Review: The Double

I picked The Double for pretty much one reason, and somewhat silly one at that. We saw Bunny and the Bull at the 2009 festival, directed by The Mighty Boosh veteran Paul King. I saw that this film was directed by Richard Ayoade, who acted in several Mighty Boosh episodes. Decision made. The silly part is that we haven't seen a single episode of The Mighty Boosh.

Ayoade developed the screenplay from the Fyodor Dostoyevsky novel of same name. He updates the story's landscape from Russian bureaucracy to an American company.The lead character, Simon and his Doppelganger James are both portrayed brilliantly by Jesse Eisenberg. Mia Wasikowska plays Simon's love interest, Wallace Shawn easily nails the role as Simon's abusive boss, and Noah Taylor rounds out the headliners as Simon's coworker friend Harris.

Simon is not a man comfortable in his own skin. He has a job, and believes in his value to the company, but is entirely incapable of communicating that belief to anyone else. His day is consumed by people with whom he works disrespecting him: guard at the secured entrance, his boss, even the lady in charge at the copy room. Things worsen when James, Simon's extremely confident doppelganger starts at the company. Everybody loves James, who begins to take credit for Simon's work.

I can best describe the style of the film as "retro futuristic", like someone in the 1950's made a film about the future and got it rather wrong (see Blade Runner and most every movie about the future once The Future rolls around). The film is packed with surreal events, odd humor, paranoia, and a general sense of discomfort. Think early David Lynch, Terry Gilliam, and the like. Ayoade worked extensively with sound designer Adam Armitage to further advance the feeling of other worldliness.

This is not a film for people who like a clear narrative with things neatly wrapping up at the end. We spent a while after the film sharing our ideas about what happened, though neither of us were particularly strong in our beliefs. If you like the occasional quirky challenge, give this film a go. My imdb rating: 7/10.

***

As an added bonus, I'll leave you with a nugget of the film festival experience. If Ayoade were doing stand-up comedy, I'd say he killed during the film's introduction. Paraphrased gems (from memory, so quite possibly inaccurate): "This film is... 93 minutes long. So there's that. And 7 of those are the credits. So 86, really. It was written... [end of thought]" He was barely more serious for the Q&A after the film, but about as funny. I think we'll track down some of his other works, including (finally) The Mighty Boosh and The IT Crowd.

Review: Therese

I don't remember the precise reason we picked Therese, directed by Charlie Stratton. It could have been simply that the plot sounded fun - adultery, murder, guilt - you know, the standards. It could have been that it starred Draco - I mean Tom Felton and Elizabeth Olsen, whose life was spared the early fame of her older sisters.

Therese is an update of a 19th century novel by Émile Zola, set in mid 19th century France. The updates essentially consist of showing things merely implied in the original version, namely the sex and violence. Still, neither is done in explicit fashion.

The movie begins with Therese (Olsen) being dumped in her aunt's lap. Her mother is dead and her father has no idea what to do with her while he's gallivanting around Africa. She's close in age to her cousin Camille (Felton), who is sickly, weak, and doted upon by his mother (Jessica Lange). The kids grow up, and Camille's mother arranges for the marriage of the two cousins.

Therese is certainly not attracted to the idea of marrying her wheezing, sniveling, pale faced cousin. However, she is also made aware that, while she is a pretty young woman, she lacks the connections, money, or social standing required to bag another man. Meanwhile, no one else would have Camille either. It's a match made in heaven - what could go wrong?

Enter Camille's friend Laurent (Oscar Isaac), who Therese finds attractive, alluring, and doesn't seem to mind sleeping with his good friend's wife. Things get hairy when they decide to take their relationship past the affair stage and into the "get rid of the wheezer" stage.

The first couple acts seem to set things up pretty well, with nice comedic moments. In one, there was a new take on the tried and "hide the secret lover under the bed" scene. Other good bits were provided by the supporting cast, which includes Shirley Henderson and another actor whose name is frustratingly missing from both the festival guide and imdb. Check back with the latter and see if they've updated the page.

The film falls apart a bit in act three, with the characters' actions seeming a bit random. Lange is great down the stretch, and the final scene isn't bad, but I can't forgive how the film gets there. Perhaps they'll clean it up a bit in the editing room before the release. My imdb rating: 6/10.

Review: 12 Years A Slave

We saw Steve McQueen's (not that Steve McQueen's) Shame at the 2011 festival. It was the first of his films I'd seen, and on the strength of that one film, I knew I wanted to see this. McQueen is not one to shy away from challenging subject matter - Shame was about a functional sex addict in New York City - and this year's film, 12 Years A Slave, is no different.

This is true story of a free black man who is kidnapped and sold into slavery for (you guessed it) 12 years. It begins when Solomon Northup's wife and two young children leave their New York home for a few weeks. Solomon, a free black man and professional musician, is lured by two men to Washington, D.C. where they promise him good pay to play for a circus. There, Solomon is wined, dined, drugged and, when he awakes, sold into slavery.

