (Bill Pohlad) "Love & Mercy review – a warm tribute to the extraordinary life of Brian Wilson." This is a drama, not a documentary, fictionalizing the life of Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys.

THE FACE OF AN ANGEL 3/5 stars. (Michael Winterbottom) "The Face of an Angel review: disconcerting dreams, riotous hacks and the mystery of Meredith Kercher's murder." With Kate Beckinsale, Daniel Brühl, Cara Delevingne, Ava Acres. This is about a journalist and documentary filmmaker investigating the murder of a British student in Italy.

ST. VINCENT (Theodore Melfi) Bill Murray comedy vehicle and first film that is a godsend accessible but complex role for him as a lovable grumpy drunken person who becomes a babysitter for a single mom who works. I already cited Catherine Shoard's GUARDIAN review and 3/5 stars rating. With Naomi Watts and Melissa McCarthy. But you don't need a film festival to know about this.

TIME OUT OF MIND (Owen Moverman) -- NYFF: VARIETY's Chang heaps praise on Gere's performance as a homeless person, but admits the movie will be a bit of a slog for non-festival audiences.

THE IMITATION GAME gets 3/5 stars, so clearly THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING (with 4/5) is the winner despite the comparison I noted in the Telluride thread. Catherine Shoard again: "The Imitation Game review: Knightley and Cumberbatch impress, but historical spoilers lower the tension." Cumberbatch and Knightley, the central "couple," though Turing, Cumberbatch's character, was gay, are fine, but the screenplay falls short.

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[Chris Knipp]

tiff. Day Six.



http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/knows.jpg
Heaven Knows What

GUARDIAN

THE EQUILIZER (Antoie Fuqua) 2/5 stars. "director Antoine Fuqua reunites with his hard-as-nails Training Day star for a violent remake of the 80s TV series."
(This may have been earlier)

WILD (Jean-Marc Vallée). 4/5 stars. "Wild review – a two-hour hallucinatory montage." "Reese Witherspoon shines in Jean-Marc Vallée's lean, energetic adaptation of Cheryl Strayed's bestselling memoir, writes Henry Barnes." This was mentioned at Telluride; see Filmleaf Telluride 2014 thread (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3799-Telluride-2014&p=32701#post32701).

ROSEWATER (Jon Stewart). 3/5 stars. "Paul MacInnes: Master TV satirist Jon Stewart’s directorial debut, about a journalist jailed in Iran, is well-meaning but there aren’t quite enough laughs to prevent it from being dreary on the eye."

Some Mike D'Angelo tweet reviews for today:


Mike D'Angelo @gemko · 2h
Meet Me in Montenegro (Holdridge & Saasen): W/O. ...where there are no indie films about the love lives of struggling indie filmmakers.

"A comedy centered on a failed American writer who enters into an affair after a chance encounter with a European dancer."


Mike D'Angelo @gemko · 2h
Heaven Knows What (Safdies): 70. Sustains an assaultive mode longer than I would have thought possible. Wish it ended rather than stopped.

This is in the NYFF Main Slate. The Safdies film depicts young heroin addicts running around NYC looking for a fix. I reviewed the Safdie brothers' 2009 film DADDY LONGLEGS (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2838-DADDY-LONGLEGS-%28Josh-and-Benny-Safdie-2009%29), which I found troubling, interesting. It uses semi-improv semi-doc elements in fiection.


Manglehorn (Green): 48. I could have lived the rest of my life quite happily without seeing Harmony Korine dancing to Rich Homie Quan.

This is an Al Pacino vehicle by David Gordon Green, who has "returned to [serious, indie] form" recently with the not bad PRINCE AVALANCHE and the good JOE. Actually this debuted at Venice, wher Peter Debruge in VARIETY said the subtle southernn role was a bad fit for the larger-than-life Pacino, the movie itself a bit disheveled. But still: Pacino. This D'Angelo will doubtless explain in his THE DISSOLVE dispatch for the day.


Nightcrawler (Gilroy): 63. Lays the cynicism on too thick, but Gyllenhaal is great—as if Max Fischer grew up to be Chuck Tatum. Gyllenhaal as an intense journalist again. This ranks 7th in D'Angelo's Toronto list so far, mildly confirming the good buzz. US opening 31 October. "A young man stumbles upon the underground world of L.A. freelance crime journalism" -- IMDB.

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/nightcrawler.jpg


Phoenix (Petzold): 56. I submit that this is a case where people are mistaking a great final scene for a great film. Too VERTIGOoey overall.
Christian Petzold, one of the leading current German directors, did JERICHOW (ND/NF 2008) and the excellent more recent BARBARA (2012, in US release with the fine Nina Hoss of A MOST WANTED MAN).


