Movies: Toronto International Film Festival (and any other Film Fest for that matter)

Jussi

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Feb 28, 2002
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So starting to figure out my dance card of 20 films, and I must say this is one of the weaker lineups of the past several years. There are three movies I really want to see and then it's basically a crapshoot the rest of the way. Anyone else think the TIFF line up is underwhelming this year?

Supposedly the co-head of the festival thinks highly of The Joker (called it a masterpiece), so any chance you might see it?
 

kihei

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Jun 14, 2006
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Supposedly the co-head of the festival thinks highly of The Joker (called it a masterpiece), so any chance you might see it?
For sure I will see it but not at the festival. I try to avoid the English-language films that will be released in a few weeks anyway.
 

kihei

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Jun 14, 2006
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Have you seen Parasite yet?
No, but it is at the top of my list, literally:

TIFF Wish List 2019
  1. Parasite
  2. Portrait of a Lady on Fire
  3. Pain and Glory
  4. The Lighthouse
  5. La Belle Epoque
  6. Atlantics
  7. The Truth
  8. The Traitor
  9. Sea Fever
  10. The Whistlers
  11. The Vast of Night
  12. La Llorona
  13. Ema
  14. Chicarotes
  15. About Endlessly
  16. The Lost Lokoroshi
  17. Liberte
  18. Vatalina Verela
  19. Les Miserables
  20. Hope Gap
 
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Ralph Spoilsport

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Jun 4, 2011
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So starting to figure out my dance card of 20 films, and I must say this is one of the weaker lineups of the past several years. There are three movies I really want to see and then it's basically a crapshoot the rest of the way. Anyone else think the TIFF line up is underwhelming this year?


Man, you weren't kidding about this being a crapshoot. The usually incisive and descriptive reviews for each film that they've posted online in previous years have been replaced with one-sentence plot summaries, with the occasional phrase thrown in like "a heartfelt debut" or "a suspenseful drama". Not very helpful. I'm thinking damn, even I could write this stuff...can I be a TIFF programmer?! :laugh:

My "A" list, with fingers crossed:

Atlantics
Cunningham
Desert One
I Was Home, But...
It Must Be Heaven
Jallikattu
Krabi, 2562
La Llorona
Pompei
Sea Fever
State Funeral
Stories From The Chestnut Woods
The Lost Okoroshi
The Whistlers
Vitalina Varela
You Will Die At Twenty

The short programs may be worth a look depending on how they're grouped. Maybe I can squeeze in that 14-hour documentary on women in film.
 

kihei

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Jun 14, 2006
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The TIFF schedule came out today, usually a source of rejoicing and pure fun as people try to fit the movies in that they want to see. Only this year it is not a paper schedule that is easy on the eye and easy to flip through. No, some genius decided the schedule would be just provided on-line with long unwieldly pages that you have to scan through and move up and down to see when your movie is on. 11 of these absurdly spread out things, one each for every day of the schedule. Moving from day to day is a much longer process this way, and trying to co-ordinate multiple films is a chore. You can't circle the titles either, but have to create your own individual list through an endless series of cut and pastes back on to your word processor page. Plus the TIFF site has a tendency to crash unexpectedly or be encumbered by "bad gateways" as has happened several times today already...and is happening right now. Admittedly in the grand scheme of things this is a piddling problem. But if TIFF had hired baboons to think these things through and give their opinion, we all would have been better off.
 
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Ralph Spoilsport

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Jun 4, 2011
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Some good news...seems I spoke too soon about the meager plot synopses...full programmers' notes are now up for each film.

Now I can look forward to Jallikattu, knowing that
Combining wild propulsiveness with breathtaking formal precision, Pellissery's latest is a bracing parable about humanity's capacity for savagery...Pellissery and his collaborators have composed an apocalyptic cinematic symphony in which our moral and social fabrics are revealed as threadbare. There are dark desires underneath, and we are vulnerable to the ungovernable vagaries of nature.

Can't wait, hope the movie's as good as the review...I'm totally into wild propulsiveness!
 

kihei

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Jun 14, 2006
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It seems like a lot of the buzz worthy movies are only being screened twice this year, not three times as per usual in the past, and the big Cannes hits are almost all front loaded in the first weekend. Will make for some interesting schedule juggling.
 

kihei

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Jun 14, 2006
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Parasite, Pain and Glory and The Lighthouse, three of my four must-see films at TIFF, open in Toronto mid-October. That really frees me up.
 

kihei

McEnroe: The older I get, the better I used to be.
Jun 14, 2006
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Got the movies that I wanted to get, but ran afoul of TIFF's strange approach to technology which has never changed much over the years. So third try, lucky. Seems a bit of a dog's breakfast kind of year, but who knows?
 