The rest of the movie shows Solomon's fight for survival, the occasional shred of dignity, and ultimately, freedom and a return to his family. The people he meets along the way, from plantation owners, white hired help, and other slaves, paint a grim picture of the reality in the slave-era south. Conditions are brutal, and McQueen doesn't turn the camera away, even though you might choose avert your gaze for a moment or two.

The cast is top notch. Smaller supporting roles are filled by Paul Giamatti as a slave trader and Brad Pitt as a Canadian carpenter. Alfre Woodward puts in a nuanced performance as Mistress Shaw, who enjoys life as "slave nobility". Benedict Cumberbatch builds on his recent portfolio (see Star Trek Into Darkness, Sherlock, and War Horse), playing a plantation owner who, aside from buying, selling and owning people, seems like a decent man. Paul Dano is a guy who must have had a bad childhood and later becomes a plantation manager to take it out on slaves (we just see the latter). The always impressive Michael Fassbender was terrific as a plantation owner who is brutal and despicable, but much more than a simple villain to be despised.

The best, though, came from unknown (to me) actors. Adepero Oduye is incredible in her heartbreaking portrayal of Eliza, a fellow slave on one plantation and object of its owner's desire. Sarah Paulson is wicked as that plantation owner's spurned wife. Anchoring the entire production, in another Oscar worthy performance is Chiwetel Ejiofor. He is magnificent as Solomon Northrup, taking us along for his journey from free man to kidnap victim to his basic fight for survival.

All of this is navigated expertly by McQueen, a director of great intensity. Mr. McQueen is not without a sense of humor, but he is very serious about the art of film making and the results show it.

Okay, I'll gush a little more. This is my 13th trip to TIFF, and this is one of if not the best film I've seen here. I think it's worthy of many Oscar nominations; supporting roles, best actor, score, screenplay, direction and film. I'm probably leaving out things like costume and art direction because I seem to be clueless as to which films win those awards. Go see this film. Bring a tissue. Weepers, bring a box. My imdb rating is a solid 9/10.

Side note: Mr. McQueen and several cast members were on hand for a lengthy Q&A after the film. It was a wonderful Q&A, with good questions and thoughtful and insightful answers. And thanks to Mr. McQueen for insisting on a few more questions after TIFF tried to shut down the session.

Review: Lucky Them

We picked Lucky Them on the strength of the cast, which includes Toni Collette and Thomas Haden Church, and that the film was advertised as an "edgy comedy", which seemed right up our alley. I hadn't seen any of Megan Griffith's first three directorial efforts.

This film's central character is Ellie (Toni Collette), a music critic working for a small independent magazine in Seattle. Ellie is charged with the task of tracking down Matthew Smith, an either deceased or reclusive musician, ten years after his disappearance ended both his career and their romantic relationship. Adding to the mess, she finds herself needing the help of a millionaire wanna be documentary film maker, Charlie (Thomas Haden Church).

Ellie has a blend of alcohol, man, and brooding after Smith problems. This leads her to bad decision making, like sleeping with her interview subjects. Coupled with her fixation on unknown artists, she's  not performing well at her job. Given the ultimatum of tracking down Smith or losing her job, she reluctantly opts for the former, but does not seem well-suited for the task.

The film, aiming to be both an edgy comedy and a drama about a woman who has become lost after the devastating abandonment by her lover, ends up missing on both. Many of the jokes fall flat, and in the end, I really don't feel Ellie's pain. A **Major** cameo in the film's climactic scene seems distracting, only subtracting from the emotion your supposed to be experiencing alongside Ellie.

Geez, I wanted to like the film, willing myself to laugh at some of the bits, but in the end all I felt was "meh". My imdb rating: 5/10.

As a side note, the Q&A after the film was quite nice. Some in the audience appeared to have enjoyed  the film more than us, even going so far as to gush that it was "something special". There is an interesting effect associated with movie going at a festival that, in some cases, enhances your feelings about a film. That's part of the fun about the film festival experience.

Review: Short Cuts Canada Programme 2

Every year, we see a programme (Canadian spelling, eh?) of short films from emerging Canadian directors.  Most of the films in this year's screening were decent, though nothing knocked my socks off.  Here are brief reviews of each the films we saw in this year's batch.

Tabula Rasa - Directed by Matthew Rankin.  A strange telling of people reacting in different ways to natural disaster, in this case flood.  Perhaps I'm dense, but I didn't quite "get it".  Nonetheless, there were some interesting images and subtle humor here and there.  My imdb rating: 6/10.

Solar Wind - This was a rather creepy tale of a mass cult suicide, drawing inspiration from Heaven's Gate and other cult suicides, the director creates great suspense and foreboding with sparse dialog.  The film made me think of early David Lynch.  Rating: 7/10.