The Duke of Burgundy (Strickland): 91. One of the most beautiful love stories I've ever seen. (GUARDIAN's reviewer gave it 4/5 stars two days ago; looks like D'Angelo's festival favorite.) "A woman who studies butterflies and moths tests the limits of her relationship with he [lesbian]r lover" -- IMDb. UK film but one of the leads is Danish (the other Italian?). Peter Strickland previously made BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3529-BERBERIAN-SOUND-STUDIOS-%28Peter-Strickland-2012%29&p=30437#post30437) (2012), which I didn't like much: to film-nerdy for me; guess I just didn't get it. Metacritic 80% though.

[Chris Knipp]

tiff. Day seven.

GUARDIAN reviews.

CAKE 2/5 stars. (Jennifer Aniston vehicle, directed by Daniel Barnz). "Despite Aniston’s diverting drab-act as a bitchy, suicidal woman in constant pain: This humdrum character study is sour and half-baked, writes Catherine Shoard." "The acerbic, hilarious Claire Simmons becomes fascinated by the suicide of a woman in her chronic pain support group" (IMDb). Shoard says she may be acerbic, but is never hilarious; any funniness must have been lost on the cutting room floor.

SHELTER 2/5 stars. "Shelter review – Paul Bettany’s drama is striking but improbably anguished. . . Jennifer Connelly in Shelter. For all its good intentions, Bettany’s tale of the relationship between a drug addict and an illegal immigrant is undermined by a lack of balance and nuance, writes Henry Barnes." With Jenifer Connelly, Anthony Mackie. Written and directed by English actor Paul Bettany. "Hannah and Tahir fall in love while homeless on the streets of New York. Shelter explores how they got there, and as we learn about their pasts we realize they need each other to build a future" (IMDb).

Recent D'Angelo tweet reviews:


Mike D'Angelo ‏@gemko 21s
HORSE MONEY (Pedro Costa): 31. A series of gorgeous images to which I could make no other connection whatsoever. Costa's project ain't for me. He doesn't like Costa. I sympathize on this "polarizing" director.* (NYFF)

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/riot.jpg
The Riot Club

THE RIOT CLOB (Lone Scherfig) VARIETY (Peter Debruge): "'An Education' director Lone Scherfig offers another tough life lesson, this one exposing the gross misconduct within an Oxford private dining society." British upperclass misbehavior, based on a play. A certain neutral distance may result from the fact the director is not a male Brit but a Danish woman.

_________________
*I did enjoy basking in the gorgeous images of Jeanne Balibar in Costa's NE CHANGE RIEN when I saw it in NYFF 2009 (see Festival Coverage (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?2644-New-York-Film-Festival-2009&postid=23062#post23062)). I went over pros and cons on Costa re his COLOSSAL YOUTH (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?1999-San-Francisco-International-Film-Festival-2007-%2850th-anniversary%29&p=17694#post17694)in a SFIFF 2007 review. VARIETY's Justin Change seemed to dislike Costa; this year they had Scott Foundas (who's connected with the NYFF, which includes HORSE MONEY in the Main Slate this year) to write a glowing review.

[Johann]

I don't like that Cameron Bailey is "The Face" of TIFF. Artistic Director or not, why are his picks relevant? I get e-mails everyday from TIFF, and it's always Cameron's spaced-out face staring at me with his "picks for the day".

I thought TIFF was an "AUDIENCE FESTIVAL" Cameron.
Your sense of humour is HUGE!
TIFF is irrelevant to me. Has been since 2009.
Your thread is appreciated Chris, it's good to know what's actually happening, but TIFF is Mega-Corporate, does not have it's thumb on World Events and is Super-Elite.
I experienced it first-hand, and I will never forget it. It's just a dog and pony show, and they owe me and FilmLeaf.Net a Massive apology.

(I won't hold my breath for it)

[Johann]

VIFF is WAY MORE IMPORTANT THAN TIFF.

I miss Vancouver a lot.

[cinemabon]

Ran across this reference to "Wild" and thought you might like it.

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/sep/09/wild-a-two-hour-hallucinatory-montage-toronto-film-festival-review

[Chris Knipp]

I referred to that WILD review in a post (http://www.filmleaf.net/showthread.php?3816-Toronto-International-Film-Festival-2014&p=32710#post32710) above but didn't link to it. It was his -- Henry Barnes' -- 4/5 stars rating I gave. But the DISSOLVE boys have liked it too, and so did VARIETY critic Justin Chang at Telluride, where it first showed. I am getting most of my TIFF information from GUARDIAN reviews by various writers and Mike D'Angelo's tweets (and THE DISSOLVE day journals by him and his colleagues) and occasionally from VARIETY reviews by Justin Chang, Scott Foundas, Peter Debruge, and others.

