TIFF 2013 - The Final Word

The red carpets have been rolled up for another year and now it's time to get into the new TV season.  Before I do, here's a summary of TIFF for 2013.  I saw a total of 20 movies this year, nothing that made me want to leave the theatre, and had an enjoyable time talking film with my friends and line-mates.

My Favourite movie of the festival

Can a Song Save Your Life from director John Carney and starring Mark Ruffalo, Kiera Knightly, Adam Levine, Catherine Keener and Hailee Steinfeld in the story of the making of an album.  Great music, performances and if you don't feel happy when the credits roll you have no heart.

Great Movies (they will -or should- factor in come Oscar time)

12 Years a Slave - the People's Choice winner and presemptive Oscar frontrunner in the early stages of the award season.  Chiwetel Ejiofor gives an amazing performance as a man forced into slavery dealing with all the horrors that encompasses.

Gravity - an absolutely visually stunning, original story about two astronauts lost in space, featuring a wonderful performance by Sandra Bullock.

August: Osage County - Meryl rocks.  As does most of the sprawling cast telling a story of family dysfunction.

The Railway Man - the true story of a man dealing with the torture he endured during WWII anchored by the performances of two pairs of actors playing younger and older versions of the same character.

Devil's Knot - Atom Egoyan's dramatization of the West Memphis Three case is hard to watch...as it should be.  And will make you want to learn more about the injustice if you haven't seen the documentaries already.

Labor Day - Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin spend the weekend in her home.  He's an escaped convict...is she his hostage or his saviour?

Very Good Movies (I would totally recommend that you see them)

Bad Words - Jason Bateman's directorial debut about a 40 year old spelling bee contestant is foul and funny and a bit heartwarming too.

Third Person - Paul Haggis brings us three stories in three differents cities exploring the meaning of love and relationships.  Of course they do all connect in some way in the end.

Hateship Loveship - Kristen Wiig proves she can tackle drama in the story of a quiet woman searching for happiness.

Enough Said - a grown up rom-com about two real people, made bittersweet as James Gandolfini's last performance

Ok Movies (a worthwhile plane selection)

Don Jon - JGL makes his filmmaking debut with the story of a guy who is too obsessed with porn to form a real relationship with a woman.

The Face of Love - Annette Bening is great as usual as a woman trying to get over her husband by getting into a relationship with a man who looks just like him.

The Invisible Woman - the true story of the young woman involved in an affair with Charles Dickens.

A Promise - a classic love triangle story.

Meh (don't bother)

A Story of Children and Film - a bit on the pretentious side.

When Jews were Funny - I found it a little aimless and disjointed.  Others didn't agree since it won Best Canadian Feature at the awards.

You are Here - Matt Weiner's first foray into movies was not a success.

The Double - most of the critics liked this one way more than I did.

TIFF 2013 - Hateship Loveship, 12 Years a Slave and Enough Said

I finished off TIFF this weekend with two movies that are both going to be in theatres in the next little while and one last indie still looking for distribution.

The first, the aforementioned indie, was Hateship Loveship, a drama based on an Alice Munro story brought to the screen by director Liza Johnson.  The movie stars Kristen Wiig as Johanna Perry, a mouse of a woman who has worked as a caretaker for her whole life.  Her current gig is in the home of Nick Nolte's Mr. McCauley, who has hired her to care for his granddaughter Sabitha (Hailee Steinfeld).  She finds herself attracted to Sabitha's ex-con addict father (Guy Pearce) after he is kind to her on a visit and sends her a brief note in a letter to his daughter.  When Johanna writes back, Sabitha and her friend Edith turn all mean girl and start corresponding with her as him leading her to eventually take off (with some stolen property) to show up on his doorstep unexpectedly and all sorts of complications follow.

I had seen Wiig at TIFF last year in a more serious role and this movie illustrates again that she is a very good actress.  My heart just broke for this woman who has never really had a life of her own taking tiny steps towards her own happiness.  I also thought the relationship between Sabitha and Edith dealing with all their teenage shit was really natural and well done.

Movie Grade: B+

Next up was 12 Years a Slave by director Steve McQueen (Hunger, Shame) which premiered at the beginning of the festival (geez that seems like a long time ago) to both critical and audience acclaim.  In fact, it was anointed as the festival's People's Choice winner at the awards ceremony yesterday.  And it is an excellent movie that I'm sure you'll be hearing more about in the months to come.