Trap Jesus

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Feb 13, 2012
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Parasite, Pain and Glory and The Lighthouse, three of my four must-see films at TIFF, open in Toronto mid-October. That really frees me up.
What about Pain and Glory has you so intrigued? As someone who is very excited for the other two I'm interested to hear your opinion on it.
 

kihei

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What about Pain and Glory has you so intrigued? As someone who is very excited for the other two I'm interested to hear your opinion on it.
It just had such great buzz coming out of Cannes where I believe Banderas won the acting award. Almodovar is always interesting, even when he is not on his game, and it seems that this is an important movie for him. He and Antonio also work just great together (eight times in all now). Really looking forward to this one when it's released locally.
 
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discostu

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Kihei (or anyone else), do you have any thoughts on The Report? A friend has a chance at free tickets for a film at Elgin Theatre, and she was asking me about that one. I would assume Adam Driver is in a position to pick interesting films right now in his career, but the description of that one seems remarkably flat.

In this searing political thriller from screenwriter Scott Z. Burns (Contagion), Adam Driver stars as a dogged investigator who’s tapped by the US Senate to probe the CIA’s use of torture tactics after 9/11.

It seems like a film that should have come out a decade ago.
 

kihei

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Kihei (or anyone else), do you have any thoughts on The Report? A friend has a chance at free tickets for a film at Elgin Theatre, and she was asking me about that one. I would assume Adam Driver is in a position to pick interesting films right now in his career, but the description of that one seems remarkably flat.



It seems like a film that should have come out a decade ago.
I really want to see it. Driver is choosing some more-challenging-than-the-usual films to be in with interesting directors (Leo Carax being the latest with the upcoming Annette). "Flat" might actually be a kind of recommendation, to me anyway. That sounds more thoughtful than action-oriented and perhaps closer to reality. The only reason The Report is not on my list is that it will be out fairly soon in Toronto, and I avoid those films usually.

Hollywood wouldn't have touched it a decade ago. Direct confrontation of home grown political peril is way too much of a hot potato for the industry. Once things settle and producers know which way the wind blows--then out come the exposes.
 
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kihei

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Actually I do have one big-ish Hollywood film on my schedule--Lucy in the Sky. Why? Silly reason but there it is: I love the title. Who among us 30-years old or older doesn't silently complete that title in his/her head by thinking "....with diamonds". I think that's neat as hell. True, I may have been dropped on my head as an infant, but such is my reasoning.
 

discostu

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I really want to see it. Driver is choosing some more-challenging-than-the-usual films to be in with interesting directors (Leo Carax being the latest with the upcoming Annette). "Flat" might actually be a kind of recommendation, to me anyway. That sounds more thoughtful than action-oriented and perhaps closer to reality. The only reason The Report is not on my list is that it will be out fairly soon in Toronto, and I avoid those films usually.

Hollywood wouldn't have touched it a decade ago. Direct confrontation of home grown political peril is way too much of a hot potato for the industry. Once things settle and producers know which way the wind blows--then out come the exposes.

Thanks. I think she provided a list of her preferences, and they'll let her know. It's her first time at TIFF, so I'm hoping she enjoys the experience. However, I had an interesting film discussion with her and her husband this morning. Her interests are very clearly aligned to the bigger pop culture stuff, where the husband is far more experimental in his tastes.

You're probably right that this film couldn't get made a few years ago. I had to look it up, but Zero Dark Thirty was only 7 years ago, and the issue was still being debated. The US political landscape is so different now though (to put it mildly), that debating the merits of torture or catching the government in a lie in almost seems quaint.
 

Jumptheshark

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Oct 12, 2003
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A few of my buddies took in Once were brothers the doc about The Band

My buddies all work in the music industry and have been involved in all aspects of the business and they were all gobsmacked at the doc being more or less a Robbie Robertson love fest.

Before drugs took over the band they were equal partners..the last 3 years were bad. But my buddies are telling me the doc more or less gives Robbie ALL the credit for their success.

I suspect some fans maybe turned off by it
 

kihei

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Jun 14, 2006
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For me TIFF started with an absolute masterpiece, Portrait of a Woman on Fire, a stunningly realized movie about two women falling in love in the 18th century that avoids every cliche in the book, just a beautiful character study of two likable, believable characters. It was directed by France's Celine Sciamma, director of Water Lilies, Tomboy and Girlhood. Put one way she directs "women's" movies' but don't let that put you off because the definition of that term is changing radically. If that term is enough to scare you away these days, you will regret it.