[Chris Knipp]

tiff. Day seven, cont'd.

More GUARDIAN reviews.

A LITTLE CHAOS (Alan Rickman) 3/5 stars. "A Little Chaos review – Louis XIV gardening romp borders on ridiculous. . . Alan Rickman's second film as director, which premieres at the Toronto film festival, stars Kate Winslet and channels Mills & Boon." If this is "ridiculous" or borders on it, the 3/5 stars rating is generous. "A female landscape-gardener is awarded the esteemed assignment to construct the grand gardens at Versaillers, a gilt-edged position which thrusts her to the very centre of the court of King Louis XIV" (IMDb).

PAWN SACRIFICE (Zwick) 2/5 stars. "Tobey Maguire makes a decent fist of playing the prickly chess grandmaster, but Edward Zwick’s unsubtle film never delves beneath the surface of his paranoid psychology." IMDb: "American chess champion Bobby Fischer prepares for a legendary match-up against Russian Boris Spassky." Since this is written by Stephen Knight, whose credits include LOCKE, EASTERN PROMISES and DIRTY PRETTY THINGS, I'd guess it's worth a watch. Costarring Liev Shreiber (as Spassky), Peter Sarsgaard and Lily Rabe.

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/pawn.jpg
Pawn Sacrifice

D'Angelo:


Wild (Vallée): 56. Given that I'm not big on tales of self-actualization or expository flashbacks, this was pleasantly painless. Others have rated this much higher and it looks to be a big box office hit like, perhaps, THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING. I wonder if D'A would consider that "self-actualization"; it apparently slights the sophisticated intellectual content; Chang said Shane Carruth would have been a better person to direct it.

D'Angelo has a DAY SIX ROUNDUP (http://thedissolve.com/features/postcards-from-tiff/747-day-6-defying-expectations/) on THE DISSOLVE, where he enlarges upon the views he gave in many of his most recent tweets, without the numerical scores, which really make best sense when used to rank relatively all the 40 or 50 films he will have seen when the festival is all done. .

The London Film Festival is 8-19 October overlapping the end of the NYFF and Vancouver (VIFF) 25 September - 10 October almost totally overlaps the NYFF, which is 26 September - 12 October. These are all nice venues and ways to catch up on best of Cannes, Venice, and Toronto, but do not really compete with those big fests or introduce important new titles quite the way Sundance, Berlin, and a few others do. Cannes and Toronto seem the most strategically placed now. Toronto's importance owes much to heavy commercial investment to promote big fall movies but it also has a ton of interesting auteur stuff -- most of what D'Angelo seeks out. Every festival is a marketplace, or would like to be.

[Chris Knipp]

tiff. Day Eight (9/11)

THE LITTLE DEATH (Josh Lawson): "Australian actor Josh Lawson writes, directs and appears in this middling ensemble comedy about the wacky sex lives of four suburban couples." (-VARIETY, Justin Chang).

In a new THE DISSOLE Toronto report, Day Seven in their "Postcards from TIFF" series, Scott Tobias argues that Chris Rock, Adam Sandler, Julienne Moore, Richard Gere are all seeking career rehabilitation, with varied success, in movies showing at this year's Toronto Festival. THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING emerges as best candidate for the Best Picture in a weak field
Along with hunting for next year’s Best Picture winner—of which The Theory Of Everything has emerged as the most likely candidate of a weak lot—the press has rallied around a few stars who have hit the skids in recent years and are looking for a chance to reshape or critical perception.Adam Sandler (Tobias says) attempted to improve his dramatic standing with roles in new movies by Jason Reitman and Tom McCarthy, but both movies are bad. Chris Rock has had the same trouble breaking into feature films off a great standup comedy career, but he has done well this time. Paramount has bought TOP FIVE for $15 million, a huge price to be paid at a festival, and it is Chris Rock's best dramatic role so far. Julianne Moore's career wasn't actually plodding like Rock's and Sandlers, but she needs a standout new film (Tobias goes on). STILL ALICE, a plodding Alzheimer's drama, isn't it. (Tobias inexplicably fails to mention Moore's Cannes prize-wining role in Conenberg's MAPS TO THE STARS--included in the NYFF 2014 Main Slate.) In the career-rehab sweepstakes Tobias sets up, Richard Gere has done by far the bet at Toronto, strongly reestablishing himself as a serious actor in his transformative role as a homeless person in Oren Moverman's TIME OUT OF MIND (also a NYFF 2014 Main Slate film), which Tobias finds "impressive and rigorous" (if also "a tad boring").