The true story of Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a free man living in Syracuse in 1841 who is kidnapped and sold into slavery and the horrors he endured at the hands of the men (and women) who enslaved him.  Ejiofor will no doubt be nominated for an Oscar for his performance as Soloman, and rightfully so, but he is also surrounded by a great supporting cast in roles big and small including Michael Fassbender, Sarah Pauley, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Dano, Alfre Woodard and Lupita Nyong'o.   There are some scenes that were just brutal to watch (I will admit to averting my eyes on a couple occasions)  but I would absolutely recommend seeing it.  It will be hitting theatres next month.

Movie Grade: A

Finally, my last movie of TIFF for 2013 was the charming, bittersweet romantic comedy Enough Said starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus and James Gandolfini in one of his last roles as Eva and Albert, two divorcees who end up finding love together.  Of course, it can't be that easy, and it turns out that one of her clients and new friends (she plays a massage therapist) is his ex-wife and she just can't stop herself from listening to her complaints about Albert and starting to internalize them herself.   It's a grown up movie about real relationships and both leads turn in great performances in roles that are very different than we're used to seeing them in.  It actually opens next weekend and I hope it does well.

Movie Grade: B+

TIFF 2013 - A Promise and The Face of Love

Thursday and Friday were light days for me with only one film apiece which allowed for some catch up on both sleep and laundry.

A Promise is the first english language film from French director Patrice Leconte and tells the story of a love triangle in pre WWI Germany.  Alan Rickman plays Hoffmeister, a wealthy industrialist who brings Ludwig (Richard Madden), a new up and coming employee into his home.  The young man quickly forms a bond with his  son and more importantly with his much younger wife (Rebecca Hall).  From there the story is a pretty basic love triangle with complications including Hoffmeister's health, Ludwig's ambitions and the war itself.  The three actors all turn in good performances and and there are some lovely sequences but the movie as a whole was a bit anticlimactic for me.

Leconte introduced the film and came back onstage with an interpreter to take questions from the audience.  He was charmingly french and discussed the filming locations and working with his English speaking cast.

Movie grade: B

Friday afternoon was the second screening of The Face of Love from director Arie Posin.  It stars as Annette Bening as Nikki, a solitary woman who five years after the traumatic death of her husband runs into his virtual double and goes to great lengths to form a relationship with him.  Ed Harris plays both roles and manages to make both men distinct characters.  Nikki becomes fixated on trying to recreate her relationship while also trying to keep the new man in her life secret from her daughter and well meaning neighbour (Robin Williams) who clearly wants more than friendship from her.  It's not really a matter of if she'll be found out but when, and how her life will explode when that finally happens.  Benning turns in another great performance and it's a solid movie, with a lovely message about the way we can move on from tragedy.

Posin introduced the movie and returned afterwards with Benning (which was a lovely surprise) to take questions from the audience.  He talked about the genesis of the idea for the film which was a discussion with his mother.  Both he and Benning talked about the character's motivations and the process of coming together to make the film.

Movie Grade: B

TIFF 2013 - Don Jon and Gravity

Things are starting to get quieter at the festival as we get into midweek.  I had two screenings Wednesday and there wasn't a Q&A, or even an intro to be had by the filmmakers.  Still some good viewing though.

Don Jon was written and directed by Joseph Gordon Levitt (his debut) and he also stars in the film as the titular character, a New Jersey boy who cares about his family, friends, church and most importantly his porn habit.  He's basically a better acting version of one of the folks on the MTV series Jersey Shore.  Scarlett Johansson shows up as his potential true love and soon enough he's trying to make changes to make her happy, from taking classes at community college to giving up his porn habit (he's unsuccessful).  Tony Danza and Glenne Headly are entertaining as his parents and Brie Larson gets exactly one scene with dialogue as his sister (though her facial expressions throughout provide laughs). And Julianne Moore is wonderful as always as a fellow student who forms a connection with Jon as the movie progresses.

