Pre-season

I know I've been away for a long, long, long, long time, but I haven't forgotten about my responsibilities.  So, I'm here to tell you that plans for the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival are in full swing.

This year, I'll be staying with the lovely people at the Annex Quest House, after last year's host left me feeling just a little uncomfortable.  It looks nice, and it's close to a subway entrance, for those soggy days I seem to be experiencing the last couple trips.

I've booked my flight with Northwest Airlines (we're Delta!).  I guarantee that my itinerary will change at least twice before my departure date, so I'm just not even going to get upset about it.

The good news is, I'll be spending one extra day at the festival this year.  Now, I know that one extra day doesn't sound like a lot, but I generally seem to miss one good flick every year because of my Saturday arrival date.  Also, this brings my average number of shows per day down from three to 2.5.  This will allow me more time to write "experience" entries, instead of just reviews.  I plan on posting under categories such as "Brushes with Fame", "Brushes with Stupidity", "Brushes with Polite Canadians" and of course the usual unfortunately exciting travel posts.  There's nothing that beats leaving a week's worth of clothing in the front yard of a B&B in the middle of the city.

So, look for movie selection posts beginning in late August or early September.  The real fun begins, however, on Friday, September 11, less than 19 weeks away!

Review: Inju, the Beast in The Shadow

In Inju, the Beast in The Shadow, my second French movie of the festival, director Barbet Schroeder brings to life a novel by Rampo Edogawa. Edogawa, whose real name was Hirai Taro, took his pen name from the Japanese pronunciation of the name Edgar Allan Poe. Schroeder claims that Edogawa was famous in Japan, but not elsewhere, because he was too dark for the rest of the world.


In this adaption of the novel, Schroeder made a couple key changes. First, the lead male character is French, whereas all the original characters were all Japanese. Second, the lead female character is not a wife, but a geiko, or geisha.


The movie opens with a movie within the movie, adapted from a work by famous Japanese author Shundei Oe. The movie ends, and we see that it was being shown to his class by college professor and author Alex Fayard, played by veteran French actor Benoît Magimel, who has a child with Juliette Binoche, for those of you keeping track at home. Alex, whose dissertation for his PhD in Literature was on the author Shundei Oe, has now penned a novel in Oe's style and is receiving rave reviews.


Oe is an author of dark subject matter, where evil prevails over good. A recluse in Kyoto, Oe is rumored to have never been positively identified, even by his own publishing company. When Alex accepts an invitation to appear on a Japanese TV show featuring discussions with authors, Alex not only accepts, but puts out feelers requesting a meeting with Oe. Not only is he rebuffed, which he expected, he is warned against coming to Kyoto. Alex, who believes this is all for effect, ignores the warning.


Once in Japan, Alex befriends a geiko he meets after an evening of entertainment hosted by his Japanese publicist. Soon, she comes to him, distraught. It seems that she broke the heart of a man 15 years ago, who she believes is Shundei Oe, and he is now threatening her life. She believes Alex is the only one who knows Oe's well enough to help her. Alex agrees to help and begins on a quest to find the real identity of Shundei Oe and protect Tamao. He succeeds in a shocking ending.

Schroeder manages to keep the level of suspense and intrigue high throughout the film, with many twists and turns. This was a great end to the festival for me and Schroeder has revived my faith in French cinema (with an assist from Phillipe Claudel). My imdb rating: 8/10.

Review: The Good, the Bad, and the Weird

This film's title, The Good, the Bad, and the Weird, announces itself as a western, and also perhaps a bit of play on the genre. South Korean director/writer Ji-woon Kim brings forth a tale from the wild East, set in 1930's Manchuria. It stars, gauging from the reactions of many of the hyped-up Korean fans in the audience, three of the biggest stars in Korean cinema today: Woo-sung Jung (the Good one), Byung-hun Lee (the Bad one), and Kang-ho Song (the Weird one).

The three Korean bandits chase around Manchuria after a map, working their way in and out of scrapes with the Japanese army and both Korean & Russian bandits. The Bad one is being paid to retrieve it, though eventually his motivations change. The Good one isn't necessarily all good. He is a bounty hunter by trade, but in comparison to the Bad one, he's squeaky clean. The Bad one is a gang leader who enjoys killing people, and he's good at it. Suggest that he might not be the best, and those will probably be a few of the last words you utter. The Weird one, a talented and quirky train robber, provides much of the comedy relief, preferring a motorcycle for the horse chase scenes.

As the movies winds down its complex path, we find that there is history interwoven among the three of them. There are a few twists, turns and surprises, but the real ride is all about the action and comedy. And what was the map for? It's revealed in the final scene, with perhaps a wink to modern-day problems.

This movie has about everything you'd want in a big American box office smash, with the exception of the English language. There are guns, fisticuffs, espionage, chase scenes, a PG-13 rating, comedy, twists & turns, star performances from all three leading actors, and huge budget. I think they got their money's worth. My imdb rating: 8/10.

Review: Achilles and Tortoise

I saw and enjoyed a movie called Brother back at the 2000 festival and thought I'd see the latest film from writer/director/actor Takeshi Kitano, aka "Beat Takeshi". Kitano first gained fame as a stand-up comic back in late 70's Japan. By 1980, Kitano was appearing in films, writing scripts beginning in 1985 and directed his first film in 1989.


It follows easily that his films have an element of comedy. Kitano's sense of humor is approximately the opposite of slapstick. He plays it straight, showing little emotion. Often the humor is in his lack of reaction, and in his lack of self-awareness, particularly in relation to his own absurdity.

For Achilles and Tortoise, Kitano takes on the art world. The movie begins with someone telling a student of the paradox of Achilles and the Tortoise, which I think is philosophical bunk. But that's just my opinion. I'm not sure what this has to do with the movie, other than the title. My brain is a little tired, so perhaps it'll come to me later.