[Johann]

The Stephen Hawking biopic does indeed look like the best thing on offer at TIFF. It may be the best film of the last 5 years, if my radar is right...


I think Adam Sandler owes me several million dollars for Zohan. Don't worry, Adam. I know you covered your tracks well. I won't be suing you. But Zohan was an ex-soldier who wanted to be a hairdresser and I'm an ex-soldier who wanted to be a film critic. My story is serious, whereas Zohan's is comedy.
So yeah, you owe me some movie bucks, Adam.
PM me here and we can work out the payment arrangements. LOL

[Chris Knipp]

I think there are some other fine films on offer at the TIFF, like Assayas' and the Safdie brothers -- I'm usring this as a teaser for my on-the-spot NYFF coverage -- but it's true THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING sounds like a potential critical and popular hit and may put Eddie Redmayne on the map and this I like.

[Chris Knipp]

tiff. More Day eight. (9/11)


D'Angelo chooses today apparently not to rate and discuss much admired films he didn't much like; he reported getting too much of a "Kael" reaction lately from his condemnations of festival darlings. Thus:


Mike D'Angelo @gemko · 12m
Suffice it to say that you will probably like THE LOOK OF SILENCE, JAUJA and TIME OUT OF MIND more than I did. All are worth seeing.


Mike D'Angelo
‏@gemko
The Imitation Game (Tyldum): 58. Hokey approach makes for a very exciting codebreaking saga. Treatment of Turing's personal life: ugh.


Mike D'Angelo @gemko · 38m
Breathe (Laurent): 72. Not sure I've ever seen this before: a portrait of an abusive relationship that's neither romantic nor familial.

PASOLINI is NYFF Main Slate.


Mike D'Angelo @gemko · 1m
Pasolini (Ferrara): 49. Would much rather have seen Ferrara (Pasolini). Appreciate the tight focus, but art & martyrdom never converge..

GUARDIAN reviews

TUSK (Kevin Smith) 4/5 stars (from Henry Barnes). "Inspired by a hoax Gumtree ad, Kevin Smith’s bizarre imprisonment horror movie sees the director back to his snarky best." Big difference from D'Angelo who gave it his lowest non W/O rating and called "stupid."

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/top.jpg
Top Five

TOM PIVE 4/5 stars (from Catherine Shoard). "Chris Rock is already No 1 when it comes to money at the Toronto film festival with this charming – and highly bankable – story of a stand-up struggling to reinvent himself." This "won the sales stakes." $12 million, as mentioned earlier. Last year's top price paid here was $7 million for BEGIN AGAIN.

GUARDIAN already has a column on "the six things learned at Toronto," though it's supposed to go for three more days. They mean the "biggest trends." (Not helpful though.)

D'Angelo's top picks so far:

1. ThHE DUKE OF BURGUNDY (Strickland): 91. One of the most beautiful love stories I've ever seen.
2. BREATHE (Laurent): 72. Not sure I've ever seen this before: a portrait of an abusive relationship that's neither romantic nor familial.
3. HEAVEN KNOWS WHAT (Safdies): 70. Sustains an assaultive mode longer than I would have thought possible. Wish it ended rather than stopped.
4. NOT MY TYPE [Pas son genre] (Belvaux): 69. Admirably complex treatment of what seems like a simplistic scenario. Perhaps the 2 best perfs I've seen in '14.
5. THE DROP (Roskam): 68. Really enjoy exploring Lehane's seedy little worlds (w/o Eastwood as a guide). The Golden Age of Hardy continues.
6. '71 (Demange): 67. Well that was intense. Piles on the cynicism a bit thick in the home stretch, but as a pure action movie it's aces.
7. HILL OF FREEDOM (Hong): 65. One of his enjoyable trifles, which is too bad because the scrambled-letters conceit merits something more.
8. FAR FROM MEN (Oelhoffen): 64. Sturdy neo-Western set at the start of the Algerian War. Stunning vistas, strong perfs, solidly conventional.
9. NIGHTCRAWLER (Gilroy): 63. Lays the cynicism on too thick, but Gyllenhaal is great—as if Max Fischer grew up to be Chuck Tatum.
10. THE IMITATION GAME (Tyldum): 58. Hokey approach makes for a very exciting codebreaking saga. Treatment of Turing's personal life: ugh.

He may find a better no. 10, or another higher up that will push out IMITATION AME.

[Chris Knipp]

tiff. Day nine.