The Fuse: Or How I Burned Simon Bolivar - Directed by Ian Lagarde, this film is essentially a short documentary.  Relying primarily on footage from family and friends, it explains how, as a boy, Lagarde thought that he caused civil war to erupt in Bosnia by performing poorly on an art assignment in school.  I liked the film for its personal treatment of a subject which my only previous exposure consisted of the nightly news, and how that subject looked through the eyes of a young boy. Rating: 7/10.

Afternoon Tea - DJ Parmar directs this tale of a boy who seeks out his grandfather, an elderly Indian man who has cut off ties with his daughter due to cultural disagreements.  Apparently, the man doesn't know what his grandson looks like, and the boy claims to simply be a kid who needs to use a phone to contact his parents.  He goes on, though, to probe into the man's family.  The script felt a little contrived, and I felt the film landed a little flatly.  Rating: 6/10.

The Paris Quintet In Practice Makes Perfect - Benjamin Schuetze directs and performs along side four other sharply dressed men in a strange apartment, apparently in the sea, completing one another's actions with precision.  The effect is amusing and intriguing to watch.  The unanswered question from the Q&A: Is it really five guys, or just one guy with multiple personalities?  Rating: 7/10.

The Pedestrian Jar - Evan Morgan directs this short mockumentary.  You have perhaps experienced an office that collects money from associates who are late to a meeting, swear in a meeting, etc.?  This film twists that around into a hilarious public service announcement.  Employees in this office deposit a quarter into the jar for each pedestrian they hit on the drive to the office.  Bicyclists?  $0.15.  This was probably not the most challenging material, but it was executed well, and the result is very funny.  Rating: 7/10.

Sorry, Rabbi - Mark Slutzky directs this odd but funny short, which combines romantic comedy with misunderstanding between Josh, the romantic male lead, and a small group of Hasidic Jews.  They believe Josh has purposely struck one of them with an object in the head, causing minor injury.  It's up to the rabbi to sort through the information, determine the truth, and ultimately negotiate an acceptable outcome.  Josh, meanwhile, also needs to save face with his girlfriend, who he has given a rather unacceptably romantic anniversary gift.  Rating: 7/10.

Review: Extraterrestrial

Extraterrestrial was one of the films we picked to lighten up our schedule, in terms of drama, though it had potential for actual social commentary.  We also wanted to see a film from Spain, where we had visited early this summer.  It is the second feature film from Spanish writer/director Nacho Vigalondo, who set the bar high with his debut film Timecrimes.  We have yet to see this one, but we've added it to our Netflix queue.

This story opens with the debris from a one night stand.  Julio, portrayed by Julián Villagrán (Nacho called him the Spanish Adrien Brody), awakes alone in an unfamiliar bed, clothes strewn about the room.  Unable to locate his pants, he wanders into the living room in his boxers.  He and his co-conspirator introduce themselves.  Somehow, he forgot that her name is Julia (Michelle Jenner).

Soon, the pair start to notice that things are not normal in Madrid.  The cable is out, the streets are empty, and eventually they notice that a space ship, miles wide, is hovering in the sky.  Nacho introduces a couple other characters, namely Julia's boyfriend Tipo (Miguel Noguera), and her intrusively creepy neighbor Ángel (Carlos Areces).

The presence of the UFO, which provides the plot with an excuse to keep the characters together, first distracts the characters from the obvious nature of Julio and Julia's relationship.  Eventually, however, Ángel becomes suspicious, and to discredit him, Julia drops the suggestion that perhaps he is an alien and can't be trusted.  This sets off a series of misunderstandings, confusion, and accusations -- all handled with comedic wit.

The script stays true to the self-absorbed characters, avoiding the typical "lessons learned" ending, yet ends satisfactorily.  My imdb rating: 7/10.

Review: Take This Waltz

Our third and final Rush experience this year was for Sarah Polley's sophomore directorial feature film, Take This Waltz.  We got there a solid three hours before showtime, and by the time they were giving out Rush passes, Maureen had already secured a ticket from a woman who approached her in line and said, "Here, take this."  People are always giving Maureen stuff.  She took the ticket and, assuming I'd get into the theater (right, honey?) enthusiastically joined the ticket holders' line.  We entered the theatre simultaneously.

Polley, who also wrote the script, assembled an small but interesting cast for this drama with occasional comedic moments.  Michelle Williams plays Margot, a woman who apparently fears transitions, but at the same time craves the fire of a new relationship.  Seth Rogen is her husband Lou, a chicken-only cookbook writing nice guy, with an odd practical joke sense of humor.  Sarah Silverman plays Lou's (recovering) alcoholic sister Geraldine.  Lastly, Luke Kirby is Daniel, a rickshaw owner/operator and aspiring artist who Margot meets out of town, only later to learn that he lives in an apartment building across the street from her house.

