Films seen in September
Return to main page
01. Vanessa (1977,
West Germany) Hubert Frank -
has redeeming facet
02. Cinema Paradiso [director's-cut]
(1988, Italy) Giuseppe Tornatore -
a must see
03. Murder Party (2007, USA) Jeremy
Saulnier - a must see [B]
04.
The Zombie Diaries (2006, UK) Michael Bartlett
& Kevin Gates -
worth seeing
[C-]
05.
Companeros (1970, Italy) Sergio Corbucci -
Excellent
06.
If.... (1968, UK) Lindsay Anderson -
a must see
09. The Visitor
(2007, USA) Thomas McCarthy -
worth seeing [C-]
Thomas McCarthy impressed just about everyone
with his subtle directorial debut The Station Agent. Sophomoric pratfalls
intact, this film finds him abandoning all of the subtle control that made
his previous film such a success and making just about every mistake you’d
expect from a filmmaker who wants the exposure of a larger audience. Things
are fine in the first two reels where McCarthy still shows that tender touch
for unique human characters making special emotional connections, but like
the incident that occurs midway through (changing the tone of the film drastically),
McCarthy then begins to hold his audience prisoner to a more manipulative
and less palatable brand of filmmaking. Commenting on the world at large (in
this case immigration and US feelings towards Arabs) the film eventually tries
to be too big for its own good and seems hell-bent on provoking a reaction.
Expect certain audiences to love this overreaching and misguided movie that,
while entertaining, is a little too wrapped up in itself to count as anything
meaningful.
Photos found here.
10. Frontière(s)
(2007, France) Xavier Gens -
worth seeing [C+]
After the long-take approach of two masters
like Hou and Tarr, this kinetic French horror film in Cinemascope felt like
a shotgun blast to the face. It starts out like Ma 6-T va crack-er
with a group of rebellious car-torching youths on the run, but the French
countryside proves to be an even bigger bitch than the city as the film quickly
morphs into a Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake by way of cannibalistic Nazis.
Like Rob Zombie’s The Devil’s Rejects Xavier Gens seems
to have adopted that same, unapologetic Fuck-you-if-you-don’t-like-horror
tone that genre fans all but eat up. The real downfall here is when the carnage
ceases, so does the film, as Gens fails to conjure up even the slightest bit
of character or broader narrative scope. This is yet another in the long line
of admirable and entertaining shock-fests that are fun to rave about for a
while but will be all but forgotten by next year's MM program.
World Premiere Screening
-- No photos taken. Director was in attendance.
11. The Mourning
Forest (2007, Japan) Naomi Kawase -
a must see [B-]
Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at this
years Cannes Film Festival, this is my first exposure to the work of Naomi
Kawase, a festival darling of sorts whom I’ve been reading raves about
ever since her feature debut Suzaku took the Camera D’or back
in ’97. Kawase has been compared to Ozu, and while that brand of impressionistic,
mundane style of cinema is on display here, this more closely resembles the
trend in lyrical journey films like Old Joy and the work of Joe W.
A pensive work, that shows tremendous control and maturity, this is also a
deeply spiritual film chronicling one character (Shigeki) as he embarks on
what can be read as a Buddhist rite of passage, and like his caretaker Machiko,
we are forced to take the journey ourselves. Give yourself over to it and
by the end, you just may find a little of your own soul reflected on the screen.
North American Premiere
-- No cast or crew in attendance
12. My Kid Could Paint That
(2007, USA) Amir Bar-Lev -
a must see [B]
A fascinating deconstruction of not just the
questionable nature of modern art, but of the process of documentary filmmaking,
filmmaker Amir Bar-Lev pulls off the challenging feat of drawing attention
to his process while also trying to give an accurate portrayal of his subject.
It’s the perfect film for those textbook questions that surface in just
about every film classroom around the world (subjectivity vs. objectivity,
is it possible to photograph something without in some way influencing it?
etc, etc.) The fact that Bar-Lev genuinely appears to have only wanted to
document the simple story of a little girl who was selling paintings for thousands
of dollars, and it was only in the process of filming that he was forced to
confront the morale questions he does, only adds to the genuine non-exploitive
appeal of this little gem. Like all great documentaries, this is a film that
is as much about the person behind the camera as it is the people in front
of it.