IN THEATERS TODAY. BIRD PEOPLE (Pascale Ferran of LADY CHATTERLEY), THE DROP (Michael R. Roskam,, shown at Toronto) and THE SKELETON TWINS, a Sundance hit also out today. All well reviewed, A.O.. Scott and Mike D'Angelo ecstatic about BIRD PEOPLE.

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/BIRD.jpg
Bird People still

GUARDIAN TORONTO reviews cont'd.:

GOOD KILL. 3/5 stars. "Righteous take on US drone warfare." "The disconnect of American drone ops is perfectly captured, but the supporting cast’s characterisations are one-dimensional, writes Henry Barnes." [Debuted at Venice.] Andrew Nichol feature starring Ethan Hawke.

BIG GAME. 4/5 stars. "Big Game review: a sparky Samuel L Jackson romp for dads and lads." "With its breathtaking vistas and sharp action, this Finnish-set woodland adventure is as spectacular as it is funny." A 13-year-old in Finnish snowy wilds seeking to bag big game (deer, bear) in a traditional test of manhood winds up saving he US President (Jackson) instead. Picked up for US dristrib. by Luc Besson.

[Johann]

NYFF is the real meat and potatoes of film festivals, after Cannes.

I've never attended the NY festival, but I know that it's stellar, just from reading your coverage over the years.
It may be "elite" too and that annoys me- it's cinema, assholes! Anyone can be an expert in cinema- look at Matt Stone and Trey Parker!
Team America: World Police proved those guys are cinema experts. And they did it with puppets, Bitches! LOL
The Will must be greater than the Skill, as Ali would say.

[Chris Knipp]

Thanks, Johann, for your favorable comment on the NYFF and my coverage of it. However between Cannes and NY there are some important international festivals, notably Venice, Telluride and Toronto. There are big ones that come before Cannes, such as Sundance, the Berlinale, Rotterdam, and SxSW. There also seem to be some titles that come to the NYFF from Locarno quite often. That's partly because it's held in early August (and it's in a resort in the Italian part of Switzerland).

Indiewire recently gave their list of what they think are the ten best or most important of the world's film festivals. Don't forget though, there are huge ones in other regions such as Pusan, Hong Kong, Dubai, and ones of local impportance like the SFIFF, Woodstock, the Hamptons, and ones in big cities like Chicago, London, Edinburgh, Rome. Time of the year is important. I think maybe the SFIFF suffers from being right before Cannes and overlapping Tribeca. (Cannes was created to challenge Mussolini's fascist propaganda Venice, though Venice has lost that onus.) Here's Indiewiere (http://www.indiewire.com/article/50_films_and_a_top_ten_for_indiewires_new_festival _directory) (which lists 40 other festivals it considers important after the top ten):

The List (from Indiewire):

1. Festival de Cannes (Cannes, France)
The "masterpiece" of festivals, most years it attracts the latest from the world's top directors and emerging filmmakers. The relatively highly curated festival debuts important work that will eventually make their local premieres around the world. The number of industry, talent and press that regularly descend on Cannes is unparalleled. While Cannes has long been a place that has embraced new creative movements in cinema, its rules and traditions may prove to be both a hinderance and an advantage. The marquis "Cannes" name cannot be easily replicated. People all over the world are aware of it as a "brand." But like any institution at the pinnacle of its field, the festival is often slow to adopt change and even jealously guards its traditions and that could very well pose a challenge in a world hell-bent on the fast lane of change.


2. Sundance Film Festival (Park City, U.S.)
Still the United States' most important film festival, Sundance is the cradle of the American indie movement. While the combination of economic downturn and massive restructuring within the industry have meant that deals made at the fest are not where they were five or more years ago, it is still an important place to do business and even its detractors would not dare miss it. The festival continues to showcase the most anticipated titles in new American cinema.


3. Toronto International Film Festival (Toronto, Canada)
Toronto is an early must-stop in the long lead up to awards season with Fall titles using the event as a crucial launching pad for their release. Considered by many as North America's most important film festival, Toronto premieres first-rate titles from established and emerging filmmakers alike, many only days (or even hours) after their world premieres in Venice. While Italy's (and one of the world's) biggest film events may still corner the glamour factor, it's Toronto that attracts the brunt of North America's film industry (still the world's most important) and it is TIFF's agenda that establishes the early course of regional critics awards leading up to the Oscars.


4. South by Southwest (Austin, TX, U.S.)
This may be a controversial choice, but we're going for it. We believe that unlike any other festival, SXSW is uniquely establishing itself as the event on the cusp of technological innovation. while redefining what a festival is. SXSW made its name as a center showcasing new music. Later it established its film and interactive events, which have themselves rivaled the music component for attention. In 2010, the interactive program grew exponentially and among the most popular offerings were gatherings showcasing the convergence of technology and film. With innovators in both technology and film under one very large roof, the energy is palpable and SXSW may be taking a lead in showing how festivals may look in the future.