There is an instant attraction between Margot and Daniel, but when she informs him of her marital status, he politely backs away.  Margot and Lou have an odd relationship.  They occasionally pass the time by informing one another of the ways in which they will physically harm and mutilate each other, typically with kitchen implements.  Lou seems quite content with simply being together, and doesn't recognize Margot's restlessness and anxiety.  Daniel's presence so nearby, Margot will eventually have to make a decision between her husband and the new, shiny guy across the street.

Polley's script creates likable characters with depth -- you understand them and believe the course they choose for themselves.  She weaves in a couple of moments of clever foreboding into the film, if you're paying attention.  I was little shocked at a couple uses of nudity and sex, since she seemed somewhat embarrassed about her own "sex" scene (tame by comparison) from Guinevere, in which she starred several years ago.  She was only 20 at the time, though.  My one critique of the film is that I think the finished product could use some editing, as the pace suffers now and then.  Overall, though, I liked the film.  My imdb rating: 7/10.

Review: Juan of the Dead

We've been trying this year to lighten up the mood, after a 2009 season filled with war and other forms of death and destruction.  What better way, we thought, to lighten things up than with a zombie-themed comedy/horror flick?

Juan of the Dead's writer/director, Alejandro Brugués, hails from Argentina, though this Spanish-language film is set in Cuba.  Brugués drops in humor now and then related to the reigning regime, which takes to using typical Communist propaganda to blame the zombie behavior on the Americans.  Zombies are now "dissidents".

Other than that and dark humor moments, such as Juan's sidekick friend's occasional accidental harpooning of a non-zombie, there just wasn't too much much to keep a viewer awake for this one.  Overall, the film had a very melancholy feel to it.  A common theme was various characters' motivation to return to or to leave Cuba.  Juan, meanwhile, is confident he will survive the zombie plague, as he has other catastrophes in his homeland.  He's going nowhere.

I wanted to like this movie.  Despite my best efforts, I just couldn't enough reason to.  My imdb rating: 5/10.

Review: Goon

We picked Goon because we are in Canada, and it is a Canadian hockey comedy co-written by Jay Baruchel.  Do you require further explanation?

Loosely based on a true story, very loosely, it tells the story of a Jewish bouncer from New England named Doug Glatt who gets discovered by a minor league hockey coach when Doug beats the crap out of one of his toughest players.  Doug can't skate, sure, but boy can he beat the snot out of guys.

Doug is brought on to protect the star player, Xavier Laflamme, who has never been the same since the crushing knockout he received from the league's predominant goon, Ross Rhea.  The idea is that Doug will beat senselessly the face of anyone who threatens Xavier, who'll once again feel comfortable, and thusly regain his confidence and resume his offensive prowess.

Doug may be the nicest goon ever, even if a little dense, and it's easier than you'd think to get on the side of a guy whose career involves bloodying other guy's faces.  Of course, he has a love interest, whose name I can't recall but I do recall that he found her very pretty.  She was played by Alison Pill, who we'd just seen playing Zelda Fitzgerald in Midnight In Paris.  She has a problem, though, in that she already has a boyfriend, but that can be worked out through a face pounding or two.

And boy, is there blood.  And broken bones, and other body parts.  And more blood.  If you're squeamish about such things, you might want to blink for long periods of time here and there.

There are many laugh-out-loud moments, and Seann William Scott pulls off Doug's aloofness perfectly.  You really feel behind him the whole way, especially since things don't work out so well for the guys in front of him.  Liev Schreiber, of all people, plays the haggard goon Ross Rhea, and I'll admit that I didn't at first recognize him.  He melts into the role.

We enjoyed this movie quite a bit, and you can't imagine the joy of watching it with a bunch of blood-thirsty Canadians.  I don't know if it will make it to a theater near you, but you can surely catch it on Netflix next year sometime.  My imdb rating: 7/10.

...

Maureen: This movie was my number one choice for the festival. This may be an odd selection, but it just seemed like the right movie for the Festival: fun, unexpected, and quirky.  It was all this, and introduced as "the most Canadian film at TIFF". 

It is a bit violent at times and I am not into brutality at all.  But oddly most of the fighting had a real, yet over the top feel.  The sound used for the hitting was extreme and so it became comical.  I think the strongest point for the movie is the script.  There is a great reference to ET (the extraterrestrial), that is so funny, I want to see the movie again for this one part.

Review: The Ides of March

Maureen and I were successful in our first Rush line experience of this year's festival, securing two seats to George Clooney's The Ides of March.  I had extra motivation to see this one because of high demands among my readers (or one reader, anyway) for Ryan Gosling pics.  Alas, George, Ryan and the crew were not in attendance.  It's a shame, because I know that George was in town, if he isn't yet still.

The movie, directed by Clooney, also casts him in a supporting role of a sitting state governor and presidential candidate, Mike Morris.  The story, though, was really of the political behind-the-scenes education of his press secretary, Stephen Myers, played by Gosling.  Rounding out the cast are Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Paul Giamatti, Morris's and the opposition's battle-tested campaign managers, respectively, and Evan Rachel Wood, a young intern on the Morris campaign.