It's fine but not great.  A total middle of the road movie.  Grade? B

Seeing Gravity in IMAX is definitely the way to go.  The movie opened up at the Venice film festival and had it's gala here over the weekend to mostly positive reviews and I have to add mine to it.  Two astronauts (Sandra Bullock and George Clooney) are stranded in space with a few long shot options for survival when debris from a satellite wipes out the rest of their crew and most of their equipment.

It is a beautiful movie to look at, and there has been much discussion and well deserved accolade about how they created many of the shots in the film.  It's also just a really good story that kept me on the edge of my seat and holding my breath throughout.  Bullock's performance was fantastic (even with the space suit between her and the audience) and provided the heart of the movie and the action sequences were stunning.

Movie Grade: A

Unfortunately logistically, the screening was yet another example of the organizational mess at the Scotiabank theatre this festival.  The 14 screens at the theatre have been completely taken over by TIFF and have been host to all of the press and industry screenings during the day and public screenings in the evenings.  It just wasn't designed to run at full capacity in every theatre for every screening.  Bathroom facilities have been inadequate and lines have been a bit of a mess.  Tonight for example there was a group of people ahead of me in line that were quite disgruntled because they arrived 2 hours early for the screening and were waiting upstairs after asking repeatedly where the line for the movie was only to be finally directed to the right place outside and discover that they had to join the end of a line that had just formed.  At the time I kind of thought to myself that they were worrying over nothing since we'd all get a seat and we weren't that far back in the line for entrance.  Well, apparently the showing for the movie was actually oversold (I have never seen that before at TIFF) and after a 30 minute delay with people milling at the door and them trying to bring in extra chairs Cameron Bailey finally announced to the crowd that they were going to start the screening for us lucky people in our seats and have to figure out an alternative screening for ticket holders who didn't get in (I would have been so pissed to be one of those people).  Finally, on our way out of the theatre which is either by way of a giant staircase or escalator the TIFF staff kept the exit forced to just two doors a blocking off about 8 other possible doors leading to an almost disaster at the bottom of the escalator where I almost had to crawl onto the back of the man in front of me instead of getting trampled.  I know I'm not the only one to express concerns with the Scotia issues this year and I hope they work out the kinks before next TIFF rolls around.

TIFF 2013 - August: Osage County, Third Person & When Jews Were Funny

My last three movie day of the festival was yesterday and it was a bit of a mixed bag...

The day started with August: Osage County which was a great way to start off the day.  The movie is based on the pulitzer prize winning play by Tracy Letts (who also did the screenplay) and stars a plethora of big names including Meryl Streep as matriarch Violet Weston and Julia Roberts as one of her daughters.  It's basically a dysfunctional family drama/dark comedy about a pill popping, abrasive mother dealing with her three daughters and all of the family skeletons after the family returns home for their father's funeral.

I had seen the play when it passed through Toronto with Estelle Parsons as Violet and I was blown away by the production.  When I heard that Streep had been cast in the movie version I was excited to see what she would do with the role because, of course, we always expect Meryl to be great.  And seriously, every time I start to think that maybe she might be a bit overrated I see one of her performances, and this one is no exception.  She is tears into the character of Violet and was absolutely riveting and most of the cast holds their own as well, including fantastic performances in particular by Julia Roberts, Julianne Nicholson, Margo Martindale and Chris Cooper.

The director John Wells showed up to introduce the film though didn't return for a Q&A afterwards...I think he may have been busy at the press conference for the movie.

Movie Grade: A

Then it was back to the Ryerson for the second screening of Third Person, the latest from director Paul Haggis.  It's a story about love and the love lives of three men in three different cities.  In Paris, Michael (Liam Neeson) is a writer trying to finish his latest novel while dealing with his relationship with the damaged and prickly Anna (Olivia Wilde).  In Rome, Sean (Adrian Brody) is finishing up a business trip when he runs into Monika (Moran Atias), the damsel in distress of his dreams (or so she seems).  Finally in New York, Rick (James Franco) is an artist with a romantic past with Julia (Mila Kunis) who is possibly the most troubled and screwed up of all the women.  Without spoiling the movie, these three stories are all interconnected in some way and as Haggis put it himself in his introduction, you will benefit from watching carefully to spot details that may help you figure it out.