5. International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (The Netherlands)
Outside of the working documentary community, IDFA is still shockingly off the radar for North American audiences. Despite obvious hiccups, documentary has exploded in the past decade and while many important docs have reached people's radar at Sundance, Hot Docs, SilverDocs, Full Frame and others, there is a good chance that in any given year, a good number of the non-fiction film world's most important titles started out at the world's biggest doc fest, held annually in Amsterdam. Its Forum is Europe's biggest co-financing market for international doc productions, and its popular "Docs for Sale" is an important international doc market where buyers, sales agents and converge. The fest also draws large local audiences.


6. Venice Film Festival (Italy)
For many, Venice ranks alongside Cannes as the top of the festival heap. Like its French counterpart, the August/September event is a magnet for splashy premieres, stars, parties, paparazzi. It has long been at the forefront for defining in the popular imagination how a film festival should look and feel. That is not to say the substance isn't there either. Venice is the destination of some of the most important world premieres of any given year and while it typically beats its closest North American counterpart, Toronto, in screening the likes of a "Brokeback Mountain," "The Wrestler" or "A Single Man," many in North America's film industry are fine with saving the extra expense and waiting for the North American debut in Canada.


7. Berlin International Film Festival (Germany)
From its Cold War roots in a now united Berlin, the annual Berlinale is one of the world's most established film events and regularly attracts filmmakers and industry from around the world. Attendees often praise the event for having the best venues of any film festival and it has long welcomed and celebrated the avant garde alongside splashy Hollywood work. Like many who travel there, Berlin has long been a favorite in the festival calendar for indieWIRE, though recent editions have called into question its overall importance. Hype has too often turned to disappointment in recent years due to inconsistent programming. Even so, among the extensive roster of films in the fest's various sidebars, some quiet gems nevertheless emerge. We're rooting for this film festival to regain its deserved footing.


8. International Film Festival Rotterdam (The Netherlands)
Despite being nestled in between Sundance and Berlin, there's a regular crew of filmmakers and industry who regularly head out of Utah for the Netherlands and then on to Berlin. Rotterdam regularly showcases important new talent and backs it up with its signature CineMart, which has found and helped finance new voices who've gone on to establish themselves in the worldwide film scene.


9. New York Film Festival
While not exactly what might be called a "discovery festival," the NYFF is nevertheless an important American showcase defining the most important voices in world cinema. The highly curated event typically picks a select number of films from the world's top film festivals, while also adding a more finite number of lesser known important titles from emerging filmmakers. While it may not have the cache in defining for America what is "important" cinema as it did back when it began in the '60s in the advent of the French New Wave, it is still a cultural beacon of record.


10. Telluride Film Festival (Colorado, U.S.A.)
What makes Telluride unique its it programmatic mission of offering an equal number of both new and classics films that are presented over just a few days during long Labor Day weekend. Top notch projection and sound give well-heeled attendees the chance to experience a sort of cinematic summer camp that includes substantive dialogue and insight on films and filmmakin, a low-key social scene and even in-depth printed program notes that stoke conversastions among attendees. It's a model event.

[Chris Knipp]

tiff. Day nine cont'd.

More D'Angelo tweet-reviews and rating/rankings.

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/springhorror.jpg
Still from Spring


Mike D'Angelo ‏@gemko 18m
Spring (Benson & Moorhead): 51. Apparent horror movie's stealth mission of earnestness is at once refreshing and a tad dull.

Shown in Toronto's "Vanguard" section; sophomore film by the directors of RESOLUTION. " Lou Taylor Pucci (Thumbsucker, Evil Dead) stars as a troubled American backpacker in Italy whose romance with a local girl goes from Mediterranean whirlwind to unexpected nightmare when her dark, primordial secret threatens to destroy their newfound happiness."


Mike D'Angelo ‏@gemko 17m
National Gallery (Wiseman): 66. I'd happily have watched three hours devoted exclusively to restoration techniques. (NYFF DOCUMENTARY Series, included in P&I screenings.)


Mike D'Angelo @gemko · 1h
Luna (McKean): 51. Reverses MIRRORMASK's ratio of fantasy to domestic angst, and the latter is definitely not McKean's strength.

VARIETY'S Jay Weissberg reviewed NATIONAL GALLERY at Cannes: "Frederick Wiseman turns his gaze on a museum for the first time with this portrait of the great London institution." He explains that Wiseman spends 90% of the time on classical works, and concentrates on the works themselves, docent lectures (which may be given a bit in access: such things are accessible online anyway), curatorial and restoration work, and staff meetings. The National Gallery emerges as far from elitist and in fact making accessibility to the public a big priority. Not long by Wiseman standards (3 hours; AT BERKELEY, NYFF 2013, WAS 4).