Myers is idealistic, energetic, and has drunk Morris's metaphorical Kool-aid.  Throuigh a series of events and gamesmanship by the major players on both campaigns, Myers obtains a more realistic view of the world in which he's chosen to dwell.  If he is able to thrive or even survive, he may have to ditch his idealism.

Some of it may be predictable, though some surprises will certainly seep through on occasion.  Overall, the movie is fairly standard suspense fare, though made better than it may otherwise have been due to excellent performances from Hoffman and Giamatti.  I've grown to expect it - these guys are just fun to watch.

As a side note, we were both dismayed to have our vacation from American politics interrupted by this film, a vivid reminder of the constant ugliness in which we are constantly drenched back home.  Sadly, I can't print a line of dialog spoken by Gosling's character in the film, as it contains a major spoiler, but for me it is a sad truth of American politics and what is important to the public.  Stupid scruples.

The film has strong performances from the entire cast and the script and production are solid, even if there's no new ground broken.  If for some reason you feel like you haven't gotten a strong enough dose of political figures dumping on one another, this movie should serve you well.  My imdb rating: 7/10.

Maureen's notes:  The Ides of March page on imbd.com is missing a principle cast member.  Jennifer Ehle, who is a big name in BBC circles, played Morris' wife.  She is missing from the cast list as of now.  It seems like an odd oversight on what is considered one of the best sources of film information available. ... Although I feel Giamatti and Hoffman steal the show from the leads, George Clooney has again thrilled many female fans by signing autographs and posing pictures as long as his handlers will allow.  We have heard from fans and some industry folks he is as good of a guy as he is said to be.  Oddly, we also heard the same about Woody Harrelson.

Review: Sons of Norway

Maureen and I had a plan for our opening day of the festival.  We were going to start with a potentially depressing movie starring and produced by Lauren Ambrose, followed by the lighter Norwegian coming-of-age tale Sons of Norway.

Delta foiled our plan when our first flight was cancelled, our second flight was delayed, then delayed more, and then we missed our connection by mere seconds.  So, our festival was to start of with Sons of Norway.  Before the show, much to our delight, they brought out the film's writer, director and producers -- four Norwegian guys and John Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten.  Johnny, true to form, thrilled the crowd with his conclusion to the introduction, "You'll really enjoy this, and if you don't you're f---ing c-nts."  (he left out the dashes)

The plot revolved around the relationship between a young teenage boy named Nikolaj (Niko) and his father Magnus.  Åsmund Høeg, who played 13-year old Niko, gave a wonderful performance with strikingly sparse dialog.

It's 1978, and the punk scene is hitting Norway, but Niko is too happy with life and enamored with his mother Lone to buy into its anger and discontentment.  Magnus, an idealist, atheist, banana-themed celebrater of Christmas (because we descend from apes) and architect, writes off the movement as a fad.

Things take a turn with the sudden and tragic death of Lone.  Niko begins to rebel, giving himself a punk hairdo, piercing his ear, and joining a punk band named "Dirt".   Magnus, meanwhile, is suffering his own heartache.  He quits his job and takes Niko to a nudist camp.  Frustrated by the lack of Magnus's attention and perhaps competing for rebellion points, Niko steps it up.  He lashes out at government officials, takes drugs, and angrily pierces more of his face.  It all culminates with a dream sequence where the boy is visited by a current day Johnny Rotten (missing teeth and all), a scene we learned was filmed in -20 degree weather.

While the film certainly had its comedic element, it certainly was not the lighter fare that we anticipated.  The director takes you on a rollercoaster ride with moments of light laughter followed by gut punching sadness and even disgust.  The drug-riddled cake eating scene was particularly difficult to stomach.  The ride was intended, though, and it was skillfully delivered.  My imdb rating: 7/10.

Review: I, Don Giovani

In this piece of faction from veteran Spanish director Carlos Saura, I, Don Giovani tells the story of Lorenzo Da Ponte and the development of his second collaboration with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Il dissoluto punito o sia Il Don Giovanni.  Sauro collaborated on the script with Raffaello Uboldi and Alessandro Vallini.

The tale begins in Da Ponte's youth, when he is forced to convert from Judaism to Christianity to enable his widower father's marriage to an 18-year old Catholic woman.  When he's older, he trains to be a priest, but practices the fine art of debauchery of in his spare time.  He is surrounded by inspiration for the story he ends up writing for Mozart's opera, and in fact his on-screen life plays out in opera fashion, complete with musical performances of songs from the opera.

The story is intriguing, with seduction, cheating, back-biting jealous divas, illness, and other great opera themes.  The film works Da Ponte's real life drama into the story of Don Giovani in a very clever way, which is only fitting since most of Da Ponte's work was in the form of adaptations of previous work.  But while the picture is visually impressive, it suffers a bit in the sound department.  Some of the post-production re-recorded dialog didn't match up with the picture very well, which proved distracting.  The bigger issue, though, were occasional dull patches in the plot.  My imdb rating: 6/10.