"Women's" movie had its heyday in the 50's but has stayed with us since then. There are the romantic pot boilers and tragedies associated with, for example, the work of Douglas Sirk who directed Imitation of Life, Magnificent Obsession and Written on the Wind among many, many others. Today's quality director of this genre is Todd Haynes (Wonderstruck, Far from Heaven, Carol), who makes tonier versions of the type of film that Sirk directed. The vintage examples usually starred the likes of Lana Turner, Susan Hayward and Jane Wyman and dealt with women as powerless, romantic victims who needed a man to make their lives whole. Real tear jerkers. Well, that was then and this is now. Many of today's "women's" movie are feminist in nature, about women as people, about agency and power, and deal with a host of hot button issues that movies of the past wouldn't have touched with a ten foot pole. One thing many such movies have in common is that they are not about victimhood or if they are, they look at the subject from a very different perspective. This transformation is a mixed blessing--as many such movies can be as tedious as the women's movies of the past, just in a different way. Sciamma is certainly a feminist, but she is not into grievance. Her movies are about women (or girls) and they are as fresh and beautiful as any films being made anywhere right now. To avoid her movies because they are about real women is the equivalent of cutting off your nose to spite your face. Don't do it.

The Festival this year consists of over 300 movies and for the first time are equally divided between male and female directors. I had mixed feeling about that. It seemed to me a necessary and welcome correction, but did it go too far? The move seemed terribly politically correct. Movies should be chosen on the basis of their own merit. But though that makes perfectly good sense to me, I realize that there is another way of looking at it--a less male way, let's call it. I am reasonably sure some of the movies by female directors at TIFF have the possibility of being tiresome. But Sciamma's work, and that of many of her cohorts, shows that movies about women's lives can be beautiful, revealing and marvelously entertaining. Don't miss this one.
 
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kihei

McEnroe: The older I get, the better I used to be.
Jun 14, 2006
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Toronto
Every thing worth seeing is sold out now. But people trying to get tickets and call the box office at 7:00 AM to see if any have been returned for their movie of choice. It happens frequently. I'd say you have a 50/50 chance of getting lucky if you are among the early birds.
 

Jussi

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Feb 28, 2002
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Mojo Dojo Casa House
Every thing worth seeing is sold out now. But people trying to get tickets and call the box office at 7:00 AM to see if any have been returned for their movie of choice. It happens frequently. I'd say you have a 50/50 chance of getting lucky if you are among the early birds.

I assume after success at Venice, Joker has been sold out as well?
 

discostu

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I assume after success at Venice, Joker has been sold out as well?

Even if it did poorly at Venice, a high profile film like Joker would be nearly impossible to get into. I went to a tiff showing with a family member that would only have interest in a film if it had recognizable actors and relatively mainstream. I went through almost a dozen titles trying to get tickets with no luck. Ended up at Mid90s, which was decent, but my choices were limited.

However, since Joker has a chance at people's choice, if it does win, you can aim to get tickets to the people's choice screening, which goes on sale the last day of the festival I think.
 

kihei

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Jun 14, 2006
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Crowd ambiance isn't quite what it used to be the past couple of years. Everybody (including me) is too into their cell phones these days and it like putting up a sign that says "Don't Bother Me."

The "conversation" with Antonio Banderas was quite revealing...in a good way. Very interesting and likable, down-to-earth guy. Though this didn't come up in the conversation, I wonder how somebody so sensible could have tolerated Melanie Griffith for as long as he did, but, well, ain't love grand. I've now attended "conversations"with Irrfan Khan, Isabelle Huppert, Liv Ullman, Denzell Washington, Gael Garcia Bernal, Keanu Reeves (a genuinely sweet guy), and now Banderas. That's basically one per year over the past several years. I think I am immune to the "star gazing" that has become such a big part of TIFF, but perhaps I'm not entirely. I just go about it a bit more selectively.
 
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kihei

McEnroe: The older I get, the better I used to be.
Jun 14, 2006
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Toronto
Early favourite for People's Choice Award: The Two Popes which received a very rare standing ovation upon its completion at the Winter Garden. Sure fire Academy Award contender in a lot of categories including best film, direction, cinematography, script and acting (both Jonathan Pryce and Anthony Hopkins. Just a wonderful film regardless of your religious persuasion of lack thereof.
 

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