STILL ALICE (Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland,) I noted Scott Tobias of THE DISSOVLE in a roudup called a plodding Alzheimer's drama; Catherine Shoard of THE GUARDIAN gave it 4/5 stars, calling it "an excellent film about a difficult subject." Sony Classics has bought it for US distrib. This foretells good reviews, and Peter Debruge of VARIETY envisions an art house success with its more novel treatment of early onset of the disease from the victim's own POV. Maybe despite Tobias' assessment, Moore actually two serious roles and two winners this year, MAPS OF THE STARS and STILL ALICE.

[Chris Knipp]

tiff. Last of day nine.

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/nouvelleamie.jpg
Romain Duris in Une nouvelle amie (Ozon)

Mike D'Angelo:


Mike D'Angelo @gemko · 1h
The New Girlfriend (Ozon): 53. Didn't really find this offensive, but it can't seem to decide whose story it's telling. Very muddled.

Justin Chang of VARIETY says of the new Ozon in an appetizing review (http://variety.com/2014/film/reviews/toronto-film-review-the-new-girlfriend-1201302422/): "Anaïs Demoustier and Romain Duris give beautifully controlled performances in Françcois Ozon's delectably entertaining new film." Duris looks different in this (see still above); maybe he lost weight for the role, and when you read Chang's summary you understand why he would want to look different. Chang writes: "An air of Hitchcockian menace and free-floating sexual perversity is by now nothing new for Françcois Ozon, but rarely has this French master analyzed the cracks in his characters’ bourgeois facades to such smooth and pleasurable effect as he does in 'The New Girlfriend.' A skillfully triangulated psychological thriller about a woman who learns that the husband of her deceased BFF is harboring a most unusual secret. . ." He predicts an international art house success. Does not open in France till 5 Nov.


Mike D'Angelo @gemko · 1h
In Her Place (Shin): W/O. That was one long, pointless game of keep-away (nearly 40 mins) with a premise that isn't all that arresting. IMDb summary of IN HER PLACE: "A weathered woman and her odd teen-aged daughter live in isolation on a desolate farm in South Korea. An affluent city woman comes to them seeking help with a sensitive matter and the three women soon fall into a new rhythm of life together, each working to fill a void within. However, as their very different paths converge, their deal becomes more than what they bargained for." A Canadian-Korean production. Not listed among the main TIFF slate films or apparently reviewed by VARIETY and no release date listed on IMDb.


Mike D'Angelo @gemko
@yumyumicecream "This talky, contrived and ultimately tedious actors' exercise never leaves the station."

D'Anngelo is quoting Scott Foundas' VARIETY review of Chris Evans' directing debut, BEFORE WE GO. IMDb summary: "A young woman in New York City races to catch the 1:30 Train to Boston. On the way she is robbed. She is lost in the dark underbelly of New York at night with nothing and no one." Foundas' intro: "Two pleasant but not especially interesting strangers walk and talk the night away in Chris Evans' lukewarm directorial debut."

NYTIMES's Manohla Dargis publishes her Toronto roundup (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/13/movies/toronto-film-festival-300-movies-and-inevitably-oscar-talk.html?ref=movies&_r=0): "Prizes without Passion: Toronto Film Festival: 300 Movies and, Inevitably, Oscar Talk." She talks about the big hits but, fortunately, also about some films none of these other people I've been referring to has mentioned.

[Chris Knipp]

tiff. Day ten. Roundups. Everybody goes home leaving things rather inconclusive.

Manohla Dargis in her NYTIMES Toronto roundup (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/13/movies/toronto-film-festival-300-movies-and-inevitably-oscar-talk.html?ref=movies&_r=1) surprises by liking THE IMITATION GAME (about the tragic gay English Nazi Enigma code-breaking genius Alan Turing, starring Benedict Cumberbatch) better than THE THEORY OF EVERYTHIHG (starring Eddie Redmayne as Stephen Hawking). Previous descriptions I've encountered had indicated the opposite. But Catherine Shoard of the GUARDIAN, in her Toronto roundup (http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/sep/14/toronto-film-festival-2014-roundup-review-still-alice-theory-of-everything), says Americans at the fest tended to liked IMITATION better than THEORY, so Dargis' reaction makes sense.