Haggis, producer Michael Nozik, producer/star Moran Atias and star Adrian Brody turned up for a Q&A following the movie.  Haggis was a bit testy about not wanting to answer questions about the movie, saying that he wanted to make the type of film that people would debate about afterwards and that the puzzle pieces are scattered throughout.  He also talked about how the movie got made and gave a lot of credit to Atias for being persistent.  Atias and Brody talked about their storyline and got into some of the details about filming (including some misfortune with her awful fake teeth).

Movie Grade: B+

Finally, I ended the day at the premiere of the Canadian documentary When Jews Were Funny by Alan Zweig.  Zweig interviews dozens of comedians, from the Borscht belt original Shecky Greene through Howie Mandel and Gilbert Gottfried to the more currently relevant Marc Maron and Andy Kindler to discuss comedy in general, Jewish comedy in particular and the influence of being Jewish on their particular brand of comedy.  Some of the segments were more entertaining than others, most notably with Bob (Super Dave Osborne) Einstein and Judy Gold for me.  The movie goes off on more than one tangent and I came away not really sure what point of view Zweig was trying to get across.  Is it a commentary on assimilation?  A discussion on how hardship breeds comedy?  A projection of the future of comedy?  A study of what it means to be Jewish?  I really wasn't sure.

Zweig and a few people included in the film where there to take questions after the screening and he didn't do much more to enlighten me about his intentions.  Interesting was the discussion of some of the people he had asked to be part of the film who declined (which came up when someone asked about the lack of women in the movie...where he thankfully cut off any "women aren't funny" suppositions).

It was my last documentary of this year and I came away feeling a bit disappointed that I didn't love either of them.

Movie Grade: C+

TIFF 2013 - The Double and The Invisible Woman

Jesse Eisenberg plays a dual role in The Double, both as the meek apologetic worker bee Simon and his sociopathic doppelganger James who slowly takes over his life.  And he's great as both of them, but the movie may have been a bit weird for my taste.  Based on a Dostoevsky novella, and set in some strange version of the past, the movie explores the themes of paranoia,  identity and longing for a connection.  Mia Wasikowsa (Eisenberg's real life girlfriend) shows up as the unattainable object of Simon's desire only to be used and abused by James, and Wallace Shawn is entertaining as the boss who humiliates Simon on a regular basis while praising everything that James does (which, of course, he's stealing from Simon).

More than worth the price of admission was the witty, entertaining and very funny introduction and Q&A with the film's director Richard Ayoade.   Best known for the UK television series The IT Crowd and possibly his acting in last summer's The Watch, Ayoade previously came to TIFF with his directorial debut Submarine and provided some high quality entertainment for the crowd.  Extremely self deprecating and quick witted, his commentary on people leaving the theatre (likely on their way to their next movie) was interspersed with actual answers about the motivation and process of making the film.   He even managed to lighten up Jesse Eisenberg :-)

Movie Grade: B- Q&A: A+

Ralph Fiennes directs and stars as Charles Dickens in The Invisible Woman,  the story of Dickens' secret mistress, the young Nelly Ternan played by Felicity Jones.  It's a pretty basic story, older rich man gets involved with young beautiful girl made all the more interesting by the fact that he was able to keep the relationship somewhat secret as such a public figure.  The story is told from Nelly's perspective and in flashbacks from her current life as a married schoolmarm in the late 1800s.  There were several really lovely scenes in the film, and Fiennes and Jones are both quite good in their roles, as is Joanna Scanlan as Mrs. Dickens but the movie was a bit slow in parts for me.

Fiennes seemed quite emotional both introducing the film and speaking about it afterwards, and gave credit to many people for helping him get to the finished product.  Jones charmingly spoke about what it was like to be directed by Fiennes (mostly like being directed by Dickens), and how making this movie made her look at the female characters in Dickens' novels differently.  They both spoke about the idea of 'the invisible woman' and how the film contains several depictions of female characters that could be described that way.  They were both quite eloquent and charming.

Movie Grade: B

TIFF 2013 - Three Movie Sunday!!

8:30am on a Sunday morning is an early screening.  It says something when you're getting in line before the coffee shop is open.  Matthew Weiner, who showed up for the early morning start to introduce his directorial debut You Are Here started his into by calling us 'his people' who consider going to the movies going to church.

