Two films to go for yours truly before the final curtain falls on the 2008 edition of TIFF. While there are quite a few films which John, Michael and I have not yet had a chance to comment on (doubtful that we will get to all of them), the people have spoken at this years Toronto Film Festival. Specifically, the significant award to come out of this festival comes not from a jury of filmmakers or industry folks, but rather from ballots that the volunteers hand out after the screenings (folks vote on a scale of 1-5 based on how much they liked the film) to the public audience. It is (aptly) named The Peoples Choice Award.
This year, the award goes to Danny Boyle’s latest film Slumdog Millionaire, which I know that is also John’s favourite (his review here). Previous Peoples Choice Award winners such as Whale Rider, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Amelie and American Beauty have gone on to Oscar glory; and others still, such as Roger & Me and The Princess Bride have gone on to become populist favourites. So, good times for Danny Boyle – a filmmaker that usually suffers from a failure to bring his visually heavy films together in the third act. Slumdog Millionaire is getting a limited release in the United States (and hopefully Canada) on November 28th.
Meanwhile, in the trenches, John & I really didn’t think much of the moody and production-design heavy French science fiction baffler Eden Log, but got a nice kick out of the Spanish horror a love-letter to slasher and zombie flicks, Sexykiller. We both liked the stylish and pounding Jacques Mesrine biopic (starring the amazing Vincent Cassel) Public Enemy Number One (Kurt’s review here). Ditto on the Korean riff on spaghetti westerns, redubbed a kimchi western. Yes, The Good, The Bad and The Weird more than lives up to it hype. I liked Bruce McDonald’s Pontypool (review here) so much I went to it twice. Yes, huzzah for semiotic zombie cinema. Fun times.
All of Rowthree’s TIFF Coverage can be found in the TIFF Section.
Hunger and Disgrace both picked up awards at the festival as well. I saw both of them… Hunger was exceptional, and Disgrace was a weird little film (I suspect the best of the Malkovich performances at the fest this year).
I’m thrilled to hear that the “Hunger” buzz is well deserved. I’m really looking forward to it!
Glad you got to that screening of HUNGER, I’ll be catching that and Slumdog Millionaire in their art-house releases which are probably assured at this point due to the TIFF laurels..
The Buzz for Hunger is well deserved, and look out for a note perfect 20-odd minute single take conversation scene that is just awesome. The more I think about this film the more I like it.
Wicked. One that I’m disappointed I’ll be missing is “Revanche” which looked and sounded really interesting and which Austria has chosen to represent them for the Oscar run this year.
Slumdog Millionaire will also be on my watch list – right alongside The Wrestler, for later this year.