Both Shoard and Dargis bring up the Oscar business. Toronto has consistently introduced coming Oscar winners (sometimes preempted by Telluride). Last year 12 YEARS A SLAVE all thought a sure winner of Best Picture, which it was. But things are left somewhat inconclusive this year. Shoard sees lots of similarities in the festival films, with a surfeit of brilliant tormented souls among the men and just suffering among the ladies, and she gives examples. She says the JK Simmons - Miles Teller film about the sadistic drum instructor and his durable pupil, WHIPLASH, which has an uplifting finale, might be this year's Toronto audience favorite (so then not THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING). True to form, Shoard offers some English wit in her description of the festival, and Dargis provides many examples of her by now familiar gift for producing tangled, choppy, sometimes puzzling sentences.

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/tur.jpg
Cumberbatch in The Imitation Game

Mike D'Angelo has his THE DISSOLVE Day Nine (http://thedissolve.com/features/postcards-from-tiff/) version of a roundup; he confirms that DUKE OF BURGUNDY is his favorite of the festival. His review of THE IMITATION GAME points out Turing's code-breaking project used methods that helped lead to the development of the computer; also that this film gives us an Alan Turing for our age in making him seem an Asperger's person. He liked Mélanie Laurent's new film BREATHE (apparently not seen by anybody else) , which he finds most unusual in depicting an abusive friendship. He didn't like Ozon's new one THE NEW GIRLFRIEND, which others (e.g. VARIETY) like a lot; thinks it muddled. Otherwise D'Angelo doesn't attempt the ladies' somewhat artificial connections-finding and trend-suggesting and merely reviews the last few films he saw at Toronto. I'm glad to find he is not a believer as so many are that Joshoa Oppenheimer's documentaries about Indonesian massacres are revelatory: he doesn't like the new one, THE LOOK OF SILENCE, any better than last year's THE ACT OF KILLING. D'Angelo went back and watched his fave DUKE OF BURGUNDY and confirmed that it's going to figure high up in his ten best of the decade. He insists it's not about lesbians or kink but simply about the nuts and bolts of truly loving another person.

[Chris Knipp]

tiff. D'Angelo's top 12 from the festival

The Duke of Burgundy (Strickland): 91. One of the most beautiful love stories I've ever seen.

Breathe (Laurent): 72. Not sure I've ever seen this before: a portrait of an abusive relationship that's neither romantic nor familial.

Heaven Knows What (Safdies): 70. Sustains an assaultive mode longer than I would have thought possible. Wish it ended rather than stopped. (NYFF.)

Not My Type [Pas son genre] (Belvaux): 69. Admirably complex treatment of what seems like a simplistic scenario. Perhaps the 2 best perfs I've seen in '14.

The Drop (Roskam): 68. Really enjoy exploring Lehane's seedy little worlds (w/o Eastwood as a guide). The Golden Age of Hardy continues. (Now in release.)

'71 (Demange): 67. Well that was intense. Piles on the cynicism a bit thick in the home stretch, but as a pure action movie it's aces. (NYFF.)

National Gallery (Wiseman): 66. I'd happily have watched three hours devoted exclusively to restoration techniques. (NYFF documentary series.)

Hill of Freedom (Hong): 65. One of his enjoyable trifles, which is too bad because the scrambled-letters conceit merits something more. (NYFF.)

Far From Men (Oelhoffen): 64. Sturdy neo-Western set at the start of the Algerian War. Stunning vistas, strong perfs, solidly conventional.

Nightcrawler (Gilroy): 63. Lays the cynicism on too thick, but Gyllenhaal is great—as if Max Fischer grew up to be Chuck Tatum. (US & UK release coming 31 Oct.)

The Imitation Game (Tyldum): 58. Hokey approach makes for a very exciting codebreaking saga. Treatment of Turing's personal life: ugh. (US release 21 Nov..)

Goodnight Mommy (Franz & Fiala*): 57. More like AUDITION than like Seidl. Expertly disturbing/grueling, not sure to what subtextual purpose.

[Johann]

I have to disagree with that IndieWire list of film festivals, only on the grounds that Toronto is NOT that important, and it's not a "must-stop", nor is it North America's most important festival. The reasons they cite are not sufficient for being number three on the list, which, I would replace New York with Toronto. Toronto shouldn't even be on the list in my opinion.
Sure, films get launched at TIFF and bought and sold, as that's the main reason for the festival, not the "audience"- that's an outright lie.
It's also for actors and filmmakers and industry types to dress up and schmooze and wine and dine for two weeks.
It's certainly not about the movies. It's about TIFF itself, and stroking it's international cache.
Trust me.
I lived in Toronto for 5 years and experienced the "media office" first-hand.
The logistics of covering the festival are also a nightmare if you don't have a press pass.

[Johann]

I loved what Dargis had to say. Thanks for the link Chris.