Review: Bare Essence of Life

My second to last day at the festival began with Bare Essence of Life, from Japanese writer/director Satoko Yokohama.  Ken'ichi Matsuyama starred in the second consecutive movie in my schedule.  Veteran Actress Komiko Aso plays love interest Machiko Kamiizumi.

In a jump of epic proportions, Matsuyama slides easily from a fugitive ninja in Kamui to a mentally challenged small-time vegetable farmer named Akito Mizuki in this film.  Akito lives with his grandmother, who is trying to prepare him to survive on his own.  With a mental age of about 7, things aren't going so well.  Spoiler alert, I'm about to divulge the rest of the plot.

Machiko moves to the remote northern Japanese village from Tokyo, where the love of her life was decapitated in a horrific car accident.  While the rest of the villagers whisper amongst themselves about her bad fortune, Akito falls in love with her.  Initially, he freaks her out with his stalker behavior.  That night, Akito, with the help of a local schoolboy, buries himself in the garden, with only his head sticking up out of the ground.  The helpful neighborhood kid sprays the entire garden with herbicide, including Akito's head, and then heads home, leaving Akito planted.  After being freed from his garden grave, he seeks out his love again, only this time she finds him more charming.  Of course, Akito credits the herbicide application to his newfound success.

Now obsessed with giving himself regular applications of herbicide, he falls ill.  As a result, presumably, his heart stops beating, but miraculously he's otherwise healthy as a horse.  Eventually, though, he gets shot dead by hunters while on a field trip to the woods with Machiko and her class.  Oddly, after the autopsy, the pathologist gives Machiko his brain in a jar presumably filled with formaldehyde, remarking that it's smaller than usual.  She then takes the kids back to the woods, strangely unafraid that someone else would get shot.  No one in fact does get shot, but they do stumble upon a bear.  Machiko tosses Akito's brain in the direction of the bear, and she and the kids escape to safety while he munches on his dinner of formaldehyde-soaked human brain.  The end.

And no, I'm not making this shit up.

I think the movie was supposed to be funny.  However, I guess I don't find mentally challenged farmer jokes all that funny.  Oh look!  He's throwing the produce at the customers.  Ha ha ha!  She won't buy anything now, and he won't have money to pay his bills.  Ha ha ha!  My imdb rating: 3/10.

Review: Kamui

After a couple films that occasionally seemed to induce more napping than anything, I needed some entertainment.  Fortunately, the evening movie on the schedule was Kamui, director Yoichi Sai's version of the legendary tale of a fugitive ninja.

Ken'ichi Matsuyama takes on the role of the title character, who is born low on the social totem pole in 17th century Japan.  As a way out, he becomes a ninja, but unhappy with performing the tasks required of him, he escapes to live a free life.  As it turns out, the ninja society strongly adheres to the "Hotel Calfornia" rule, so Kamui spends a lot of time looking over his shoulder.

As it turns out, in 17th century Japan, ninjas have darned near super human powers.  Kamui can do some neat tricks.  For instance, his signature move is making it look like there are two of him.  He cam also jump about thirty feet.  These are handy skills to possess when you're a fugitive ninja.

Anyway, after some adventures in a forest, Kamui takes to the ocean.  That turns out to be a rough life, and he winds up washing up on shore half-dead after a trippy run-in with a demented fisherman.  The fisherman's daughter helps nurse him back to life, much to the dismay of her mother, who has secrets of her own.  Some pirates show up, identities get exposed, and all hell breaks loose.

I'll leave the details out, in case you happen to catch this one.  It's a fun story with lots of crazy ninja action, and the rather cartoonish low-budget CGI gives it the look of a live action anime film.  My imdb rating: 7/10.

Review: Like You Know It All

From South Korea and writer/director Sang-soo Hong comes Like You Know It All (Jal aljido mothamyeonseo), the story of an art house film director and the folly of his day-to-day life.  Kim Tae-woo takes on the role of Ku Kyung-nam, a director of critically acclaimed, but commercially unsuccessful movies.

The film begins with Kyung-nam attending a film festival as a judge.  Quickly, it becomes apparent that the festival is much more about long nights of drinking with arrogant industry men and young attractive women than it is about screening movies.  The screenings simply become a convenient time to catch up on sleep.  The partying leads to one young woman delivering Kyung-nam a tongue lashing for leaving her defenselessly drunk at the residence of one of the other revelers.  He soon leaves the festival, promising to review the movies on DVD instead.

Later, in one confusing scene, Kyung-nam visits the home of an old friend.  The friend dies, and Kyung-nam sleeps with his wife while trying to comfort her.  Moments later, the friend is once again alive, with no explanation as far as I could see, and throws a large rock at Kyung-nam, striking him in the face.