13. Ploy
(2007, Thailand) Pen-ek Ratanaruang -
a must see [B+]
I seem to be in the minority in my admiration
of this playful and understated romantic comedy from Pen-Ek Ratanaruang, the
Thai auteur who seems to specialize in these types of wry mood pieces. The
title refers to a young girl who goes by the name of Ploy (many people in
Thai culture adopt quirky shortened versions of their rather longish names),
who meets a young couple, fresh off a red eye flight from the States, in a
hotel bar. Ploy is killing time waiting for her grandmother to pick her up
in the morning, while her boyfriend is passed out stoned in the corner of
the hotel restaurant. She meets Dang, a smooth Thai professional from the
States but who is home for a funeral, he is unable to sleep and has left his
wife Dang (Lalita Panyopas star of 6ixtynin9) up in the room where
she sneaks booze and pops pills. What follows is a lucid dream of a film,
which seems to weave in and out of several characters consciousness, documenting
their fears and fantasies, leaving you to decide what is real and what is
imagined. Nothing much really happens, but like the work of Apichatpong Weerasethakul,
this languid brand of Thai humor and bold form of narrative is something I
can’t seem to get enough of. A very special little film that imparts
that magical half-awake/half-asleep ambiance that made Lost in Translation
so affecting.
14. Chrysalis
(2007, France) Julien Leclercq - 
worthless [F]
French
cinema has a long history of emulating the Hollywood film. This was a fine
practice back when Hollywood was still making GOOD films, however in this
day and age of Blockbuster crap, biting on the recent string of Jason Statham
popcorn action entertainments seems more than a tad ridiculous. A mind numbing
Sci-Fi work that has the clinical look of late-Spielberg combined the occasional
macho wham-bam action scene; this has about 1/3rd the amount of action as
a Luc Besson production and about four times the amount of continuity errors.
How this ever got into Toronto is beyond me, but since this shares much of
the same cast and crew as Frontière(s), and the two directors are in
fact real life buds, here’s hoping that TIFF struck some sort of compromise
and let the one film in on the strength of the other.
15. George A. Romero's
Diary of the Dead (2007, USA) George A. Romero -
a must see [B+]
Ever since Day of the Dead, Romero’s
films have split audiences upon release only to pick up supporters later on
as their finer, more subtle world views come into light in all of their scathing
and hideous glories. Diary of the Dead should prove none too different in
following this paradigm. Structured as a diary/student film the “movie”
(voice-over by one female maker explains that music cues were added for dramatic
effect) is a mixed media platform of news footage, bloggers/You-Tuber accounts,
surveillance video, and amateur DV. It’s obvious that if the shit hit
the fan in today’s world (ie. Katrina), things would go down much differently
than the rundown farmhouse where Romero set his original story some 40 years
ago. We live in a state of media over-saturation, but the question is -- is
this a good thing? Is it reliable and should it be trusted? Is technology
actually empowering the people in a way that were are not even fully aware
of and is this effecting the way our government lords over us? Phrased simply,
there is a lot more than just human flesh to be chewed on in this entry in
the Zombie canon, which in addition to its sharp social undertones, also happens
to be a model of perfectly paced, gore filled, tongue-in-cheek B-movie making.
Keep 'em comin George.
42.
Cashback (2006, UK) Sean Ellis
-
has redeeming facet [D]
43.
Ping Pong (2002, Japan) Fumihiko Sori
-
a must see
44.
Death Proof [Cannes Cut]
(2007, USA) Quentin Tarantino
-
Masterpiece [A]
46.
Zero Hour! (1957, USA) Hall Bartlett
-
worth seeing
48.
Sansho the Bailiff (1954, Japan) Kenji Mizoguchi
-
Masterpiece
50.
Stephanie Daley (2006, USA) Hilary Brougher
-
a must see [B-]
53.
Repast (1951, Japan) Mikio Naruse
-
Masterpiece
54.
Penny Dreadful (2005, USA) Bryan Norton
[short] - recommended
55.
Tomorrow's Bacon (2001, USA) Bryan Norton
[short]
- recommended
57.
The House on Sorority Row (1983, USA) Mark Rosman
-
a must see
58.
The Glamorous Life of Sachiko Hanai (2003, Japan)
Mitsuru Meike
-
a must see [B]
59.
Satan's School for Lust (2002,
USA) Terry West
-
worthless
Holy shit this was bad. I mean bad, so much
so I’m basically embarrassed to say we watched it. Thankfully when you
fast-forward through the softcore lesbian crap, it only amounts to about a
30-minute runtime.