We pick up the life of Machisu as a boy. His father is a wealthy businessman who appreciates art, but fails to understand it. He encourages Machisu to become a painter, convinced he has talent. Machisu, who lacks both talent and inspiration, does have interminable will, and he paints until the cows come home, which apparently they never do. He's particularly fond of chickens.

Machisu's father goes bankrupt and commits suicide. Penniless, his step mother sends Machisu to live with his uncle, who is far less supportive of his art ambitions.

It is in his older adult years that Kitano takes over the role of Machisu. He marries the one woman who supports his endeavors, and they have a daughter. By her teen years, she is thoroughly embarrassed and leaves home to become a prostitute.

Machisu tries to sell his works through a local art dealer, who is never satisfied enough to actually try to sell anything. And Machisu tries just about everything, most often mimicking the likes of Moet, Seurat, Renior, Munch, and Warhol.

The bulk of the movie is spent by Kitano brainstorming ways to poke fun at modern artists art dealers, and their patrons and the world in which they thrive. A lot of the gags are funny, but they grow stale after a while, as there doesn't seem to be any point to the story. Maybe that was Kitano's intention, maybe it wasn't. It was good for a few laughs, but the movie just didn't really work for me. My imdb rating: 6/10.

Review: Sexykiller

I've seen a Midnight Madness movie before, but never at its proper 11:59 PM start time. A former fellow festival goer and I once had tickets, but gave them up, as the previous five movies that day had taken their toll. This time, I gutted it out and made it to the screening for Sexykiller.

Any review of this movie is bound to be affected by the crowd, so I should start there. I arrived at the theatre at about 11:35 and walked straight in. The crowd was loud, many were likely drunk, and there were at least four beach balls being bounced around the crowd, at least until one popped, drawing a loud score of boos from the raucous crowd. At one point, one guy spiked a ball accidentally into the back of another guy's head, albeit accidentally. The victim responded by turning, giving his assailant a shrugging look, and then drawing even harder than before on his bottle of Bacardi.

The director, Miguel Martí, introduced the film, partly in English and partly in Spanish. The Spanish part was then translated, more or less, by the Sexykiller herself, Macarena Gómez. Gómez is tall, slender, and appeared more or less in character. The crowd ate it up.

The film opens in a girls' locker room. I had to imagine that it was after a model runway gig, but no, it was actually just supposed to be college girls. A peeping tom dressed in Scream killer attire. He thinks he's come across a mirror; but no, it's actually another person dressed identically, who promptly cuts a gash in his arm. He runs, eventually gets winded, pleads for death, but then comes across our heroine who, after playing with his mind a little, finishes him off.

The film has pretty much about everything you could long for in a Midnight Madness film: Comedy, gore, the aforementioned girls' locker room scene, serial killing, camera interaction, revenge killing, just-for-the-heck-of-it killing, crude jokes, bad police work, classic horror movie references and zombies. I'm sure I could have lengthened that list, but you get the idea.

My only regret is that I don't know Spanish, as I'm sure some of the comedy was lost in translation. But it's still hilarious. The camera loves Gómez, and Gómez loves the camera. And the crow loved Sexykiller. My imdb rating: 8/10.

Review: Coopers' Camera

I fully expected Coopers' Camera to be bad, but I had to see it because I am a true fan of The Daily Show, and it stars two of its correspondents, Samantha Bee and Jason Jones, who co-wrote the script.

The premise behind Coopers' Camera is that Gord Cooper (Jones) bought the family a video tape recorder for Christmas 1985. Various family members recorded events of that evening, mostly youngest son Teddy, in a hilarious performance from 13-year old Dylan Everett. The video was later edited and the result is the film that you see.

The family puts new labels on the word dysfunctional. Rampant alcoholism, drunk driving, revelations that boys may have different fathers, neither of them being Gord, mannequin-romance, older brother Marcus used to be Tiffany, and Teddy even pays his cousin Heather to strip, $2 at a time. Basically, if you find it offensive, it's in there. A couple parts dragged here and there, but for the most part, they flung jokes at the screen pretty quickly.

The audience was pretty jazzed for this one, but the cast was pretty much all-Toronto (or at least all-Canadian). I wouldn't go out of your way for this one, but should it make to a theatre near you and you find yourself in need of some yuks, you could do worse. My imdb rating: 7/10.

Review: Pride and Glory

Pride and Glory was directed by Gavin O'Connor, whose last film was 2004's Miracle. O'Connor, who co-wrote the script, takes a different turn in this film, wringing out a classic corrupt cop flick with big names to back him: Colin Farrell, Edward Norton, and Jon Voight.

The movie opens with Ray Tierney, played by Norton, attending a NYPD football game, pads and all. One of the leaders on the field is Jimmy Egan, played by Farrell. The two are brothers-in-law, Jimmy being married to Ray's sister Megan. Ray followed his dad Francis, played by Voight, into the police force as a detective. But after some unmentioned incident, he now works in the missing persons department.

Jimmy puts pressure on the quarterback on the final play of the game, the pass falls incomplete, their team wins, and all is gleeful, until they get a call that four NYPD cops were down at a crime scene, and away they go. After the smoke clears, Ray's dad pleads him to come back to the detective squad to investigate, and Ray reluctantly agrees. Things start seeming off kilter early on, and Ray digs in to find a sizable web of corruption, and what he finds threatens to tear apart not only the NYPD, but his family as well.

The movie doesn't recreate anything in the crime drama arena, but it does it well, and holds its audience. There are some definite tension moments: many teeth knocked out, a pool ball to the side of the head, and even some simulated baby-ironing (betcha Gitmo never thought of that one). My imdb rating: 8/10.