Kyung-nam's last adventure begins when he meets up with his college mentor, who he discovers has coincidentally married an ex-flame.  This encounter begins with an admittedly hilarious moment of foreboding, but drags on in a confusing and seemingly endless series of conversations.

The irony of this movie is that it seemed like it was directed by someone just like the main character that the movie intends to make fun of.  There were several funny moments on the film, but far too often I found myself wondering what was going on.  My imdb rating: 4/10.

Review: Tales From The Golden Age

Award winning Director Christian Mungiu brought together four other fledgling Romanian directors to direct five short films depicting life during Romania in the 1980s.  Communist propaganda referred to the days of their rule as "The Golden Age".  The five films each look at "legends" of the time in typically a humorous way.  Apparently, there is a sixth film and these are being released as two separate films in Romania.  I'm guessing they selected five of the six as a single film for the festival.

Each of the five that we saw told the story of a "legend" of the time.

• The opening tale was that of a small town nervously preparing for the arrival of communist party officials, which ends with everyone getting drunk and then getting on a carnival ride with swings.  Unfortunately, they forgot to leave somebody off the ride to stop it and simply had to wait for it to run out of gas.
• In a "forest for the trees" moment, state officials insist that alterations are made to a photograph before the newspaper can print it, but wind up needing an emergency recall of the morning edition.
• A family obtains a (live) pig through questionable means and, not wanting to draw attention of the neighbors, attempts to kill it via home made gas chamber, with somewhat predictable results.
• A man delivering truckloads of chickens finds a way to make a little extra by hocking their eggs part way through his route.
• A man introduces a young woman to a low stakes confidence scheme - tricking residents of apartment buildings into giving them returnable bottles, and then cashing them in.

The common theme of all the stories is the absurdity of the reality created by the communist government of the time.  This creates ample room for laughs and the Romanians cash in on it often.  There are some lulls here and there, though I'm sure some humor was lost on me just due to my lack of knowledge about their culture.  My imdb rating: 6/10.

Review: J'ai tué ma mère

The next film in this year's schedule was Canadian cinema part deux: the French language feature J'ai tué ma mère (I killed my mother).  Xavier Dolan produced, wrote, directed and starred in this film.  This is very convenient because you know who to blame if you don't like it.

This semi-autobiographical tale is about Xavier's relationship with his mother.  For this film, he takes on the name Hubert, and his mother is not played by his mother, but rather by Anne Dorval.  Hubert and his mother Chantale fight. A lot.  Drop dead scream fests.  In French.  Québécois French, but French nonetheless.  Hubert is mean, Chantale is mean, and it's hard to decide who's at fault, really.

One may choose to infer that the root of the problem is that Hubert has chosen not to divulge his homosexuality to his mother, though the film didn't directly state that.  Hubert's father isn't much help, as he ditched the family years prior, deciding that parenthood just wasn't for him.  Unable to deal with Hubert's rage herself, Chantale ships him off to a boarding school.

Along the way, Hubert strikes up a friendship with one of his public school teachers, Julie, and interacts with his main squeeze Antonin and his mother Hélène, who eventually outs Hubert in a chance encounter with Chantale.

Dorval gives a great performance as Chantale, especially in one scene when she rips the boarding school's director a new hole for suggesting that Hubert would benefit from a male influence in the home.  Dolan is predictably convincing in portraying himself on screen.  As a story, though, I found it a little frustrating watching these two people rip each other apart verbally for seemingly no reason whatsoever through most of the film.  Sure, perhaps that's how the relationship was, but it doesn't necessarily make compelling cinema.  My imdb rating: 5/10.

Review: Cole

Every year, I make sure that I see at least one or two Canadian films, just as a "when in Rome" thing.  Canadian movies don't have the budgets of American and English productions, but you can find some good young talent now and then, and the focus tends to be more on story, less on special effects.  Cole was one of this year's Canadian flicks, directed by veteran filmmaker Carl Bessai.

Cole is part slice of life, part coming of age story of a young man from a stop light-less town in Canada, a few hours north of any major population.  Cole's father is dead, and an accident has left his mother uncommunicative and with a habit of walking slowly onto the highway in front of the gas station his family owns and runs.

Cole dreams of being a writer and finally gets into a short story class he's wanted to take at the university a few hours south of his home.  The class causes all kinds of stress for Cole and those around him.  His sister Maybelline is stressed because she relies on Cole to help run the gas station and look after their mother, as her redneck boyfriend Bobby can only be relied upon to get drunk and make racist comments about her half black child.  It stresses out Cole's best friend Frogger (great name, by the way) because Cole writes semi-autobiographical stories, and Frogger doesn't like his honest portrayal.  And it stresses out Cole not only because of all the aforementioned reasons, but also because he falls for the beautiful Thandie Newton-ish Serafina.