And I have to be completely honest with you.  Maybe it was the early morning or the fact that it was my 5th movie in less than 48 hours but I may have nodded off for a bit in the middle of the film.  I'm pretty sure I saw enough of it to render an opinion though :-)

The film is primarily the story of two childhood friends played by Owen Wilson and Zach Galifianakis and their trip back to their hometown after the death of a parent.  They each have their issues of course, Wilson's Steve is an empty charmer with empty relationships and Galifianakis' Ben clearly has some mental health problems. They tangle with Ben's sister and newly widowed stepmother played by Amy Poehler and Laura Ramsey respectively.   I think it could likely benefit from a tighter edit, and there were a few scenes that seemed out of place, so overall it fell a little bit flat for me.

I asked my friend what she thought the over/under was on how many questions it would take for someone to reference Mad Men and we both figured (correctly) that it would come up on the first question for Mr. Weiner.  And the second.  And the third.  People did a pretty good job of structuring their questions so that they encompassed both the show and the film but I would have probably been pretty annoyed if I were him.  To his credit, he didn't seem to be, and appeared to be happy to discuss the film (and his television experience).  He said that he had written the script about 8 years ago with Wilson in mind and it took him a long time to get it made, also commenting on the scheduling challenges of trying to finish the post production on the movie while still running his incredibly successful TV show.

Movie grade: B-

It's a somewhat early call, but I think Can a Song Save Your Life might just be my favourite film at TIFF this year.  The movie, written and directed by John Carney (who brought us Once) stars Mark Ruffalo as Dan, a down and out record label exec and Keira Knightly as Greta, the singer/songwriter to grabs his attention and gives him a chance at redemption by helping her pull together an album.  The cast is rounded out by some real life musicians (Mos Def as Dan's partner, Adam Levine as the boyfriend who treats Greta badly and Cee-Lo Green as a hip hop star) as well as Catherine Keener and Hailee Steinfeld as Dan's estranged family.

Like Once, the storyline is pretty basic, and the movie succeeds largely on the fantastic music and great performances by Knightly and Ruffalo.  The movie was filmed outdoors all over New York City and just has a great vibe to it.  The audience I watched with (it was the second screening after the premiere on Saturday) all seemed to enjoy it as much as I did, greeting Carney excitedly afterwards when he came up to the stage for a Q&A.   He was very entertaining, with stories of the filming process (and dealing with the paparazzi in NY), discussing the songs in the film and the people who contributed to the movie and seemed inordinately pleased with how much of a douche Adam Levine had to act like on screen.

Apparently some of the studios were as pleased with the movie as I was because there was apparently a bidding war over Saturday night for the rights to the film.  It looks like the Weinstein Company came out the winner so I'd imagine this one might get a release before the end of the year, if only to make sure the songs are eligible for the Oscars.

Movie grade: A

I have never seen as many reserved seats at the Elgin theatre than for the world premiere of Atom Egoyan's Devil's Knot.  I figured it was because Egoyan is a local and had a big section for all his friends and family but it was also because so much of the large cast attended the screening.

The movie is a dramatization of the story behind the West Memphis Three, the teenagers who were tried and convicted of killing three young boys in 1993 only to finally be released from jail in 2011 after  years of fighting and appeals.  I don't feel like I need to call this a spoiler as there has been so much coverage of the story, including the trio of Paradise Lost documentaries.    The sprawling cast includes Colin Firth as Ron Lax, an investigator who helped the defense team and Reese Witherspoon as the mother of one of the victims, through whom much of the plot is filtered.  There were good performances throughout the movie and it was very well plotted and felt suspenseful, even though I was familiar with the story.

In the post film Q&A, Egoyan discussed activism in filmmaking, the influence of the documentaries (he probably correctly noted that in reality most people have not seen them and that a mainstream movie would bring much more attention to the story), and finally laughingly instructed the audience to ask some questions to his cast since he 'lives here...you can ask me anytime'.  The cast almost uniformly agreed that they got very involved in the case, discussing information gleaned online and through other readings during filming.  When asked about whether they were familiar with the story before getting involved in the film the most entertaining answer came from James Hamrick (who plays one of the accused Damien Echols) who informed us that he was born in 1993 when the events took place and the most touching answer came from Robert Baker (who plays a police officer) who grew up in the area and vividly remembers living through it.

Movie Grade: A- (that's two winners for Firth this year)