Bessai gets solid performances from his major players: Richard de Klerk as Cole, Sonja Bennett as Maybelline, and Chad Willett as Bobby.  Michael Eisner was especially good as Frogger, delivering great laughs as Cole's beer bonging best friend, with occasional flashes of serious acting.

My complaints about the movie are about the script.  The character Bobby has absolutely no redeeming qualities and other than getting punched in the face pretty hard a few times, he never gets his due.  Serafina and her family, as the well-to-do yin to Bobby's trashy yang, come off flat and unrealistic.  They just don't approve of the small town boy driving the rusty pick up truck.  Meanwhile, she seems to be almost oblivious to Cole's realities, carelessly putting him in uncomfortable situations.

I can't say that I didn't enjoy the movie, but I thought it could have used a script doctor.  If they spent two minutes of screen time giving Bobby a redeeming quality and reworked Serafina just a bit, I think it would have worked.  As it is, I don't want my time back, but I wouldn't urge you rush out to see this one.  My imdb rating: 5/10.

Review: The Informant!

We didn't get tickets for A Serious Man, and still had the vouchers to use up.  Fearful of surpassing our quota of foreign language art house flops, we chose Steven Soderbergh's The Informant!  The exclamation point, by the way, is part of the title; it was not me getting really excited about the fact that we picked that movie!  This concludes my annoying use of exclamation points!

When I originally saw the title for this film in the festival guide, I immediately discounted it.  I didn't need to travel all the way to Toronto to see the next drama about how some corporate dude risks everything to buck the system and save us all from the evil corporate giants.  These movies are entertaining and all, but I can wait a month or two to see it in the theater when I feel like spending a couple hours choking down an $8 bag of popcorn.  I'd heard that it was a true story, but the detail I'd missed until later, and what ultimately lead to its selection, was this fact: it's a comedy.  I was intrigued.

Soderbergh has proven to be a bit of a chameleon, dodging between the Oceans franchise and movies like Che and The Good German.  The script was developed by Scott Z. Burns from the non-fiction book by Kurt Eichenwald.  You probably haven't heard of Burns, but he helped write the last Bourne flick.  Matt Damon packed on 20 lbs. or so, by the looks of him, and grew a mustache for his role as Mark Whitacre.  Scott Bakula adds clout to the cast as FBI agent Brian Shepard.

Whitacre was an officer at Archer Daniels Midland in the late 80s and 90's, rising to President of their BioProducts division.  At the urging of his wife, he eventually became an FBI informant for a global price-fixing scheme at ADM, for which the company would pay out over a half billion dollars in fines and damages.  Whitacre himself would eventually be jailed for other charges unrelated to ADM's criminal activity.

None of that matters.  The movie is downright hilarious.  It begins with a disclaimer from the filmmakers explaining that certain liberties had been taken in the making of the film -- conversations are fictionalized, some characters are composites, etc. --concluding with a very distinct "So there."

What follows is a zany journey through the next three or five years.  I don't really remember how long exactly, as I was laughing too hard to keep track of the chronology.  The movie is interspersed with Whitacre's voiced-over inner thoughts, frequently having nothing in particular to do with the plot.  Trust me, it works.  The movie's tone, similar to Austin Powers, is a blend of various influences from the late 60's and early 70's. Think Get Smart's dimwitted government man, Mary Tyler Moore's font, mixed with the flair of The Rockford Files or Charlie's Angels.

It wasn't just funny, though.  It really is a fascinating tale that never gets predictable.   Damon gives a wonderful performance, and I don't know that I've ever liked him in a movie this much, not that I have anything against him like some people.  I went to this movie expecting a 7, but I liked it more than that.  I wouldn't be surprised at all if there were a few Oscar nominations thrown its way.  My imdb rating: 8/10.

Review: The Last Days of Emma Blank

Ah, the Dutch.  What can we say about the Dutch?  They smoke marijuana and speak four languages fluently, according to Eddie Izzard.  You have to admire them for that.  It's a stereotype, I'm sure, but it's something I had in mind when I scheduled The Last Days of Emma Blank.

When the movie begins, we meet a woman named Emma Blank.  She is apparently wealthy, as she has a staff of people tending to her every whim.  She is also apparently either insane or quite a bitch, her whims are often rather absurd.  For instance, Theo, played by the director Alex van Warmerdam, plays the part of the family dog.  The chamber maid even has to take him outside while he does his business, and then scoop up the mess afterward.

Absurd comedy eventually turns dark.  Slowly, we learn that Emma's staff is actually her family -- husband, sister, brother, nephew, & daughter -- and she's told them that if they want their portion of the inheritance, they are going to have to play along.  We see the family move easily in and out of their roles and eventually turn on one another.

In the end, Emma admits that she'd lied about the fortune, and the family gets to work on putting her out of her misery, in hilarious fashion.  A couple others die as well, but I'll leave that for suspense, should you have the opportunity to catch this one at your local art house theater or on Netflix.  My imdb rating: 7/10.